Anna G. Blake was born in San Francisco , the daughter of Maurice B. Blake and Martha Eastman Blake . Her father 's uncle Maurice Carey Blake was an attorney who served a term as Mayor of San Francisco just before Anna was born . Her letters after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake are preserved as evocative eyewitness accounts of the aftermath . She was evacuated as a patient from a hospital in the city to a crowded refugee ward at the Presidio . She wrote of her fears and experiences : '' " The first week here was like a week in Libby Prison . Over a hundred of us were crowded together in one room of the barracks . There were rich women and poor women , white , yellow , and black , from all quarters of the city . It was impossible to keep the place clean . There was no heat , scant food , and little water . We were allowed no communication with the outside , and sentries guarded the place day and night , no one being allowed to enter but priests and nuns and wearers of the red cross . " '' Anna Blake began writing poems as a girl . In 1915 , she wrote the lyrics to " The Wondrous Exposition , " the theme song of the Panama-Pacific Exposition . A book of her poems , '' A-Gypsying '' , was published in 1922 . Mezquida wrote short stories and articles for national magazines . She also wrote scripts for radio plays , and scenarios for films based on her short stories , and some of her poems were set to music as art songs
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Anna Blake Mezquida