James Felton; Journalist, Ad Executive, O.C. Historian

James P. Felton, a journalist and advertising executive who spent his retirement writing the official histories of Newport Beach and its fabled Balboa Bay Club, has died. He was 86.

Felton, who also served as president of the Orange County Philharmonic Society and the Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar, died April 1 after a short illness, said his daughter Anne Hines.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. May 6 at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Corona del Mar.

As editor of the glossy monthly Bay Window magazine from 1988 to 1992, Felton chronicled the events and membership of the tony Balboa Bay Club, for most of its 53 years a private waterfront playground for the well-heeled and the frequent haunt of John Wayne and other celebrities.

Felton’s city-commissioned book, “Newport Beach, the First Century,” remains on sale in hardback at City Hall.

Felton was a Washington native, born in Mount Vernon on May 17, 1914. He grew up in Seattle and attended the University of Washington as a journalism major, his family said.

As the son of the editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Felton had journalism in his blood. His first job was as a cub reporter for the Seattle Times. By the late 1930s he was thought to have helped unionize the now-defunct San Diego Sun, Hines said. He was editor of the Oxnard Press-Courier and at the same time a West Coast stringer for Time magazine, said his son Richard. He would later become an editor at the magazine’s New York operation. His journalism career also included serving as city editor for the Los Angeles Daily News and as a contributing writer for Life magazine, his family said.

In 1949, Felton changed careers, subsequently serving as vice president of marketing or advertising for two big companies: Foote, Cone & Belding, and what became Avco Financial Services of Newport Beach.

The latter brought him in 1971 to Orange County, where he lived the rest of his life.

After retiring from the corporate world, Felton returned to writing. Besides the commissioned history of Newport Beach, he wrote chronicles of the Balboa Bay Club and the private Pacific Club, also in Newport Beach. And he produced more than 1,000 newspaper columns for the Newport Ensign, Daily Pilot and Newport News.

“Journalism was always his first love,” Hines said.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Gwendolyn; daughters Anne Hines, Mary Gluck and Judith Felton; sons David and Richard; sisters Mary Ann Minger and Faye Goddard; 14 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to a local senior center.