Jeanette Segerstrom, 72; Arts Patron Helped Found O.C. Music Center

Jeanette Segerstrom, a philanthropist, patron of the arts and matriarch of a family that helped shape Orange County’s commercial and cultural landscape, died of cancer Monday at her Newport Beach home. She was 72.

A former cellist and pianist, Segerstrom married Harold T. “Hal” Segerstrom Jr., a founder of South Coast Plaza, the successful upscale shopping center in Costa Mesa. The family--once among the nation’s largest independent producers of lima beans--helped found the Orange County Performing Arts Center and is a major patron of South Coast Repertory theater.

After her husband’s death in 1994, Jeanette Segerstrom recounted to a reporter how they had met. “A piano is pretty much where it all began,” she said. A music student at USC in the early 1950s, she served as accompanist for the men’s glee club, of which he was a member. “He had the most beautiful voice,” she said.

He asked her to cut class to see “Madame Butterfly” at the Shrine Auditorium across the street. They fell in love.

Jerry Mandel, president of the performing arts center, said Tuesday: “Jeanette was a wonderful, strong supporter. She was one of the kindest, most self-effacing people I’ve ever met. She was always here. We’re going to miss her greatly.”

John Forsyte, president of the Pacific Symphony, one of the organizations with which Segerstrom was involved, recalled her as “the most magnificent patron of the arts I’ve seen. She had a deep knowledge of music. She was gracious, witty, funny and very open to the traditional and the new.”

Besides the symphony, Segerstrom was a major donor to Opera Pacific and continued to support the performing arts center, where she was a frequent visitor at Segerstrom Hall.

Funeral arrangements are pending for Segerstrom. She is survived by her four children: Sandra Daniels and Sally Segerstrom of Costa Mesa; Ted Segerstrom of Irvine; and Susan Perry of Laguna Hills; and eight grandchildren.