Rena and I were living in a tent in the back yard of my friends house who days earlier had asked me to give up my apartment for his best friend, his wife, and newborn baby. I was homeless when I met Rena Christensen, who was far away from home and homeless, too.

On the way to a restaurant on 35th. street in Oakland, Rena pulled up and was looking in the window of a store at a magazine on display. There was a girl wearing a bikini on the cover.

“My sister told me she was going to appear on the cover of a magazine. I wondered if this was her, but, it’s not.”

This was the July issue of LIFE. I suspect Rena’s sister may have been considered for the cover, but was bumped. She may be one of other California Beach Goddesses that were making California a…