Juanita’s Hotel

Juanita Musson was perhaps the most famous and notorious figures in Sonoma Valley for 26 years starting in 1964. Her first restaurant was at the old Verdiers Resort in El Verano. After a fire there, she moved to the Fetters Hotel, where she ran her establishment until that building, too, was destroyed in a blaze in 1975. She was known to be intimidating, open hearted, generous and fierce. According to Tommy Smothers, who hung out at her original Sausalito place along with many other entertainers, “there was a naturalness. There was no pretense about (her).”