Memorial honors ‘a real patriot’ for her dedication

Dorothy Ridlespriger loved election day.

For 14 years, the former postal worker served as a precinct inspector overseeing a polling station.

“She always looked forward to it. She would stop and get snacks for all her poll workers,” said Erica Hinton, Ridlespriger’s daughter.

She embraced the responsibility with passion, colleagues recalled, serving for both county and city elections and constantly recruiting polling place volunteers.

At one point she successfully lobbied for extra Korean-speaking poll workers in her Koreatown precinct.

On Nov. 7, Ridlespriger, 68, worked her usual 15-hour-plus election day. She was found dead in her Los Angeles home early the next morning, apparently the victim of a heart attack. In her car were boxes of sealed ballots that she didn’t live long enough to turn in.

“She spent the last day of her life serving her community,” Los Angeles County Registrar Conny B. McCormack said during a memorial service Monday. “She was a real patriot.”

A native of Alton, Ill. who moved to Los Angeles in 1972, Ridlespriger -- who was twice widowed -- is survived by six children, 12 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She also left behind “a second family -- the elections community,” McCormack said.

Her death shocked relatives and colleagues who had just seen her work a typically long election day schedule, starting at 6 a.m. and ending after 9 p.m.

“It always ends up being a 16- or 17-hour day,” McCormack said. Precinct supervisors receive a stipend, but McCormack said that in reality the poll workers are volunteers. “It’s pennies compared to the hours they work,” she said.

Henry Harvey worked alongside Ridlespriger all day at the polling place in the Central Korean Evangelical Church on South Oxford Avenue. He last saw her leaving the church after 9 p.m. on election night, presumably to turn over the ballots and other polling place supplies at a nearby drop-off point for several precincts.

“She looked OK. She was alert all day,” Harvey said.

What happened after that is a mystery. Ridlespriger disappeared after leaving the church polling station, touching off a frantic late-night search.

County officials noticed about 11 p.m. that Ridlespriger had not dropped off her ballots. When efforts to reach her at home were unsuccessful, they called Hinton, who lives about 10 minutes from her mother.

“You can imagine our worry as midnight went to 1 and 2 in the morning and we hadn’t heard from Dorothy,” McCormack said.

The concern for Ridlespriger’s welfare was compounded by the fact that she had several hundred sealed ballots in her possession. But McCormack said the health and safety of the veteran poll worker was the top priority. With more than 5,000 voting precincts in L.A. County, it’s normal for some ballots to trickle in after midnight.

“Around 2 or 3 in the morning, we always have a few precincts that are still outstanding,” McCormack said.

Hinton, 47, sat at home worried for her mother but unable to leave her 4-year-old twin boys to search for her.

She and her boys had visited Ridlespriger at the polling place about 6:30 p.m., taking her a fried chicken dinner. Hinton said her mother looked normal but “she did say she was feeling tired.”

Finally, at 4 a.m., Ridlespriger called Hinton from her home, saying she had felt too ill to wait in line and drop off her ballots.

“We don’t know where she went between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.,” said McCormack, who speculated that Ridlespriger had either fallen ill and slept in her car or gone home and passed out.

But Hinton said her mother sounded completely normal on the phone.

“She sounded fine. That’s what’s so strange,” Hinton said. “She didn’t sound out of breath. She didn’t sound anything.”

Hinton informed L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, who went to Ridlespriger’s home to retrieve the ballots and found her unconscious.

She was pronounced dead soon after, with the cause of death listed as a heart attack.

On Monday, friends, relatives and officials from the county registrar’s office gathered to remember Ridlespriger’s life and her public and private legacy.

“This is a home-going celebration. She’s going home,” said the Rev. Elwood Bush, a friend of the family. “I know in my heart that she’s in a better place than I am.”

ashraf.khalil@latimes.com