Olga Marcus, 97; L.A. Progressive Activist

In the 1940s and ‘50s, when cosmetic dentistry was so new only a few dentists practiced it, Olga Marcus discovered a way to link bright Hollywood smiles with political causes.

While her husband made a lucrative living perfecting the teeth of the rich and famous, Marcus refined the art of tapping those same clients for cash to help an array of causes. It was just one of the ways Marcus, a gentle but tough city commissioner, influenced politics and policy in the city for decades.

Marcus, a fundraiser for progressive causes and co-founder of Women For:, which bills itself as the city’s oldest women’s political action committee, died Feb. 22 at her home in Westwood of natural causes. She was 97 and the widow of Beverly Hills dentist Dr. David Marcus.

“It’s amazing that they were able to mobilize, from his connection in the [film] industry, so much good for so many causes, said Dr. Patric Cohen, Marcus’ grandson, who also practices cosmetic dentistry.

What seems unremarkable now -- stars lending support to political causes -- wasn’t always so, certainly not when Marcus began her work.

She was born Olga S’Renco on Nov. 4, 1908, in Denver to Russian immigrants who were both pharmacists. The family moved to Whittier in 1915. In the 1930s, after earning a graduate degree at USC, she was employed as a medical social worker. Marriage and motherhood took her from the paid workforce but not from service.

During World War II she collected blankets, sweaters and funds for Russians suffering through bitter winters after Hitler’s invasion. At a time when Los Angeles was still racially segregated -- courtesy of restrictive housing covenants -- Marcus organized an informal group to help African American families move into all-white neighborhoods.

And in an era when a woman’s role in political campaigns was often to take orders from men, she helped create an organization that pushed women to wield power.

“In partisan politics, the hard work had been done by women with very little policymaking power,” Women For: co-founder Ethel Longstreet told The Times in 1974. “We didn’t need to follow like sheep. We could explore and expand and be completely independent.”

Longstreet and Marcus created Women For: in 1964. Its members, unlike those in other organizations of the day, researched and interviewed candidates and offered endorsements, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and USC professor.

“The endorsement was a positive thing; it was sought-after,” Jeffe said.

Women For: did politics with a flavor of its own. Members held quilting bees and breakfasts and published cookbooks to support candidates of their choice. Marcus, who loved cooking, co-wrote “How to Cook a GOP Goose,” which was followed by “D’Electable Recipes.” And of course there were teas.

But the women -- influential, well informed, involved and connected -- also served up tough questions and serious scrutiny to the candidates they interviewed. In California, Marcus was organizer of the Volunteers for Stevenson during Adlai Stevenson’s first campaign for the presidency in 1952.

“These are all women who, to use a contemporary term, walked the walk,” said Sandy Zeitzew, current spokeswoman for the organization. “They protested against the Vietnam War. They were supporting the civil rights movement. Whatever it was, they were there.”

In 1974, the organization had a membership of about 5,000 mostly Westside women whose agenda included the impeachment or resignation of President Nixon over the Watergate scandal and the passage of a campaign reform initiative. They had helped win passage of a coastline conservation proposition but had failed in a push against the death penalty.

Over the years, a who’s who of candidates and newsmakers has visited the women. Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), addressed the group. Columnist Art Buchwald was a frequent guest at their luncheons. Civil rights activist and then-Georgia state legislator Julian Bond was a guest as well.

“We’re idealistic and a little ahead of our time,” Gloria Starr told the Times in 1974.

The group supported Tom Bradley in his unsuccessful first run for mayor and Yvonne Brathwaite Burke in her bid for the state Legislature.

“It is an organization for which I have the greatest respect,” Bradley told The Times in 1974. “Such an organization is valuable to all of us and I am grateful for their support.”

Outside the world of politics, Marcus was a co-founder of the Therapeutic Education and Child Health Foundation, an organization that lobbied on behalf of and raised funds for special-needs children.

Over decades and an array of causes, Marcus found a base of support in her husband’s clients.

“All these movie people my dad had, she would stick her hand in their pocket. ‘OK, [now] we’ve got to get money for Tom Bradley’s’ ” campaign, daughter Nina Cohen said. The list of clients included Henry Fonda, Judy Garland, Carol Channing, Paramount Studios founder Adolph Zukor and Atty. Gen. Stanley Mosk, who was later appointed to the California Supreme Court.

Marcus never seemed to tire of working for people and causes she believed in or of persuading others to do the same, Nina Cohen said. But her life was balanced. She enjoyed gardening, classical music -- particularly concerts at the Hollywood Bowl -- and golf. She was immaculate in dress and graceful in manner.

“We led busy lives and entertained a lot,” Marcus told The Times in 1990. “My husband’s patients included many celebrities, and many were personal friends. My own involvement with politics also brought us into a wide circle of interesting people.”

To watch Marcus at work was to watch her live the meaning of the adage she drilled in her children, her daughter said: “If you live in a community, you take from it. You must put it back.”

In 1973, Mayor Bradley nominated Marcus to a position on the Fire and Police Pension Commission. She later served with the City Employees Retirement System. She distinguished herself with a gentle but firm style of leadership, said Jerry Bardwell, who was general manager of the retirement system when Marcus was a commissioner.

“Olga was in the forefront of the effort to divest the funds from South Africa,” Bardwell said. “There, everybody was not in agreement with that. She just took the leadership on the commission in trying to advance that issue and was successful in doing so.”

After her husband died in 1988, Marcus remained active, continuing as a commissioner, participating in discussions sponsored by the Plato Society at UCLA and always making time for family.

Marcus is survived by Cohen; a son, Michael Marcus; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

Two years ago Women For: paid tribute to Marcus “as a permanent woman of achievement, somebody who had done many wonderful things in all kinds of areas ... someone to emulate and honor,” said the group’s coordinator, Ruth Zeitzew, mother of Sandy Zeitzew.

Age put an end to her active involvement, but Marcus continued to support causes. She donated to Planned Parenthood, and wanted donations in her memory sent to the Westside office of Planned Parenthood at 1316 Third Street Promenade, B-5, Santa Monica, CA 90401.

In a Times article in 1990, Marcus described life as a series of cycles: “When you finish one cycle in your life, you better close it and move on confidently to the next. I take each new cycle in stride.”