Verdugo Views: Helping a Sister City relationship flower
Back in the days when Carroll W. Parcher was editor and publisher of the Glendale News-Press, he wrote a column, “In My Opinion,” supporting local causes and expressing his thoughts on life in this city.
In the mid-1960s, he devoted several inches to a park. Not just any park, but a park to celebrate Glendale’s Sister City relationship with Hiraoka, Japan, which already had a “Glendale Park.”
Parcher’s Feb. 22, 1964, column explained that the city would provide the land for the Japanese garden and teahouse, but that funds were needed to develop them. He encouraged Glendalians to attend a Chevy Chase Estates Garden Club tea later that month, during the annual bonsai show at the Buddhist Temple on Glen Avenue in Pasadena. Ticket donations were $3.50.
“Sounds like a good way to spend an enjoyable afternoon, see the traditional spring flower arrangements and bonsai exhibit and develop international amity, all at the same time,” he wrote.
To up the ante, Ruby Barnett, founder of the garden club — which was instrumental in getting the Japanese teahouse and garden constructed — went to City Council and invited each member to be a special guest at the event.
Then Mayor Herman E. Barnes was, of course, the first to receive his ticket. The Glendale Independent said the committee planned to sell 1,000 tickets.
Remember, this was in 1964, back when newspapers devoted a whole section to society events. I found all sorts of publicity regarding this event in a scrapbook (remember those?) carefully compiled by a member of the garden club. The book, lent to me by member Mary Betlach, provided an invaluable look back at life in Chevy Chase Canyon — and Glendale — during the 1960s.
The Los Angeles Times published a photo of organizers Marge Tucker and Ruby Barnett, along with an article promising spring flower arrangements, a bonsai exhibit, a show of exotic costume fashions designed by Kow Kaneko of Pasadena and a formal tea.
Betty Preston, women’s editor of the News-Press, wrapped up the coverage with a post-party report that the tea was “everything that a Japanese tea should have been.”
“Hiraoka would have been proud of its sister by adoption. Guests wandered and viewed the exquisite oriental flower arrangements. In the tea room were two tables... handsome as only tea tables done by Ruby Barnett can be,” Preston wrote.
“Pouring duties were shared by Councilwoman Zelma Bogue, Bea Wright, Gwen Green and Cleo Hanssen,” she added.
No word on how many tickets were sold for that particular event, although, if you drive into Brand Park, you can admire the fruits of their labors. The garden and teahouse were dedicated 10 years later, in October 1974.
Parcher remained loyal to the city’s relationship to Hiraoka, later Higashiosaka. In August 1977, while serving one of several terms as mayor, he was a guest at a party honoring sister city founder Hideji Yamasaki, and his wife Suma.
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I was a guest at R.D. White PTA’s 100th festivities on Feb. 26, listening as several members of White’s family were introduced, including his granddaughter, Jill Larsen, and her husband, Phil, and Michele Thompson, wife of White’s grandson, Tod (who was not able to attend). Also on hand was the Thompsons’ daughter, Hayley Nelson, White’s great-granddaughter.
Later, I spoke with Nelson, who said her father graduated from Glendale High in 1954 and taught in the Glendale Unified School District for 39 years, beginning at Crescenta Valley High in 1960, the first year the high school opened.
Nelson, a Crescenta Valley High grad, has taught in the district for 21 years. It looks like a love of Glendale Unified runs in the family!
Did you know that Marion Morrison, aka John Wayne, attended R.D. White when it was still called Doran Street Elementary? Who knew!
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Readers write:
Emily Whytock sent an email regarding the Feb. 12 Verdugo Views on R.D. White’s history. “I sent your column to Janet Davidson, a granddaughter of Eleanor J. Toll. She was delighted to know of her grandmother’s connection to R.D. White, as neither she nor her siblings had ever connected her with any school, but Toll Junior High,” Whytock wrote.
“Some years ago, we had taken her daughter to see the former Toll home on Columbus Avenue, just north of Kenneth Road. Thank you for giving the Tolls a new detail for their family history,” she added.’
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KATHERINE YAMADA can be reached at KatherineYamada@gmail.com or by mail at Verdugo Views, c/o News-Press, 202 W. First St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Please include your name, address and phone number.
