She’s Testing the Family’s Luck in Reno

The Fortier family will be trying its luck in Reno this weekend, not at the gaming tables or slot machines, but at the Mrs. America contest.

Dwan Smith Fortier, 41, of Lakeview Terrace, took the Mrs. California title in Los Angeles in February and is competing against 49 other married women for the Mrs. America crown Sunday and Monday at the Reno Hilton.

Her husband, Nate, and children Ayanna, 13, and Andre, 2, will be there, too, hoping to cheer her on to victory.

If she wins, Fortier will be the first black to become Mrs. America. She is the first black to earn the Mrs. California title.

Born in Jackson, Tenn., Fortier was a speech therapist at the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital and an educational service representative for IBM before moving to California in the early 1970s. Here she embarked on an acting and singing career and also can be seen on TV, roller-skating in an Ivory Soap commercial.

Following a divorce, Fortier was a single mother for seven years, a fact that she believes “is an important part of being Mrs. America--not to be afraid to admit you failed. I understand the needs of single women.”

Three years ago she married Nate Fortier, a Los Angeles County fireman and paramedic. He is also a songwriter and producer.

Dwan Smith Fortier is also active in many community service groups and is the founder of the Awareness Club, a drug prevention program.

She said that she views the Mrs. America contest as a way of helping her promote the aims of the Awareness Club and other service organizations.

“It will give me a platform to say something of substance about the family,” Fortier said. “I am a person. I am a woman in a marriage--a team member in a marriage.”

Nate Fortier has a positive outlook about his wife’s chances in the competition. “This is the first time I ever experienced anything like this,” he said. “But I’m very confident in Dwan. If she doesn’t win, she’ll be a runner-up. But I think she’ll win.”

Bombardiers Wanted

Any World War II bombardiers living in the Southern California area? Well, there are some people looking for you.

According to Sam Young of Beverly Hills: “Not many people realize that World War II gave birth to a flying profession that today is practically nonexistent.

“During World War II there were some 20,000 young men trained as bombardiers at 14 Army Air fields scattered primarily throughout the Southwest and South. Today there is an association of bomb-aimers of World War II, known simply as Bombardiers Inc., who seek to unite those who performed bombardiering. “

So far, Bombardiers Inc. has contacted about 1,800 former bombardiers, but is still trying to locate others. The group held its first reunion in April in Midland, Tex., and is planning another for April, 1987, in San Antonio.

Write to Bombardiers Inc., Box 254, Eagle Harbor, Mich. 49951, or call (906) 289-4440.

A Tea Party That Grew

What started in 1971 as “a small tea and crumpet kind of party” has grown into real happening that attracts thousands of people.

Actress Jodie Mann, who has produced Actors and Others for Animals’ Celebrity Fair for 10 years, started out with a few Hollywood stars donating their time to pose for photographs and talk with people attending the fund-raising fair, held then at a small school in the Valley.

For Sunday’s fair, Mann, who also serves as secretary of Actors and Others for Animals, has lined up 200 film and television celebrities, among them Earl Holliman, the organization’s president, Loretta Swit, Loni Anderson, Mariette Hartley, Hal Linden, Sally Struthers, Jack Klugman, Cindy Williams, Lorne Greene, Jo Anne Worley, Ricky Schroder, Bea Arthur, Joe Campanella, Jack Jones and Shelly Smith to greet the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Burbank Studio Ranch, located at Hollywood Way and Oak Street in Burbank.

The last celebrity fair, held two years ago, attracted 17,000 people. Proceeds go to Actors and Others for Animals, a nonprofit organization devoted to the protection of animals. Tickets are $6 for adults; $2 for children.

“When we started out we didn’t expect anything like this,” Mann said of the fair’s increasing popularity. “We made our own sandwiches and sold them.”

Among the auction items you can bid on are the script from the Paul Newman film “Absence of Malice,” a Clint Eastwood T-shirt, a framed and autographed Michael Jackson “Thriller” poster, a Laker jersey and two tickets to one of the NBA champs’ games, the dress Loni Anderson wore to the Emmys or the Nolan Miller dress that Linda Evans wore in her “cat fight” scene with Joan Collins on “Dynasty.”

Calling Roosevelt Alumni

John Bogdanoff of Montebello is searching for people who went to Roosevelt High School during the 1930s and ‘40s in hopes of putting together a huge reunion sometime in November.

“Roosevelt was a real melting pot of people then,” said Bogdanoff, Roosevelt class of Winter, 1945. “We had every ethnic group and nationality you can think of--Russians, Japanese, Jewish, Armenians, Greeks, Slovakians, Mexicans.”

Any members of those Roosevelt classes of the ‘30s and ‘40s interested in assisting Bogdanoff may attend a meeting at Roosevelt on Thursday at 7 p.m. or call him at (213) 728-5896.

California Appointees

Two prominent Southern Californians have been appointed by President Reagan to the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation.

Matthew J. Guglielmo of San Marino, a vice president of Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc., and Dr. William K. Hummer of Brentwood, a Santa Monica obstetrician and gynecologist, join the 21-member advisory committee for the next three years.

The group meets in Washington four times each year, Guglielmo said, “to advise the President on all kinds of matters pertaining to the health and welfare of the mentally retarded--community care living, citizenship rights, health and care standards, education.”

Guglielmo became involved in issues on mental retardation because of his 23-year-old daughter, who is mentally retarded because of a chromosome abnormality. He established in perpetuity the Matthew J. Guglielmo chair in mental retardation at Cal State L.A., the first such chair in the nation.

“The problem of mental retardation crosses various government lines,” Dr. Hummer said. “What we’ll be trying to do is pull all those things together for the good of the people. Part of the function of the committee deals with prevention, and that’s where I fall in. I want to zero in on preventing mental retardation.”