Prize-Winning Apple Pie Was 35 Years in the Making

Lola Mefferd of Bellflower baked the best apple pie in the state this year, according to judges at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona.

Mefferd was declared the 1990 blue-ribbon winner last month over 95 other apple-pie entries in the American Pie Celebration contest. She won an expense-paid trip for two and a chance to represent California in the national finals in New Orleans next spring.

“I’m still four feet off the ground,” she said. “It was such a pleasant day. Everything just fell into place.”

Mefferd said she and her husband, Richard, also celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary Sept. 16, the day she won.

“I was also elated I won in Pomona, which is the city where I was born,” said Mefferd, 56.

Mefferd has been entering baking contests at the fair for more than 35 years and has more than 100 ribbons and awards for her cooking. But this is the first time she has won the big prize.

Mable Harris, 72, who has been judging pies, cakes and pickles for the last 46 years at the fair, said Mefferd’s entry “was just a perfect pie. It was not too tart nor too sweet. It was very attractive, and it tasted good.”

Harris also gave Mefferd marks for originality. The golden crust of the 10-inch pie was shaped like leaf petals. There was just the right combination of sugar and spices, Harris said.

At the national Pie Bake Off contest, sponsored by Crisco, Mefferd will pit her apple pie against varied pastries, including cherry, pecan and meat pies. “I get nervous just thinking about it,” said Mefferd, a receptionist for Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower.

But she need not fret, because she will be accompanied by her best critic and supporter, her husband. “I always taste her food and tell her just how I feel about it,” said Richard Mefferd, 59, a mechanical engineer. “I knew her apple pie would win. It was just right.”

Bellflower City Council members also know a good pie when they taste one. After she won, the council invited Mefferd to a meeting to receive a plaque in honor of her achievement.

She baked an apple pie for the council, and they ate it all.

Danielle Thill, 12, of Long Beach was recently chosen to dance with the New York City Ballet at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

Thill was one of four girls selected to dance with the company during last month’s performance of George Balanchine’s ballet “Mozartiana.” Sixty-two dancers auditioned.

“I was really excited. I never auditioned for anything,” said Thill, who is a seventh-grader at Hughes Middle School in Long Beach. She also is a student at the Ballet Arts Center in Long Beach.

Longtime Santa Fe Springs resident Glen Bartunek will be inducted into the Kearney State College Athletic Hall of Fame in Kearney, Neb., during the school’s homecoming banquet Friday.

Bartunek, 78, was a star athlete at the school in football, basketball and track in 1935-41.

Bartunek and his wife, Ann, 74, will attend the college’s football game Saturday against New Mexico Highlands University.

The couple moved to Santa Fe Springs in 1952. Ann was one of the civic leaders who helped incorporate the city in 1957.

Linda Parra has been hired as recreation supervisor for the Pico Rivera Recreation and Community Services Department. In the newly created position, Parra, 23, will develop anti-drug abuse and gang prevention programs for youths.

Parra was born in Pico Rivera and graduated from El Rancho High School. She is a graduate of UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Parra has worked as a gang counselor with the county’s Community Youth Gang Services.

* Long Beach dentist E.B. Bush and his wife, Wynona, have been honored by the local branch of the NAACP for their fund-raising contributions. Bush has received the Thousandaires Club Award for donating $8,000 to the civil rights group’s national endowment fund. Wynona Bush, a retired Long Beach Unified School District teacher, received the Golden Heritage Award for her $1,000 donation.

* Downey resident David McLeod has been appointed to the 26-member board of directors of Downey Community Hospital. McLeod is a partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood.

* Gary Smuts is the new principal of Cerritos High School in the ABC Unified School District. Smuts was the assistant principal at Gahr High School in the district. Smuts, who has been with the district since 1974, replaces Barry Tambara, who left to become an administrator with the Orange County Department of Education.

* Dwight D. Bennett has been selected “business person of the month” for September by the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. Bennett is president of Dwight D. Bennett and Associates, an architectural firm.

* Heinz Gehner has been appointed manager of the Ramada Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach. Gehner most recently was the manager of the Ramada Renaissance in Springfield, Ill.

Material for this column may be mailed to Lee Harris, Los Angeles Times, 12750 Center Court, Suite 150, Cerritos Towne Center, Cerritos 90701 , telephone 924-8600.