Susan B. Swanton Welsh; Retired Social Worker

Susan B. (Gigi) Swanton Welsh, a retired social worker who was active in Glendale civic organizations, has died in a Los Angeles hospital. She was 80.

A longtime Los Angeles resident, Ms. Welsh died Friday of heart failure, said her daughter, Sue Welsh.

Born Susan B. Swanton on Staten Island, N.Y., she received a bachelor’s degree from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn and held leading roles in five off-Broadway productions during her college years, her daughter said. She volunteered as an entertainer with the USO and wrote war-bond songs during World War II.

In the late 1940s, she moved to California and began working for the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services in the early 1950s. In 1955, she transferred to the Glendale office where she was a social case worker and later a supervisor. She was instrumental in organizing the Homemaker/Chore Program in Glendale, an in-home elderly care program. She retired in 1975.

During the late 1960s and the 1970s, Susan B. Welsh was a member of the Glendale Community Coordinating Council and was a charter member of the Glendale Mayor’s Committee for the Employment of the Handicapped. She also was active with the American Red Cross in Glendale and served five years in its Glendale Service to Military Families Committee.

She is survived by her sons Ned Welsh of Woodland Hills, Kevin Welsh of Los Angeles, Brian Welsh of Westport, Conn.; daughters Sue Welsh, Tara Welsh and Brenda Welsh, all of Los Angeles; sisters Mary Reilly of New Harbor, Ma., and Eileen Kocheisen of Staten Island, N.Y.; and 10 grandchildren.

Visitation is planned from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday at Callanan Mortuary, 1301 N. Western Ave., Los Angeles, which is handling the arrangements. A rosary is scheduled at 7 p.m. Thursday, with a funeral Mass at 7:30 p.m., both at St. Basil’s Catholic Church, 3611 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. A graveside service is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at Holy Cross Cemetery, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Los Angeles.

Donations can be made to the Susan B. Swanton Award for Public Speaking at Immaculate Heart High School, 5515 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles 90028.