Jordan Lummis, Wife Die of Gunshot Wounds

The 91-year-old son of Los Angeles pioneer Charles Lummis and his elderly wife died Saturday of single gunshot wounds suffered in their South Pasadena home.

Authorities answering a silent call to “911” found Quimu (Jordan) Lummis and his 83-year-old wife, Gregory, in the bedroom of their ranch-style home in the 1200 block of Blair Avenue. Each had been shot in the upper torso.

Although Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said an intruder was not responsible for the shootings, it was not clear whether the killings resulted from a suicide pact or were a murder-suicide.

No suicide note was found, but neighbors and deputies investigating the deaths said they suspect that the Lummises may have taken their own lives because they were despondent over their declining health.

“We’re very confident there was no third party involved,” said Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Linnemeyer.

Family members who were at the Lummis house late Saturday afternoon declined to comment.

Emergency workers received a call from the Lummis’ well-tended home about 9:45 a.m. The caller never spoke. Instead, according to authorities, the dispatcher heard two gunshots.

When police arrived, they found the front door open and nothing out of place. A handgun believed to have been used in the shootings was found in the bedroom where the elderly couple lay fatally wounded.

“That would just be like Jordan to have everything nailed down and everything in order,” said longtime neighbor K. R. (Dick) Ellis. “He was always pretty organized.”

Lummis and his wife were transported to separate hospitals, where they were pronounced dead minutes later.

Lummis’ father was an author and adventurer who gained considerable fame by walking across the United States in 1884 and writing about his experiences. Charles Lummis became the first city editor of The Times in 1885, was hired as Los Angeles’ librarian 10 years later, and in 1907 founded the Southwest Museum, located in Mt. Washington.

News accounts of the day indicate that Charles Lummis--who was by then almost blind--leaned heavily upon his young son, Jordon, in drawing the plans and supervising construction of the museum, which houses one of the most extensive collection of Indian artifacts in the United States.

Charles Lummis’ home, located near the museum, is also a landmark and popular tourist stop. Neighbors recalled, however, that Jordan Lummis did not seem interested in taking advantage of his father’s name.

“I asked him point-blank once whether that was his house and he said, ‘No, that was my father’s,’ ” Ellis said. “I said, ‘Well, that makes you pretty famous, doesn’t it?’ And he said, ‘Not in my book.’ ”

Jordon Lummis, who had a successful career as an electrical engineer, and his wife were remembered by others Saturday as genial, unassuming people who were seen less and less as they grew older. He was forced to surrender his driver’s license; she suffered from advancing arthritis.

Pablo Otero said that last Christmas, Jordan Lummis greeted a group of carolers who were going through the neighborhood.

Lummis, Otero said, complained that he was getting “too (expletive) old. It’s just no fun.”