She Hasn’t Outgrown Doing Right

During the 1950s, amid the anti-Communist fervor of the McCarthy era, Mary Edwards’ father tried to keep her from marching and rallying against the ever-widening witch hunt.

An aviation expert with the federal government, Holger Wictum feared that his teen-age daughter was going to cost him his job.

He didn’t get fired, but neither did he break his daughter of her activist passion.

The causes have changed, but not the intensity that she brings to battle.

From her early days of resisting McCarthyism and the Vietnam War, Edwards now busies herself fighting the expansion of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill and helping the underprivileged.

As if raising seven kids wasn’t enough, the 61-year-old Granada Hills homemaker has spent more than 40 years with her fingers in a host of different community projects such as Meeting Each Need with Dignity (MEND), where she volunteers her time working at a Pacoima shelter for the needy, or working alongside the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to preserve natural tracts of land.

She promotes planting trees as a way of honoring people through a program that she helped launch called Trees in Tribute and staffs a hot line for the Pregnancy Counseling Center in Reseda.

She’s a Quaker, dedicated to pacifism, but she’ll fight if she has to.

Browning-Ferris Industries learned that the hard way.

The corporation decided that it wanted to expand its Sunshine Canyon Landfill into oak-filled acreage that Browning-Ferris owns next to its present site above Granada Hills.

As secretary of a group called the North Valley Coalition of Concerned Citizens and environmental chairwoman of the Women’s Club of Granada Hills, Edwards helped lead the charge to block Browning-Ferris’ plans.

The matter is now pending before a federal appeals court.

“There’s just no reason in the world to put garbage in there,” Edwards bristles, her scrappy side coming to the surface.

“It’s a wonderful forest with lovely wetlands.”

The area is home to about 8,600 oak trees. Golden eagles can be seen circling in the nearby skies. Owls, hawks and falcons share Edwards’ fondness for the place. Mountain lions and deer also call it home.

“It becomes more and more imperative to preserve what little open space is left,” she insists.

In keeping with that effort, the North Valley Coalition gives out its annual Stumpy Award, a dubious tree-stump trophy mounted on a small wooden pedestal, to mark the recipient’s induction into the coalition’s Environmental Hall of Shame.

The first award went to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for approving Browning-Ferris’ landfill expansion plans. Last year’s went to the Regional Planning Commission for issuing permits allowing development on sites designated as Significant Ecological Areas.

The third annual Stumpy winner is yet to be announced and, Edwards says, remains top secret.

For now, the award sits on an antique organ in Edwards’ den, a room adorned with her impressive collection of mid-millenium battle armor.

Edwards admits that her goals can be daunting, with the seesaw court battles and constant onslaught of thoughtless development.

“Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I’d rather be at the mall,’ ” she sighs. “It can be discouraging.”

What keeps her going, she says, is “the feeling that you’re living out what you need to live out.”

She paraphrases a favorite quote of hers, which she attributes to Mother Teresa.

“You’re not called upon to be successful, you’re called upon to be faithful.”

Personal Best spotlights notable people in the community. Suggestions for prospective candidates for this feature are invited. Please address them to Personal Best, Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to 818-772-3338.