A Constructive Move for Junior League
The Junior League of Los Angeles recently found itself the recipient of a windfall that will allow it, finally, to own its own home.
Marjorie Rainey, a civic leader and former league president who died in December, left the league $1 million and property in Santa Monica with the instruction that funds be used for a French Regency building for a headquarters.
For more than 25 years, the league has run its community projects--today with an annual budget of $700,000--in rented space at Farmers Market. Grace Salvatori left $100,000 to the league for a headquarters when she died in 1990. But there was never quite enough to buy or build.
Now, by unanimous vote of the league board, construction will begin by Dec. 17 as Marjorie Rainey specified. The new headquarters will be built not in Santa Monica, but at 630 Larchmont Blvd. in L.A. on property the league purchased five years ago, president Ann Zimmerman says.
The building will be large enough for a stand-up reception for 300 and will have a meeting room that seats 50 adjoining a garden court. Nancy Hinde-Katel is in charge of launching a capital campaign, the goal undecided. Others working on the project are Brooke Moore, Karen Cameron, Nicky Sawyer and Robin Nenninger.
*
NEW TRUSTEES: Art Center College of Design has named three trustees, Cleon T. (Bud) Knapp, J. Melvin Muse and Kenji Ekuan . . . .
J. Terrence Lanni has been appointed chairman of the trustees of Loyola Marymount University, and four people have been elected to the board: Father Joseph A. Appleyard, Father Robert V. Caro, Fiorenza Falzone Courtright and Steven M. Hilton . . . .
Los Amigos del Pueblo also has new trustees: Alice O’Neill Avery, Sally Brant, Nati Cano, Fiorenza Falzone Courtright , William H. Doheny Jr., Sylvia Lopez, Ricardo Montalban, Edward James Olmos and Barbara Pauley Pagen.
*
NEW LEADERS: Changing guards are putting new leaders at the tops of Los Angeles philanthropic organizations.
Abbe Lane Leff is new president of SHARE (Share Happily and Reap Endlessly) and Roni Sue Malin, chairwoman of the board . . . Sandi Walker takes over as president of the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild . . . Elizabeth Lawton of Westlake Village heads Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge Los Angeles County chapter . . . Susan Beatty is president of Descanso Gardens Guild . . . Fred Roberts was elected president of the Music Center Fraternity of Friends . . . Holley Frank heads Foothill Family Service Guild . . . Harriet Hochman is general chair of the 1994 United Jewish Fund campaign in Los Angeles . . . .
Other new chief execs include Karen McGovern, president of the National Charity League, Los Angeles chapter . . . Carolyn Roper, president of the Coronet Patronesses of the National Charity League . . . Dr. Anne Staveren, president of the Assn. of Black Women Physicians . . . Charlotte Meier, president of the Los Angeles Founders Chapter of ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) . . . Ottillie Laybourne, chairwoman of the Assistance League Nine O’Clock Players Theatre for Children . . . Vera O’Larry Handley, director of the 45th annual Coronet Debutante Ball . . . Diane Lander-Simon, wife of playwright Neil Simon, new board member of Big Sisters of Los Angeles.