Gladys Owens Smith; Descendant of Early Black L.A. Landowner

Gladys Owens Smith, 99, the great-granddaughter of Biddy Mason, a woman who was one of the first African Americans to own land in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Smith was born to affluence based on her ancestors’ ownership of Downtown real estate. But the wealth diminished as family members died, and Mrs. Smith worked for 50 years at various jobs, including millinery and floral designing and testing food recipes for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner. She shared a floral shop with Vivian Ware until 1985. Mrs. Smith was guest of honor at the opening of Broadway Spring Center in 1989 and the adjacent Biddy Mason Park in 1991. The center, a parking complex for the Ronald Reagan State Building, includes a timeline monument of the history of African Americans in Los Angeles. The land for the parking complex, monument and park at Spring and 4th streets was purchased by Mason in 1866. In Los Angeles on Monday.