PACOIMA : Elderly Woman May Lose Vast Book Collection

Pauline Jenkins, a Pacoima woman subsisting on Social Security and Medicare, lost nearly everything she owned in the Northridge earthquake, except a personal collection of at least 200,000 books stored in a warehouse.

But now, Jenkins, 84, a former bookstore owner and founder of the Pacoima Historical Society, may lose her beloved collection of books, which include an archive of historic events stretching back to the early 1900s. Jenkins, who lives without heat or a working stove in a one-bedroom apartment, is bedridden and cannot afford to pay the $350 per month in storage fees.

In an effort to keep her collection intact, community leaders and Jenkins’ friends are working to establish a library or small museum with the books.

“Mrs. Jenkins has a lot of important and valuable information that could be passed on to others in the community,” said Lee A. Law, who works for Friends of the Family, a nonprofit family support organization in Van Nuys.

Besides leading the effort to preserve her collection, Law is helping Jenkins obtain federal reimbursement for severe damage done to her apartment and personal property following the temblor, during which she suffered a broken jaw.

When Jenkins returned from the hospital after a six-month stay, her apartment had been looted and water leaking from a broken toilet had damaged some of the several thousand volumes she kept in her apartment.

Jenkins, speaking by telephone, said she’d be happy to allow her collection--which includes biographies, fiction, classics, rare books and tomes on art, music and Hollywood--to start a small library.

But if that doesn’t happen, “I don’t know what I’ll do,” she said. “I’ll have to let it go, I suppose.”

Jenkins’ longtime friend Mary Belle Dix said it would be a shame if the collection was broken up and the historical records lost. “She has been a resident of Pacoima for more than 80 years,” Dix said. “But when you get old, people forget you.

“I’m not a bookworm or anything, but we feel this woman deserves some recognition. And the kids in this area should have something historical they can learn from.”

Dix said she asked former L.A. City Councilman Ernani Bernardi about the possibility of using money from the Lopez Canyon Amenities Fund, a $5-million fund established to assist neighborhoods near a landfill in Lake View Terrace, to start a library and local history museum using Jenkins’ books. But she said she never got a response.

Ray Jackson, a Pacoima resident and member of the advisory group that monitors the landfill fund, said he plans to lobby for money from the fund to save Jenkins’ book collection.