An Old Picture That’s Worth a Story

Old photographs don’t always tell the full story. But then, isn’t that the beauty of them? A bit of mystery always remains about the people or places depicted.

Felix Osuna not long ago became intrigued with a photograph on the wall of Pop’s Cafe in downtown Santa Ana. Taken nearly 60 years ago, it shows seven Santa Ana motorcycle officers standing by their Harleys and Hendersons in front of what was then a very new Bowers Museum.

Osuna is a lieutenant with the Santa Ana Police Department. The picture has special meaning to him because he was a longtime motorcycle officer. He is now in charge of the traffic division, which includes the motorcycle squad. Also, he had a great fondness for the officer standing on the far left in that 1939 black and white photograph, Doug M. “Bud” Jones.

Pop’s Cafe, at 9th and Main streets, is frequented by many city and county employees, as well as many cops like Osuna. Bud Jones, who died in 1995, ate there almost daily for many years; the building the restaurant is located in was one of the properties owned by his wife, Elsie Jones.

Jones was a Santa Ana police officer from 1938 until he joined the war effort in 1942. He became a highly decorated Air Force pilot flying B-17s. He flew 49 missions over German-occupied territory, and was wounded on four of them, once barely surviving a crash landing. Jones’ war injuries prevented him from returning to the Police Department, so he remained in the military performing less arduous duty until he retired in 1962.

“Bud Jones essentially gave up his police career to fight for his country,” Osuna points out.

Osuna has found his own way to honor Jones. A little over a year ago, he assembled a few of his fellow officers and they all posed, along with their modern-era Kawasaki 1000 motorcycles, in the exact spot in front of the archway at the Bowers Museum where their forerunners had posed in 1939. Osuna even asked Sgt. Dave Jones to stand on the far left where Bud Jones had stood.

That picture since has been on Osuna’s office wall, along with a copy of the 1939 picture. In past years, Osuna had listened with fascination to Bud Jones talk about flying B-17s in World War II. But it wasn’t until his conversation last week with Elsie Jones, who still owns the property, that he learned about Jones’ four Purple hearts, and his winning the Distinguished Flying Service Cross.

Now Osuna is making arrangements to put a copy of the modern motorcycle officers on the wall at Pop’s, alongside the 1939 original. It’s a way for the public to see how much today’s officers appreciate Jones and the others who came before them.

When I learned about Osuna’s picture from one of my colleagues, Geoff Boucher, it was a heartwarming reminder that police officers can have a sense of history about this county as much as a lot of other local history buffs. What a marvelous way to honor Bud Jones and draw attention to his contribution to his country.

Around the Town: Words on personalized license plates usually aren’t clever enough to do anything more than make me wonder about the vanity of the vehicle’s owner. But driving in Fountain Valley the other day, I had to smile when I saw the tag on a beautiful 1988 Corvette, driven by a woman in her 30s. “WAZ HIZ” it stated. Don’t you just know there’s a whale of a story behind that one. . . .

Even if you took world history, it isn’t likely your teacher ever told you about Brian Boru. He was the high king of Ireland who defeated the Vikings and liberated Ireland in April of 1014. Good enough reason for Irish descendants--and anybody else--to toast him at a public gathering starting at noon Sunday at the Brothers of St. Patrick at 7820 Bolsa Ave. in Midway City ($10 admission ticket). Entertainment includes Irish bands and the traditional Irish Ceili dancing that’s been popular the past year via the “Riverdance” video and the Academy Awards on TV last month.

Spokesman for the event, Jim McDonough, says that the Brothers of St. Patrick continues to be an order for Irish priests on a small scale, but is primarily an unofficial Irish center for Orange County. . . .

Gymnast-turned-actor Cathy Rigby will perform songs from her upcoming national tour of “Peter Pan” at the second annual Concert for Peace at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana on April 26 (tickets $15). Also performing are the host Paul McNeff Singers. The event is to raise funds for the church’s children’s music programs.

Double Kudos: Vivian Clecak, executive director of the Human Options shelter for battered women, was honored earlier this month by the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, a support group for United Way, with its Humanitarian Award. Next month she will receive the annual Amelia Earhart Award from the Women’s Opportunity Center of the UCI Extension. Clecak is one of the founders of Human Options, which opened its first program for battered women in 1981.

A Daughter’s Father: Because I was born and raised in Indiana, please indulge me a moment to pay tribute to a fellow Hoosier, Oscar Robertson, who donated a kidney this week to his 33-year-old daughter. She suffers from lupus, a disease that attacks the immune system. The basketball Hall of Fame great starred at Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis when I was a youngster, leading them to the state championship.

Many of you may have learned about lupus through the education efforts of Orange County’s Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers. His wife, Linda, suffers from the disease, and each year the Hatfields host a fund-raising golf tournament in Orange County--August this year--to raise money for research into the disease.

Wrap-Up: If you’ve been around the Santa Ana area since the World War II days, you know that Pop’s for many years was the very popular Jeannie’s Drive-In, and then later Jeannie’s Restaurant. Maybe some of you knew some of those motorcycle officers who posed at Bowers with Doug Jones. They listed their names under their pictures as W.H. Heard, E.F. Zimmerman, George G. Boyd, W.F. Nielsen, F.W. Norton and B.A. Hershey. Hershey is the one you would most likely know. He went on to become chief of police in Santa Ana.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com