Cecile K. Bosworth; Promoter of G.I. Bill and Armed Forces Day

Cecile Kibre Bosworth, a pioneering activist who helped conceive and promote the G.I. Bill of Rights and the designation of an annual Armed Forces Day, has died. She was 100.

Bosworth, who also launched one of Los Angeles’ first social clubs for servicemen during World War II, died Wednesday in a Palmdale nursing home, her grandson Gary Bosworth said Monday.

She was the widow of silent screen actor and Paramount Studios co-founder Hobart Bosworth, the star of the first full-length motion picture shot in Los Angeles. A well-known Shakespearean actor, her husband was so humiliated by performing for a camera that he insisted that his name not be used, she later recalled.

The film, “In the Power of the Sultan,” was made at a Chinese laundry at Olive and 8th streets downtown, where scenery was hung on the establishment’s clothesline. The movie was shot on May 9-10, 1909, and “Hobie” Bosworth was paid $125.

After she was widowed on Dec. 31, 1943, Cecile Bosworth became the keeper of his early film props, diaries and other memorabilia and was an unofficial historian of silent pictures.

But she was much better known for her civic activism and activities on behalf of servicemen.

She was an early member of the United Service Organization, but soon separated and formed her own national Home Hospitality Volunteers.

Bosworth established a club at 9th and Hill streets on Dec. 20, 1941, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her volunteers offered coffee, sandwiches, friendly smiles and even spare rooms or beds in their homes for servicemen on leave.

Bosworth gained fame the following May when she operated from the sidewalk after building managers evicted the club for purported mismanagement of the premises.

“The question is,” she told newsmen during the vigil, “whether or not we are going to be permitted to continue the service work for our boys in the Army, Navy and Marines. I’m going to stick up for my right to continue it. I’m willing to go to jail, if necessary. If the boys in the service can give their lives for a cause, certainly I can make any sacrifice I am called on to make.”

Bosworth slept on a cot in the foyer of the building that her club had occupied, guarded and encouraged by hordes of young soldiers and sailors.

The very visible protest lasted nearly four weeks. By June 8, 1942, she told reporters that she had made her point and would set up her club in other quarters.

Throughout the war, Bosworth worked with California congressmen to create what became known as the G.I. Bill of Rights to help servicemen step comfortably back into civilian life. The legislation provided federal funds to finance college educations and low-interest loans to purchase homes.

In 1943 Bosworth proposed and lobbied for a joint resolution of Congress establishing an Armed Services Honor Day, which is now observed annually as Armed Forces Day.

In the mid-1940s, she also produced a syndicated radio show from Washington, featuring congressmen and titled “Congress on the Air.”

Bosworth also served as Pacific Coast chairwoman of the 150th anniversary observances for the Bill of Rights.

Born in Philadelphia on Oct. 16, 1896, Bosworth moved to Hollywood with her family when she was a toddler. She attended UCLA and then worked as a film researcher, soon meeting the much older Hobart Bosworth.

She had lived in the Antelope Valley since 1950.