James Q. Wedworth; Former State Senator

James Q. Wedworth, influential former California state senator and Hawthorne mayor for almost a quarter of a century, has died at age 79.

Wedworth, who in recent years operated a horse boarding farm and orchard, died Monday in Newcastle, Calif., near Sacramento.

Elected to the state Senate in 1966, Wedworth, a Democrat, served as vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee during some turbulent years on California campuses. In 1968, he spent three weeks on the San Francisco State University campus during a siege of violence and issued a stinging report to his legislative colleagues.

Wedworth recommended the ouster of university president (later U.S. Sen.) S.I. Hayakawa and his boss, Chancellor Glenn Dumke, and a major revamping of the state college system.

While urging officials to avoid the use of an outside police force, Wedworth recommended fencing the San Francisco campus, issuing identification badges to students, faculty and employees, reinstating campus rules, and suspending noninstructional activities.

He described the December 1968 campus scene for the Inglewood Lions Club as “one of total insanity. The deterioration of morale, the violence and hysteria, the ridiculous daily confrontations, the damage to property and persons--all were unbelievable.”

Wedworth failed miserably in 1974 in a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, and left the Legislature shortly after his district was redrawn in 1976.

A native of Illinois, Wedworth moved to the Los Angeles area after serving in the Navy during World War II. He worked briefly for Northrop and then established a franchise bicycle shop.

Wedworth was first elected to the Hawthorne City Council in 1953 and was chosen mayor in 1958. He held both positions until his election to the state Senate in 1966.

He was active in the Elks, Moose, Rotary, Little League, Boy Scouts and Pop Warner football, the Southside Chamber of Commerce, the Exchange Club of Inglewood, the Southwest Community Coordinating Council, the Southwest Health Council and Southwest Toastmaster’s Club.