Adelaide Nimitz-Factor; Singer, Talent Manager Became Activist

Adelaide Nimitz-Factor, a onetime singer and talent manager who in recent years was a community activist battling crime and malathion spraying, has died. She was 68.

Nimitz-Factor died June 7 in Burbank following a long illness, said a spokesman for the Eckerman-Heisman Funeral Service in Burbank.

Originally married to jazz saxophonist Jack Nimitz and more recently to actor and writer Robert Factor, she had been known publicly under the surnames Nimitz and Nimitz-Factor.

Born in Washington, D.C., she began her career as a singer touring with Stan Kenton’s band, in which her first husband played. After settling in Los Angeles about four decades ago, she sang locally at such clubs as Dante’s, Chadney’s, the Money Tree and the Baked Potato.

She also became a manager, handling the careers of comedian Soupy Sales, pianist Hampton Hawes, and guitarists Lee Ritenour and Joe Pass.

Nimitz-Factor was also a lifelong advocate of community causes.

When she lived in Studio City, she became the founding president of C.R.I.M.E. Prevention Committee, a group trying to stamp out pornography.

Nimitz-Factor and two colleagues were arrested in 1981 on suspicion of malicious mischief for hauling away 22 news racks containing material they deemed objectionable. Such racks were found piled in front of the Studio City office of City Councilman Joel Wachs, whom Nimitz-Factor accused of being soft on crime.

The activist opposed Wachs in his 1983 bid for reelection but failed to unseat him. However, she later worked in Wachs’ unsuccessful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles.

In the early 1990s, she turned her attention to halting the spraying of the insecticide malathion, saying it was harmful to public health.

State and federal authorities instigated widespread spraying after the first Mediterranean fruit fly was found in Elysian Park near Dodger Stadium on July 20, 1989. The medfly was considered a serious danger to the state’s multimillion-dollar fruit crops.

“When I get a cause, I’m relentless,” Nimitz-Factor told The Times in 1990 after dubbing her own home “Medfly Central.”

“Especially,” added Nimitz-Factor in her role as president of Families Opposed to Chemical Urban Spraying (FOCUS), “when I get calls from people who are crying because they’re so sick or outraged about this.”

Urging officials to fight the medfly by using traps, stripping fruit from infested trees and introducing sterile fruit flies, Nimitz-Factor said: “They’ll never get rid of the medfly, it’s obvious. It’s like saying you’ll get rid of ants.”

For the past couple of decades, Nimitz-Factor, who had small roles in such television series as “Night Court” and “Diagnosis Murder,” also helped Factor produce plays at Gypsy Playhouse in Burbank and the Victory Theatre in Studio City.

Survivors include her husband; a son, David Marlon, of Sherman Oaks; a daughter, Jacqueline Nimitz, of Burbank; a brother, Fred Fillah Jr., and a sister, Linda Schaitberger, both of Maryland.

The family asked that any donations be made to the Adelaide Nimitz-Factor Memorial Fund at the Colony Theater Co., 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank, CA 91502.