Dorothy Friend, 93; Started Home for Recovering Alcoholics

Dorothy Leona Friend, 93, longtime activist for the recovery of alcoholics, died last Thursday of lung cancer at West Hills Hospital in Canoga Park.

In 1975, Friend co-founded Odyssey House, a home for recovering alcoholic women in Canoga Park. The nonprofit halfway house, now Women’s Odyssey Organization, helped hundreds of women in the ensuing years.

Friend, who managed Odyssey House in its early years, continued for decades to help raise funds for the facility and served as a counselor to countless women.

Born in Globe, Ariz., Friend settled in Los Angeles in 1961. She was a legal secretary for many years and later worked for United Recording Co. in Hollywood. There she met Ellis Boatner, an executive with the firm, and the two of them started Odyssey House.

“She had a quality that was not flamboyant but was almost invisible. Yet you knew she was there,” Boatner said. “It was the difference between saying a prayer and being a prayer.”