Scholarship first at Balboa Elementary

Alecia Foster

NORTHWEST GLENDALE -- Each day on his way to work, James Richards

would pass by Leona DeSimone’s house on Bel Aire Drive.

And without fail, Richards remembered, DeSimone would be outside

watering her lawn, waving goodbye to him.

“She had a million-dollar smile,” Richards said of his neighbor.

When DeSimone died in February, the Glendale resident was hit hard.

“When she passed away, I lost one of my best friends,” Richards said.

Wanting to do something to honor her memory, Richards contacted nearby

Balboa Elementary School -- where all four of her children had gone --

and a scholarship was established.

Principal Lou Stewart said it was unusual for an elementary school to

give a scholarship, but thought it appropriate.

“This has never been done in any of the elementary schools in the

district before,” she said.

The scholarship, a $200 savings bond, was awarded to sixth-grader

Nicolas Khalizadeh. The bond will mature when the boy is in his junior

year of high school.

Three of DeSimone’s children, Charlie, Andy and Rob and granddaughter

Brittany Clark, who represented her mother Roslyn, attended the

ceremony.

Charlie DeSimone called the award an honor, but said it wasn’t

honoring his mother so much as it was helping the family give back to the

community.

“When Dad died, people helped us out with all our needs,” he said. The

DeSimone children were all attending Balboa when that happened.