From the ghetto to Glendale

Tim Willert

SOUTHEAST GLENDALE -- Wanda Vaughan’s childhood was vastly different

from that of her five kids, who grew up in Glendale.

Vaughn, 50, was raised in Chicago during the height of the civil

rights movement and was secretary of the black movement at her high

school.

“I have to tell them how I grew up, marching and trying to keep the

pastor from getting beat up,” Vaughn recalled Tuesday. “They haven’t

experienced discrimination in Glendale, which is wonderful.”

Vaughn lives with her husband, Wayne, and three of the couple’s five

children in the Mission Road home the couple bought 22 years ago.

Their two oldest kids attend college outside of Glendale. A third goes

to Glendale Community College. The two youngest attend Glendale High and

Cerritos Elementary.

“They didn’t grow up around black people,” Vaughn said Tuesday. “They

didn’t grow up in Chicago in the ghetto like I did.”

Instead, the children have been exposed to a mixture of nationalities

in Glendale and have thrived, their mother said.

“When my daughters were coming up at Cerritos, their friends were

Asian and Filipino,” Vaughn said. “Now the kids’ friends are Armenian. I

think it’s been an advantage for them.”

The Vaughn children regularly quiz their mother about their roots, and

participate annually in events marking Black History Month, which runs

through Feb. 28.

Witny Vaughn, a 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High, is a member of

the school’s Black Students Assn., which is planning a Feb. 25 assembly

to pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King and to the contributions of

other African Americans.

Wanda and Wayne Vaughn met in 1977, when Wanda and sisters Sheila and

Pamela -- better known as The Emotions -- were touring with Earth, Wind &

Fire and The Commodores.

The Emotions, a best-selling R&B; vocal group, won a Grammy Award in

1977 for “Best of my Love,” and still tour today, Vaughn said.

Back then, Wayne -- now a music publisher -- played keyboards for the

Brothers Johnson, a 1970s funk/R&B; group.

The couple later married, moved to Glendale and bought a home.

“At that time, I had never seen another black family here,” Wanda

Vaughn recalled.

Until she went to the polls to vote for the first time. There she met

Brenda and Willie Lomax, an African-American couple who have remained

longtime friends. The Lomax’s daughters used to baby-sit the Vaughns’

young children.

These days, the Vaughn’s neighbors are Latino, Armenian and Japanese.

“I do enjoy living in Glendale,” Vaughn said. “I like the exposure to

all the different cultures.”