Verdugo Views:

Zelma Bogue holds a special place in Glendale’s history as the first female mayor.

She was elected to the City Council in 1953. Although she had an impressive number of votes, she did not serve as mayor during her first term. But when she was reelected in 1957, she received the highest votes of all the candidates and was immediately named mayor by her fellow council members.

An Indiana native and daughter of a building contractor, she and her husband, J. Livingston Bogue, came to California in the 1920s for a visit and decided to stay. She followed in her father’s footsteps and began designing, building and selling houses in Glendale and elsewhere in the Southland, while raising two daughters, Neva and Olivetta.

Bogue became very active in the community. She was a charter member of the Women’s Civic League, public relations chairwoman of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, on the advisory board for the Glendale Salvation Army Corps, chairwoman of special events for the March of Dimes, member of the 43rd Republican Assembly, member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club and more.

During World War II, she recruited for the WAVES and her wartime services earned her an Award of Merit from the American Red Cross. She directed a fund drive for a camp for Camp Fire Girls and served on the 1952 County Grand Jury.

Retired Glendale News-Press photographer Louie Deisbeck recalled Bogue vividly.

“I went to all the society functions over the years,” he said. “She was always there. She was very active in social organizations. In fact, the society women of Glendale voted her in.”

Once elected, Bogue turned her enthusiasm to matters she felt were important, such as protection of residential zones, better street lighting and off-street parking, safer traffic conditions, improvement of police protection and better playgrounds.

She was “a people’s person,” the News-Press women’s editor, Betty Preston, wrote on Nov. 16, 1967.

When there were complaints from citizens, she went directly to the grass roots. During a protest over noise from a race track at Colorado Street near the Golden State (5) Freeway, she went out and rang doorbells to talk to the people concerned.

Technically speaking, Bogue wasn’t the first woman to serve on the city’s ruling body. In 1920, Ann P. Bartlett was elected to what was then called the Board of Trustees. But Bogue was the first to serve as mayor.

“She was famous for wearing hats,” said David Grayson, whose father, Lauren Grayson, worked for the city.

Bogue told Preston that women didn’t have to sacrifice their femininity in politics, so she paid particular attention to her appearance.

The broad-brimmed hats, often embellished with feathers, flowers or ribbons, earned her an award in 1961 from the Millinery Institute of America in recognition of her consistent and tasteful selection of millinery.

At the end of each season, she donated her hats to various women’s groups and they were auctioned off for charity.

“She was a sweet lady,” Deisbeck said. “Everyone treated her like a lady. No one ever got mad at Zelma Bogue.”

Ginger Bremberg, the second woman to serve as the city’s mayor, told the News-Press on Feb. 16, 1989, that Bogue didn’t allow her male colleagues to ignore her because she was a woman.

“The Verdugo Club used to be all men, and she resented the fact that her four colleagues would go to lunch or dinner at the club and talk about their decisions ahead of time,” she said. “So she would air this publicly. Incidents like this were one of the reasons the Brown Act went in effect.”

Bogue served on the council for 12 years. When she retired, she was given a tiny gray poodle, who became her close companion.