La Cañada History: LCHS grad wins Wipeout Bowl ‘Cheerleaders vs. the Couch Potatoes’ and $50,000
Ten Years Ago
La Cañada High School grad and Glendale Community College student Monica Kaufmann won the Wipeout Bowl challenge of the Cheerleaders vs. the Couch Potatoes and claimed the $50,000 grand prize. The competition was shown as an ABC TV special at the same time as the final hour of the 2009 Super Bowl, which aired on another channel. Kaufmann, then 20, defeated 23 other competitors. She began her cheerleading career at the age of 8, learning as a member of the La Cañada Gladiators cheerleading squad.
Twenty Years Ago
In tragic news, La Cañada Flintridge resident Chung Hong, 52, was fatally wounded and her 21-year-old son Eddie was injured during an armed robbery at the grocery store the local family operated in South Central Los Angeles. Hong was a beloved grocer whom customers called “Mama,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Thirty Years Ago
The Foothill Auxiliary of the Children’s Home Society announced preparations were underway for its 1988 annual benefit luncheon and Chinese auction, which would be emceed by radio personality and La Cañada resident Roger Barkley.
Forty Years Ago
A special committee advised the school board to keep and lease out rather than sell the La Cañada Unified School District’s Oak Grove and Palm Crest elementary school campuses, which were slated to be closed due to declining enrollment.
Fifty Years Ago
Ivers Department Store opened its doors in the Plaza de La Cañada — in the building that now houses a T.J. Maxx — on Feb. 3, 1969. A benefit opening gala was held on the Saturday evening prior to the ribbon-cutting event to raise funds for the La Cañada Scholarship League.
Sixty Years Ago
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in early 1959 called for a study on the best way to sell Descanso Gardens because its admissions were not sustaining the venue. Supervisor Burton Chase declared the $1 million or more such a sale would bring in was needed to supplement the county’s budget. Descanso had been originally purchased by the county from former newspaper publisher Manchester Boddy for $1.16 million in 1953.
Compiled from the Valley Sun archives by Carol Cormaci.
