Remarkable Women of Long Beach — Part 2

Gerrie Schipske
Barbara BrittonClements Mosaic

This column continues my find of remarkable women in Long Beach.

Since the earliest days of the city, women have been involved in making their community a quality place in which to live and to work. They have organized, raised families, money and consciences. They have taught, worked, served, cared for and led. They have created music, art, theater and story. They have fought for the right to vote and placed their names on ballots. They have stepped up to serve their country and to risk their lives. They have competed in sports and in business. They are famous and unsung. Most importantly, they are the remarkable women of Long Beach.

 Environment:

Ann Cantrell: No other woman (or man) has fought harder to preserve and protect city parks and the environment, than Cantrell. She vigorously fought the destruction of the U.S. Naval Station which was designed by one of the first African American architects, Paul Williams.

Literature:

Jan Burke: If you are a mystery reader, then you know and appreciate Burke's award winning writing. Long Beach owes a lot of gratitude to her for her work as a student in the CSULB Women's Studies Department where she interviewed numerous women who had worked on the home front during WWII. These oral histories preserve an incredible history of remarkable women who served their country on the home front.

Harriett Williams: One of the most popular events each year for women is Literary Women – a Festival of Authors. Williams (a school board member from 1979-1992) and her friend Virginia Laddey, organized the event in 1982 and today it not only provides a full day of author talks, but funding for scholarships for aspiring women writers.

Art:

Grace Clements: If you stop by the Long Beach Municipal Airport original terminal, you will see the beautiful mosaics that this 28 year old artist designed in 1941 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) programs.

Terry Braunstein:  She is a multi-media contemporary artist. Her public art commissions can be seen on the Long Beach Transit, City Hall, Navy Memorial and the Long Beach Rosie the Riveter Park.

Music:

Eva Vale Anderson: An accomplished concert violinist who served as the conductor of the Long Beach Women's Symphony from 1925 to 1952. She was also known as an outstanding music educator.

Marilyn Horne: A highly acclaimed American mezzo-soprano opera singer, she was raised in Long Beach and began singing in a local church choir (St. Luke's) in the 1950s.

 

Theater:

Barbara Britton: Drive around the Los Altos area and you will see a street named for this actress who was born and raised in Long Beach during the late 1930s. Her movie career was so expansive during the 1940s that by 1949 she appeared on more national magazine covers than any other motion picture actress in the world.

Caryn Desai: In 2013, she became the first woman artistic director and producer at the International City Theater (now the Beverly O'Neill Theater). She has won many awards for her work in the theater from LADCC, Ovations, NAACP, LA Weekly, Robby and Drama-Logue.

See part three for more remarkable women of Long Beach.

 

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