Los Angeles County
Biographies
EVA
LUCILLE JOHNSON
Twenty-eight
years of successful service for the Alhambra office of the Pacific Telephone
Company, and as many years of civic activity in the community, is the record of
Mrs. Eva Lucille Johnson. During this
period she has worked her way up from operator to supervisor, to instructor,
and in 1942, Mrs. Johnson was promoted to the position of interviewer for
prospective employees of the Pacific Telephone Company in the San Gabriel
Valley. In addition, she speaks before
local groups and clubs, which is in accord with her avocation of counseling and
guiding young people. Mrs. Johnson
became a member of the Telephone Pioneers after twenty-one years of service
with the Pacific Telephone Company. She
has the distinction of being the first and only woman of the Pacific Telephone
Company to become a member of the Alhambra Soroptimist Club. She has been a member of this organization
since 1955, and served as president for the year 1958-59. In 1948 she joined the Business and
Professional Women’s Club of Alhambra, and was president of this body during
1953-54 and 1954-55. After completing
her two years as president of the Alhambra Business and Professional Women’s
Club, she served as Mountain Section Chairman, as Sierra Mar District Legislation
Chairman and as Sierra Mar District Program Coordinator. She has also served on the California State
Business and Professional Women’s election board.
Mrs.
Johnson is currently on the District Board of Directors of the Young Men’s
Christian Association (YMCA), as well as serving on the YMCA Personnel
Committee. She is also on the District
Board of Directors of the American National Red Cross, Alhambra Chapter, and is
chairman of the Personnel Committee of this organization. From 1938 to 1946, Mrs. Johnson was Guardian
Treasurer of Bethel No. 27, Job’s Daughters of Alhambra. Mrs. Johnson is a member of Alhambra Chapter
No. 193, Order of the Eastern Star, and the San Gabriel Valley White Shrine.
Mrs.
Eva Lucille Johnson was born in Los Angeles, California, on June 1, 1905. She is one of three daughters of William W.
and Medora E. (Evens) Hicks. Her father
was one of the most renowned and famous excavation contractors in Los Angeles. Some of the buildings for which he did the
excavations are still standing and in use in Los Angeles. One is the beautiful First Church of Christ,
Scientist, which is still a landmark. In
those days, horses were used for transportation and construction work. During World War I, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks moved to
a farm in the San Joaquin Valley where they raised food for the war
effort. Still actively engaged in
farming in Visalia, California, Mr. and Mrs. Hicks celebrated their 60th
wedding anniversary in 1961.
Mrs.
William H. Hicks, Mrs. Johnson’s mother, was the first president of the
Mother’s Club of Los Angeles, which was the forerunner of the Women’s
Club. She was also the first president
of the Parent-Teachers Association of the Union Avenue Elementary School in Los
Angeles.
Eva
L. Johnson attended Union Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles and Visalia
High School in Visalia. Following her
graduation from high school in 1923, she went to work for the Pacific Telephone
& Telegraph Company in Alhambra as a telephone operator.
Her
husband, Ray E. Johnson, is a member of Tri-Luminar
Lodge No. 18, A. F. & A. M., Oskaloosa, Iowa, and of the San Gabriel Valley
White Shrine. He is a charter member and
founder-president of the San Gabriel Valley Lapidary Society. Mrs. and Mrs. Johnson are members of the
Unity Church of Alhambra. They have two
daughters, Medora Elizabeth Johnson and Patricia Anna Johnson, who is now Mrs.
John Ludeman.
Mrs. Ludeman attended Alhambra High School and
Whittier College. Mr. Ludeman is an instructor at the University of
Michigan. Mrs. and Mrs. Ludeman reside in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with their five
children: William, James, John, Anna
Marie, and Robert.
Mr.
and Mrs. Johnson enjoy travelling, having made several trips to Mexico, as well
as travelling far and wide throughout the United States. Hawaii is a favorite vacation spot of the
Johnson’s. Using a
more progressive mode of transportation than was customary during the early
years of Mrs. Johnson’s father, the Johnson’s travel by airplane and by
automobile.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume & Reference
Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple
City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 467-469,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2013 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES