Los Angeles
County
Biographies
HARRIETTE M. KELDERHOUSE
Harriette
M. Kelderhouse describes her establishment, in 1937, of a women’s apparel shop,
as an act based not on courage but on necessity. However, for a woman with fifteen years’
experience in secretarial work and absolutely no previous experience in the
field of merchandising, it did take courage to face an uncertain future, one
which did, though, become increasingly rosy.
In twenty-five years Mrs. Kelderhouse has expanded her Murtha’s Apparel
Shop three times and has opened another store with the same name in Jacksboro,
Texas.
Starting
on a small scale in 1937, Mrs. Kelderhouse moved one block away from her
original shop to her present location at 8936 E. Valley Boulevard in Rosemead
in 1940, the same year that building was completed. Murtha’s is the oldest shop of its type in
Rosemead and handles a smart and varied line of dresses, sweaters, and skirts
in junior, misses’ and half sizes, also doing a large volume of business in
lingerie and robes. As a result of
extensive study, Mrs. Kelderhouse holds three diplomas in corsetiering. She does all of the buying for her Rosemead
store herself. Murtha’s stages a number
of fashion shows each year for groups like the Junior and Senior Women’s Clubs
in Rosemead, and has, for the third consecutive year, held a February fashion
show for the feminine half of the Rosemead High School student body, in
conjunction with the posture class and the coronation of a posture queen.
Ten
years ago, while visiting friends in Texas, Mrs. Kelderhouse chanced on a dress
shop for sale in Jacksboro, about forty miles from Fort Worth, which she
purchased, closing the entire transaction between her arrival on a Saturday and
her return to Los Angeles the following Wednesday. Mrs. Kelderhouse commutes between California
and Texas by plane; the Texas operation runs smoothly now that she goes only
about twice a year, handling most of the business details by mail. She employs a combined staff of seven people.
Born
in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 2, 1899, Mrs. Kelderhouse is the daughter of
P. A. and Sarah Alice (Martin) Knight, both of Iowa. She attended elementary and high school in
Des Moines and attended college for two years, at Drake University and Washington
University in Washington, D. C., receiving secretarial training.
Mrs.
Kelderhouse spent a total of fifteen years in civil service secretarial work in
Washington D. C. for the United States government and in Oregon for the state attorney. In 1927 she came to California, living in the
Hollywood and Pasadena areas before coming to Rosemead in 1937.
Mrs.
Kelderhouse is a member of the Rosemead Chamber of Commerce and belongs to the
Rosemead chapter of the Order of Eastern Star.
She is also a former member of the Rosemead Women’s Club and in 1936 was
president of the McKinley School Parent-Teachers’ Association in San Gabriel.
A
widow, Mrs. Kelderhouse raised her only daughter, Alyce
Elizabeth, who is now Mrs. Henry Curtis Eastwood, the wife of the principal of
Marengo School in South Pasadena. Mrs.
Eastwood attended Alhambra High School for three years, graduated from El Monte
High School, and attended Pasadena City College for two years. Now the mother of two children, Henry Curtis
Eastwood, Jr., who attends Arcadia High School, and Clete
Cromer Eastwood, Mrs. Eastwood is taking additional courses at Pasadena City
College and will complete the requirements for a teaching credential at the
University of Southern California, her husband’s alma mater. The Eastwood’s live in Arcadia.
Though
her business requires the investment of long hours at work, Mrs. Kelderhouse
finds time for reading and gardening.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 645-646, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES