Los
Angeles County
Biographies
ELIZABETH IRENE
PHILLIPS KUHLBURGER
Elizabeth Irene Phillips
Kuhlburger, a highly cultured native daughter of Los Angeles, was born in the
old family home which was first built in the Wolfskill Orchard Tract and is
still standing. Her parents, William and
Elizabeth (Bayne) Phillips, were natives of Edinburgh, Scotland where they
lived as neighbors on Comely Bank with Thomas Carlyle and Robert Louis
Stevenson. The father was a merchant in
the employ of a British house in China and America and the mother was principal
of St. Stephen’s School in Edinburgh.
They encircled the whole world to meet again in Los Angeles, where they
were married in 1892. Their family
numbered four children: William, Jean,
Ruby, and Elizabeth Irene. William Phillips,
the father, figured actively in local society circles as a member of the
Celtic, Caledonian and Jonathan Clubs.
His death occurred in August 1916.
Elizabeth Irene Phillips was
graduated with high scholastic honors from the Los Angeles High School in June
1918, and entered the University of Southern California, from which she
received the A.B. degree in sociology and English in 1921 and the B.L. degree
in speech arts in 1922. She also spent
three years in graduate study, attending classes at the University of
California and at the University of Southern California. She visited classes in teaching methods at
Northwestern University, Emerson School of Expression, Massachusetts Institute,
and Harvard University during the Summer Session of 1922 and 1928. At her graduation she received the University
letter for campus activities; she was president of the Student Body of the
School of Speech of the University of Southern California
in 1922, a member of the University Executive Board, a member of the Athena
Literary Society, Omega Sigma, and president of Eta Chapter of Zeta Phi Eta,
the National Speech Sorority.
On the 12th of September,
1925, Miss Phillips became the wife of Peter Bonna Kuhlburger, now head of the
mathematics department of the George Washington high school in Los
Angeles. They are the parents of two
sons, Peter Robert and Albert Carl, six and five years of age, respectively.
In community activities Mrs.
Kuhlburger has taken a most helpful and prominent part. She was instructor of public speaking at the
Polytechnic Day high school of Los Angeles from 1923 until 1928 when she
received her Life Diploma from the State of California, and during the same
five-year period acted as advisor of the Filipino, Cosmopolitan, Negro,
Japanese and Girls’ Forum Clubs of that institution. In 1927 she was founder of the Ethel B. Magee
Silver Cup Contest in Public Speaking.
She has been play director and story teller at the Southwest Museum,
Normal Hill Center, St. Paul’s Settlement House, Santa Rita Settlement House
and the Church of All Nations. In 1923
she was chosen national secretary of Zeta Phi Eta and in the following year
served as president of the Alumni Association of Zeta Phi Eta. She filled the position of secretary of the
Speech Arts Association of Southern California in 1926, and as sorority
delegate attended the National Speech Convention of Zeta Phi Eta in Iowa, in
1922 where she was presented with the Cameo ring for being the most active
member. She was also selected as the
delegate to the Los Angeles Convention in 1926 and to the Dallas, Texas,
Convention in 1927. She is a member of
the Women’s University Club and is now president of the School of Speech Alumni
Association of the University of Southern California, for the year 1935-1936.
Many lectures in the field of
English and American literature have been presented by Mrs. Kuhlburger in the
Department of Adult Education in Polytechnic Evening high school where she has
been engaged since 1930. She has also
appeared before many clubs in literary interpretations of the Scotch vernacular
from the studies of Alexander Bell, Robert Burns, and Ian MacLaren. She believes that no program of America verse
is complete without the words of John Steven McGroarty which ever ring in the
ears of every native son and daughter of the Golden West:
“”Tis neither East nor
West-
But like a flag unfurled,
Just California stretching down
The middle of the world.”¹
¹Just California – John Steven McGroarty
Transcribed by Mary
Ellen Frazier.
Source:
California of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty,
Pages 771-773, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2013 Mary Ellen Frazier.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES