Los Angeles County
Biographies
MILDA
LaBERGE
In
the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nothing great was ever achieved without
enthusiasm.” Milda LaBerge does have
enthusiasm, about a number of things:
her community – South San Gabriel; her work – real estate loan broker;
her avocation – social work. Mrs.
LaBerge has achieved more in these fields than is ordinarily expected of a
citizen, especially if the citizen be a woman.
A
native daughter, Milda LaBerge was born in Hawthorne, one of the five children
of Ernest and Elizabeth (Mueller) Poth. Her father, born in Germany, came to the
United States from Landstuhl, Bavaria, in 1905. Her mother was a nurse, the daughter of a
woman doctor, Mrs. LaBerge’s maternal grandmother, and their interest in
humanity was in turn passed on Mrs. LaBerge who, after attending elementary
school in Hawthorne and graduating from Lone Pine Union High School in Lone
Pine, California, continued her education at Los Angeles State College with a
major in sociology and a minor in psychology, receiving her Bachelor of Arts
degree. She also attended the University
of Southern California.
During
World War II, from 1942 to 1946, Mrs. LaBerge worked for the Army Finance
Office. It was this experience, together
with her husband’s encouragement, which brought Mrs. LaBerge into her present
business. She opened an office as a real
estate broker at 3006 North Del Mar Avenue in 1945; ten years later she bought
property at 3128 North Del Mar Avenue, her present business address, where she
had her own building constructed, which also houses the South San Gabriel
branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.
Though still active in real estate sales, as owner and founder of the
Columbia Investment Company at the same address, Mrs. LaBerge’s principal
interest in the transaction of construction and real estate mortgage loans and
the refinancing and negotiating of first and second trust deeds. She is a pioneer in the field of real estate
brokerage as a career for women, having taken some of the first courses in real
estate offered at USC, and having been one of the first women to be a member of
the Alhambra District Realty Board as a broker.
Mrs. LaBerge is a member, was first vice president for a number of years,
and has been a director since 1944 of the South San Gabriel Chamber of
Commerce. She is also affiliated with
the Independent Mortgage Bankers’ Association, a statewide organization.
Since
coming to South San Gabriel with her husband in 1943, Mrs. LaBerge has devoted
much time to the community. In 1951 when
Wilmar, Garvey, and Potrero
Heights were united under the name of South San Gabriel, Mrs. LaBerge served
for three years as chairman of the citizens’ committee which initiated the
consolidation. She had the distinction
of being named Honorary Mayor of South San Gabriel in 1958-1959.
Mrs.
LaBerge’s interest in social welfare has served her community well. She has been welfare director for the
Salvation Army in South San Gabriel since 1959; she has been personnel chairman
for the past four years and a member of the board of management for six years
of La Casa de San Gabriel, the settlement house for underprivileged
Mexican-American children, sponsored by the Presbyterian churches; she has been
on the County Probation Committee for eight years, three of them as
chairman. She was a director of the Los
Angeles County Mothers’ March in the March of Dimes Campaign for seven years
and its local chairman for three years.
She has done Girl Scout work and is a charter member of the South San
Gabriel Red Cross.
Mrs.
LaBerge’s other affiliations include a fourteen-year membership in the Order of
the Eastern Star, San Marino Chapter Number 554; charter membership in San
Gabriel Valley Parlor 281 of Native Daughters of the Golden West of which she
was president in 1949-1950, has held several state chairmanships and has been a
state officer for four years; membership in the South San Gabriel Business and
Professional Women’s Club of which she was charter president, serving as
president from 1956 to 1958. Her
religious affiliation is with the Trinity Lutheran Church in San Marino. For ten years she has served as a member of
the Republican State Central Committee.
The
former Milda Poth was
married in Hawthorne on February 14, 1930, to Joseph V. LaBerge, a native son,
who has been a member of the Ocean Park Lodge Number 369, F. & AM for
almost fifty years and who belongs to the Scottish Rite Consistory in
Pasadena. He is also a charter member of
the South San Gabriel Optimists Club and a member of the Richard Garvey Post
American Legion in South San Gabriel.
Mrs.
LaBerge’s hobbies include knitting, golf, and music.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 363-365,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES