Los Angeles
County
Biographies
MARGARET G. MEENAN
A
native daughter of Alhambra who has remained a resident of the Alhambra area
all her life, Margaret G. Meenan is the Secretary of the First Federal Savings
and Loan Association of Alhambra, and has completed her thirty-sixth year of
service with the Association.
Born
Margaret Grace Marty on September 8, 1907, Mrs. Meenan is one of the four
children of Peter and Marie (Lamothe) Marty, both now
deceased, who were natives of France and who settled in Alhambra in 1907. Mr. Marty was employed by the Standard Felt
Company in Alhambra for many years. He
had come to this country alone when he was eighteen years old, arriving at the
port of New Orleans and traveling by train to New Mexico to join his cousin,
Frank Pru, who was engaged in the sheep
business. Mrs. Meenan’s only claim to
fame, she says, is that Mr. Pru’s step-daughter,
Edwina Ashley, later became Lady
Mountbatten, wife of Lord Mountbatten, who raised Prince Phillip, husband of
Queen Elizabeth of England. Lady
Mountbatten died in 1960. Mrs. Meenan’s
sister, Theresa M. Kuentz, lives in Los Angeles and
is the mother of three children. One of
her daughters is a nun; the other two children reside at home. Mrs. Meenan’s brother, Frank A. Marty, lives
in Los Angeles; and John died in 1937.
Mrs.
Meenan literally grew up with the community of Alhambra, seeing it develop from
a small town to its present metropolitan stature. In 1907 the Marty family erected a large,
green two-story home on property at Eighth Street and Valley Blvd., which was
an Alhambra landmark until 1943, when it was moved to Bartlett Street in San
Gabriel, where it still stands. In the
early days of Valley Boulevard it was a two-lane highway boarded by large
pepper trees and was called Ocean to Ocean Highway, and Eighth Street was DeBarth Avenue.
Graduating
from Ramona Grammar School in seven and one half years, Mrs. Meenan was a
member of the first class of mid-year students at Alhambra High School. She has lived to see the program of mid-year
graduation abandoned in recent years.
She graduated from Alhambra High School in the winter class of 1925 and
cherishes a twenty dollar gold piece received from the high school PTA for
having the highest grades in her class.
She has continued her education by taking courses offered by the Los
Angeles Chapter of the American Savings and Loan Institute, and holds a
graduate diploma of the Institute.
Mrs.
Meenan first became employed at Alhambra Building and Loan Association on May
4, 1925, as a stenographer. She obtained
her position through having served as secretary to the head of the commercial
department, Mrs. Jeanette M. Mason, while attending Alhambra High School
business classes. Mrs. Mason continued
her interest in her pupil’s new job – encouraging, inspiring, and advising her
until the former’s death in 1958, when Mrs. Meenan was made one of the
executors of the Mason estate. In 1925
the Alhambra Building and Loan Association had only four employees and now, as
First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Alhambra, it has grown to be the
largest savings association in the San Gabriel Valley, with total resources of
over one hundred million dollars, two branch offices and a total of sixty
employees. Mrs. Meenan was elected
assistant treasurer on January 19, 1944, then promoted to assistant secretary
on January 18, 1950, and was elected to her present position of secretary of
the association on October 12, 1955.
Now
on the board of directors of the San Gabriel Valley Philharmonic Artists’
Association, Mrs. Meenan is also vice president of Xi Epsilon Chapter, Beta
Sigma Phi, a non-academic sorority, and a member and past president of the
Soroptimist Club of Alhambra. She has
also served on the board of directors of both the Alhambra Mental Health
Association and of the Alhambra Family Guidance Center; and for five years were
treasurer and a member of the board of governors of the Los Angeles Chapter of
the American Savings and Loan Institute.
She is a member of the San Gabriel Mission parish.
Her
hobbies are china painting and weekly contract bridge. Her favorite sport is golf, which she plays
regularly, scoring in the 90s.
Mrs.
Meenan has a remarkable memory and a faculty for doing things, not just well,
but just exactly right.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 746-748, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES