Los Angeles
County
Biographies
GUDRUN OTTEM OTTUM
Rising
to meet the greatest challenge of her life in 1950 on the death of her husband,
Gudrun Ottem Ottum assumed the responsibilities of the Ottum Realty Company at
276 West Fairview in San Gabriel Village, and has found the twelve years she
has been realtor there very rewarding in every aspect, especially in the
friends gained through this personal business association. Now known as San Gabriel Village, a beautiful
community of about eight hundred homes with a complete shopping center, the
subdivision in the heart of old San Gabriel was originally known as Mission
Manor, developed by Clarence Ottum and N. A. Ries for
the Capital Company of the Bank of America, the first lots being sold in
1939. Mr. and Mrs. Ottum moved into their
home in the Village, the second house built on Manley Drive, early in 1941, and
saw the development grow from an airport and hangar into the present friendly
community.
One
of the nine children of industrious Norwegian parents who settled in North
Dakota well before the turn of the century, Gudrun Ottum was born in Osnabruck,
North Dakota, on June 11, 1897. Her
father, Ingebrigt I. Ottem, was born in Sundalen, Norway, in 1860, came to the
New World at the age of twenty, to Minnesota, and a few years later homesteaded
on a quarter section of land near Osnabruck, which remains the family
home. He improved the original homestead
until at the time of his death in 1926 he was considered one of the most
progressive farmers of the community, having built his holdings to well over a
thousand acres. In 1899 he, with two
others, organized the Cavalier County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company,
still in existence today, and served as its secretary from its inception until
his death. He was also active in school
affairs. He developed a Luther Burbank
strain of quality wheat, starting with a few pounds in 1921 and harvesting ten
thousand bushels in 1926. Gudrun Ottum’s
mother, Kari (Musgjerd) Ottem,
was also born in Sundalen in 1868. She
came to America in 1890, was married three years later, and passed away in
Lancaster, California, in 1961 at the age of ninety-two. In all of her busy lifetime Kari Ottem was
never too busy to lend a helping hand to those in need.
Gudrun
Ottum attended elementary and parochial school in Osnabruck and graduated as
valedictorian of her class from Milton High School in North Dakota, going on to
the State Teachers’ College in Valley City where she graduated with an
elementary teaching credential. She
taught for four years in North Dakota and then taught seventh grade in Groton,
South Dakota, for eight years. She was
married to Clarence J. Ottum at Moorhead, Minnesota, on August 12, 1925; they
came to California in 1933. Mrs. Ottum
did not continue her teaching career in California, but took an evening business
course at Los Angeles High School and obtained a position with Service
Engraving Company in Los Angeles as typist, clerk, bookkeeper, and later became
office manager, retiring in 1941 to assume the role of homemaker until she took
over Mr. Ottum’s realty in 1950, having obtained her realtors license in 1949.
Mrs.
Ottum has been a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church and became a charter
member of Trinity Lutheran Church in San Gabriel in 1946, serving as Sunday
school teacher and treasurer of the Women’s Organization for several
years. Her father was an organizer and
charter member of Dovre Lutheran Church in North
Dakota. In 1952 Mrs. Ottum received a
life membership in the Women’s Missionary Federation of the American Lutheran
Church. Mrs. Ottum has been a member of
the Order of Eastern Star, Diana Chapter in Groton, South Dakota, since
1923. She has been active in Red Cross
and the Community Chest, is a past member of the San Gabriel Chamber of
Commerce, has been a member of the Alhambra Board of
Realtors since 1951, and a member of the Business and Professional Women’s Club
of Alhambra since 1953. A member of the
San Gabriel Village Improvement Association since its organization, Mrs. Ottum
served as the association’s secretary in 1961.
Her
husband, Clarence Ottum, was born in La Cross, Wisconsin, on December 15, 1897,
but grew up in Pierpont and Groton, South Dakota. He served in the United States Army 882nd
Aero Repair Squadron in World War I, and prior to coming to California in 1933
for his health, was employed by the International Harvester Company in
Aberdeen, South Dakota, in the credit and collection department. He was a Master Mason of Groton Lodge No. 65
and a Royal Arch Mason of Groton Chapter No. 39 in Groton. He served as the second commander of Groton
Post Number 39 of the American Legion.
In California he was in the real estate business, first in South Gate,
and from 1939 to 1950 in San Gabriel Valley.
Mr.
and Mrs. Ottum raised her nephew, Ingebrigt Ira Ottem, born in Osnabruck on
March 12, 1936, the son of her youngest brother, Arnold, and Anne (Presbo) Ottem. Ingebrigt’s mother
passed away in 1938; the boy stayed with his father and paternal grandmother
until coming to live with the Ottum’s in 1941.
They were delighted to have him, and Mrs. Ottum saw him through grade
school, high school, college, and two years of service in the United States
Army. He is now employed in the
accounting department of the Santa Fe Drilling Company. Through their nephew, the Ottum’s became
active in scouting, the Parent-Teachers’ Association, in which Mrs. Ottum was
active on the elementary, high school and council levels between 1941 and 1954,
mostly as financial secretary, treasurer, and auditor. She served as president of the De Molay
Mothers’ Circle in 1955 when Ingebrigt was elected master councilor of San
Gabriel Order of De Molay. He is now a
member of San Gabriel Lodge No. 546, F. & A. M.
Never
at a loss to fill her time, Mrs. Ottum is fond of reading and gardening,
keeping scrapbooks, plays bridge, and takes colored slides of all her vacation
trips.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 640-643, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN
NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES