Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN
D. PHINNEY
Mayor Pro-Tem
(1962)
The
only non-group-endorsed candidate elected to Rosemead’s City Council in 1960,
John D. Phinney, a representative on the park advisory board, came to that city
in 1946, adding five more community-minded individuals, the persons of his wife
and four children, to the city’s population.
Employed
as a general foreman by Howe Brothers Plumbing Company in Los Angeles, Mr. Phinney also operates Joplyn Enterprises
which deals in the management of Mr. Phinney’s own apartments for income.
Born on February 11, 1921, in his father’s
hometown, Chelsea, Oklahoma, John D. Phinney is the son of John J. and Lily Mae
(Craven) Phinney. His mother is also a
native of Oklahoma, and his father, a trucking contractor, still lives in
Chelsea. After graduating from Chelsea
High School in 1939 and attending Eastern Oklahoma agriculture and Mechanical
College for a year and one half, John Phinney came to Hawthorne, California, in
1941. Between 1942 and 1946 he was a
trucking contractor, taking time out from 1944 to 1945 to serve in the United
States Army.
Once
the Phinney’s had come to Rosemead they entered wholeheartedly into the life of
the town. They are members of the
Community Methodist Church where John Phinney is a steward, vice president of
Methodist Men, and teacher of the high school students’ Sunday school
class. He has managed and coached in the
local summer baseball program operated through the Rosemead Youth
Association. He has done a great deal of
work with Boys Scouts, serving as counselor and committeeman of Troop No. 591
and secretary of Cub Pack No. 594. He
lists hiking as one of his hobbies and was a leader for Troop No. 591 on the
Silver Moccasin Trail in April, 1957, when more than one hundred Scouts and two
score leaders were forced to bivouac near Mount Baden-Powell’s Peak some 9,000
feet up, becoming national as well as local news, after fog, snow, and winds of
fifty miles per hour made completion of the 60-mile hike, as planned, an
impossibility. With him were three other
leaders and thirteen boys including his son, Star Scout, Walter Phinney. He is
currently on the board of the Rosemead Optimist Club and belongs to American
Legion Post No. 425. He is the chairman
of the Rainbow Advisory Board was well as being a member of the Order of
Eastern Star and past patron (’60) of its Chapter 567. A member of Rosemead Masonic Lodge No. 702,
Mr. Phinney is a member of the York Rite Masonic bodies in Alhambra, having
served as high priest of the San Gabriel Valley Royal Arch Chapter No. 100 in
1959.
In
Pond Creek, Oklahoma, on March 23, 1940, John Phinney was married to the former
Lynna McMillen who was born
in Ada, Oklahoma. A former real estate
saleswoman, Mrs. Phinney is a member of the Rosemead Women’s Club, the
Parent-Teachers’ Association of Muscatel School, and the American Legion
Auxiliary. She is a treasurer of the
Rosemead Democratic Club and active in church work. Also a member of the Rosemead Chapter of
Eastern Star, Mrs. Phinney is presently the Mother Advisor of Rosemead Rainbow
Assembly No. 126. The Phinney’s four
children have all attended Rosemead schools.
John Wesley is a graduate of Rosemead High School where he was
outstanding in drama. He is presently
attending Pasadena City College. Walter
Thomas, who is pitcher-outfielder for the Rosemead
Varsity Baseball Team, attends Rosemead High School as does his sister, Cathy
Mae, a member of Rainbow Assembly Number 126.
Rue Lynn, attending Muscatel School, is also a member of Rainbow
Assembly and, together with her sister and three friends, entertains under the
name Deltaettes, performing variety acts for local
organizations.
Besides
enjoying hiking and youth work, John Phinney makes a hobby of photography.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Historical Volume &
Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel &
Temple City, by Robert P. Studer, Pages 368-370,
Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California.
1962.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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