Los
Angeles County
Biographies
ALMA DOROTHY
PRIESTER
A native daughter of southern
California who has made a name and place for herself in the archives of the
state by her activities in musical, social, club, political and civic circles
is Alma Dorothy Priester, a native of Hollywood and the daughter of William and
Mary Elizabeth (Garber) Priester. She
received both a collegiate education and business training. She is one of the foremost clubwomen in the
Los Angeles area and has held high offices in a number of the organizations to
which she belongs. She served as
president of the Matinee Musical Club, one of the oldest musical organizations
here, and for several years was a member of its advisory board. Hers is the distinction of having been the
youngest president of one of the largest women’s organizations in the state of
California. For a number of years she
devoted much of her time to musical organization work, civic campaigns and similar
activities, being a tireless worker, and has the distinction of being one of
the few woman managers of an orchestra.
The Gamut Club, of which L. E. Behymer, known as “the father of music in
Los Angeles,” was the president, presented her with a loving cup, on which is
inscribed: “Presented to Miss Alma Dorothy Priester, president of
the Matinee Musical Club, by officers and members of the Gamut Club in
admiration for her achievements in the cultural southwest.”
Miss Priester was formerly active in
the California Federation of Music Clubs as a member of its state board and was
also an active member of the Women’s Athletic Club, the Women’s City Club of
Los Angeles, the Hollywood City Club, the Big Sisters League and the woman’s
committee of the Hollywood Bowl Association.
She was vice president of the Los Angeles Oratorio Society and the
Woman’s Breakfast Club and served for years as treasurer of the Los Angeles
Music School Settlement Association. She
is an honorary member of Gleason’s Parliamentary Club and also a member of the
Los Angeles Opera and Fine Arts Club, the Opera Reading Club of Hollywood, the
Republican Study Club, Pleiades Study Club, Euterpe
reading club, the Friday Morning Club, California Parlor, No. 247, Native
Daughters of the Golden West, Women of the Golden State and the National
Geographic Society. Miss Priester was a
Founder member of the La Fiesta Association in 1931 and was chosen State of
California chairman of the Native Daughters of the Golden West for the ten
days’ activities of 1931. She was also
Goddess Minerva for the float “California, the Golden State,” which represented
this state in the Fiesta and which was later chosen to lead the moving picture
electrical parade during these activities.
During the Tenth Olympic Games she received the greatest honor by being
chosen Miss California, taking the leading role at Hollywood Bowl in
“California Welcomes the World,” where, as Miss California, Miss Priester
received the fifty-eight nations. She
was chosen one of eleven women of southern California to serve on the executive
board of hostesses of the Tenth Olympic Games in 1932, under whose supervision
there was a hostess for each state, organizing her own board and committees,
and she was also a member of the International Committee of Hostesses. For a period of twelve years she was an
executive officer in a number of the leading women’s organizations of southern
California, helping to build them for the future. Miss Priester is a born organizer, a hard
worker and a good financier and is accorded the warm friendship and high regard
of all who know her. An expert
horsewoman, she derives much pleasure from riding and also enjoys cruising in
her yacht. She has spent much time in
tracing the family genealogy and through her persistent efforts has discovered
the Priester coat of arms, which was lost, so far as she has discovered, for
two hundred years.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South Vol.
IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 747-749,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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BIOGRAPHIES