Los
Angeles County
Biographies
MRS. LILLIAN BELLE SPANNAGEL
“If success could be measured by the
value of service and achievement,” said an earlier biographer, “then Mrs.
Lillian Belle Spannagel must be accorded high place among the most successful
residents of Long Beach, for her influence and her labors have been productive
of results that have benefited the nation and the state in many ways. Particularly during the period of the World
War were her efforts effective in meeting conditions occasioned by that
conflict, and the national government recognized her powers in appointment to
important offices. A keen intelligence
that has been manifest in close study of important community, state and national
problems, with logical deductions in their solution, has gained for Mrs.
Spannagel a place of leadership in this commonwealth.”
Mrs. Lillian Belle Spannagel was
born at Nokomis, Illinois, a daughter of John F. and Mary M. (Lipe) Kerr. Her
father was a descendant of Sir Robert Kerr, an earl of Scotland, and for five
hundred years the family has held royal rank in Roxburgh,
Scotland. The mother came of a
distinguished family of Illinois.
Lillian Belle Kerr was graduated in
1895, and on the 30th of June, 1897, became the wife of Albert Spannagel,
who was engaged in the hardware, furniture and undertaking business in her
native city. He was also vice president
of the American Foreign Trading Corporation.
He is well known in Masonic circles, in which he has attained high rank,
becoming a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and he also belongs to the Virginia
Country Club. The year 1906 witnesses
the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Spannagel in Long Beach, where they have since made
their home. They are the parents of two
daughters, Annetta Mildred and Mary Louise, but the latter passed on at the age
of three years. The elder daughter is a
professional violinist who has won an enviable reputation in musical circles,
and she has also ably cooperated with her mother in the latter’s life work.
Mrs. Spannagel, throughout the
period of her residence in Long Beach, has been closely associated with almost
every movement instituted for the benefit and improvement of the city and her
labors have been far-reaching and effective, so that she is an outstanding figure
among the women of this city.
Recognition of the value of her service has come to her in five official
appointments from the government. She
was made chairman of the Southern California Industrial Service Committee of
the National League for Women’s Service, in which connection she opened an
office in the Chamber of Commerce within three weeks after the United States
entered the World War. She was also made
chairman of the Industrial Service of the National Federation of College Women
and vice president of the Federation.
She was later appointed industrial representative for Home Service of
the Red Cross, industrial representative of the Allied War Veterans’ Brigade
and examiner in charge of the local United States employment bureau at Long
Beach. The results justified the purpose
for which the work was begun—that of service to the community and the country
at a time when readjustments were required to meet post-war conditions. Mrs. Spannagel not only maintained but
financed the bureau and from nine o’clock in the morning until four o’clock in
the afternoon, for thirty-two months, she daily received a never-ending line of
people looking for work. So efficient
was she in this connection that the amazing number of forty-nine thousand
persons was placed in various branches of classified industry during that
period, two-thirds of the number being men.
During the influenza epidemic she moved her desk to the sidewalk in
front of the Chamber of Commerce, remaining there three weeks. She received appointment from Washington as a
national delegate to the Northwestern and Pacific Coast Congress, which met at
San Francisco and Portland in the interest of the League of Nations, as a
representative of the American Women’s Press Association, but the urgency of
her official duties in Long Beach compelled her to decline the
appointment. As a director of the Bureau
for Women’s Service at Washington and the National Federation of College Women
she made an extended tour of the eastern states, promoting that work. She edited a book for the National Federation
of College Women on the theme of “College and Industry.” This book was in great demand and she was
asked time and again to lecture before student bodies in many states. In the different positions she filled she has
closely studied every phase of the work under her direction and the
administration of her offices has been most businesslike, direct and resultant.
In 1926 Mrs. Spannagel was a
candidate before the Republican Party for congressional nomination and received
the support of many leading delegates.
She announced her platform in favor of progressive movements in
connection with labor employment, harbor development, citrus growing, real
estate activities, foreign commerce and war service, showing that she had
observed and studied in comprehensive manner the many vital problems affecting
this region and the country at large.
She stood not only for those things which promote material development
but for those higher and broader activities which have their root in
humanitarianism, in Christian service and in the highest ideals of
citizenship. She is a charter member of
the Women’s Republican Study Club and belongs to the National Republican
Women’s Club, which is a unit of the National Council of Women. She has served as a member of the Los Angeles
Republican county central committee and for six years was a member of the
Republican state central committee and of the state executive committee.
Mrs. Spannagel is a life member of
the National Council of American Women and was appointed their delegate to the
“International Quin Quimal,”
held at Christiania, Norway, September 17, 1920. She was appointed delegate to the
“International Collegiate Association,” London, November, 1920, to represent
the National Federation of College Women.
She has twice served as president of the College Women’s Club of Long
Beach, is a past worthy matron of the Order of Eastern Star, and a past grand
officer of the State of California in this organization, and has many other
club affiliations. Mrs. Spannagel is a
member of the Congregational Church. She
has been a lifelong student of the great problems which affect the welfare of
the individual, the community and the nation, has graced every circle into
which she has entered, and her ability, her willingness to sacrifice her own
interests for the public welfare and her consistent adherence to the highest
ideals for social, educational and political standards have gained for her a
distinctive place among the leaders of thought and action not only in
California but in the nation.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. III, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
73-76, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES