Editor's note: Jean Benson, longtime Palm Desert City councilwoman and six-time mayor, sat down with The Desert Sun on October 2014 to talk about her career in the Navy, the early years of the city's incorporation and her time on the city's first council. Benson died Tuesday night at 95.
Palm Desert City Councilwoman Jean Benson, who is not seeking re-election in November, will step down from the dais in December after 32 years on the council, including six terms as the city's mayor.
On Sunday, she'll serve as the grand marshal of the 50th annual Palm Desert Golf Cart Parade.
But long before she dedicated her life to bettering her community and the lives of all its citizens — the fortunate and those in need — Benson served her country.
It's been more than 70 years since Benson, who was 20 at the time, joined the Navy's "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service," or WAVES.
By signing up for the Navy, she set her self up for some ribbing from her male relatives who were serving in the U.S. Army. Her brother was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet, and her uncle, Col. Frank McCoskrie was about to retire from the Army when he was asked to stay on to form the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, or WAAC's, later re-designated as the Women's Army Corps, or WAC's.
Why she joined the armed forces
Benson decided to join the Navy because she took issue with the Army's undergarments. She shared this secret with a council colleague — and it was soon no secret at all.
"I told Dick Kelley this once and he told everybody in town, I think, that I wouldn't join the WAC's because they had to wear khaki underwear," she said, laughing. "I said, 'But don't tell anybody.' Everybody said, 'Oh, I know why Jean didn't go in the Army like her family, because she wouldn't wear Khaki underwear.'"
Benson, who grew up in La Grande, Oregon and was working at Western Union at the time, went into the service with a high school friend, who waited for Benson to turn 20, the minimum age to enter the WAVES.
They boarded a troop train for a cross-country trip to Hunter College in New York, where the women attended boot camp.
"We got up about 6 — we had breakfast, then we had to go out and drill. We had work assignments all day long.
"Our first assignment was to clean the smoking rooms and being a non-smoker it was real torture — that's probably why I work with American Cancer (Society) to reduce the smoking rate, especially in women.
"We'd go and clean up and try to lie down for 15 minutes — we'd been up so early."
Her time on the East Coast was an eye-opener.
"Coming from a small town in eastern Oregon, it was quite an experience.
"They reassigned us as we got through boot camp, to various bases throughout the United States and I was assigned to NPG — a radio station in a federal building in San Francisco ... I was a teletype operator. I was there the whole war. That was the center for sending instructions out to the South Pacific.
"The messages were all in six-letter codes, xybt — all that kind of code — then it was deciphered wherever it was going. There would be pages of nothing but five or six groups of letters across a line, next line ... I usually worked 4 to midnight. We had about six teletype operators all night long.
"It wasn't really exciting duty, it was like having another job, but you knew you were doing it for a good cause.
Her time in San Francisco
"San Francisco was a good place to be stationed because you could always go out to the zoo or out to the park or out to the ocean — there was always something going on. I was in San Francisco the day the war ended and it was a big mass production of humanity down on Market Street — just a big circus, everyone was out."
Benson met her future husband — Joseph Rozar, a supervisor of one of her shifts — and they were married on Christmas Eve, 1945 at St. Mary's in San Francisco.
She was discharged from the service on Jan. 11, 1946.
The couple, who divorced after 12 years of marriage, had a son, William Rozar.
Benson, who was sitting in her office at Palm Desert City Hall on a recent afternoon, pulled out a letter bearing President Harry Truman's facsimile signature.
The top of the letter featured the Seal of the President of the United States. The message, sent to all who served honorably during the war, read:
Jean Rozar
"To you who answered the call of your country and served in its Armed Forces to bring about the total defeat of the enemy, I extend a heartfelt thanks of a grateful nation. As one of the nation's finest, you undertook the most severe task one can be called upon to perform. Because you demonstrated the fortitude, resourcefulness and calm judgment necessary to carry out that task, we now look to you for leadership and example in further exalting our country in peace."
"I thought the wording of it was apropos considering my public service life," she said, smiling.
Getting her start in local politics
Benson got her official start in public service when she and her second husband moved to the desert in 1969. At the time, an attempt to get voters to approve incorporation and a slate of five men to serve on the first council (combined into one ballot measure) failed shortly before the two moved to town.
"So then they started working on another attempt, separating the two items and I worked on that committee all along, from the very beginning. I was still married then, my husband was in charge of getting the community organized. We separated in the interim — but I was still working on the committee."
When she realized only two other women were candidates in that election, she decided to throw her hat in the ring.
"Only three women had registered out of 21 candidates in that first election — one was a housewife, one was a realtor and me — I had been in business — I managed a brokerage firm in the Bay Area.
"I knew one woman would be elected — I just had that feeling. I decided late in the filing period. I thought, 'Surely they're going to elect one.'
"Housewife, nothing wrong with that; a Realtor wasn't a good person to be in those days because they wanted to build the city and make it more bustling and people in Palm Desert were more laid back and wanted it nice and quiet."
Benson, who spent 15 years in the brokerage business, figured she had as good an opportunity as either of the other women.
"I thought, 'I might have a chance here.'"
The election was held in November 1973.
"That was another big San Francisco evening down on 111," she said. "We were down on the corner of Portola and 111, that's where they had the outdoor radios set up at a realtor office ... they set up a post-election headquarters office there.
"When we were elected, the Rotary was going to honor us at a luncheon, but Hank Clark, who had been elected mayor amongst us, said, 'Sorry, Jean, but you can't go because they don't let women in Rotary,' I said, 'Too bad, they're going to have one.'"
How the first Palm Desert City Council formed
In November 1973, the residents of Palm Desert voted for incorporation and selected its first city council, which was comprised by Benson, Henry B. Clark — who served as the city's first mayor — Chuck Aston, Noel J. Brush and James E. McPherson.
"All of us — Noel, Jim, Chuck, Hank — we were all new to organizing a city, so we first had to get somebody to help us," Benson said.
The city hired an interim city manager.
"It was just overwhelming to see all the things you had to do — everything the county was doing for us all came down to the city then. It was a learning experience for all of us."
She said people who had been involved in local politics or had experience in city government came forward to help.
There were a number of challenges to overcome as a fledgling council.
"Trying to keep the community involved in the decisions we made and satisfy all the people — everybody wanted something different," she said. "People who had lived here since Cliff (Henderson) had started Palm Desert in 1947 were all set in their ways, (saying) 'It's going to be this way or no way,' changing things, putting ordinances in and code enforcement — they had been used to doing their cars in their yards. Probably some of the hardest things we had to deal with."
New businesses coming to town
She said the first big civic problem involved the debate over a potential tenant at the Palm Desert Town Center — now Westfield Palm Desert.
"That was a great big piece of empty land and Kmart wanted to build there and we did not want a Kmart on that corner," she said. "I was fighting not to let it be there."
Some of the city's residents were impatient to get more houses and more retail, and in the haste to build the city's assets, "They didn't care what it looked like," she said. "Luckily, all of us were of the same mind from the very beginning — it was going to be the best or it wasn't going to happen here."
Benson, who was elected to one of the two-year terms on the first city council, ran for re-election in 1975 and lost — then ran the following election cycle and lost again.
"I wasn't going to do it anymore," she said.
She was already an active member of the Palm Desert Chamber of Commerce at the time.
Benson was voted back onto the council in the election of 1983, and has been serving ever since.
Palm Desert's first woman mayor
"My first year as mayor was 1988 — Roy Wilson nominated me — he said it was time they had a woman mayor. I would have been mayor this year, but I gave it to Van (Tanner) because I thought the city deserved someone who could get out more. We'd always been very active in attending events — and it was getting harder and harder with my walker and I just said the city deserved more."
Benson recounted some of her proudest moments serving on the council.
"I was in the hospital for back surgery and we were just approving the plans for Desert Rose, our first housing project – and I insisted we have a child facility there for working mothers."
Benson got her wish, and soon after the YMCA took over management of the facility, it was renamed the Jean M. Benson Child Development Center in honor of the childcare champion.
"(Councilman) Bob Spiegel suggested they name it after me and I think that was one of the highlights, because I worry about kids in the sense that their mothers have to work, especially if they're divorced or are single parents — and not having the grandma next door like we used to that you could call quick to come over.
"It's very rewarding to know it's a safe place for kids — and a good place for them."
A longtime goal was finally realized a few years ago.
"Both Dick Kelly (the longtime councilman died in 2010) and I wanted a swimming pool for the kids on the north side. We tried for years and we finally got that. It took a long time."
Benson, who is not seeking re-election on Nov.4, will wind up 32 years of council service in December.
"I figure I can't get in much trouble," she said, laughing. "We don't have any big projects coming in."
Benson offered some words of wisdom to current and future councils: "I just hope they hold to some of the ideals that were instilled in us all these years, as far as the heights of the buildings go and protecting the mountainsides. I think that's one of the jewels of the valley and I'd hate to see building start up there. Once you let the first house up there, it's gone. I think people come here because of the serenity of the area."
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From the archives: Jean Benson describes her time in the Navy, Palm Desert's first city council - Desert Sun
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