Jean Benson, the longtime Palm Desert City Councilwoman who served her city for more than 30 years, died Tuesday at 95.
Benson had a long, storied career on the Palm Desert City Council, as well as a stint with the Navy's "Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service," or WAVES, during World War II.
Benson's son, Bill Rozar, said Benson had been ill with an abdominal tumor.
Palm Desert Councilwoman Kathleen Kelly, whose late father Dick Kelly served alongside Benson, praised her for her commitment to the mid-valley city.
"She was 100% dedicated to Palm Desert’s interests," Kelly said. "She was a person of conviction who stood her ground and in those respects was a great model for other women following in leadership.”
Benson served six terms as mayor of the city and stepped down from the dais in 2014 at the age of 90.
She was a driving force behind making Palm Desert the commercial center of the Coachella Valley.
Benson was born Jean McCoskrie in Walla Walla, Washington, and grew up in La Grande, Oregon. Her father was a housepainter. She graduated from high school in 1942 and joined the WAVES at age 20. She was stationed in San Francisco as a teletype operator; among her duties was sending coded messages to the Pacific Fleet.
She met her first husband, Joseph Rozar, through the Navy. They married on Christmas Eve 1945 and settled in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The couple later divorced and Jean took on work at a stock brokerage in San Jose.
In 1969 she moved to the Coachella Valley and 1970, she married Edward Benson, a stockbroker. In Palm Desert, Jean worked as a travel agent.
Kay Kelly, Benson's daughter-in-law, recalled that Jean's entree into politics came when she developed concerns about building heights in Palm Desert. "That was the first issue that attracted her. She wanted to preserve Palm Desert's beauty."
In November 1973, the residents of Palm Desert voted for incorporation and selected its first City Council, which included Benson, Henry B. Clark — who served as the city's first mayor — Chuck Aston, Noel J. Brush and James E. McPherson.
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," Benson recalled in a 2014 interview with The Desert Sun. "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 was elected to one of the two-year terms on the first City Council and served on its first Planning Commission, Redevelopment Agency and Design Review Board.
She 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.
Benson was voted back onto the council in the election of 1983, and served until 2014.
Other key issues for Benson, said Kay Kelly, were homeless services, the animal shelter and children's services. Palm Desert YMCA's Children's Development Center is named for her.
The city noted Benson's passing on Wednesday, with praise in a prepared statement from City Manager Lauri Aylaian.
"Palm Desert has lost a pioneering leader and passionate community advocate," Aylaian said. "We are deeply grateful for Jean’s many years of service to our community. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jean’s family as all of us who knew and admired her mourn her passing and celebrate the remarkable life of this strong and dedicated public servant."
Benson served on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Discovery Museum, the McCallum Theatre Board of Trustees and had been a member of organizations including Friends of the Palm Desert Library, Animal Samaritans, Foundation for the Retarded of the Desert and the Joslyn Center. She was a board member of the Regional Access Project and the Desert Samaritans for the Elderly and chaired the Riverside County Children and Families First Commission. She was the founding president of Coachella Valley Child Care Council.
Arthur Newman, who served on the Rancho Mirage City Council from 1993 to 1998, said through his wife, Patty: “For decades, Jean Benson was a true model of civic leadership not only for Palm Desert, but for the entire Coachella Valley. I consider myself lucky to have worked with her on mutual issues during the years I served on the Rancho Mirage City Council.”
As she left office, Benson offered some words of wisdom to her successors.
"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," she told The Desert Sun. "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."
Services will be held at 3 p.m. on Dec. 13 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Palm Desert.
Benson is survived by Rozar; Kay Kelly; grandsons Will Rozar and Rob Antoniak; and three great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Assistance League of Palm Desert or the Jean Benson Child Development Center.
Ricardo Lopez covers the eastern Coachella Valley cities of Indio and Coachella. Reach him at Ricardo.Lopez@DesertSun.com or 760-778-4637.
"palm" - Google News
November 28, 2019 at 05:37AM
https://ift.tt/37D3jFk
Jean Benson, longtime Palm Desert city councilwoman, Navy veteran, dies at 95 - Desert Sun
"palm" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2WAayZw
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
0 Comments:
Post a Comment