P a r a m o u n t
pulse Beat
February 2015
Serving the Community Since 1990
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Paramount Historian Ethel Hillyard Passes Away Ethel Hillyard, who was an active, productive, and engaging presence in the Paramount c o m m u n i t y f o r m a ny y e a r s a n d wa s a ff e c tionately known as the town’s historian, passed away December 22, 2014 at the age of 94. Hillyard was born in Germany in 1920 and immigrated to the United States at the age of six. She attended high school in Pasadena and studied journalism at Santa Monica Junior College. With her family, she moved into the Paramount Unified School District area in 1948 and soon became heavily involved in the educational community, serving as president of the Major Lynn Mokler School PTA, the Alondra Junior High S c h o o l P TA , a n d t h e Paramount Council of PTAs. This led eventually to her election to the Paramount Unified School District Board of Education in 1966, where she served for 16 years, including four terms as president. Part of her legacy there was bringing the Continuation High School and Adult Education School into the District, and the library at Roosevelt Elementary is named in her honor.
her passing. She will long be remembered for her great contributions and genuine devotion to Paramount over the years. Ethel Hillyard was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Robert Hillyard. She is survived by sons, Steven, of La Jolla, California, and Stanley, of Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Contributions in memory of Ethel can be made to the Friends of I n 2 0 0 9 , H i l l y a r d ber of the City’s Senior the Paramount Library Hillyard was a 50year member of the Par- took on her last public Services Commission, a o r t o t h e Pa r a m o u n t amount Women’s Club. service role as a mem- position she held until Women’s Club. She was a longtime columnist for the Paramount Journal newspaper. At the suggestion of the librarian of the Paramount branch library, she began work on a history of the City. (Ethel became founding president of the Friends of the Paramount Library in 1978.) The book, first published in 1974 as “Fiestas, Farms, and Freeways,” traced the area back to its Spanish land grant days. It was later revised and expanded into “The Story of Paramount,” which was published in 1988. To this day it is the reference point for the town’s past.
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