If you missed the obituary notices in the Aug. 16 Bakersfield Californian, you may have failed to take note of the passing of a gentle and dignified champion of democracy.
Laura Dennison, a former president of the Kern County League of Women Voters, died Aug. 6 in the Southern California city of Claremont, having moved there in 2007 after 15 years in Bakersfield. She was 81 and had cancer.
Dennison helped revitalize a somewhat moribund LWV organization when she assumed the leadership reins a decade ago, and she was active in assorted causes even in semi-retirement.
In June 2007, Dennison, who suffered from asthma, came out in favor of SB719, which added medical and scientific members to the valley air pollution control board.
In February 2007, she urged recalcitrant Bakersfield City Councilman Ken Weir to disclose his economic interests. “I don’t see why Mr. Weir should be an exception (to conflict of interest laws),” she said. “I think transparency is very important.”
In fact, transparency in government was an ideal Dennison held dear, essential as it was to one of her chief missions in life: participation in government by the American citizenry.
She will be missed.
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I did miss the obituary, so thank you for reposting. She was big in AAUW and part of the CSUB extended family as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robert, for noting the passing of one of the dearest and most intelligent women I've ever known. With a gentle but patrician manner, she enjoyed mentoring women in the workings of public participation and other government processes. Laura will be deeply missed, but many women are better people for having encountered Laura.
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