Beatrice Ward Challiss; Member of Pioneering L.A. Family

Beatrice Ward Challiss, 98, member of a pioneering Los Angeles family who helped develop the elite Hancock Park community. Her parents, Shirley C. Ward and Blanche Chandler Ward, moved to Los Angeles in 1888, and her father went on to help pass the bond issue that brought Owens River water to the area. Mrs. Ward helped found the Ebell Club, the Friday Morning Club and the first nursery in Los Angeles. After attending the exclusive Marlborough School, Beatrice Ward went to UC Berkeley, where she was elected vice president of the newly formed Associated Students in her senior year, 1922-23. She married John Van Hoesen Challiss in 1926, lived briefly in Santa Barbara and then returned to Los Angeles, where she reared two daughters and, with her husband, founded the Windsor Square Assn. She also helped found the Hancock Park Art Council and was active in the Junior League of Los Angeles, which in 1993 gave her its Volunteerism Award for 51 years of community service. Challiss maintained a close association with Marlborough, earning its Woman of the Year Award in 1981. But she never hesitated when she disagreed with school officials--vehemently opposing a planned expansion in 1988 that she felt would ruin the neighborhood. She lived in her own house in the area for 63 years. On Thursday in Los Angeles.