JERRY PERSON:

I was recently saddened by the news of yet another of our longtime resident’s passing — that of former city clerk Alicia Wentworth.

I have known Alicia for some 30 years and I must admit you couldn’t find a nicer or more helpful person.

She was the first city official I met when I attended City Council meetings on Monday nights way back in the Stone Age before they were televised on the city’s cable channel. Don MacAllister was mayor of the city at the time and you could count on Alicia being there to answer any questions the council may have had.

Alicia also holds the distinction of being the city’s first female city clerk.

Her family tree reaches all the way back to the Mayflower, where two of her ancestors had been part of that first party of settlers to America.

Alicia’s parents chose Rochester, N.Y., as the place of birth for Alicia Mae Becker on Dec. 1, 1926. She would be one in a family of 10 siblings.

When she was 21 years old, a married sister was planning to move to California to live, and since New York winters are a bit cold, Alicia decided to go along.

The year was 1947, World War II was over and gasoline was available again for long motor trips. This was also the year that another popular Huntington Beach city clerk, Charles Furr, retired from his job. Little did Alicia know that years later she would hold that same job.

Alicia arrived in Huntington Beach and took up residence at one of our two coast highway trailer parks, with a view of our beautiful blue Pacific Ocean. Not long after settling here, Alicia met Vernon E. Wentworth. After a whirlwind courtship the two were married. Nine months later, give a day or two, the couple was the proud parents of twins, David and Donna. In coming years two more children, Duane and Diane, were added to the family tree.

Through the 1950s Alicia raised her children in their home at 222 Joliet Ave. In 1961 she became a city employee at the old civic center at Fifth and Orange, while Vern worked at Huntington High School as a bus driver.

Alicia had a passion for history. Maybe it was her connection with the Mayflower, or it might have been that her husband Vern was the grandson of Huntington Beach’s first mayor, Ed Manning.

I remember watching former mayor Jack Kelly dedicate Manning Park on Delaware Street, and seeing Alicia and her family on stage for the ceremony. This gave her children a special place in our city’s rich history.

It was on April 18, 1960 that Paul C. Jones was elected as our city clerk and in the years that Alicia worked for the city she became part of his office. By the early 1970s she had become his trusted second in command.

During April of 1973 Paul Jones died. Since Alicia was familiar with the office, the City Council appointed her on April 30, 1973, to serve out Jones’ remaining term.

When the new civic center at Main and Yorktown was dedicated on March 30, 1974, Alicia moved in to her new offices on the second floor of City Hall.

Huntington Beach was expanding, and with it came reams of paperwork that she and her staff needed to prepare for each council meeting. I recall one of those long meetings that lasted into the early hours, and one councilman that kept asking Alicia the same question over and over, making the suggestion that her office hadn’t done their homework. She softly told the councilman in no uncertain terms that the information was in his packet in front of him, like a schoolteacher talking to a wayward student. The councilman sat back and said no more about the subject.

For more than 15 years Alicia occupied the position of city clerk, and when she retired from office on July 8, 1988, she was still able to have an office there. She used this office to catalog historical photos and city records. Once each week she could be found there answering questions about our city history and its people.

One of Alicia’s favorite pastimes was working the daily crossword puzzle in the newspaper. She seldom used a book to find an answer, says her son Duane.

Alicia’s health began to decline, and on Sept. 1, Alicia died.

The night before, the family was with her at the hospital and as she was hooked up to tubes and an oxygen mask, they all watched “Wheel of Fortune” on television. Three letters were showing and nobody could guess the answer.

That’s when Alicia took off her mask and said “it’s Oysters Rockefeller,” then calmly replaced her oxygen, says Duane. She was right, of course. Alicia will be missed by the people who knew her and by the city that she loved so well.