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Note: Elsa's long and active life was spent almost exclusively in the service of her hometown, on which she has left an indelible imprint, and where she lived her entire life, moving no further than to a house next to the one in which she had been born. She began her formal education at Jefferson Elementary School, graduated from Lincoln High School, and then enrolled at Mills College in Oakland. After a mere three months she left college, however, and returned to Vallejo, reportedly because of acute homesickness. Elsa subsequently at-tended the Swafford School of Com-merce in her hometown, while tak-ing lessons in hand painting and elocu-tion. On completion of these courses she ac-companied her brother Adolph on his tour of eastern breweries (see above, no. 123), only to become too homesick to enjoy the trip. Politically, she was a staunch Repub-lican who as a lifetime member of the Solano County Republican Women's Club served on both the county and state Republican Central Committees. She was appointed to the school board in Vallejo in 1941 to fill a vacant seat and then elected to six consecutive four-year terms, retiring in 1969 after 28 years of service, including four terms as president. During this time nearly half the schools of Vallejo were built and roughly 25,000 students were graduated. She was also instrumental in aug-ment-ing sports activities, as she pro-moted regular events in swimming, track, ten-nis, archery, and golf. A civic dinner at-tended by more than 400 guests was given in her honor following her retire-ment in 1969, at which a congratulatory telegram from President Richard Nixon was read and a portrait in oil unveiled. The portrait now hangs at Widenmann Elementary School, which was named after her. She was the first woman to serve on the State Scholarship Commission, having been appointed in 1958 by Governor Goodwin Knight. She also served on the Sonoma State College Advisory Com-mission; the Solano County School Trustees Association; the California Student Aid Commission; and a commit-tee entrusted with the reorganization of Solano County's school districts during the 1960s. She was a lifetime member of the Vallejo Parent Teachers Association, and in 1962 her contributions to public education earned her the California School Administrator's Golden Apple Award. Completely devoted to Vallejo's school children, she attended every event at the Widenmann Elementary School until she reached the age of 96, never failing to draw crowds of awe-struck children. The field of education was however not Elsa's only interest. She was chairwoman of the Vallejo Chapter of the American Red Cross; founding member and president of the Vallejo Symphony League and violinist with the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra; head of the Vallejo Council of the Navy League; member of the Solano County Grand Jury; of the advisory board of the Bank of America; charter member of the Soroptimists In-ternational of Vallejo; charter commis-sioner of the Greater Vallejo Recreational District; and mem-ber of the Vallejo Wel-fare Council and the Chamber of Com-merce board of di-rectors. Until advanced age interfered, Elsa was an excellent horse rider, frequently pitching a tent on overnight treks. She was also a golf enthusiast and served a term as president of the women's division of the Northern Cali-fornia Golf Association. She re-mained active and followed a strict reg-imen un-til well into her 90s, rising at 6 a.m., do-ing her own bookkeeping, at-tending to conferences during the rest of the morning, taking walks around the neighborhood, and keeping abreast of events via television and newspapers. Elsa became an institution in Vallejo, and it is chiefly because of her that an entire section of the Vallejo Naval And Historical Museum, 734 Marin Street, Vallejo, CA 94590, has been devoted to the Vallejo branch of the family. The Widenmann files (see above, no. 85) also contain Elsa's notes for a family history that she had begun. The house that she had built at 634 Virginia Street was designated City Landmark No. 9, titled "The Elsa Widenmann Home." A bronze memorial plaque at-tached to the house reads: This Classical Revival House was built in 1921 for Miss Elsa Widenmann, a longtime civic leader, and her mother, the widow of Charles Widenmann [No. 85]. The carriage house (earlier part of the John Frisbie estate), the barn, and the house site form a portion of the original [Charles] Widenmann estate.
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