Page 9 - CALIFORNIA WOMAN - WINTER EDITION 2022

East Los Angeles-Montebello Parliamentarian

Catherine “Kathy” Wills
passed away September 29th.
She was born August 18, 1937.

She talked about her life at the Joint Conference of Sierra Mar and Valley Sunset Districts in
January 2019. She said that her dad was a printer, and her mom was a homemaker in Minnesota.
When she was born, she weighed ten pounds. Her parents divorced when she was eight. She went
to eleven schools by the time she was in 10th grade. When she was fifteen years old, she went to
work at a Chinese restaurant. While working there, she met a man from Egypt, who was a foreign
exchange student. He was a sociopath, but she did not know that and married him. A couple
months after the marriage they moved to Cairo and moved in with his mother, two grown broth-
ers and two servants. His mother hated her and the feeling was mutual. Ten and a half months
later she had a ten pound 13 ounce baby boy. She began tutoring two young boys in English. Their
mother had been a silent movie star. One day the mother said Cecil is coming to town. She meant
Cecil B. DeMille. She told Kathy to go and look into a job with him. There were 3,000 people in
line for jobs, but she was one of the few tall blonds. She ended up doubling for Nina Foch. She
was seventeen years old. She met Charlton Heston, who was a fine man. She worked for six
months for Paramount Studios.

She then met a French man, and he encouraged her to be a tour guide for a group of people visit-
ing Europe. She told him that she had never been to Europe. There were 56 people in the tour
group. They started on a Turkish ship. She was supposed to share her room on the ship with a
bunch of people. She went to the sick bay. The woman there let her stay in sick bay for the en-
tire trip. Kathy’s husband made $85 per month working for the government. Her husband got vio-
lent so she moved out and got a divorce. She was forced to leave her son behind. On the way
back to the U.S. on a freighter, she met the tall, blond Captain. He was another sociopath, but
she married him before finding this out. They moved to California, and she got a job at a hosiery
shop. They had a son. After thirteen years of marriage, they divorced.

She then met a tall, handsome black man. They were married for more than 40 years until he
died five years ago next week. He fought cancer for 16 years. He was the love of her life. She
heard that the Sheriff’s Department was looking for a deputy. She looked into the job and found
that it paid $715 per month, but she would have to go through the Sheriff’s Academy. There were
36 women in her class of 136. After training she worked at the Women’s Jail for 6½ years. While
there, she met the Manson Girls. She would look out the jail and see nice houses in Monterey
Park. She and her husband bought a home in Monterey Park as it would be easier for them to get
to work. He worked downtown. They were the only two black families (she is white) in Monterey
Park. Her husband attracted a lot of Police interest. She thinks Police need to also be social
workers. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
…/...