In 1926, Ann Sumner was among the first classes to graduate from
UCLA ““Â when it had just become a four-year institute and
change was on its way.
To this day, she can’t let the university out of her sight
““ literally. The campus is visible from her house located
just off Hilgard Avenue .
Sumner graduated with a degree in history. Sitting in her home
on a summer afternoon, she tries hard to recall all the details of
the history she did not learn in class but witnessed firsthand at
UCLA.
One of UCLA’s oldest alumni turns 100 today, and for the
celebration she has some company. Her niece is here to visit from
Arizona.
Sumner talked about her education, her career and her life
““ all of which were closely knit to the university.
“She was never married, so (UCLA) has been her
child,” said Mary Ann Knudson, Sumner’s niece.
“That’s all I ever heard, all my life “¦ it was
always UCLA,” she said.
Life as a student
Sumner’s UCLA in the 1920s was very different than that of
today.
She attended the university when it was located on Vermont
Avenue ““ before it was brought to Westwood in 1929.
Yet some things never change.
Even then, the rivalry between USC and UCLA had been
established, especially as the two were the only universities
located in Southern California.
“My most vivid college memory is coming out of a tunnel at
the (Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum “¦ tears just running down
my face,” She said, explaining that USC had just beat
UCLA.
“We didn’t beat them for many years, until long
after I graduated,” she added.
Another thread connecting UCLA through the years is Greek
life.
Most girls at the time were involved in the Greek system.
“I was a Delta Gamma,” Sumner said. “UCLA was
the first university to have full Panhellenic,” she added,
proudly.
Though some details are a bit unclear in her mind, Sumner talks
about other things as if they happened yesterday.
“I remember my classes vividly,” Sumner said.
“I was a history major and had great history
professors.”
She tried to remember the name of her professors but got
sidetracked and instead explained how much she enjoyed her
classes.
Aside from classes she remembers being named the best-dressed
woman on campus. She recalls her long skirts that swept the
floor.
“When they first had the parades down here, I had
graduated but, I was the rose queen,” she added
laughingly.
She also remembers the Prohibition of the 1920s.
“I have some bitter memories,” she said. “One
of our girls got her pin lifted because she got drunk” at a
fraternity house.
Though alcohol was prohibited, social life was still alive at
UCLA.
“There were teas. “¦ People would go to tea
dances,” Sumner explained, adding that they were very
fashionable.
“The boys would sneak in flasks (of alcohol), and the
waiters would serve it in teacups,” She said.
As her student years at UCLA were coming to an end, UCLA was
awaiting a great change of its own ““ the move to
Westwood.
A journalist and a writer
Though she did not become a full-time journalist until after she
graduated from college, Sumner’s fate was decided early
on.
“My mother had said, “˜Your father was a newspaper
man, and you are going to be a writer, too,'” Sumner
said. “She gave me a toy typewriter.”
Sumner got a job at the Evening Express, the area’s
afternoon paper, when she was in high school. She continued to work
there while she attended college.
She took on the job full-time after her college graduation and
was on the rise in the staff.
The paper was owned by Edward Dickson. A painted portrait of him
hangs on her wall.
Dickson, the only member of UC Board of Regents from Southern
California, later became the man known as the “godfather of
UCLA” and was the man behind the expansion of the university
and its move to Westwood.
Sumner explains that the Dicksons did not have a child, so she
became the child they never had.
She interrupted herself and went back to talk about her work at
the paper.
“I started to write books,” she said.
Sumner’s first book started as a story that ran in the
Express and was later made into a book.
Her other books also ran in hundreds of publications nationwide,
as it was a trend to run chapters of books in big newspapers and
magazines.
The publishing of her first book went hand in hand with her
return to UCLA.
“The postman had come, and I was unwrapping my first
book,” she said, explaining her excitement.
“I was at the Express one day when I got hired at UCLA by
Dr. Moore,” she said, referring to Ernest Moore, UCLA
provost.
“He knew me only as a student,” she added, going on
with the story. “He asked if I’d come to university,
and I did come.”
She goes back to talking about her books and how she stopped
writing after she started working for the university News Bureau,
an equivalent of today’s public relations department.
“I sold three or four more after I came to the
university,” she recalls.
“I couldn’t write the same dopey love stories that I
wrote at the paper,” she said of her days after the move to
UCLA. “I was used to writing academic radio speeches for Dr.
Moore, and I couldn’t write cheap love stories that paid so
well.”
She went on to say, “So many people have asked me why I
didn’t go on writing books like that ““ cheap love
stories.
I couldn’t do it after I got on campus. “¦ It was too
academic … (the) people I met and everything else,” she
said answering her own question.
“I loved the paper, I loved journalism, and I loved the
university. “¦ And so it was just a case of moving from one
love to another, really,” she said in an interview in 1970
that was later transcribed as her oral history.
Back to the university
Sumner came back to UCLA, this time at its new location, in
1932.
She started work with the UCLA News Bureau.
“At first, I did research for what is along the arch on
Royce Hall,” She said.
“Then I worked for the catalog for (UCLA)
Extension,” she said, explaining how there were only a few
courses and the catalog was only a few pages.
With Extension’s expansion, Sumner later became the chief
publicist for the institute and was there until she retired in
1967.
During her time at UCLA, Sumner was involved with many groups
““ most of which exist to this day and were founded on the
grounds of service and making the university more known in the
community.
She explained the motivation behind Gold Shield, a service group
of which she is one of the founding members.
“Couple dozen of us got together because, whenever you
mentioned the university to anybody, they thought you meant USC.
“¦ It never occurred to them that there was another university
in Los Angeles,” She said.
She added that they felt the need to introduce the university to
the community.
Gold Shield, a women’s-only group, was made up of 12 women
in 1936 and was the counterpart to Blue Shield, the men’s
group.
The group brought a series of UC Berkeley professors to Los
Angeles to give a series of lectures to introduce UCLA to the
city.
Gold Shield continues to exist as a subgroup operating under the
UCLA Alumni Association and grants scholarships and awards to
students and faculty.
At one point, Sumner said, she did not think that UCLA would
ever grow to be this big. Then she corrected herself. “Yes, I
did “¦ because Mr. Dickson always said it would, and it
did.”
It’s all relative
“I was named after her,” said Knudson. Her first
name is Mary Ann.
Knudson, Sumner’s niece, remembers visiting her aunt as a
child.
“I was afraid to even be around her when I was kid.
“¦ I was afraid to not be using the right word,” she
said half-jokingly about Sumner, who always has been very well
spoken.
“I always admired her and thought that she was a special
lady. “¦ She was prim and proper,” Knudson said.
On her last visit, Knudson took Sumner for a tour of the campus
““ on a wheelchair, of course, she said.
That’s how the two found out about all the current
construction around the campus.
Also a UCLA alumna, Knudson talks about her aunt’s
extensive involvement with the university.
“She was so involved “¦ socially, academically,
spiritually and physically,” she said. Then she laughingly
added, “How close can you be to the campus without being on
it?”
Knudson said that to this day her aunt can be found at the
university. More specifically, at the faculty center, which she
helped establish in 1959.
And the story continues
After almost a two-hour interview, Sumner started to get
tired.
Considering all her experience and involvement, she had a simple
piece of advice for today’s generation.
“Get a sense of history. It’s a great
measure,” she said. “It a great major, too,” she
added.
Aside from her advice that was a result of her 100 years of
experience, she had qualities that seemed as if they had been with
her forever.
She was concerned that her hair and lipstick were no longer
perfect for the photo. After all, she was a socialite in her days
and still carries herself that way.
Earlier, when she was looking at photos of her earlier days, she
picked a photograph and said that it was one of her favorites.
She had short dark hair. It must have been taken when she was in
her 20s or 30s.
“When I finally cut my hair, everybody was shocked because
I bobbed my hair,” she explained.
“My hair was dark brown with a touch of red,” she
said. “Then, gray came out,” she said smiling, her
silver hair shining in the light.