Carrying on Family Traditions at Presentation Ball

The always beautiful Presentation Ball has become one of those special traditions reflecting family values and community service. In 1958 the first ball was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton when 28 girls were presented by the Social Service Auxiliary to Cardinal James Francis McIntyre.

A new generation will be presented April 8, Easter Monday, at the Beverly Hilton, to the same cardinal. Eight of the 39 will be daughters or nieces of former presentees. Several are granddaughters of auxiliary founders.

Two are relatives of film luminaries. USC freshman Bridget Kathleen Gless is the niece of Sharon McCarthy Gless, star of TV’s “Cagney & Lacey,” who was presented in 1962. She’s also the daughter of Kathy and Michael McCarthy Gless and the great-granddaughter of the Neil McCarthys, well-known Southern Californians. Josephine Michele Wayne is the granddaughter of film great John Wayne and Josephine Saenz Wayne, who helped establish the Presentation Ball, and the daughter of Gretchen and Michael Wayne.

And more tradition: Presentee Anne Elizabeth Schnieders’ mother, Mrs. Edmund Schnieders Jr. (Martha Sweeney), was presented in 1960. Kristine Denise Casey’s mother, Diane Johnson Casey, was presented in 1961, her aunt, Melinda Johnson, in 1958, and her grandmother, Peggy Terry Johnson, was an auxiliary founder. Julie Ann Cashin’s mother, Mary Louise Cashin, was presented in 1959; Anne Teresa King’s mother, Anne Pecht King, in 1961; Hilary Crahan’s mother, Michele McGarry Crahan, in 1958, and her aunt, Melinda McGarry Wulff, in 1960. Her great-aunt, Mrs. Mary Dockweiler Sooy, was an auxiliary founder; another great-aunt, Mrs. Henry J. Dockweiler, was a ball founder. And Carey Mitchell, Loyola Marymount freshman, is the daughter of the Norman Mitchells, and follows in the presentee tradition of her mother Rosemary.

We’ll tell you the names of the others later.

There’s no trivial pursuit going on with the Pasadena Art Alliance members. They’re currently seeking precious “good things” for their Treasure Sale on May 3-5.

“We’re striving to double our take to $100,000 for art projects in Southern California,” said Marion Haines. The alliance generously donated $96,000 in 1984 from all its ventures.

If you’re esteemed, creme de la creme , one-in-a-million, the rara avis, the choice or top-notch, call Jane Palmer, Jo Ann Taylor, Nancy Ellington or the Art Alliance office--(818) 795-9276--with your donations. As they say: “Don’t dust it--deduct it.”

Now that Jimmy Stewart has caught the supreme adulation of the Academy Awards crowd, it’s a good time to remind you that American Savings presents The Jimmy Stewart National Relay Marathon April 13 at 9 a.m. at Griffith Park. More than 5,000 runners will participate in the five-hour event.

It’s a unique marathon consisting of five-member teams, with each running one-fifth of the 26-mile course. One of the teams is “Nun But the Best,” organized by Sister Lucy Walter, the “Flying Nun” seen regularly jogging through Ocean Park and along San Vicente Boulevard. Her Sisters of Charity teammates will be coming from Kansas, Wyoming and Montana.

Most of the teams represent corporations that underwrite the $500 entry fee which will benefit Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica.

M. C. Strittmatter is chairman.

The Victorian Garden is in full bloom to “Celebrate Spring” next Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Angels Attic (the Museum of Antique Dollhouses, Miniatures and Toys), 516 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica.

Jackie E. McMahan, founder-director, and Eleanor LaVove, assistant director, have organized tea tours ($5) that feature supping on the veranda or in the garden.

Bunnies and bears for the young will be available in the gift gallery, as well as French porcelain boxes and miniatures.

Docent tours of the newly installed galleries, including a display of miniature kitchens and stoves, will be exhibited by the Angels for Autistic Children for the benefit of the Brentwood Center for Educational Therapy.

Three old-fashioned Easter egg hunts highlight Las Primeras Guild’s 33rd annual Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at Campbell Hall School in North Hollywood.

The affair calls for Gregg Elliott’s 18-piece Big Band, the animal petting zoo, clowns, magic, hamburgers and 8,000 eggs.

Erin Ozar of Agoura is masterminding details, working with guild president Anna Lou Weir of Encino.

The first Princess Cruises “Love Boat” invitational golf tournament tees off Monday at the Wilshire Country Club in Los Angeles. It benefits the California Special Olympics (CSO).

Co-chairmen are Rafer Johnson, CSO president, and Joseph Watters, president of Princess Cruises.

Daniel Freeman Hospital Auxiliary turns the Riviera Country Club into a “Monte Carlo Evening” Saturday to benefit Project Life.

Grand prize is a seven-day Sundance Cruise for two to Mexico.

Project Life provides the expensive monitoring essential for high-risk babies and the surgery for those born with birth defects.

The National Kidney Foundation of Southern California benefits from the Saturday screening of Paramount Television Group’s upcoming TV mini-series, “Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story.”

Premiere co-chairmen are Connie Frank and John Golisch, working with Nikki Applebaum, Sue Blackburn, Anne Cahill, Dwaine Dirks, Dan Hubbard, William Moody, Robert Perlberg, Steve Szekley and Rosemary Tobin.

Les Gourmets, the National Charity League, Los Angeles chapter couple dining group, will be back at Perino’s, at its original Wilshire Boulevard location, for a Northern Italian cuisine party Sunday evening.

Sinning on Fettuccine Alfredo, Ravioli Bolognese, Veal Ambrosiana, Zucchini Florentine and Gnocchi Alla Romana will be Mario and Marisa Antonini, co-chairmen, and the Paul Doermanns, the Terrence Whites, the Pete Schlueters, the Tom Morrises, the Herman Knickerbockers and the Raymond Zickfelds, along with Dr. Monte and Kathy Purcelli.

The Braille Institute is publishing an annual anthology of children’s literature entitled “Expectations.” To this end, Ray Bradbury speaks Monday at the Literary Section of the Pacific Palisades Women’s Club’s annual Author’s Tea. Marian Marshall is chairman.

UCLA Medical Center Auxiliary presented its Golden Bruin Award to Mrs. Frances Wiley, clinical nurse specialist with the pediatric hematology-oncology division. The Woman of Science Award went to Dr. Rosemary Dobson Leake, professor of pediatrics at UCLA and chief of the division of neonatology at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center, a hospital which delivers more than 6,000 infants annually.

Barbara P. Wyatt, whose hometown is Toluca Lake, comes from Washington, D.C., to speak on “Missing, Abused and Exploited Children” Tuesday at noon for Town and Gown of USC.

California Assemblywoman Jean Moorhead (D-Sacramento) addresses the annual dinner of the UCLA School of Nursing Alumni Assn. Friday evening at the UCLA Faculty Center. Moorhead is a former registered nurse.