Its civic motto has changed from “Tomorrow’s City Today” to “Times Change, Values Don’t”, but at just 54 years old, Lakewood is still new enough that some of its founders still survive.

Sadly, their numbers are becoming fewer. As Samantha Gonzaga writes in today’s Press-Telegram, Lakewood lost a former mayor and one of its founders, Jacqueline Rynerson, at age 87 on Tuesday.

During the 1970s, Rynerson served three terms as a mayor–and after leaving office, lent her strength to the recall of a councilman–but she’s also remarkable for having been one of the volunteers who, in 1954, began meeting at each others’ houses to talk about Lakewood incorporating.

There’s a book for someone to write (D.J. Waldie?) about what really happened in Lakewood, on the road to incorporation. The process was undoubtedly far less streamlined than the city’s big build had been just a few years earlier.

But if anyone wants to write that book, they’d better get busy. The normal, everyday people like Rynerson, who make the far-away story of incorporation sound so easy now, are leaving us.

In Rynerson’s case, Lakewood renamed River Park in her honor, 18 years ago. We should know more of her story.

Tags: California, d.j. waldie, Jacqueline Rynerson, lakewood, Long Beach, press telegram, River Park, Rynerson Park, Samantha Gonzaga, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas