ACTIVIST RECALLS MORE THAN 80 YEARS IN ANTELOPE VALLEY.

Byline: BETTIE RENCORET / Senior Columnist

For 30 years Henry Ivan Dorsett was a government investigator. He is also a veteran and an activist for the community, especially senior citizens.

Local history is entrenched in his memory since he, now 87, has experienced it firsthand since he was a toddler.

He arrived in the local area back in 1913 with his parents, five sisters and three brothers. They came from Stilesville, Ind., where he was born.

Their first home in California was with his mother's relatives on a homestead just north of Lake Hughes. Later, the Dorsetts moved to Fairmont when the North Portal Dam on the Los Angeles Aqueduct was being built.

Dorsett and one of his sisters sold newspapers and magazines. The Dorsett children all helped their parents earn the family's livelihood.

``We did janitorial work at Fairmont Grammar School for $5 a month,'' said Dorsett. ``We did all kinds of garden and farm work. We even cut wood for the Fairmont store and the school for $16 a cord, then delivered it by wagon.''

There was no electricity on the farm and they had to carry water to irrigate the garden where they grew their own food.

``We were up early by lamplight and worked late by lantern,'' he said.

The Great Depression interrupted his studies at Antelope Valley Joint Union High School, forcing him to find work in Los Angeles, but he was able to return and was graduated in 1931.

Then he attended the College of Agriculture at Davis, Calif., for two years.

When he returned to Lancaster, he signed a contract to deliver mail to five outlying post offices: Fairmont, Gorman, Lebec, Grapevine and Wheeler Ridge, just south of Bakersfield.

``Delivering the mail in those days wasn't just delivering the mail,'' he said. ``It entailed running errands for people, too - things like picking up medicines in town to bring on the way, or taking a plowshare to the blacksmith on Sierra Highway. There were about 60 mailboxes on that route, and I got to know the people real well.''

Sometimes he might charge them a nickel or a dime for nonmail errands.

He was about 22 when one of his sisters introduced him to the woman who became his wife, Iris. They were married for 53 years - starting on Christmas Eve in 1936 - before she died of a stroke in 1990.

Dorsett, a private in the 24th Division of the 21st Regiment in the U.S. Army Infantry from 1943 to 1945, served in the South Pacific and New Guinea.

``Whenever there was a move on, I was in the first wave,'' he said. ``When we hit the Hollandia Airport beach, we went in under fire and took it, then set up camp right there. I hadn't had any sleep for three nights when they came and got me up to go on patrol. I was about two (men) back from the point man when I saw a Japanese looking at me from behind a bush. I couldn't bring myself to shoot him, so I took my first prisoner. We weren't supposed to do that because then we had to feed them.''

He said it turned out well, however, when that prisoner was able to supply a lot of information on troop numbers and positions.

After the war, he was a special deputy under Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz for several years, but he turned in his badge when Peter Pitchess became sheriff.

He became an investigator at the Long Beach naval shipyard and retired in 1977 after 30 years of government service.

A high note of his investigative career came when he worked with the district attorney in Los Angeles to try to control the black market in commodities that had sprung up right after World War II.

Dorsett claims life can't be better anywhere than it is in the Antelope Valley.

``It's beautiful here,'' he says. ``If people will just plan ahead for the winds that blow, the cold winters and the hot summers, they'll find they can enjoy them all. That's my philosophy.''

LANCASTER - Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and Pearblossom have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk.

Monday: Southwest stew, garden salad, citrus salad, cornbread, cookies.

Tuesday: Beef Parmesan, Spanish rice, corn, coleslaw, banana.

Wednesday: Teriyaki chicken, sweet yams, oriental vegetables, marinated beets, pears.

Thursday: Turkey, gravy and all the trimmings, mashed potatoes, broccoli medley, cranberry/orange salad, pumpkin pie.

Friday: Closed. Post-Thanksgiving holiday.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO At 87, Henry Ivan Dorsett stays active in Antelope Valley groups.

Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News