ASSOCIATION STILL SERVES WAR WIDOWS.

Byline: Dennis McCarthy 

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE - There are no afternoon teas or fund-raisers for the ladies anymore. Those days are long gone.

They ended around the time the widows of the men who fought in the Spanish-American War and World War I started to die off.

Today, the California Soldiers' Widows Home Association, founded in 1920, operates out of a small suite in La Canada with a staff of two.

The properties it owned in Brentwood and Long Beach, where the widows lived until their deaths, have been sold off and the money invested. The association survives on the interest.

Now, instead of providing a roof over the heads of veterans' widows who have fallen on hard times, the association subsidizes the rent for 25 of them at their own apartments - up to a maximum $500 a month.

There's enough left in this year's budget to help a few more, says Sondra Larion, the association's administrative assistant. But only a few.

Because like the thousands of women the California Soldiers' Widows Home Association has provided help for over the last 80 years, it finds itself in need of a little help and recognition now.

People who know it even existed in the first place think it became one of those footnotes in the history books - another old vets auxiliary organization that did its job, then faded away.

Only it didn't. It's still out there trying to help.

``It was originally meant that way, to do our work quietly and not embarrass or draw attention to anyone,'' says Patricia DeMond, president of the association's board of directors.

``The ladies supporting us used to hold teas and fund-raisers and keep to themselves, but all that's changed,'' she said.

``We used to be a place for little old ladies to go and die, but we've evolved into an association doing all we can to help them live,'' she said.

DeMond's own mother lived in one of the homes in the early 1970s when to get in you had to just about trace your ancestors back to the Revolutionary War, she said.

``One of the residents with her was a widow from the Spanish-American War,'' she said. ``They lived in duplexes. It was the equivalent of old people's homes. They lived there until they died.''

But when female veterans and the widows of veterans from World War II and Korea began to need some help, the association found they were so rooted in their communities they didn't want to move to Long Beach or Brentwood, where the homes were.

``We decided the best way to help them was to keep them where they were, so we wound up selling the properties and using the interest on the money to pay their landlords directly with a rent subsidy,'' she said.

They also dropped the age requirement from 65 to 50 because they began to find more younger widows from Vietnam veterans in need of help, DeMond said.

``These are women in danger of living on the streets, who are not getting enough in widow's benefits from the government to even cover their rent,'' she said.

``Even with our help, they are cutting it close.''

So, the California Soldiers' Widows Home Association may not have any homes anymore, but it continues to do all it can for war widows, even if it isn't nearly enough, DeMond says.

They would love to be able to help 50, 100, 200 women having a tough time making ends meet, but realistically they can only reach out to about 25.

Not bad for an 80-year-old association most people think exists only as a footnote in the history books.

For more information about the California Soldiers' Widows Home Association call [phone].