COUPLE DEFIED SCHOOL MARRIAGE RULES IN 1938.

Byline: Bettie Rencoret Senior columnist

Way back in the days before coed dorms were the norm, many colleges did not even accept married students, according to Edith Bean Serfoss, 82.

In 1938, there was an entirely different set of rules for those pursuing higher education.

Women had very little hope of entering male-dominated fields of endeavor, and double standards applied to almost all campus programs, as Edith, her sister and their female friends knew.

``Elbert Serfoss and I were both going to Pasadena College at that time, and we knew the rules,'' she said, ``but we sure did want to get married.''

Students were quietly rebellious even then, she said, and fate also took a hand in their wedding.

A dam broke, and water washed right through Altadena, Pasadena and the college campus. Homes of about five faculty members were inundated with mud.

``They had to turn the school out for 13 days. For those 13 days we weren't going to any classes,'' she said. ``We didn't have anything else to do, so on March 12, 1938, we went over to the Little Chapel of the Flowers in Santa Ana and got married.''

She said they went to Santa Ana because they didn't want a notice published in the Pasadena paper.

``My sister and Elbert's roommate went with us. They were our only witnesses,'' she said, and the newlyweds planned to tell only their closest friends.

After the wedding, they went to the home of the bride's best friend, whose mother gave Edith a lecture.

``She said, Don't you think you ought to tell them at school because, you know, you just might get pregnant? We always had chapel at school, so the next day I wore my wedding ring to chapel, and the girl who shared my song book with me saw it right away.

``By the time we got out of chapel, everybody knew that we were married,'' she said. ``We got called on the carpet and told it wasn't allowed.''

Serfoss said she and her husband knew an exception had been made for a rich, influential man's son and daughter-in-law. And administrators realized other students knew it.

``They finally said if you keep your grades up, it'll be all right, but if your grades go down you can't continue. I would have had to drop out. The girl was always the one who had to drop out.''

Her marks remained high, but she dropped out after she completed the school year because she was pregnant. She was glad she had told about the wedding, she said, ``because in 10 months I had a baby boy, my son Wesley. I hung my marriage license on the wall beside my son's birth certificate.''

Wesley Serfoss now lives in Pearblossom. His brother and only sibling, Frank Lee Serfoss, lives in Ronan, Mont.

For 17 years after the Serfosses were married, they lived in Pasadena, two blocks from the college, but she never returned for her degree.

``I married a man who was going to be the breadwinner, and I was going to stay home and take care of the children. That's just the way it was,'' she said.

Elbert, a fireman with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, brought his family to Antelope Valley in 1954.

``By 1957 he was a captain and didn't count on getting hurt on the job when he went out on a house fire call on Seventh Street East,'' she said.

``The house was completely engulfed in flames when they got there, and when he opened the garage door to check inside, the car blew up. He took the full force . . . on his chest,'' she said. ``We still had to go to court to prove he was hurt on the job before they'd give him his pension.''

She and Elbert were married 54 years before his death Dec. 5, 1992.

They enjoyed traveling the country in search of beautiful rocks.

They began their rockhound trips while they still lived in Pasadena, and she continues to make them as a member of the Palmdale Gem and Mineral Club.

She keeps some cabochons, made from the most beautiful of the rocks, and other prize specimens in display cases to take to shows. ``We never made any jewelry to sell,'' she said.

Some of the larger rocks have been made into book ends, ornamental balls and eggs or paperweights. Artistic care has brought out maximum beauty and color of the stone.

``Elbert didn't have any desire to display, but I did,'' said Serfoss, who still exhibits rocks at the fair and at shows of gem and mineral clubs.

Her sister Mabel Swafford lives with her. A neighbor, Deborah Emery, is convalescing from a recent illness. Serfoss takes care of them both when they are not well.

She also takes care of the vestry cloths and communion linens for her church, Lancaster United Methodist. On Tuesdays, she helps get the church newsletter ready to mail.

She loves to go to concerts and has long been a member of the Community Concerts Association.

She walks a lot for exercise and claims she stays happy and out of trouble because she usually keep her mouth shut.

``I'm not very outspoken,'' she said. ``I enjoy life and take every day as it comes. I plan just to work until I drop.''

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 for the suggested congregate donation of $2.

Today: HOLIDAY.

Tuesday: Beef and chili beans, mixed vegetables, garden salad, and pears.

Wednesday: Meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamy coleslaw and white cake.

Thursday: Turkey with gravy, bread dressing, butternut squash, juice, lettuce/tomato salad and pears.

Friday: Beef pot roast, mashed potatoes, peas, carrot/raisin salad and banana.

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Photo

PHOTO Edith Serfoss looks through a bowl of some of her polished stones.

Bettie Rencoret/Special to the Daily News