Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, November 12, 2016

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Mountain View News Saturday, November 12, 2016 


REMEMBRANCES

Walking Sierra Madre…The Social Side 

by Deanne Davis

ANN WALKER LUKE

 Long-time Sierra Madre resident Ann 
Walker Luke passed away on October 28 
at the age of 80 after a year-long battle 
with cancer. Active in community and 
civic affairs in Southern California for 
many years, she served as president of 
the Sierra Madre Kiwanis Club and 
the Sierra Madre Woman's Club, as 
a member and president of the city's 
chamber of commerce, a member of 
the board of Creative Arts group, and a 
member of the city's Senior Commission.

 She is survived by her husband, John 
Luke, and a brother, Dr. John Walker of 
Oceanside.

 Ann was born in Los Angeles and 
grew up on her family's avocado ranch 
in the San Diego County community 
of Fallbrook. After graduating in the 
class of 1957 from Pomona College, 
where she was editor of the student 
newspaper, she served for two years 
as an analyst for the National Security 
Agency in Fort Meade, Maryland. 

 Returning to Southern California in 1960, she 
became a technical writer and editor at System 
Development Corporation (SDC), where she worked 
with another writer/editor, John Luke, whom she 
married in 1967. For several years, she was assistant 
editor for the Annual Review of Information Science 
and Technology, which SDC developed for the 
National Science Foundation. 

 During the 1980s she held publications and 
marketing management positions at the Rand 
Corporation and Xerox.

 After moving to Sierra Madre in 1987, Ann 
established her own marketing-communications 
consulting firm, Luke Communications. Later, she 
also was an advertising specialist for the Sierra Madre 
Weekly, Mountain Views News, and San Marino 
Tribune before retiring earlier this year.

 Long active in professional and community affairs, 
Ann served as president of the Los Angeles chapter 
of Women in Business and was a member of the 
Committee for the Preservation of Simon Rodia's 
Towers in Watts.

 Music was long an important part of her life.She 
sang in the Pomona College choir, with a cathedral 
choir in Washington, D.C., and with the Pasadena-
area chapter of the Sweet Adelines women's 
barbershop society. Presented with a hammered 
dulcimer as a birthday gift in 1992, she studied for the 
next 15 years with noted Monrovia teacher Jennifer 
Ranger and for several years played with an Irish 
band that performed regularly at art fairs and home 
tours in the San Gabriel Valley.

 For many years, Ann and John have been members 
of the congregation of Sierra Madre's Episcopal 
Church of the Ascension, where her remains will be 
interred in the parish's's Memorial Garden.


Ann Luke pictured above playing her Dulcimer at the Wistaria 
Vine in 2012. Ann also was a contributor and sales manager 
for the Mountain Views News. 

Photo By S. Henderson

“Always remember you are braver than you believe, 
stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” 
Winnie the Pooh

Out walking Sierra Madre very early last Sunday 
morning, very early as we were immersed in that 
extra hour that daylight shifting time afforded us. We 
had gone in our usual circle through the canyon and 
back to our personal street, accompanied by Sunday 
Dog, an extremely aggressive looking dog who seems 
to like us and occasionally slips out to join us on our 
walk, usually on Sunday morning. As we got to about 
five houses from ours, Sunday Dog suddenly went 
ballistic. We looked to see what he was barking at 
and there stood a bear in the middle of the driveway. 
“Oh my gosh!” we said, “That’s a bear and he doesn’t 
look a thing like Winnie the Pooh!” We picked up the 
pace considerably. That’s how our week started.

 The Sierra Madre Rose Float is coming along 
famously. I was down there to take a picture or two, 
that’s Dick Sappington standing there alongside the 
teapot he was just welding. Our float is going to be 
another prize-winner this year. The Rose Parade 
theme is “Echoes of Success” and our float, “The Cat’s 
Away” is a perfect depiction of mice putting together 
a splendid tea party for themselves. Float designer, 
Richard Burrow, returns for his second year in a row 
with an absolute winner of a design. A china teapot 
and a stack of cups and saucers will be tipping back 
and forth, a holding tank will be re-circulating tea 
out of the pot into a cup and mice are hanging off 
of everything. Dick Sappington is one of those guys 
who can do everything. He builds, welds, creates 
the animation electronics so the tea stops pouring 
when the pot is upright again, the cups wobble but 
somehow never fall over, the mice teeter-totter on a 
spoon and...well, best float ever!

 The tray the tea service is resting on will be covered 
with 15,500 red roses, thousands of carnations, and 
our Rose Princesses: Sarah Adams, Camille Buckles, 
Ashley Conlon and Samantha Grijalva, will be 
seated, two on each side of the float on giant sugar 
cubes. Speaking of our Princesses, they will be riding 
into town on one of our fire engines and working 
as Santa’s Helpers from 5-7 p.m. for Sierra Madre’s 
Winter Village on Saturday, November 26th.

 Donna Sutcliffe, the ultimate Rose Float expert, 
filled me in on a few of the items that will be 
decorating our float. For the green parts of the china 
teapot, cups and saucers, split peas will be ground and 
then painstakingly patted into place. The silverware 
will be covered with leaves from Silverleaf plants. All 
the dark purple colors on the tea set will be covered 
in cranberry seed. Who knew cranberries even HAD 
seeds! The sugar cubes will be covered in whole sushi 
rice and the mice will be dressed in light and dark 
Ming moss. There now, you’ll be able to tell all your 
friends as you watch the parade on January 2nd (the 
1st is on Sunday and the Rose Parade is NEVER on 
Sunday!) what they’re seeing on our float. There will 
be bouquets of football mums around the bottom 
edges of the tray, too.

 If you’d like to get in a few hours now, the float 
is available for volunteers to help on Sundays from 
10-5. Currently what they need done is some rather 
painstaking work, trimming Statice flowers and 
Ming moss. Sharp scissors and incredible patience 
needed so leave the little ones at home till later when 
gluing flowers starts. But do come take a look!

 If you’ve got an extra few $$$ you’d like to do 
something nice with, the Sierra Madre Rose Float 
Association would be thrilled if you’d pass it along to 
them. We have lots of flowers to pay for, friends and 
neighbors. All the workers are volunteers and they 
build everything from scratch, but materials come 
with a bill to pay.

 Ran into Gary Anderson, our local tree expert, and 
he showed me somebody’s lovely, well-worn wedding 
band he had found by Bank of the West. If you’ve 
lost yours, give Gary a call. My active imagination 
immediately pictured a careworn lady, holding 
way too many papers in her hands, paying off her 
mortgage, arranging for payment to an assisted 
living facility where her beloved will be going, and 
that precious ring just slipped away. Hey! Could have 
happened! Have a great week and keep praying for 
rain!

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

 “A Tablespoon of Love, A Tablespoon of Laughter” 
is available there…

 As are all the Emma Gainsworth Fall Pumpkin 
Adventures

 Follow me on Twitter, too! https://twitter.com/@
playwrightdd

MIKE OUTHOUSE, 1947-2016


“Never was there a man who balanced a tender 
compassion for all, whether two or four legged, who was 
in awe, tended to, and admired all that Mother Nature 
provided, and deeply appreciated the nuances of a quiet, 
but compelling conversation. He is a man for all ages and 
was a man of all eras... he was the very definition of the 
word 'gentle man'.”

 Mike Outhouse was born in Los Angeles on 6 June, 
1947 to parents Fred and Margie Outhouse. He passed 
away on 1 Nov, 2016 at the age of 69. Mike was raised 
in SoCal and spent time camping with his parents and 
growing up with his siblings Sheila Bass, Dick Outhouse 
and Sharon Klukas. He attended college at Cal State 
Northridge where he graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor’s 
Degree. Mike met his bride Maggie Byrne at age 28. They 
lived together in Sierra Madre, CA where they celebrated 
39 years of marriage at the time of his passing. He worked 
for LA County as a probation officer and the California 
Department of 
Corrections as a Parole 
Agent Supervisor 
for 33 years. After 
retirement in 1999, 
he volunteered at the 
Pasadena Humane 
Society where he 
developed his passion 
for working with 
difficult to adopt 
dogs. In 2011, he 
was recognized as 
Volunteer of the Year by the Pasadena Humane Society 
& SCPCA Board of Directors, an honor he cherished. 
Mike had a lifelong love of the outdoors, including scuba 
diving, biking the California coast, hiking and camping 
in the Sierras…. and always, always his dogs and Maggie.

CHANGES AT THE SIERRA MADRE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Left to right, Lt. Donna Cayson, PSD Gianonne and Captain Ortiz - Photo by Dave Felt

 On Tuesday evening, a reception was held at City Hall honoring Public Safety Director Larry 
Giannone and his 44 years of public service. Nine of those 44 years was spent serving the community 
of Sierra Madr - first as Police Captain then in 2012 as Chief of Police. In 2014 he was appointed to the 
position of Public Safety. His last working day for Sierra Madre was Friday, November 10th. 

Captain Joe Ortiz will be stepping-up to the Interim Police Chief position, while Lt. Donna Cason will 
be stepping into the Interim Captain position.

At the next City Council meeting on November 22nd, there will be a reception at 5:30 pm for retiring 
City Manager Elaine Aguilar, and Public Works Director Bruce Inman. The public is invited to attend 
the reception.


FRIENDS OF THE SIERRA MADRE LIBRARY 

SILENT AUCTION

The Friends of the Sierra Madre Library announce 
that a Silent Auction will take place from November 
1 – November 28, 2016 at the library. Featured are 
many interesting and collectible books, including 
some SIGNED, FIRST and LIMITED EDITIONS. 
The books will be in the Display Case in the 
main room of the library and will be available for 
inspection from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Saturdays, 
November 5, 12, 19, and Monday, November 28 from 
6:30-7:30 p.m. Bids may be entered in the notebook 
found on the service counter. The highest bidder 
at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, November 28 will be the 
winner. For a full list of nearly two dozen offerings, 
please see: http://sierramadrelibraryfriends.org/
silent-auction-of-collectible-books-3/

 The Friends of the Sierra Madre Library is a non-
profit organization and all proceeds benefit the 
Sierra Madre Library. The library is located at 440 
West Sierra Madre Blvd. For more information 
visit us on Facebook, at our website www.
sierramadrelibraryfriends.org, or call the library at 
626-355-7186.

We’d like to hear from you! 

What’s on YOUR Mind?

Contact us at: editor@mtnviewsnews.com or www.
facebook.com/mountainviewsnews AND Twitter: @mtnviewsnews


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com