Lorraine Edith Geittmann

Lorraine Edith Geittmann was born December 11th, 1933, in Lancaster, Wisconsin, to Elmer T, and Leone E. (Allen) Geittmann. She grew up in the Ohio River town of Metropolis, Illinois. She was a 1951 Honor Society graduate of Metropolis Community High School. She won the Massac County general scholarship to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a senior reporter on the student newspaper of the Daily Illini and was elected to Honorary Shorter Board and Torch. She received her bachelor’s degree in Journalism in June of 1955, and moved to California where she had family members.

In 1957, she joined the staff of the Daily Breeze Newspaper where she worked for 10 years, taking leave in 1960 to be a congressional fellow of the American Political Science Association in Washington, DC. She worked on the staff of Rep. B.F. Sisk of Fresno California, and Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine. While in Washington she attended the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. She returned to the Daily Breeze Newspaper in 1961, but left in 1967 to attend graduate school to study Political Science at California State University at Long Beach where she was a graduate assistant.

In 1969 she became a Los Angeles County Deputy Probation Officer and held that position for 25 years. She was the secretary of the Probation Officers union for two terms.

After her retirement in 1994, she served as a Commissioner on several Redondo Beach City Boards, and as the President of Friends of the Library. She served 5 terms as president of the Beach Cities Democratic Club and several years as an AD 66 Delegate for the Democratic Party. She also served several terms as an elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the executive board of the Democratic State Central Committee. She was a 1980 delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She served on a committee for the Beach Cities Health District. She also was a volunteer for several years at Torrance Memorial Hospital and belonged to Omnilore Learning in retirement from 2000 until her passing.

She was an early member of the Pacific Unitarian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes.

She was preceded in death by her parents, longtime companion Robert Jones, brothers: Charles Geittmann and John W. Geittmann, sister-in-law Myrna Geittmann, nephew J. Greg Geittmann, and great nephew Shawn M. Norman.

She is survived by her niece Suzanne Lowery, nephew William F. (Karen) Geittmann, great nephew Geoffrey W. (Cindy) Geittmann, Kyle (Courtney) Howerton, great great nephew Leon and her great, great, nieces Autumn F. Norman, and Grace S. Geittmann from Marion, Illinois, along with niece Jodie L. Geittmann and nephew Rick A. Geittmann from Rainier, Washington.

Services will be January 24th, at 2:00pm in the Green Hills Memorial Chapel. 27501 S. Western Ave. Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275. Burial will be held immediately after intermittent.