Marge Stamm - Biography
Marge Stamm was born in Osawatomie, Kansas in 1915. Her younger brother had pneumonia twice before he was 2 years old, with doctors warning that he would not live another winter. Her father, a cement contractor of dams and bridges, had a friend who lived near Pomona and talked the area up. Her family moved from Kansas to Ontario in 1922 when Marge was 7 years old, driving a Model T Ford and ½ a room of furniture. They drove by way of Elephant Butte, New Mexico, staying in some of the first auto camps.
Marge had three brothers. They first lived in a tent house at the Omatea Garden Hotel (later the Capri Hotel) in Ontario, then they rented a house on Euclid Avenue in Ontario. Her father became a plasterer. At 14 years of age, Marge would go to the Carnegie Library to read about Queen Victoria, and the librarians were so impressed by her research and reading skills they asked her to be a page for the library (putting away books).
She graduated from Ontario High School in 1933, and then went to Chaffey Junior College in 1935. She met her husband at Laguna Beach, where he was visiting from college in Oregon. He came from a wealthy family in Pasadena who had bought a 40 acre citrus ranch in Upland on Euclid Ave. and 13th. They also owned a bank in Ontario.
Her husband's Laguna vacation roommate as the personnel director of Bullocks Department store in Los Angeles. Right after graduating from Junior College, this roommate got Marge a sales job at Bullocks, which she hated.
During the war, after getting married she first lived with her husband in Balboa, then Laguna, then Balboa, then Corona Del mar, then back to Laguna. Her husband was a civil engineer and was called to help layout the Kaiser Steel Mill in 1950. They had two children and lived in a rental until they had their current house built in 1951. They have lived in that Alta Loma house ever since.
She began her volunteer work with the Republican Party in Alta Loma. She participated in many community activities including Girl Scout and PTA work (due to her daughter). These connections helped in her Tri-Community Incorporation Committee (TCIC) work.
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