Obituaries - May 12, 1996

* Dorothy Page Emerson; Staged Antique Shows

Dorothy Page Emerson, 92, doyenne of antique shows for more than 30 years. Born in Oklahoma when it was an Indian territory, Emerson spent her early adulthood as a homemaker in Chicago. She became interested in antiques after moving to Los Angeles in the late 1950s. In 1959, she took over an antique show operation started by Helen and Gordon Pascal in the Pan Pacific Auditorium. For three decades, Emerson staged three antique shows a year at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, two at Cal State Northridge and another at the Orange County Fairgrounds. One of her frequent exhibitors was the entertainer Liberace, who once had owned an antique shop. On April 27 in Los Angeles of pneumonia.

* Isabel Patterson; Long Beach

Philanthropist, Civic Leader

Isabel Patterson, 88, Long Beach educator, real estate agent and philanthropist. Known as “the yellow rose of Texas” for her blond hair and birthplace, Patterson in middle age became one of the first graduates of the then-new Cal State Long Beach in 1951. She began her career as an elementary schoolteacher but then switched to real estate in the Belmont Shore area. Financially successful, she became a major donor, providing more than $3 million in scholarships and other funds for Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach, which named its Isabel Patterson Child Development Center in her honor. She also worked as a fund-raiser for such groups as the Long Beach Community Improvement League to aid minorities and the elderly. Patterson served eight years on the Long Beach Planning Commission and was on the boards of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, YMCA and St. Mary Medical Center. Rep. Steve Horn of Long Beach, who helped win her funding for the Cal State children’s center, noted that her death was “overshadowed by the legacy of hope and promise” that she provided for young people. On Wednesday in Long Beach of a heart attack.

* Paul Roth; Fashion Consultant Promoted California Apparel

Paul Roth, 72, fashion consultant who promoted California apparel. After serving in the Army in France during World War II, Roth remained to study art at Academy Julien in Paris. He became the first American to work in haute couture there, assisting Jeanne Lanvin and Christian Dior and writing about postwar redevelopment of the French fashion industry for a U.S. apparel industry magazine. Returning to the United States, he served as fashion editor of Esquire for 15 years, greatly enhancing the importance of men’s fashion and toiletries. As a fashion consultant in the 1960s and ‘70s, Roth developed clothing collections and staged fashion shows featuring California labels for the fiber companies Milliken, Celanese and Hoechst, which introduced Trevira. He later served as fashion director at Gentlemen’s Quarterly and California Men’s Stylist magazine. In North Hollywood, Roth became a major fund-raiser for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drugs. On Monday in Los Angeles of complications after surgery.

* Don Stewart; Insurance Industry Activist

Don Stewart, 70, insurance industry advocate and organizer who fought to extend coverage to minorities. Stewart began his career as an agent for Farmer’s Insurance before founding his own agency in Pasadena in 1963. He developed that into the American Agents Alliance, a statewide cooperative of independent agents that lobbies on political and regulatory issues affecting the insurance industry. He served as president of the group from 1966 to 1979 and as executive director from 1979 until he retired in 1991, turning over the responsibility to his daughter, Lorelle Hurlbut. Stewart was instrumental in helping to pass California’s compulsory auto insurance bill in 1974. Concerned about problems of redlining, Stewart helped create the Alliance of Los Angeles Inner City Brokers and Agents to seek better insurance coverage for minorities. From his South Pasadena home, Stewart also founded the National Auto Agents Alliance in 1995. On Tuesday in Corpus Christi, Texas, of a heart attack.

* J.L. Velazquez; Aeronautical Design Engineer

J.L. Velazquez, 81, aeronautical design engineer with Lockheed’s top-secret “Skunk Works.” A native of Douglas, Ariz., he was educated at Caltech and served on an aircraft carrier in the Navy during World War II. He designed for Douglas, North American, Piaseki, Weber and Hughes as well as Lockheed, reluctantly retiring when he turned 75. Velazquez, who had a private pilot’s license, was nationally lauded by Aviation Week magazine for his work on vertical takeoff and landing craft. After his retirement, Velazquez continued to work in his home laboratory on what he called his “project,” a perpetual motion apparatus that resembled a flying saucer. On April 21 in Burbank of heart and kidney failure.