HOLY GREAT DISCOVERY: The Story behind how I preserved the History of Norwalk for Generations to enjoy!

As you may recall, my house suffered a fire last June 15th, 2008. Everything in my garage was lost to the blaze. Remarkably in the ash and trash, I found this tattered article about the history book I wrote in 1983 on Norwalk, California.

From fire comes Blessings, and this FIND was literally a true MIRACLE!

Here's a little background:

I was hired as the Public Information Officer for the City of Norwalk in 1982 when I was 22 years old. At the time, I was the youngest Municipal Public Information Officer in California, according to the California Association of Public Information Officers.

Prior to joining the City of Norwalk, I was the City Editor of the Norwalk Herald American, where I was responsible for the editing, writing and producing a twice weekly newspaper to Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, South Whittier and Los Nietos. We had more than 80,000 weekly readers, way back before the invention of the Internet.

As the Norwalk Public Information, one of my first jobs, was to embark on writing, editing, and composing a 144-page pictorial history book on Norwalk's rich past.

I worked closely with former Norwalk Mayor Margaret I. "Peg" Nelson on the project. It was a true labor of love, and one that I will always cherish.

I began looking through almost 100,000 photos, most coming from the Estate of Ramsey and Marian Cowan. Ramsey Cowan was a photographer and owned the only camera store in Norwalk. His wife Marian Cowan, assisted me with this massive task that took over 14 months of hard research and photo selection. We also had dozens of Norwalk "pioneer" families who donated photos to this true "community" effort. Click the above "Acknowledgements" page to see those who were truly responsible for making this book a reality.

I only had a budget of $25,000.00 to complete the entire project. Now a days, cities in our area will spend OVER $25,000.00 EACH month to print ONE city newsletter. Since this original printing, the City of Norwalk has reprinted literally thousands of these local "history" books.

The above article was written by Southeast News Reporter Mark Higgins, and the date of the article appeared May 6, 1983. Click BOTH articles to see larger. Hey, Mark, if you happen to stumble upon my blog, drop me a note at RREconomy@aol.com.

The History of Norwalk, California is amazing. Did you know that Norwalk use to have an airport, was the home to California's largest ostrich farm; and was the "halfway point" between Los Angeles and Anaheim in the late 1890's for stagecoaches.

It also was the located of film many major motion pictures including "The Postman Always Rings Twice" with Lana Turner and John Garfield....

...and also hosted a major celebrity charity concert at Excelsior High School Auditorium with the legendary Jayne Mansfield and her husband Mickey Hargitty (seen with former Norwalk Mayor Demy Apodaca and his wife, Genevive backstage) .

Norwalk was also the site of one of Los Angeles County's worst air disasters when in 1958 a huge four engine Air Force Transport Plane collided with a sleek twin-engine Navy Anti-Submarine Bomber. More than 50 people lost their life in the horrific crash, and more than 250,000 people invaded the sleepy Norwalk community on the day after the crash occurred.

I am STILL proud of this book that has helped literally thousands of children in Norwalk learn about the history of their community.

Make sure you click BOTH the TOP and BOTTOM news clips in order to read.

It's ironic, that after I left the City of Norwalk to pursue a career in politics and cable television, my name was removed as the "Author" of this book. I guess, sometimes petty politicians enjoy "rewriting" local history. But sometimes, history can NEVER be rewritten.

By the way, you can STILL purchase this book on-line at Amazon.com. I found this by looking it up on the Amazon website. Problem is, it's being sold for $84 bucks while they last. LOL.

Norwalk, California: "proud of our past-- confident of our future"

by Randell R Economy (Author)

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Price at a Glance Used: from Norwalk, California. City Of Norwalk. 1985. Very Good Condition.

$84.00

+ $3.99 shipping

Rating: 95% positive over the past 12 months (82 ratings.) 486 lifetime ratings. Comments: Excellent Paperback with clean, crisp, bright and tightly bound pages. Great for the Norwalk historian.