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Remley, Zita Donegan (audio interview #3 of 6)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This is the third of six interviews with Zita Remley conducted over the course of two years and is part of a longer life history project that was initiated for a women's oral history course in the summer of 1976. 7/16/1976
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- 2021-03-18
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- *** File: refzremley4.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:08)... Remley talks about her siblings. Her oldest sister, Ethel, became a teacher but after getting tuberculosis quit and worked as a bookkeeper for several different businesses until her mother demanded her help at home. After their mother died, Ethel stayed in the big house and then married a railroad man when she was past forty. Eventually she sold the house and came to California to stay with Remley in Long Beach and then another sister in Manhattan Beach. She died in California in her 80's. (3:08-10:15)... Remley describes meeting the teachers who were selling desks when she was home from college. She liked them and decided to join them. She signed a contract and took three-week instruction in Omaha in which she learned a set spiel. They would put their foot in the door and ask people if they knew anyone with children who could use desks and asked them to sign an introduction card. Surprisingly, it worked and made for easier contact and sales. She was bonded (by her mother and a North Platte merchant), and went to conventions in Kansas City and the factory in Valparaiso, Indiana and then off to western Nebraska with two other girls. (10:15-14:39)... Remley loved the work selling desks, going to mining towns like Rock Springs and Hannah. Miners families lived in row houses and spent their lives in debt to the company store, recalling the song "I Sold My Soul to the Company Store." The desk sales were made to the wives, who were home, although she often had to return at night to close with husband. The work took her all over Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, wherever the railroad went. (14:39-18:30)... In Rock City, Remley and her sales force frequented the Bucket of Blood dance hall on Saturday nights, where she often met a great dancer named Kelley. Months later, when she was making calls she saw a picture of Kelley on the piano in one of the homes. He was the woman's brother and a "big shot", a former football player, and arriving that afternoon for homecoming. Remley left her telephone number, and she wound up going to the homecoming dance with him the next night. She still has the yellow, beaded dress she wore. (18:30-23:20)... Remley's social life on the road was almost nil. In a town like Davenport the crew went to dances as a group and came home as a group. Tommy attended chiropractic school at Davenport. She didn't go out with him much, mostly corresponded. He decided to marry her though letters. In small towns there weren't any dances. They met boys in restaurants they frequented or at the bank or post office. It didn't take long in small towns to know there were strange girls in town. In Herndon (west Kansas) the woman who rented her a room said unless you intend to stay here, you'd better get out. A few families settled this place, and the town is so inbred a boy can't find a girl he isn't related to, so a strange girl never gets out. Zeta got out. (23:20-29:35)... The traveling saleswomen got rooms to rent by using local druggists. Since they had been marketed since 1880, the Chautauqua desks were easy to sell and many parents had used them as children. The manufacturer put out books with them with articles for kids. Her name appeared in one Zeta Zane Remley; she also sometimes signed as Zeta Zane Helen Dorothy (confirmation name) Donegan, later adding Remley. Her mother was so worried that she asked parish priest if okay to change her name. Remley later discovered that her mother had used A. L. Donegan so publishers would think her poems came from a man and would publish. (29:35-34:16)... Remley's mother wrote obituaries of well-known people for the newspaper, for which she was paid. And the Catholic paper, True Voice asked her to write a parish history, which it published. She was also a great cook and could put her hand in the old oven and tell if it was the right temperature for her specialty pies or meat. She was famous for biscuits, and when the town put on a Buffalo Bill fete, Cody refused to attend unless she baked the biscuits. (34:16-38:41)... Remley was promoted to management because of her fine work selling the desks. She transferred herself to California because of Lou Remley, settled in Inglewood, and went to Laguna Beach to sell. She was quite successful, but when she got back home, she discovered that Lou hadn't paid the bills and she had to use her money. She was "really mad" and so quit her job. (38:41-41:10)... When her three children were all in school, Remley worked for three months each spring for the County Assessor. Her husband, Lou, got mad because she wouldn't spend any of her earnings. She was still mad about his not paying bills, so she banked everything she earned, maybe $200/month. She bought $800 worth of stock in Valley National Bank, which was acquired and wound up as United Bank. She still had the stock. She applied to be Postmaster of Alhambra, and got the job thanks to Senator Sheridan Downey. Louis E. Myers wrote a beautiful letter of recommendation, which she still had. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Zita Donegan Remley was an influential figure in California Democratic party politics, and was called upon regularly to organize and coordinate election campaigns. One of eight children, Remley was born in North Platte, Nebraska to a family who engaged actively in political discussions and participated regularly in Chautaquas. Her mother was an advocate of women's rights and typified progressive era reform women activists. After her Catholic school education, Remley attended the University of Nebraska. During a summer break, she met a group of school teachers who were selling Chautaqua desks and, in short order joined them, working as a traveling saleswoman. She rose in the ranks of the company and transferred herself to Los Angeles in 1925 in order to be close to her future husband. Remley became involved in politics in 1925 while living in Carlsbad, working hard for the election of Al Smith and then, in 1934, both for John Steven McGroarty, an advocate of the Townsend Plan and for Upton Sinclair. When she moved to Alhambra in 1936, she volunteered for Jerry Voorhees and became his district manager after he won the election. She worked for Voorhees until his defeat by Richard Nixon in 1946; organized the 12th District Council, which became the model in 1958 for the California Democratic Council (CDC); and was elected to serve on the Democratic Party County Committee, State Committee and Executive Board. In 1950, Remley ran Helen Gahagan Douglas's unsuccessful campaign for Senate; and in 1958 worked on the campaigns of Alan Cranston and Stanley Mosk and was recruited by the AFL/CIO State Federation to organize the campaign to defeat a "Right to Work" ballot measure. After following her husband to San Francisco in 1960, she was called on to serve as the secretary-treasurer of the Adlai Stevenson campaign in California. In addition to these campaigns, Remley worked for local Long Beach politicians while she lived there and organized the Democratic club there. Among her other organizing activities and accomplishments, Remley co-founded and chaired the Democratic Women's Forum, an organization devoted to supporting women's participation in politics and running for office. TOPICS - sister's work activities; traveling saleswoman work; women's status; earnings; family finances; job with County Assessor; and Alhambra Postmaster job;
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