Memory lane with Charles A. Bauer

JERRY PERSON

I am sure that many of you will be surprised to know that we still

have with us a distinguished gentleman who helped guide our city

through a part of its rich history, the 1950s.

I am, of course, referring to former City Atty. Charles A. Bauer,

and this week we’ll look at a part of this man’s early life.

Charles began life on Jan. 9, 1913 in the prairie town of

Fredonia, Kansas, and this small town was located approximately 60

miles from another distinguished citizen of Huntington Beach, former

mayor Earl Irby. But unlike Irby, Charles received his early

education in Kansas where he attended Fredonia High School.

After high school, Charles went to Kansas University and law

school in Lawrence, Kansas.

To pay for his law studies, Charles played the saxophone and

clarinet in a local swing band in the 1930s.

He then got a job that most young men would give there eye teeth

to have. Charles was hired as a bus boy in a girl’s dormitory. Now

why couldn’t I have gotten a job like that when I was his age?

In February of 1938 Charles graduated from law school and after

graduation he was admitted to the Kansas Bar and he started his own

law practice.

It was not long afterward that Charles decided to run for county

attorney in Wilson County, Kansas. His magnetic personality won over

the voters and he was elected to the office on Jan. 9, 1939 (the only

Democrat elected) for a two-year term.

In the January 1941 election, Charles was re-elected for another

two-year term.

With the patriotic furor that spread throughout the country with

the coming of World War II, boys were enlisting in the service in

large numbers.

Charles resigned his office as county attorney in March, 1942 and

enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman. He was sent

to the East Coast at Rockaway Beach, New York for his boot camp

training.

But the Coast Guard saw in Charles more then just a regular seaman

and in April of 1942 Charles was sent to officers training school at

New London, Conn.

Working hard at his studies, Charles was commissioned an ensign in

August of ’42 and sent to San Francisco for duty.

Now, San Francisco can be a lonely place for a Kansas boy of 29

and so when he met Darlene E. Hawkins, a registered nurse, a

relationship began.

In August of 1943, Charles boarded a plane and headed for Long

Beach to be with Darlene and in that month the two were wed.

Charles was transferred to Seattle, Wash. in June of the following

year and was shipped overseas. He saw service in the Philippines, New

Guinea, China and was on the first convoy in to liberate Shanghai

from the Japanese.

You may have thought the hurricane that struck our East Coast was

something. But you should have been with Charles as he sat through

one typhoon in Shanghai and was ordered out to sea six hours before

another typhoon was due to hit. It was during this time that Charles

received word that his father had passed away.

In November 1945 he returned to the States and in the following

year he received his honorable discharge from the service.

Charles and Darlene made their home in Long Beach while Charles

was studying for the California bar exam. He passed the bar in 1946

and in January 1947 opened a law office in Huntington Beach.

His early law office was located upstairs at 210 1/2 Main St. and their residence was at 121 Alabama St.

Three years after coming to our city, Charles ran for Huntington

Beach city attorney and was elected in 1950.

In 1951 their daughter Cheryle was born, followed in 1953 with the

birth of their second daughter, Debbie Lynne.

In 1952 Charles had moved his law office upstairs at 112 1/2 Main

St.

Ann Minnie, of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce and a

neighbor of Charles’, told me that former California Governor Pat

Brown appointed Charles to a judgeship in Santa Ana.

In 1957 the Bauers moved into their new home at 1737 Park St.

Charles joined our Elks lodge, the Masons, Shrine, V.F.W. and of

course, our chamber of commerce.

Although his wife Darlene is no longer with us, this distinguished

gentleman from our historic golden era still is still with us today.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.