Manchester Boddy

Early life and education Boddy was born November 1, 1891, in a log cabin on a Lake Tapps, Washington, homestead. He was said to have walked five miles daily to and from school and later attended Washington State College and the University of Montana. Boddy's career was called, by Art Berman of the Los Angeles Times, a "classic example of the self-made man, with his early years marked by poverty." Boddy's university years were interspersed with periods of working as a "door-to-door flatiron salesman, ditch digger, janitor and miner." Boddy spent less and less time at the newspaper as he focused his energies on his estate, Descanso Gardens, in unincorporated Flintridge, now La Cañada Flintridge, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. He eventually turned the day-to-day operations over to his general manager, Robert L. Smith. Without Boddy, the newspaper lost its spunk and no longer tilted at windmills, reported newspaper researcher and writer Rob L. Wagner. By the fall of 1953, the Daily News was losing $75,000 a month, and it folded in December 1954. The assets were purchased by the Times Mirror Company. The Los Angeles Mirror, a Times-owned afternoon tabloid newspaper, took the Daily News name to become the Mirror-News. Death Boddy died in Pasadena, California, of congestive heart failure at the age of 75 on May 12, 1967. He was survived by his wife, the former Berenice M. Klotz, and two sons, Calvin and Robert. ==Interests==

Horticulture In 1936, Boddy purchased a parcel in La Cañada, north of Los Angeles. Boddy had a wide range of interests, including horticulture, ranching, plant science, and politics. In 1942, he bought Mission Nursery of San Gabriel—and its stock—from the Yoshimura family, who were interned. Boddy named his estate in La Cañada as Rancho de Descanso, which translates as "Ranch of Restfulness (or Repose)." The estate was deeded to Los Angeles County and is now open to the public as Descanso Gardens. Politics For more, see United States Senate election in California, 1950. In 1950, U.S. Representative Helen Gahagan Douglas challenged Democratic Senator Sheridan Downey for the Democratic senatorial nomination from California. When Downey bowed out of the campaign, citing ill health, Boddy entered the race. California's Democratic State Central Committee had tried to draft Boddy to run for office in previous elections in 1942 and 1946. Boddy refused, claiming he had no interest in public office. For the 1950 Senate race, Boddy offered no specific reasons why he was running for office other than to say it was a "challenge" and he would meet interesting people. Boddy's campaign got off to a late start and, according to Wagner, was disorganized. He received an important endorsement from Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron, a Republican, and also got strong support from labor unions. His primary campaign plank was public ownership of hydroelectric plants across the state. He also supported a controversial proposal to limit land ownership in the Central Valley to . His primary weakness was the lack of solid programs to boost California's economy. Los Angeles Times political reporter Kyle Palmer wrote that "words flow" easily from Boddy, but his late start and lack of political credentials were handicaps to a successful campaign. In May 1950, just weeks before the primary election, Boddy labeled Douglas the "Pink Lady" by implying that she was aligned with Communists and was part of a group of "red hots" trying to seize control of Democratic county committees in the state. Boddy and Douglas ran a bitter primary campaign, leaving Douglas, the Democratic victor, badly wounded in her race against the winner of the Republican primary, Congressman Richard Nixon. Boddy came up with the idea of comparing Douglas's voting record to that of leftist New York Congressman Vito Marcantonio of the American Labor Party—a tactic that was seized on by Nixon and his campaign manager, Murray Chotiner, in the general election. On June 6, 1950, Douglas beat Boddy at the polls largely on the strength of her popularity with African-American voters. She garnered 889,000 votes to Boddy's 532,000. Nixon, who had cross-filed in both parties in the primary, won 1,060,000 votes. Douglas lost to Nixon in the November general election. ==See also==