Imagine a large, carpeted room with black drapes against one wall and a life-size rubberized spider-web net in front of another-an indoor jungle of sorts. Twenty-eight arms and legs move slowly along the floor, bones pressing and pulling against the ground in graceful, fluid motion. Only the lights in the studio reveal the truth: these animal-like creatures are humans. Yet the stimulating movements remind them of their animal aliveness, that feeling of inner strength and vitality. “We’re here to not get stuck in our ways,” says Palisadian Sharon Weil Aaron, who teaches the Saturday morning Continuum Movement class, called The Ageless Body, in Santa Monica. “When you relieve yourself of upright human identity, all these other energies come in, because they’re already there.” Based on Continuum, a system of fluid movement, The Ageless Body focuses on issues that arise during aging, including bone and skeletal health, joints, vitality, recovery and resiliency, and waning sensuality. Aaron helped develop the program a year ago with Continuum founder Emilie Conrad and instructor Barbara Mindell. “We felt there was a need [for the class] for baby boomers plus, and people who are starting to feel less active,” says Aaron, 48. “The Ageless Body is about creating possibilities in a process where people feel their possibilities are diminishing.” She begins the class on bone health by talking about the spiral structure of bones in order to give her students context for the movement, breath and sound exercises they will be doing. “When you age, you lose fluids,” Aaron says. “By keeping fluids active, we can increase concentration, radiance and flexibility.” Other benefits of Continuum can include restored strength, mobility, responsiveness, sensuality, sexuality and a feeling of youthfulness. Aaron, a former dancer, turned to Continuum 16 years ago, when she was in her early 30s, as a method of healing injured ligaments around her tailbone. While most of her current students are in their 40s and 50s, the program attracts a range of ages. “As people age, some take themselves out of the whole exercise/active picture because of limitations they think they have,” says Aaron, who has also practiced yoga, Pilates and swimming. “Others hurl themselves into linear activity.” Linear exercise includes working out on mechanical equipment at the gym. The nonlinear movement of Continuum offers a more feasible option for people of all ages and body types who want to improve and maintain their health by keeping their bodies active. Aaron’s oldest student, Ginny Mac, 76, admits to feeling stronger and more alive after one month of The Ageless Body. “I could hardly walk up the stairs [before I started Continuum],” Mac says. “Now, I am bending my arms and legs. I get on the floor and move.” She also uses the movements she learns to exercise in her bed at home. In class, students at all different levels can work on the floor, in a chair, or on equipment such as an “explore board” or the “web.” These latter two options offer more freedom to move in a variety of positions with greater ease. My own experience off of the ground, on the explore board, gave me the sensation that I was moving in an entirely different atmosphere, like the weightless feeling I imagine astronauts have in space. Aaron says that Continuum is different from other mind and body movement classes because it “questions what your body is and what we hold as true [about our bodies].” For example, while yoga “reinforces structure,” Continuum encourages us to understand our bodies in flux. Aaron’s two-hour classes are based around a sequence of different movement, sound and breath exercises that work together in a progression, and that relate to each class’s theme. While she designs the sequence and leads her students through it, there is a lot of room for individual exploration and adjustment depending on each student’s needs. In the bone health class, we strapped weights on our wrists and ankles to add more muscular resistance and to create traction. Most of us sat upright, cross-legged on the floor and began stimulating our bones internally by making resonant sounds (“zzz” and “jsh”), which created a vibrating feeling within the body. Slowly, we transitioned into the second part, which involved moving our hands, palms down, in a spiral motion, while making the theta (“th”) sound; this part helped to open up our joints. We then moved onto all fours and continued activating and strengthening our bones by pressing and pulling them against the floor, leaning back and forth in wavelike motion. By the end of the sequence, my whole body was involved as I pressed my left cheekbone and then my forehead against the floor, following the relaxing, fluid motion of my body. “Continuum breaks down barriers that words create and creates its own language,” says Jeanne James, 57, who has a thyroid disease called Hashimoto’s. She started taking Continuum 12 years ago because she felt pain in several parts of her body, and was one of the first to join The Ageless Body. “It’s been wonderful to open up those places that were injured and to feel more fluid,” James says. “I’m not dependent on anyone to do it for me.” She comes to Aaron’s Saturday morning class all the way from Pasadena because there is nothing like it offered closer to home and she finds it more “sustaining” than her experiences with yoga and rolfing. At the end of Aaron’s class, students shared their reactions to and feelings about the experience, while Aaron listened and offered suggestions to some. In addition to The Ageless Body, she also teaches a strengthening and toning class called Jungle Gym, which attracts many students, including her husband, John Aaron. She has been teaching Jungle Gym for nine years, and was able to teach up until one month before having her daughter, Sophie Aaron, now age 5. Sophie attends preschool at Little Dolphins by the Sea in Temescal Canyon. John is a professional photographer and practices martial arts. Aaron will be offering a free introductory Ageless Body class this Saturday, January 10, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. The ongoing program will be taught in five-and-six-week series throughout the year, starting January 24. The cost is $75 for the five class series and $20 for a single class. The Continuum Studio is located at 1629 18th Street, Studio 7, in Santa Monica. Contact Aaron at agelessbody@earthlink.net or 459-3326.
Local Rice Expert Develops Frozen Microwave Products
A hot new product has hit the frozen section at Gelson’s. Shoppers steering their carts down the chilly aisle may want to stop and check out Rice Expressions, a microwaveable organic rice line created by Palisades resident Pete Vegas. “For the first time, people can really relate to what I do,” says Vegas, founder and president of Sage V Foods (pronounced Sage Five), a company that specializes in producing rice-based ingredients for use in processed foods. “The fact that we’re at Gelson’s is a big deal for me.” Rice Expressions is frozen, pre-cooked rice that microwaves in three minutes with no bowl or water involved. There are four varieties: organic brown, organic long-grain, organic Tex Mex and Indian basmati. Each box contains three 10-oz. packages and sells for $4.69. While Rice Expressions represents a small part of what Sage V Foods actually produces, “It’s the most interesting part,” Vegas says, “and it’s what I’d like to see become the biggest part.” A rice expert, Vegas first began developing the concept for Rice Expressions about five years ago. “We had the technology, the equipment and the know-how to [freeze the rice],” he says. “And rice microwaves and heats well, unlike frozen vegetables.” Since Sage V Foods was making enough money selling rice flour and other rice ingredients to big companies, Vegas was able to focus on developing his new product-the only frozen rice sold as simply a packet of rice without any extras. “Rice Expressions was the best little idea I had and I wanted us to do it on our own,” says Vegas, who began experimenting in his Marquez-neighborhood home. “It’s still me usually playing around with something on the weekends in my kitchen or at our lab in Texas.” Vegas has been working with rice for most of his adult life. Before rice, it was soybeans, which he farmed during his college years at Louisiana State University. “My father was a farm equipment dealer so I got the equipment from him.” After graduating with a degree in agribusiness in 1978, Vegas traveled to Panama for a year to work as a management trainee on a Chiquita Banana farm. He then returned to earn his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1982. At the time, a large rice milling company called Comet Rice was launching a joint venture in Puerto Rico, and hired Vegas to manage the operation. “I got to do everything,” he says. He supervised the construction of the Comet milling facility, trained a 200-man work force, and was involved with farming, drying, storing, milling and marketing the rice. When the company began importing instead of farming rice, Vegas learned about shipping, stevedoring and handling bulk rice. “There are few people who know more about rice than I do,” says Vegas, who returned to the U.S. in 1986 to become VP of marketing for Comet Rice. He has become particularly well-versed in the technical issues of rice, such as how you get rice to expand, and about the functionality of rice-how other countries use rice in applications other than table rice. “I’ve been almost everywhere in the world where they deal with rice,” Vegas says. Between 1986 and 1992, Comet sent him to Thailand, India and Japan, as well as Iraq, whose government was the largest customer for U.S. rice at the time. Vegas designed and supervised the construction of a bulk handling facility in Aqaba, Jordan, which incorporated a new technology to allow large volumes of high-quality white rice to be shipped in bulk and bagged at destination. As a result, Comet’s sales to Iraq ultimately exceeded 300,000 metric tons a year. In 1992, Vegas started Comet Rice Ingredients, a subsidiary of Comet Rice, and began focusing on “how to develop new applications for rice.” His experience abroad had made him realize that “the United States doesn’t utilize rice. Rice has the potential of corn [in terms of widespread use] but no one knows that.” He bought out the company in 1998 and renamed it Sage V Foods (Sage V is Vegas spelled backwards). Though his company has grown slowly, reaching $25 million in sales, Vegas predicts that in 18 months sales will reach $40 million. “In the last two years, business has finally started coming to us,” he says. “We’re known in the industry as ‘the Rice Guys.'” Based in Westwood, Sage V’s biggest business is selling rice flour to large companies and showing them how to use the flour to make other products-for example, the coating on french fries and the crisp rice in granola bars. They sell rice ingredients and products to companies like Healthy Choice, Weight Watchers, Frito-Lay and Quaker Oats. “All the products we sell, we’ve developed,” says Vegas, who purposely made the Rice Expressions product organic so that it could be sold in health food stores, which don’t charge slotting (shelving) allowances like the larger companies. The rice is grown north of Sacramento and is cooked in Texas, where Sage V Foods has a cooking plant and a rice flour mill; the company is currently building two more facilities in Arkansas. While developing Rice Expresssions, Sage V tried three different freezing processes, from nitrogen to mechanical freezing. “We literally ripped the [cooking] plant to the ground three times,” Vegas says. “It’s not easy to freeze each grain separately.” However, Vegas believes that his frozen rice product, which has been on the market for a year now, is superior to the taste of dry instant rice. “If we get people to try it, we do well,” he says, admitting that he spent a lot of money on packaging but little on advertising. His initial target market was vegetarians and people who need gluton-free products. Now he’s focusing on food service and retail, including sales to Red Robin, Friendly’s and Ruby Tuesday’s restaurants, plus private labels for stores such as Safeway and Vons. “The Atkins diet has hit everyone who sells starch protects,” Vegas says. While the organic brown and Tex-Mex rices are selling well, he may replace the white long-grain and basmati with a flavored pilaf and organic Thai jasmine rice. Though Vegas says he knows of an even better way to develop Rice Expressions, he does not have the means to pursue it at this point. “I’m three years behind where I want to be, but I have that kind of patience,” he says. “You have to know what’s going to be successful and you’ve got to be trying a lot of things at once.” Vegas and his wife, Jean, moved to the Palisades in 1986. Jean, an Iowa native, earned her bachelor’s degree in microbiology from LSU, and later went back to school to get her teaching certification. She now teaches second grade at Marquez Charter Elementary. They have three kids: Matt, a junior at UC Santa Cruz; Brett, a Palisades High senior, and Scott, an 8th grader at Paul Revere.
LAPD Issues Crime Alert after Rash of Vehicle Burglaries Here
In the last three weeks, 15 cars have been reported burglarized in Pacific Palisades, the most recent incidents occurring sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning on Asilomar, El Medio and Seabec Circle. “The most shocking thing is that none of these cars showed any sign of forced entry, ” said LAPD Detective Jeff Brumagin, auto theft supervisor of the West L.A. Division. “This would indicate that all of the cars were unlocked. They were either parked on the street or in people’s driveways.” Brumagin said the modis operandi in all the recent car thefts was the same. “We don’t know if it is locals or transients doing this, but it would appear they pick an area and then just go from car to car and steal whatever they can find, from loose change and a $5 pair of sunglasses to a $3,000 laptop. They usually strike overnight. The only evidence we have is some empty beer bottles, which they have either left on car seats or on people’s lawns.” Sometime between December 11 and 12, thieves hit Chapala and Almar, and then between Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas they burglarized several cars in Rustic Canyon. Just before New Year’s, cars were hit on Bienveneda and Hartzell. “Lock your cars!” is Brumagin’s advice.
Palisadians Dogged in Park Quest
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The preferred site for the first dedicated off-leash dog park in Pacific Palisades is noisy and filled with debris, but that didn’t deter the nine PaliDog members who toured the area for the second time on Tuesday afternoon with their pets in tow. Never mind that the group could not find the exact location of the proposed site or that they could barely hear each other over the roar of traffic along Pacific Coast Highway. Neither could curb their enthusiasm. “I think it’s perfect,” said Palisadian Linda Rosetti, who walked the site (located on the north side of PCH between Potrero Canyon and Temescal Canyon Road) with her Labrador retriever, Pearl. So does Judith Collas, the proud owner of two rescues from the pound, Penny and Tess. “But I recognize it’s going to be a long haul,” she said. The two-acre site, where proposed drilling by Occidental Petroleum was defeated by a No Oil coalition in the late 1980s, is owned by L.A.’s Department of Recreation and Parks which already supports seven off-leash dog parks elsewhere in the city. However, it is landlocked on three sides by property under state jurisdiction, including Caltrans which apparently controls access to the site. Joining PaliDog members on the tour was Laurie Newman, senior deputy to state Senator Sheila Kuehl, who has dealt with Caltrans in the past. The group has enlisted Newman’s help to negotiate the use of what has come to be known as “the former Oxy site.” Palisades Community Council representative Norm Kulla, a Highlands resident who led the tour, told Newman that his group is seeking the use of less than four acres from Caltrans, which currently uses the site for storage (including industrial sewer pipes, concrete road barriers, and cement sand). “We are not asking Caltrans to vacate the site,” Kulla told the Palisadian-Post. “We are merely asking them to share it. What we need, actually, is three acres for large dogs and three-quarters of an acre for smaller dogs. Ideally, people would be able to access the site on foot from Temescal Canyon, the top of Potrero Canyon and the bluffs at Via de las Olas. There would also be car access from PCH. Right now, this area is an eyesore.” Collas, who has done research on the site for PaliDog, agreed. “In 1991, when Occidental offered the land to the City of L.A., it was to be put to the best possible use for the enjoyment of the citizens,” Collas said. “But since then nothing has been done and it’s been used as a dump.” While there was apparently a request in 1993 by Rec and Parks to Caltrans to provide access to the property, Collas said she found no further documents related to the issue when she researched city records. However, Monique Ford, a deputy in Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski’s office who was on the field trip, informed the group that there is indeed a land swap in the works between Caltrans and Rec and Parks, although she could not provide any details. Ford’s news stopped the group in its tracks. “It gets complicated when you’re talking about land swaps and easements,” Newman said. “Caltrans is not going to give up land adjacent to PCH very easily, but that doesn’t mean they won’t agree to some kind of long-term lease or something.” The group agreed that the next step is to have a land survey done to pinpoint the proposed site. “I think it’s a great use of the land,” Newman said. “It’s just a question of access and available resources.” She promised to make some phone calls and get back to the group. Wil Sharpe, who went on the field trip with Itza, his 4-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, felt encouraged by Newman’s involvement. “Anytime we can get a government representative to support our cause, I think it brings us a step closer to actually making it happen,” he said. Sharpe’s sentiment was shared by Joseph Beauchamp, who went on the outing with his four standard poodles. Having lived in the Palisades for 11 years, he wants a local dog park because he now has to travel several times a day from his home in Castellammare to Sullivan Canyon to walk his dogs. Bill Kravitz, who lives on Lachman Lane, walks his dog Greasy on the Asilomar bluffs and in Rustic Canyon. Rosetti admits to currently walking her dog, off-leash, in Potrero Canyon. As she watched her dog frolic in a pond on the Oxy site, she said: “I don’t see why we can’t start using it now. All we need is to install a chain-link fence to protect the dogs. The noise [from PCH] doesn’t seem to bother them.” Following the field trip, the Post contacted local historian Randy Young about the prospects of the former Oxy site and negotiating access from Caltrans. He did not see this as a problem. “That’s their job, to provide public access,” he said, “and through their mitigation fund to make it possible for just this kind of project. Caltrans provided almost 90 percent of the funds to build Los Liones Gateway park so I don’t see why they wouldn’t support this project.” Young sees any development on the site as a “wonderful opportunity for both the state and the city to work together to come up with a larger plan for the whole area instead of leaving it as a dump site, which it is now.”
Absolutfunk Brings New Twist to Holiday Music
When the Madrigal program at Palisades High School evaporated a couple of years ago, a small group who had grown close through their singing gigs felt the loss. “We love each other and we love singing in a group,” said Sarah Figoten, who along with six of her fellow former Madrigals started the Absolutfunk a cappella group in November. They include recent Pali graduates Sarah Figoten, Jamie Perez, Eddie Castuera, Kendall Day, Josh Siegel, B.J. Baclawski and Miranda Kerr, a senior at Pali. The name describes them so well, they say, because “We wanted something with funk in it.” They’re right; their arrangements of their favorite songs combine colorful harmonies syncopated with vocal percussion. In addition, each of the seven singers has a different sound and because of their experience with the Madrigals, all are comfortable with classical as well as jazz arrangements. The group stopped by the annual Palisadian-Post Christmas party last Thursday and opened the program with “Danos Su Paz” (Give Us Peace), a beautiful sentiment for this season, followed by “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear.” Looking at the group, one wondered just where the drum and brushes were coming from, and discovered a virtual percussion kit deep inside member Eddie Castuera. Vocal percussion (or mouth drumming) is the production of percussive sounds using only the speech apparatus. For the past three years, Castuera has been perfecting the techniques, which require good breath, control and practice practice practice. Absolutfunk rehearse Sunday afternoons, when they work on arrangements. Their method is democratic, as each member takes over directing the piece he or she has arranged. While all of them read music, they often depend on Siegel, who plays piano, or Baclawski, who plays guitar, to set the melody. “We perfect each song over weeks,” says Baclawski. “Some of these, like ‘Carol of the Bells’ are quite complicated and can’t be done in just one sitting.” While Kerr is the lone highschooler, the group has stayed pretty close to home. Siegel is an opera major at Cal State Northridge; Castuera is a music and sociology major at Santa Monica College, where Day, Perez and Figoten are also students. Baclawski teaches music at Gorman School, a small homeschool in the Palisades. Busy during the holidays, the group performs for private parties, and promotes themselves by singing gratis in public spaces like Third Street Promenade. “We sang at the Promenade, but weren’t allow to ask for money because we don’t have a license,” said Perez. “But, we did end up with $6.” For more information, contact B.J. at 428-0252 or Jamie at 367-1090.
Crossing Guard Jazzes Up Marquez Students
By JULIET GIGLIO Special to the Palisadian-Post Dane Calcote has been a crossing guard for only one year, but he’s been a jazz musician for almost a lifetime. Better known as Mr. Dane to Marquez Elementary students, Calcote arrived on campus to work as the first, much-needed, much-appreciated crossing guard at the school. He orchestrated the traffic like a leader of a band. And now he is one again. When Dane noticed students carrying instruments to school, he asked them if they were interested in playing with him. In no time at all, the word got out, and Calcote had formed a jazz ensemble. The group practices during recess three days a week. “The amazing thing is that Dane is doing all this out of the goodness of his heart. He’s not getting paid any money for it,” said PTA president Gayle Kirkpatrick. Calcote is a professional percussionist who plays everything from the bongos, maracas, kalim’ba, timbales and triangles to chimes, guiro, tambourines, claves, vibraslap and bird whistles. “I was self-taught,” said Dane, who began playing the drums at 8 years old. “It was a slow process of learning for me. Now I want to help these kids.” “Kids have been practicing like crazy since they joined up with me,” Calcote added. “I tell their parents to get their kids to listen to CDs of the music they will play. It encourages them to practice.” In terms of music in the school, Calcote feels that “more jazz music should be introduced to fourth and fifth graders. They need to play more than just classical music because they get bored. If they play jazz, they’ll be more interested in their music.” The Marquez Jazz Ensemble made its debut at the school’s holiday concert, performing “Little Drummer Boy” and “Jingle Bells” to a rousing applause. “It was phenomenal. They were great and really wonderful. The fact that someone who is a volunteer would come in and do this was great,” said Lisa Rogers-Halliday, mother to ensemble members Myles and Stedman. With a leader whose resume includes a long list of live gigs, studio session recordings and private parties, students realize they are lucky to have Calcote as their leader. “Playing with Mr. Dane has made me enjoy music more,” said fifth grader Dylan Jeffers. Calcote’s enthusiasm for his music is infectious. “Jazz is international. It brings together all types of music from rock-and-roll to hip hop. And it brings together all types of people. It’s something everybody can relate to.” Thanks to Calcote’s boom box which spills out jazz along Marquez Avenue each morning and afternoon, parents and carpoolers have felt the positive vibe of jazz. “I’m sure the music helps to calm down the drivers in the carpool lane,” Calcote said. “Now I hope people will all come to our spring concert. We’re working on five new tracks for that!” Drivers please remember, no horn honking allowed when Mr. Dane is around. You would just mess up the rhythm.
Audrey Hepburn: A Son Remembers
When Audrey Hepburn passed away 11 years ago this month at the age of 63, she left behind a formidable legacy. While people remember her Broadway debut (“Gigi,” for which she won a Tony) and her many Hollywood movies (including “The Nun’s Story,” “My Fair Lady,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “Roman Holiday,” for which she won an Oscar in 1956) her greatest achievement was as a humanitarian. To continue her work, millions of dollars have been raised since her death in 1993 by both the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund at UNICEF and the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, to provide basic care and education to children both in the U.S. and abroad. “I speak for those children who cannot speak for themselves,” Hepburn said in an address to the United Nations in 1989. “Forty thousand still die every day from preventable diseases like polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, measles, and the worst killer of all, dehydration from diarrhea caused by unclean drinking water and malnutrition. No natural calamity, be it flood or earthquake, has ever claimed so many children’s lives.” In the five years Hepburn worked as an ambassador for UNICEF (1988-92), she was the consummate volunteer. She never expected, or received, any perks. No private jets, Beluga caviar or Rolex watches for her. In fact, in the trenches, she would often eat the same relief portions (a bowl of porridge) as the children she came to serve. She did it in the hope that the world would pay attention to the plight of these children. “This is why I wanted to come to Somalia,” explained Hepburn in the fall of 1992, “not because I can do very much, but because there cannot be enough witnesses. If I can be one more and speak up for one child, it is worthwhile.” Hepburn’s work with UNICEF was a far cry from the glamorous life she led in the 1950s, when she was photographed by Cecil Beaton, dressed by Hubert de Givenchy and directed by William Wyler, Billy Wilder and Stanley Donen. Hepburn, who had studied to be a dancer before World War II intervened, worked with such stars as Fred Astaire (“Funny Face”), Humphrey Bogart (“Sabrina”), and Mel Ferrer (“War and Peace”), whom she married in 1954. What is not known about Hepburn is that she gave up her movie career after her second marriage to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti in 1969 to live in Rome and be a full-time mother to her two young sons, Sean Ferrer and Luca Dotti. Ferrer, who grew up in Europe and speaks five languages, heads his mother’s foundation and works hard to preserve her memory with dignity. You will never find Audrey Hepburn’s Oscar or diamond earrings being sold on EBay, for example. Sean Ferrer, who lives in Santa Monica with his family, will sign copies of his book (“Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit”) on Tuesday, January 6 at Village Books at 7:30 p.m Personally, I was looking forward to the book, as Sean, 43, and I have been friends for some time. In it, he answers many of the questions I had about their life together. LR: How would you describe your mother? SF: She was very loving towards us, her own family. To the rest of the world she was, as some liked to describe her, a steel hand in a velvet glove. She was strong-willed and sure of what she wanted. She worked hard, whether it was for UNICEF, or on a film or in her garden at our home in Switzerland, which she loved. I remember her soft hands, her long hair, her bare feet. She loved pasta, which she ate at least once a day. Her recipe for spaghetti al pomodoro is in the book. LR: How long did it take to write? SF: I started writing it the day after my mother passed away. Although the actual writing took maybe a few months in all, it was spread over a couple of years. My mother was a very private person so I did not want to violate that. But I did want people to know what a fine person she was. She died in 1993, and still, she’s everywhere: on television all the time, in every conversation I have with anyone. People ask me what it was like to be the son of a famous movie star. Well, I don’t know, because she tried to keep our life as normal as possible. She did what any other mom does: picked us up from school, helped with homework, made our dinner. LR: There have been at least half a dozen biographies written about your mother. Why did she never write her own? SF: Because she was not interested in putting together what she felt were a collection of meaningless vignettes. That’s how humble she was. While my mother was revered both for her film performances and her real-life crusade, how do you market a “Hollywood” biography without the public scandals and lurid secrets? My mother had none. She was considering toward the end of her life writing something for my brother and me about the family, a kind of record of all the extraordinary people she had met and events she witnessed. But she couldn’t find the time away from her work for UNICEF. And then it was too late. LR: How did your mother become a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF? SF: My mother first came into contact with UNICEF in Holland, where she lived as a child. She was one of the tens of thousands of starving children in war-ravaged Europe to receive aid from UNICEF immediately after the liberation. They brought relief in the form of food, medication and clothes. Then in 1987, after she delivered a moving speech at a benefit concert for UNICEF, she was asked to be a goodwill ambassador. She left on her first trip in 1988, to Ethiopia. People kept telling her how harrowing and dreadful it would be. But then came Somalia. Nothing could prepare her for that. Nothing. Somalia was my mother’s last UNICEF trip, and probably the most important. The situation there, politically at the time, was at its worst. My mother and Robby [Robert Wolders, her companion the last 12 years of her life] had waited for a long time, maybe close to a year, for clearance to travel and for funds to be gathered. But when she had asked who would be issuing the visas, the reply came: “There are no visas, because there is no government. You just fly in and hope you won’t get shot down.” Upon her return from Somalia she started complaining about stomach pains. Four months later she passed away. LR: What did you do with all of your mother’s things-her clothes, her jewels, her furnishings? SF: After we sold the farmhouse in Switzerland, where she lived for 30 years, my brother, who lives in Rome, and I split most of the furnishings. A few pieces of her jewelry have been donated to raise funds for charity and many of her things, including her Givenchy gowns, signed scripts and original photographs, will be on exhibit in Japan for two years starting in May. A portion of the money raised will be donated to her foundation. The exhibit is starting in Japan because she is still a very big star there. The Japanese love her elegance and style. LR: What do you see as your mother’s greatest achievement? SF: Looking back at my mother’s life, I am most proud of her work for children, both here and abroad. After my mother’s passing, one of the first things we did was to set up the Audrey Hepburn Memorial Fund. My mother believed that the only way to change was through education, so the Memorial Fund implements educational programs in the five countries of Africa she felt were the most badly in need of infrastructure: Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Rwanda. And, in fact, we have just entered into a new 10-year commitment to UNICEF’s “All Children In School” campaign, which seeks to bring a basic quality of education to 120 million children around the world, two-thirds of them girls. And through the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund we have also helped set up child abuse centers in New Orleans, New Jersey and Childrens Hospital in L.A.. All this would please my mother, to see her work with children continued. For more information about the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund and its activities, contact: www.audreyhepburn.com
Jean Parmelee, 86; Lived in Palisades Since 1948
Jean Parmelee, who moved to Pacific Palisades with her husband in 1948, passed away on December 24 at the age of 86. She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Arthur, and four children: Ellen, Tim, Art and Ann. Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 3, at the Palisades Presbyterian Church, corner of Sunset and El Medio. In lieu of flowers, donations in Jean Parmelee’s memory can be made to one’s favorite charity.
Dick St. John, 63; Singer & Song Writer
Dick St. John, better known as a singer in the Dick and Dee Dee duo, died on December 27 at UCLA Medical Center from injuries he sustained from a fall from a ladder outside his home in Pacific Palisades Friday. He was 63. St. John was best known for Dick and Dee Dee’s biggest hit, “The Mountain’s High,” which made No. 2 on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1963. Born Richard Gosting in Santa Monica, he began performing with his friend Mary Sperling in junior high. The group soon attracted the attention of Liberty Records, who renamed Sperling Dee Dee. Dick and Dee Dee produced a mixture of music which was influenced by early ’60’s, with bits of doowop, soul and R&B in their sound. Besides “The Mountain’s High,” the duo found success with “Young and In Love” (1963) and “Thou Shalt Not Steal” (1965). They were also semi-regulars on such musical shows as “Shindig” and “American Bandstand.” St. John wrote songs that were recorded by Leslie Gore, Jan and Dean, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He continued to record and perform regularly until his death. He is survived by his wife, Sandy, who joined him as the “new” Dee Dee in his touring act when Sperling retired in the early 1970s.
William Costin III; Family Man, Athlete
William Gilmor Costin III, known to all as Gil, died December 21 at the age of 59. He was born September 13, 1944, the oldest of four sons of William Gilmor Costin, Jr. and Phyllis Huhn Costin. He graduated from Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts in 1963, the University of Pennsylvania in 1967, and received a Master’s of Business Administration from New York University in 1981. Costin grew up in New York City and had lived with his wife and children in Pacific Palisades for the past 19 years. At the time of his death, he was employed by the Fraser Financial Group of Los Angeles. He was an active member of The Parish of St. Matthew, where he taught Sunday school for many years and served on the Stewardship and Planned Giving committees. He had a life-long interest in sports, excelling in lacrosse, ice hockey, football and tennis during his school years. He coached AYSO soccer in the Palisades for many years. He was very active in fundraising and in running golf tournaments for his children’s schools, John Thomas Dye, St. Matthew’s, Palisades High, and Marlborough. Costin is survived by his wife of 28 years, Anne King Costin; his four children, William Gilmor Costin IV, Wendy Costin Wolcott, Kingsley Blackridge Costin, and Whitney McKelvy Costin; his grandchildren, McKelvy Brackenridge Costin, Catherine Reed Costin, William Blackburne Costin and Oliver Whitney Wolcott; brothers, Blackburne Costin and Brackenridge Costin; and his stepmother, Jean Whitney Gold. He was predeceased by his brother, McKelvy. A memorial service will be held at St. Matthew’s, 1031 Bienveneda, on Saturday, January 3, at 11 a.m. A reception will be held at the parish immediately following the service. Burial will follow at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, January 6 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Middleburg, Virginia. Memorials can be made to The American Liver Foundation, Greater Los Angeles Chapter, Funds for the Cure-Hepatitis C (liverfoundation.org) or to a charity of one’s choice.
