Louise (Todd) Lambert (1905 - 1991)

Born 12 May 1905 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

Died 5 Jun 1991 at age 86 in San Mateo, California, United States

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Biography

Louise Todd was born May 12, 1905 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States.^[1] She was a daughter of Max Todd and Rosalie Dinslage.^[2][3]

In 1915, Louise experienced her first political persecution, when her father, a San Francisco baker, was investigated for potential ties to the Preparedness Day Bombing. She was active in the women's suffrage movement, the Junior League of the Nature Friends, and the Young Workers League, a predecessor of the Young Communist League.

In 1929, Louise joined the Communist Party in California. She served as state organizational secretary until the mid-1940s. She was active in major strikes of the early 1930s, including the 1933 San Joaquin Valley Cotton Strike and the 1934 San Francisco General Strike. During the General Strike, she was arrested on charges of vagrancy and was later acquitted. Louise, also ran for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1931 and 1933 as the official Communist Party candidate.

In 1934, Louise was active in efforts to qualify the Communist Party to participate in state elections for the first time in California history. In 1934, she was charged with perjury for allegedly making false affidavits on petitions to put the Communist Party on the state ballot, and arrested in Los Angeles, where she was serving as section organizer of the local Party. She was tried, convicted, and sentenced in February 1935 on three counts of perjury.^[4]

In November 1935, Louise served a thirteen-month sentence at the Tehachapi Correctional Institute for Women. She was paroled on December 19, 1936, and resumed her work for the Communist Party in California, organizing training schools for leadership, serving as an instructor at the San Francisco Workers' School, participating in elections, supporting the Communist Party's newspaper, the People's World, and serving on the state executive committee.

2nd Marriage

In 1939, Louise married her second husband, Communist Party member Rudie Lambert. Louise continued to work as organizational secretary until the mid-1940s, when the national Party was restructured. In 1947 or 1948, she was assigned a political action position as state legislative director of the Communist Party, and participated in efforts to put the Progressive Party on the California ballot.

Louise played a strong leadership role in the Communist Party, serving as state organizational secretary for California in the 1930s and 1940s. She was a member of a generation of women radicals in California remarkable for the significant leadership roles in the Communist Party.

Death

Louise Todd Lambert died on June 5, 1991 in San Mateo, California, United States.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} California Death Index, 1940-1997 Louise A Lambert, 05 Jun 1991; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
2. ↑ United States Census, 1910, Louise A Todd in household of Max W Todd, San Francisco Assembly District 35, San Francisco, California, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 130, sheet 7A, family 159
3. ↑ United States Census, 1920, Louise A Todd in household of Max W Todd, San Francisco Assembly District 32, San Francisco, California, United States; citing ED 192, sheet 9A, line 21, family 122
4. ↑ Louise Todd Guilty The San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California) 08 Feb 1935, Page 5.

"United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JT4T-QZC : 20 May 2014), Louise Lambert, 04 Jun 1991; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Todd_Lambert