Kenneth Harold Young

Kenneth Harold Young was born in Dayton, Ohio, on July 29, 1927. An only child, he lost his father early, and was raised by a single mother. The Great Depression was very difficult for Kenneth and his mother. They struggled daily for food and could not afford to heat their small apartment in winter.

When he was only eight years old, Kenneth joined the workforce, selling newspapers on street corners in Dayton year-round, including in the ice and snow—he would often recall that his gloves had holes in the fingers. As a child, Kenneth always held a job. He worked as a pin boy in a bowling alley, and as an usher in a movie theater, where he began his lifelong love affair with Hollywood movies. During World War II, he worked as a messenger boy at Wright Patterson Airbase in Dayton.

In June, 1944, at the age of sixteen, Kenneth obtained his mother’s legal permission to leave Ohio to pursue his dreams in Hollywood. In California, Kenneth studied photography, hoping to become a cinematographer, and had small parts in several films, including The Bullfighters with Laurel and Hardy.

During his years in Hollywood, Kenneth met many celebrities, including Louis B. Mayer, Robert Young, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Marlon Brando, Joan Crawford, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Spencer Tracy, Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, and Ronald Reagan.

One day, Kenneth was hitchhiking on Sunset Boulevard when a car pulled over to pick him up. The man driving was Bob Hope. The actor offered Kenneth a job as a caddy. Kenneth learned the trade and became a caddy for Bob Hope and other celebrities at the Lakeside Country Club in Burbank.

In 1948, Kenneth attended a Hollywood campaign rally where President Truman spoke. Ronald Reagan (then a Democrat), Humphrey Bogart, and Lauren Bacall also attended. Kenneth approached them after the speech, joined their campaign, and worked for President Truman throughout Hollywood.

Kenneth often joked that Truman rewarded him for this effort by sending him, two years later, a letter beginning “Greetings.” Kenneth was drafted into the U.S. Army.

After basic training at El Paso, Kenneth was trained as an Army photographer and received orders to fight the North Koreans and Red Chinese in the Korean War. Shortly before deployment, however, Kenneth’s unit was reassigned to Germany. The units that Kenneth was to accompany to Korea suffered extremely heavy casualties, and he always considered it a stroke of luck that his orders were changed at the final moment.

In occupied Germany, Kenneth became a photographer for Stars and Stripes, the international U.S. military newspaper, traveling throughout the American Zone. Many of his photographs from 1951-52 can be found online today. Notably, Kenneth documented the lavish resort that the Nazi leaders built for themselves at Berchtesgaden. In his spare time, Kenneth enjoyed the Munich beer halls and developed a lifelong taste for German food.

After his honorable discharge, Kenneth returned to Hollywood, where he worked in administration at the Hotel Statler, as a sales representative for Snap-On Tools, and ultimately as a jewelry salesman.

In August, 1956, Kenneth went on a group date arranged by a professional matchmaker, but was not attracted to the young lady he’d been paired with. Instead, Kenneth thought that another young woman in the party was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. The first time he ever saw this girl, he was sitting with her in the backseat of a taxi in downtown Los Angeles.

Her name was Maria de los Angeles Echeagaray Rodriguez, and she was from Mazatlan, Mexico. She worked as a seamstress in the garment district, had been in the country for only a month, and spoke very little English. However, their mutual attraction was greater than any language barrier.

Shortly after meeting this young lady, who would be known throughout the rest of her life as “Angela” or “Angie,” Kenneth converted to Roman Catholicism so that he could marry the woman he loved.

Following a civil ceremony at Los Angeles city hall in December, 1957, and then a Catholic ceremony at la Catedral Basilica de Mazatlan in January, 1958, Kenneth and Angela began their 54 years of married happiness. As a jewelry salesman, Kenneth was able to purchase the wedding rings for $80; as a highly skilled seamstress, Angela made her own wedding dress.

In 1958, Kenneth began his thirty-one-year career as a driver's license examiner at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. At the Hawthorne and Culver City offices, Kenneth often gave driving tests to the children of the Hollywood celebrities he’d first met in the 1940s.

Kenneth’s skills in photography allowed him to upgrade the quality of driver’s license photos in the offices where he worked, and he mastered the automated computer systems that were introduced into the DMV in the 1980s.

The Youngs made their home in the Westchester district of Los Angeles from 1960 to 1973; in Lakeside, California from 1973 to 1974; and in the Egger Highlands neighborhood of South San Diego from 1974.

Kenneth and Angela’s first son, Robert Clark Young, was born in Hollywood in 1960, and their second son, Chris Steven Young, was born in Inglewood in 1964. Both boys attended Marian Catholic High School, with Robert going on to study writing at the University of San Diego, the University of California at Davis, and the University of Houston; and Chris going on to study philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Robert is a novelist and nonfiction writer, while Chris is a musician and poet.

Kenneth accepted the “golden handshake” of early retirement from the State of California in 1989, at age 61. He had been in the workforce for 53 years, ever since he was eight years old. He was proud to have earned everything he had in life, and was content now to bask in retirement.

He and Angela enjoyed their retirement years by eating in fine restaurants, visiting Indian casinos, and traveling often to Hollywood, New York City, Las Vegas, and Angela’s beloved hometown of Mazatlan.

Kenneth occasionally traveled with Angela and their sons to Dayton, Ohio, staying in the best hotels in town, and visiting the houses and neighborhoods where he’d lived during the Great Depression. He spoke often of the struggles of his childhood in poverty, and the value of overcoming adversity through hard work.

In March, 2008, Angela and Kenneth celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with dozens of friends and family from the United States and Mexico. For the renewal of their vows, at St. Charles Church in South San Diego, Angela wore the same wedding dress she had made and worn in 1958.

In July, 2008, Angela suffered a stroke that affected her speech. Her son Robert moved into the family home to help Kenneth care for her. Five months later, Kenneth suffered a stroke, and Robert began caring for both his parents.

Kenneth’s beloved Angela passed away on May 18, 2012. In his final years, Kenneth continued to attend church every Sunday, enjoyed day trips to San Diego’s beaches, did jigsaw puzzles at home, and enjoyed watching his favorite Hollywood movies from his extensive DVD collection, particularly those from the 1930-1950 golden age of Hollywood.

Kenneth continued living at home until he passed away on January 25, 2016, at age 88.

Kenneth was preceded in death by his father, Herschel Ellis Young, and by his mother, Emma Clark Young. He has now joined Angela, his parents, his extended family, and his friends in Heaven.