COC's Oldest Grad Reflects on Lifetime in Agua Dulce

Описание: At age 99, Doreetha Daniels became the Santa Clarita Community College District’s (COC’s) oldest graduate in 2015. It marked the latest rung in a lifelong ladder of personal growth and achievement for this Agua Dulce resident, who worked at Douglas Aircraft during World War II and helped organize the Agua Dulce Women’s Club in 1948.

This presentation opens with video of Daniels receiving her diploma from College of the Canyons and speaking with news reporters following the ceremony. It then moves directly into a raw, uncut, half-hour oral history interview recorded in 2009, conducted by a College of the Canyons student as part of a COC Local History Project. The interview is presented without narration or interpretation, allowing Daniels to tell her story entirely in her own words.

00:00 Diploma ceremony and remarks from Doreetha Daniels
01:49 Interview begins: birth in Nebraska and early childhood
02:17 Growing up as the only Black family in North Platte
03:23 High school graduation and early nursing ambitions
03:58 Move to California and early life in Los Angeles
05:35 World War II work at Douglas Aircraft
06:48 Moving to Agua Dulce for her son’s health
07:20 Schooling in Acton and raising children in a rural area
08:06 First time voting and civic participation
17:26 Building a home and choosing to stay in Agua Dulce
20:21 Why Agua Dulce remains home
21:24 Creative pursuits and lifelong learning
23:23 Returning to College of the Canyons as a senior student
28:24 Founding the Agua Dulce Women’s Club
30:30 Efforts to establish a school in Agua Dulce
34:46 Reflections on Santa Clarita Valley growth

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, on April 25, 1916, Doreetha Daniels (1916–2019) describes a childhood spent primarily in North Platte, where her family operated a restaurant and where she grew up as part of the town’s only Black family at the time. She recalls her schooling, graduating from North Platte High School in 1934, and her early interest in nursing, which led her to volunteer at a local hospital before discovering it was not accredited.

In 1936, Daniels moved to California by train with her mother, settling first in Los Angeles with the hope of pursuing nursing education. Barriers to out-of-state enrollment redirected her path, and she instead found work in a variety of jobs, including chauffeuring for a French actress in Beverly Hills. During World War II, she balanced motherhood with later employment in Southern California’s booming aerospace industry, working in production and product control at Douglas Aircraft, later McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, where she remained until the late 1960s.

In 1947, Daniels and her family moved from coastal Southern California to Agua Dulce, seeking higher elevation and cleaner air for her younger son’s asthma. A substantial portion of the interview centers on this move and the life she built there. She recounts raising her children in the rural region, sending them to schools in Acton, Lancaster, and Palmdale, and building her family home largely by hand with her husband, beginning with a modest four-room structure and expanding it in the early 1960s.

Daniels devotes significant attention to civic life in Agua Dulce, particularly the formation of what began as a mothers’ club and evolved into the Agua Dulce Women’s Club. She explains how the organization successfully petitioned for the establishment of a local school, advocated against long bus rides for young children, and later expanded its mission to include scholarships and community support. At the time of the interview, Daniels identifies herself as the last surviving founding member of the club.

The interview also explores her experiences as a voter beginning in the 1930s, her extensive international travel later in life, her creative pursuits in ceramics, glasswork, stained glass, and beadmaking, and her decision—well into her 90s—to return to school at College of the Canyons for the personal satisfaction of earning a college degree.

Together, these segments form a candid, wide-ranging oral history that traces nearly a century of lived experience, anchored in Agua Dulce and preserved here as part of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society’s ongoing effort to document local lives and voices.

#scvhistory #aguadulce #collegeofthecanyons #coc #santaclaritavalley

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