Description
The Flower Collection consists of: correspondence (1900-1968); KGDM
"City Journal" radio scripts (1945-1955); notes, drafts, photos, pamphlets and
clippings pertaining chiefly to San Joaquin County, the southern Mother Lode
and the West.
Background
Elsie Flower (1886-1969) was a northern California print and radio
journalist based principally in Stockton. While still a child (1902) she was
brought to that city by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edwin L. Flower of Knight's
Ferry. Flower attended Stockton High School, but left before graduating to work
as a reporter for Chester Rowell's Fresno Republican. She was subsequently
employed at the San Francisco Chronicle, the Stockton Daily Independent (1920s)
and the Stockton Record (1925-1945). In 1944 Edward F. Peffer, owner of
Stockton's CBS-affiliated radio station KGDM, conceived a fifteen minute local
news show and hired Elsie Flower to produce and moderate it. The program began
with stories about the war service of returning soldiers, then gravitated to
boosting local events and businesses, fostering an interest in local history
and helping local people in trouble. Flower's "City Journal" program ran
thrice-weekly for nearly fourteen years. It was superseded, due to a change in
station ownership (KGDM became music station KRAK) and format, by "Valley
Journal" a shorter "women's news" program covering all areas of the Central
Valley and the southern Mother Lode (1958).