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Register of the Flower (Elsie) Collection, 1900-1968
Mss45  
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Collection Overview
 
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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 It was superseded, due to a change in station ownership (KGDM became music station KRAK) and format, by "Valley Journal" a shorter "women's news" program covering all areas of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).
Availability
Collection is open for research.