Lois Gaston (born 1937) is a former Mayor and City Councilmember for City of Duarte, California.

Biography

Gaston was born in

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in 1937. She was an only child and she and her mother moved to

Monrovia, California Monrovia is a city in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 37,931 at the 2020 census. Monrovia has been used for filming TV shows, movies and co ...

in 1949. She is a graduate of

Monrovia High School Monrovia High School is a public high school located in Monrovia, California, a northeastern suburb of Los Angeles, United States. Monrovia High School is the only grades 9–12 comprehensive high school in the Monrovia Unified School Distric ...

. Gaston became a member of the Duarte City Council in 2003 and was elected as the mayor on November 28, 2006. She is the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

woman to hold the mayoral position in the city's 50-year history. In March 2009 she was named the 44th Assembly District Woman of the Year by Assemblyman

Anthony Portantino Anthony J. Portantino (born January 29, 1961) is an American politician currently serving in the California State Senate. A Democrat, he represents the 25th Senate District which encompasses portions of the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. ...

. Some of her notable accomplishments are membership of the

San Gabriel Valley The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...

Council of Governments and the

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Association of Governments, as well as serving as the State Recruitment Coordinator for

AARP AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Gaston enjoyed a career with

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for 32 years before retiring in 1989 as a District Manager of Human Resources. She is a mother of four children and a grandmother of eight. of Governments, as well as serving as the State Recruitment Coordinator for

References

External links

Official Duarte website profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaston, Lois Living people People from Duarte, California Mayors of places in California Women mayors of places in California California city council members Women city councillors in California 1937 births 21st-century American women African-American mayors in California