[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 4 (Thursday, January 6, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E7-E8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF DORIS TOPSY-ELVORD

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN S. LOWENTHAL

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 6, 2022

  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of Doris Topsy-Elvord, 
an icon in the Long Beach community for more than a half century and 
the first African-American woman elected to the Long Beach City 
Council, who passed away on Wednesday, December 15.
  I was fortunate to not only work with her over her many years of 
public service, but to also count her as a dear personal friend who 
provided me with advice and support throughout the decades we knew each 
other.
  As Doris told the Long Beach Historical Society in a 2015 
retrospective on her life, she was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on 
June 17, 1931. She and her family moved to Long Beach in 1942, where 
she attended and graduated from St. Anthony Elementary and High 
Schools. In 1956, Doris worked as a California Youth Authority 
counselor, followed by positions in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's 
Department and the City of Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation 
and Marine. For nineteen years she worked for the Los Angeles County 
Probation Department as a Deputy Probation Officer II. On June 22, 
1988, after 35 years of public service with the California Youth 
Authority, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's and Probation 
Departments, she proudly retired. Along the way she earned a Bachelor 
of Arts Degree from California State University, Long Beach and a 
Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Administration from Chapman College.
  In 1988, Doris became a member of the City of Long Beach Civil 
Service Commission and served one term as president. From November 1987 
through November 1989 Doris served as Commissioner of the first Justice 
and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
  In 1992, she became the first African-American female to be elected 
to the Long Beach City Council. In 1996, she was re-elected and holds 
the singular distinction of being selected as Vice Mayor of the City of 
Long Beach twice unanimously. During this time, she successfully 
organized the Jim Wilson Memorial BBQ Cook-Off Gospel and Blues 
Festival, the Herb Smith Annual Slowpitch Tournament, and the Annual 
Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Unity Parade and Celebration.
  Over her lengthy career, Doris received many deserving honors and 
accolades from numerous organizations and individuals, including being 
inducted into the St. Anthony High School Hall of Fame in 1991. In 
1993, she was named Woman of the Year by the Long Beach Junior Chamber 
of Commerce and the following year she was honored by the California 
State Senate as Woman of the Year.
  In 2003, she was nominated to join the Port of Long Beach Harbor 
Commission by then-

[[Page E8]]

Mayor Beverly O'Neill. Doris became the first African American and only 
the third woman to serve on the five-member port commission in its 
nearly 80-year history. During her tenure at the port, which included a 
year as board president in 2005, she was instrumental in the expansion 
of the port's Small Business Enterprise Program. Doris also helped to 
develop the port's Green Port Policy, which helped to reduce the 
negative environmental impacts of port operations. Doris later called 
her five years on the commission, ``some of the most challenging and 
rewarding of my career.''
  Doris remained a tremendous force in the community throughout her 
life. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Eta Phi 
Beta Business and Professional Sorority, National Association of Civil 
Service Commissioners, National Council of Negro Women, and California 
Probation, Parole and Corrections Association. She also served on the 
Board of Trustees of St. Mary Medical Center, the Executive Board of 
the Children's Dental Foundation at Memorial Medical Center, and the 
Community Advisory Board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural 
History.
  She co-founded the African American Heritage Society with Indira Hale 
Tucker and others to raise money for educational materials on African 
Americans. In 2010, the Micro-Enterprise Charter Academy was renamed 
the Doris Topsy-Elvord Academy (A Micro-Enterprise School) in her 
honor.
  In addition, she was featured in the 1997 book ``No Mountain High 
Enough: Secrets of Successful African American Women'' by Dorothy 
Ehrhart Morrison. Doris was one of the Long Beach, California, 
pioneering dozen, chronicled in a 2015 collection of historical 
profiles, BREAKING THROUGH Lighting the Way, edited by Sunny Nash with 
foreword by Carolyn Smith Watts. ``This project introduced our 
community to local women with a mission similar to that of Rosa 
Parks,'' said Nash.
  ``Mother Doris,'' as she was so often referred to by the community, 
paved the way for Long Beach's diverse city council. She was the city's 
first black woman councilmember, Vice Mayor, and remains an inspiring 
parental figure to many.
  Doris Topsy-Elvord's inspiring life included travels and explorations 
to every continent except Antarctica. She had a rich family life with 
husband, Ralph, three sons, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

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