ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank Sue Baldaseroni, Penny Strickland Rivera, Betty Penrod and the other great folks at the Burbank Historical Society, who were kind enough to let us rummage through their files for hours in search of photographs, some of which are published here for the very first time in a book of Burbank history. We also thank Monte Thrasher, who lent many interesting tales to the Burbankia website; the Carson Entertainment Group for permission to reprint a 1981 poster; Greg Aliamo, who supplied his Vietnam photographs; the folks at the various Burbank Facebook groups who have been supportive and who have shared their stories with us; Richard Dixon, a skilled writer who contributed some fine pieces to Burbankia’s “Burbankers Remember” article; and Wes Clark’s father-in-law, Don Bilyeu (BHS ’45), who shared many tales of Burbank in the 1940s as well as his classy P-38 watch. Mickey De Palo of the Burbank Veterans Committee is a constant inspiration, and Doris Vick and Fermer Kellogg shared a lot of great information about “the old days.” From the Burbank library system, we thank Louise Paziak and Joan Cappocchi for their support. We think librarians are the unsung heroes of civilization and have spent many an hour enjoying Burbank’s fine library system. Jeri Brown, Mindy Ladin and Irene Cabil from the city’s records center have also been invaluable. During the writing of this book, Mary Jane Strickland, the Grand Lady of Burbank history and the founder of the Burbank Historical Society, passed away. She is greatly missed. Her dedicated daughter Penny, listed above, survives her and works at the historical society. Thanks also to Megan Laddusaw of The History Press, who saw a good thing with the Burbankia website and had the vision to turn it into a book.

We are also grateful to George Lynn Monroe for writing Burbank Community Book (1944). Seriously, this is a wonderful and lively read; we recommend it to all Burbankers. Readers will observe that we take excerpts from it liberally.

We single out two Burbank High School teachers: Wes would like to thank Roland “Pete” Peterson for his inspirational teaching; it’s his fault that Wes lives not in Burbank but in Virginia. (Mr. Peterson’s Burbank High School American Civil War class ignited a passionate interest, a move east and a hobby.) Mike would like to thank his printing mentor at BHS, Willard Fredericksen, who printed and gave Mike a copy of the 1967 A History of Burbank . “Mister Fred” taught a high school class that led to a vocation for Mike.

Drew McDaniel, Mike’s son, was a constant companion in performing veterans’ research; fellow 1974 Bulldog Rob Avery looked over the manuscript and made valuable comments; and last but certainly not least, Cari Bilyeu Clark edited this entire work and eradicated her husband’s many grammatical errors and sloppy sentence construction.