Conversing with L.A. Conservancy Member and Volunteer Juliet Drinkard
by Liz Leshin
Young Juliet Drinkard with her parents in 1951.
Juliet Drinkard has always loved history, so much so that at the age of 16, she entered an essay-writing competition to highlight a significant African American in history. She chose mathematician and surveyor Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), won the contest, and was crowned Queen of Los Angeles’ “Miss Negro History Week” in 1969.
Then there’s the tour she organized and scripted for a family reunion in 1986 large enough to fill two tour buses that caravanned through many of Los Angeles’ historic areas, starting at Watts Towers, ending in Hollywood, and of course allowing for a shopping stop at Santee Alley. And although she moved out for years-long stretches, she still lives in the huge South Central house she was raised in, purchased by her parents in 1954, which she describes as “looking like a big ship.”
Although living in the home can be bittersweet now that her folks are gone, she has special memories of eating family meals looking out of the big picture windows of the breakfast room into the backyard at her father’s lush garden, which she says was “like being in a professional nursery.”