Gladys C. "Candy" Danielson (née Ohanian), age 100, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, April 16, 2022, in Pasadena, CA. Born and raised in Hartford, CT, she graduated from Hartford Public High School with honor grades in stenography and typewriting. At the age of 24, she represented greater Hartford as "Miss Weathersfield" in the statewide beauty contest for "Miss Connecticut." During World War II, while her younger brother George served overseas, Gladys worked as Supervisor of the Stenographic Department at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. After the war, she moved out west to Los Angeles, CA, along with her parents and brother, and worked at Universal Pictures as an Employment Interviewer in the Personnel & Labor Relations Department. Having developed an interest in politics early on, she attended a meeting of the California Young Democrats where she met her future husband George E. Danielson. They married in June of 1953 and spent 45 wonderful years together until his passing in 1998. For twenty years (1962-1982), she served as campaign manager for her husband's elections to the California Assembly, Senate, and United States Congress. She was also a California Delegate to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and served on the California Democratic State Central and Los Angeles County Central Committees. In 1975, she taught a series of on-campus seminars at East Los Angeles College on "The Dynamics of Political Campaigning." Resolute in her love of Democracy and her ethnic heritage, she was the first Armenian-American woman to run for Congress (30th District) in 1984. Although she wasn't elected, she kept a hand in politics as a freelance journalist, and political and public relations consultant. She even hosted her own weekly, half-hour radio show on KIEV entitled "Candy Danielson's World of Politics," produced alongside her brother, in which she interviewed elected officials on the local, state, and national levels. In her later years, she kept active as a volunteer docent at the Getty Villa Museum, as a member of the PLATO Society of UCLA, and as a lifetime member of the Former Members of Congress Auxiliary. Although she traveled all over the world during her years in politics, Las Vegas remained a favorite getaway, especially with her family. She continued to read every periodical she could get her hands on and threw a dinner party like no other! Although she was fiercely independent to the end, her family always came first and she took great pride in her roles as daughter, sister, wife, godmother and auntie. Gladys is survived by her goddaughter and niece Jennifer (Brian) Fink, grand-nephews Theodore and Felix Fink, and sister-in-law Eileen Ohanian. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 9AM at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills. Donations in her memory may be made to Disabled American Veterans at www.dav.org.
