Born "Estrellita de Jesus Santos" to a wealthy sugar and coffee plantation owner in Puerto Rico, she was simply known by the last 4 letters of her name, "Lita." 2 years later the stock market crashed and the prosperous family lost 7 homes, and their seaside properties in San Juan. With the depression and civil unrest on the island, the close-knit family boarded the S.S. Borinquen passenger liner in 1936 and moved to New York City. A bright teenager with high marks in school, she quickly learned to speak fluent English. Because of her bright personality, she was given the nickname "Sparky."
At the start of World War II, her father abandoned her mother, Marcella. Mature for her age, at 14 she would attend school part-time and find work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, where a brother and 2 of her 5 sisters were already employed. Because she was charming, intelligent, and literate, she worked as a translator/interpreter. It was there she was told by hotel guest, actor Wallace Beery, that she should "head west and see the world." Pianist Carmen Cavallaro met Lita and predicted she would be a "bright star and would travel far."
Lita was particularly close to her older brother Angel. He wanted to be a part of the war effort during World War II. When he enlisted, he told Lita, "The next time you see me, I'll be a General." Just before his departure, tragically he was robbed and murdered in Central Park. Lita was devastated but decided to take his place by using his name and his I.D. to enlist in the Army since she was underage at 16.
After basic training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, which was the first "WAC" training center established during World War II, she was assigned to the 2nd Signal Center at the Presidio in San Francisco. She worked with a small unit that held about 100 German prisoners of war who were secretly housed at Letterman General Hospital, a fact that wasn't known until decades later. She also worked with her sister Lucy, also in the Army, as motor pool drivers at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. It had been taken over during the war for that purpose. She also coded and decoded messages on 96 war channels in both English and Spanish. For a while, she met ships coming from overseas and wounded soldiers returning from the Pacific Theater. She handed them a sweater and their Purple Heart medal. Many had been prisoners and were painfully thin and some even died soon after they arrived.
She was then sent to Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) where she helped perform autopsies. During this time she started dating a handsome Military Police sergeant. One night he was on duty and another soldier thought he was a bobcat and shot and killed him. Lita had to assist in her own boyfriend's autopsy. She said it was one of the most difficult duties she had to perform while in the service.
Lita was transferred to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. It was there the war ended and she was given overseas orders and sailed to the Aleutian islands in Alaska, then across to Japan, where she worked with the occupational forces for 2 weeks. She then was sent to Puerto Rico's Aguadilla Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps Base as an interpreter. She also accompanied French war brides and escorted them to their American husband's hometowns. The Army then discovered Lita wasn't "Angel" and wasn't even 18, but because she had proven herself valuable, the Army kept her for the last few months of her service.
During her enlistment, she was awarded the following medals: "Women's Army Corps Service", "World War II Army of Occupation", "Asiatic-Pacific Campaign", "American Campaign", "World War II Victory" and "Army Good Conduct" medals.
When she was honorably discharged, she returned to San Francisco and rented an apartment in the Marina. A year later she met Robert Clifton Anderson. A veteran who was a woodworker, rodeo cowboy, and truck driver. The couple moved to Santa Maria to be close to Lita's family, where most of them had relocated during the war. She found work with her sisters at a Chinese restaurant owned by Art and Mary Gin.
Robert and Lita married on January 18, 1947. Their daughter Leslie Anne was born later that year. At this time, Robert was driving trucks was on driving assignments, and was sometimes gone from home for several weeks at a time. Lita assumed she was abandoned once again… this time, by her husband.
Lita would meet an active Marine named Charles Henry Cannon, Jr. The couple were legally married in 1948, so it is assumed Lita had her marriage to Robert annulled. Lita bore Charles a blue-eyed daughter named Esther Lee, however, the infant tragically died after suffocating in her crib at only 6 months of age. A newspaper article in the Highland Park News-Herald on July 19, 1948 states that Charles will be back home from military duty in Hawaii by July 26 to see his wife and in time for his 1-year-old daughter Leslie's birthday.
By 1949, most of the family began to migrate further south to the Los Angeles area, where the post-war job market was booming. Lita went along with them. Strangely, Robert returned to Lita and the couple reconciled, but in less than a month, he would disappear once again. In the fall of 1950, Lita had a son she named Robert Christian Anderson, and hoped Robert Clifton would return and see his son, but she would never see him again. Decades later she found out that Robert was living with another woman as his wife in Northern California. He had no idea he had a son, Robert Christian, who was named after him.
By 1951, Lita found it increasingly difficult to find quality work because of her lingering Puerto Rican accent. She decided to attend the Don Martin School of Broadcasting on Hollywood Boulevard, where she was taught perfect diction and enunciation. While attending school she realized she enjoyed radio broadcasting and even the mechanical aspects of keeping a station on the air. In a chance meeting with actor and singer Gene Autry, she was hired to work at radio station KMPC, which he owned.
With her mother Marcella now largely caring for her 2 toddlers, Lita began working full-time at KMPC and moonlighting as a technician at stations KFI and KFWB, keeping them on the air. Late one night the NBC studio at Sunset and Vine went off the air due to a glitch. Because Lita was working just down the street, she was called and put the station back on the air.
For a brief time she did a call-in radio advice show and "Hollywood Gossip" show under the pseudonym "Estelle Stanford." One of her most loyal fans was actress Ann Sheridan, who called in periodically.
Strikingly attractive, Lita also found work as a glamour model by famed photographer Peter Gowland. Her stunning image graced numerous calendars in the early 1950s.
Announcer Vance Graham had a popular radio show on station KMPC on Sunday mornings called "Bolero Time," where he played Latin-American music, including the "Cha-Cha-Cha", "Bolero" and "Tango" recordings that were so popular during that time. She heard he needed a bilingual co-host and she began working on his show. During the week, she also worked at the station with announcers Johnny Grant, Ira Cook, Dick Wittinghill, and Johnny Magnus. She would marry Vance in 1954. On the show, she was voted "Miss Bolero Time" and rode in parades on Hollywood Boulevard, particularly the "Hollywood Lane Parade." During the week, she also hosted her own "Hollywood News" show where she voiced commercials, broadcast the local news, and reported on-the-scene at numerous premieres on Hollywood Boulevard, including the premiers of "Daddy Long Legs" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "Pride and the Passion" (1957), "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957) and a number of others. During that time, Lita became a familiar face in Hollywood while conducting interviews with celebrities, either at "Tiny Naylors" at Sunset and LaBrea, the "Brown Derby" on Vine Street, "Nickodell's" at Argyle and Selma, "Musso & Frank's Grill" on Hollywood Boulevard, or at the "Copper Skillet" at Sunset and Gower.
Vance began to travel heavily to Europe and South America and word of his infidelity got back to Lita. The couple's divorce was finalized in 1959. Disillusioned with radio, Lita left radio broadcasting completely and found work at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center as a nursing aide and assistant.
Later in 1959, while at the American Legion at Post 43 in Hollywood, she met and fell in love with Hollywood music agent, impresario, and music critic Raymond DeArmond Bowman. Raymond was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This time her marriage was a great success and the couple remained married for the next 41 years.
In 1962 she bore Raymond a son named Raymond Bowman, Jr. With her daughter Leslie Ann to care for the baby, Lita went to work once more. She took a job as a sales associate at the May Company Department Stores in West Los Angeles on Pico at Overland. When Leslie Ann began dating, it was Lita's son Christian who took a year and a half away from school to take care of his little brother while Raymond Sr. and Lita worked.
The family moved to Redondo Beach in 1967 where Lita was transferred to the South Bay Center store. She became manager of the camera department and oversaw the Linens and Domestics department, as well. Christian enlisted into the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and Leslie Ann soon married.
Though still working full-time, Lita eagerly attended thousands of classical, jazz, and ethnic music concerts with Raymond. The couple became a fixture at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, the Ice House in Pasadena, and the Wilshire Ebell Theater in West Los Angeles. A naturally talented artist, Lita designed dozens of posters, illustrations, and brochures for concerts which Raymond presented himself. Over the years she would meet and converse with numerous music luminaries, including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Luciano Pavarotti, Gil Shaham, and Sherrill Milnes to name a few.
Raymond and Lita moved to San Diego in 1987 and Lita transferred to the May Company's La Jolla store for the next 5 years. She was a salesperson and department manager for the retailer for a total of 27 years, retiring in 1992. In that year, she began experiencing chest pains. Lita was found to have a defective valve in her heart, so she underwent open-heart surgery. The operation was a success, however, and Lita quickly recovered her energy and motivation.
Becoming bored staying home, she went to work part-time as a hostess for the passenger cruise liners at San Diego's Embarcadero. Along with her sister Lucy, Lita was instrumental in establishing the Veteran's Memorial Museum at Balboa Park and later was a charter member the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. She was interviewed for the documentary film "To Free a Man to Fight" and had several newspaper articles written about her wartime experiences.
After Raymond died in 2001, Lita moved to Palm Springs to be closer to her eldest son Christian, and his husband Grover. She enjoyed an active retirement in the next decade working as a volunteer for various charities, including "The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert" and also at a local food bank. She enjoyed cooking, oil painting, listening to music, visiting art museums, pier fishing, dining out, knitting, visiting the zoo, recreational shopping, and riding in the Palm Springs Veteran's Day parades. Lita remained very active and independent until the final 2 years of her life when she began to have mobility issues. She was admitted to a care facility where she would ultimately pass away peacefully in her sleep. Lita was 95 years old.
A memorial service was held at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at the Memorial Garden Chapel. A bell rang for Lita at the American Veterans (AMVETS) State Convention Memorial Service on June 2023. On Memorial Day 2023, a bell was also rung at the carillon at the American Veterans National Headquarters in Lantham, Maryland. At the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California a brick will be dedicated with Lita's name on it.
Lita was survived by 3 natural children, Robert Christian Anderson, Leslie Ann, and Raymond, Junior. Five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Donations are asked to be made to Lita's favorite charity, the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A.
Lita was intelligent, spontaneous, hard-working, effervescent, optimistic, intensely loyal, and would light up any room she walked into. Her many friends will miss her dearly!
At the start of World War II, her father abandoned her mother, Marcella. Mature for her age, at 14 she would attend school part-time and find work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, where a brother and 2 of her 5 sisters were already employed. Because she was charming, intelligent, and literate, she worked as a translator/interpreter. It was there she was told by hotel guest, actor Wallace Beery, that she should "head west and see the world." Pianist Carmen Cavallaro met Lita and predicted she would be a "bright star and would travel far."
Lita was particularly close to her older brother Angel. He wanted to be a part of the war effort during World War II. When he enlisted, he told Lita, "The next time you see me, I'll be a General." Just before his departure, tragically he was robbed and murdered in Central Park. Lita was devastated but decided to take his place by using his name and his I.D. to enlist in the Army since she was underage at 16.
After basic training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, which was the first "WAC" training center established during World War II, she was assigned to the 2nd Signal Center at the Presidio in San Francisco. She worked with a small unit that held about 100 German prisoners of war who were secretly housed at Letterman General Hospital, a fact that wasn't known until decades later. She also worked with her sister Lucy, also in the Army, as motor pool drivers at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. It had been taken over during the war for that purpose. She also coded and decoded messages on 96 war channels in both English and Spanish. For a while, she met ships coming from overseas and wounded soldiers returning from the Pacific Theater. She handed them a sweater and their Purple Heart medal. Many had been prisoners and were painfully thin and some even died soon after they arrived.
She was then sent to Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) where she helped perform autopsies. During this time she started dating a handsome Military Police sergeant. One night he was on duty and another soldier thought he was a bobcat and shot and killed him. Lita had to assist in her own boyfriend's autopsy. She said it was one of the most difficult duties she had to perform while in the service.
Lita was transferred to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. It was there the war ended and she was given overseas orders and sailed to the Aleutian islands in Alaska, then across to Japan, where she worked with the occupational forces for 2 weeks. She then was sent to Puerto Rico's Aguadilla Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps Base as an interpreter. She also accompanied French war brides and escorted them to their American husband's hometowns. The Army then discovered Lita wasn't "Angel" and wasn't even 18, but because she had proven herself valuable, the Army kept her for the last few months of her service.
During her enlistment, she was awarded the following medals: "Women's Army Corps Service", "World War II Army of Occupation", "Asiatic-Pacific Campaign", "American Campaign", "World War II Victory" and "Army Good Conduct" medals.
When she was honorably discharged, she returned to San Francisco and rented an apartment in the Marina. A year later she met Robert Clifton Anderson. A veteran who was a woodworker, rodeo cowboy, and truck driver. The couple moved to Santa Maria to be close to Lita's family, where most of them had relocated during the war. She found work with her sisters at a Chinese restaurant owned by Art and Mary Gin.
Robert and Lita married on January 18, 1947. Their daughter Leslie Anne was born later that year. At this time, Robert was driving trucks was on driving assignments, and was sometimes gone from home for several weeks at a time. Lita assumed she was abandoned once again… this time, by her husband.
Lita would meet an active Marine named Charles Henry Cannon, Jr. The couple were legally married in 1948, so it is assumed Lita had her marriage to Robert annulled. Lita bore Charles a blue-eyed daughter named Esther Lee, however, the infant tragically died after suffocating in her crib at only 6 months of age. A newspaper article in the Highland Park News-Herald on July 19, 1948 states that Charles will be back home from military duty in Hawaii by July 26 to see his wife and in time for his 1-year-old daughter Leslie's birthday.
By 1949, most of the family began to migrate further south to the Los Angeles area, where the post-war job market was booming. Lita went along with them. Strangely, Robert returned to Lita and the couple reconciled, but in less than a month, he would disappear once again. In the fall of 1950, Lita had a son she named Robert Christian Anderson, and hoped Robert Clifton would return and see his son, but she would never see him again. Decades later she found out that Robert was living with another woman as his wife in Northern California. He had no idea he had a son, Robert Christian, who was named after him.
By 1951, Lita found it increasingly difficult to find quality work because of her lingering Puerto Rican accent. She decided to attend the Don Martin School of Broadcasting on Hollywood Boulevard, where she was taught perfect diction and enunciation. While attending school she realized she enjoyed radio broadcasting and even the mechanical aspects of keeping a station on the air. In a chance meeting with actor and singer Gene Autry, she was hired to work at radio station KMPC, which he owned.
With her mother Marcella now largely caring for her 2 toddlers, Lita began working full-time at KMPC and moonlighting as a technician at stations KFI and KFWB, keeping them on the air. Late one night the NBC studio at Sunset and Vine went off the air due to a glitch. Because Lita was working just down the street, she was called and put the station back on the air.
For a brief time she did a call-in radio advice show and "Hollywood Gossip" show under the pseudonym "Estelle Stanford." One of her most loyal fans was actress Ann Sheridan, who called in periodically.
Strikingly attractive, Lita also found work as a glamour model by famed photographer Peter Gowland. Her stunning image graced numerous calendars in the early 1950s.
Announcer Vance Graham had a popular radio show on station KMPC on Sunday mornings called "Bolero Time," where he played Latin-American music, including the "Cha-Cha-Cha", "Bolero" and "Tango" recordings that were so popular during that time. She heard he needed a bilingual co-host and she began working on his show. During the week, she also worked at the station with announcers Johnny Grant, Ira Cook, Dick Wittinghill, and Johnny Magnus. She would marry Vance in 1954. On the show, she was voted "Miss Bolero Time" and rode in parades on Hollywood Boulevard, particularly the "Hollywood Lane Parade." During the week, she also hosted her own "Hollywood News" show where she voiced commercials, broadcast the local news, and reported on-the-scene at numerous premieres on Hollywood Boulevard, including the premiers of "Daddy Long Legs" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "Pride and the Passion" (1957), "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957) and a number of others. During that time, Lita became a familiar face in Hollywood while conducting interviews with celebrities, either at "Tiny Naylors" at Sunset and LaBrea, the "Brown Derby" on Vine Street, "Nickodell's" at Argyle and Selma, "Musso & Frank's Grill" on Hollywood Boulevard, or at the "Copper Skillet" at Sunset and Gower.
Vance began to travel heavily to Europe and South America and word of his infidelity got back to Lita. The couple's divorce was finalized in 1959. Disillusioned with radio, Lita left radio broadcasting completely and found work at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center as a nursing aide and assistant.
Later in 1959, while at the American Legion at Post 43 in Hollywood, she met and fell in love with Hollywood music agent, impresario, and music critic Raymond DeArmond Bowman. Raymond was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This time her marriage was a great success and the couple remained married for the next 41 years.
In 1962 she bore Raymond a son named Raymond Bowman, Jr. With her daughter Leslie Ann to care for the baby, Lita went to work once more. She took a job as a sales associate at the May Company Department Stores in West Los Angeles on Pico at Overland. When Leslie Ann began dating, it was Lita's son Christian who took a year and a half away from school to take care of his little brother while Raymond Sr. and Lita worked.
The family moved to Redondo Beach in 1967 where Lita was transferred to the South Bay Center store. She became manager of the camera department and oversaw the Linens and Domestics department, as well. Christian enlisted into the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and Leslie Ann soon married.
Though still working full-time, Lita eagerly attended thousands of classical, jazz, and ethnic music concerts with Raymond. The couple became a fixture at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, the Ice House in Pasadena, and the Wilshire Ebell Theater in West Los Angeles. A naturally talented artist, Lita designed dozens of posters, illustrations, and brochures for concerts which Raymond presented himself. Over the years she would meet and converse with numerous music luminaries, including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Luciano Pavarotti, Gil Shaham, and Sherrill Milnes to name a few.
Raymond and Lita moved to San Diego in 1987 and Lita transferred to the May Company's La Jolla store for the next 5 years. She was a salesperson and department manager for the retailer for a total of 27 years, retiring in 1992. In that year, she began experiencing chest pains. Lita was found to have a defective valve in her heart, so she underwent open-heart surgery. The operation was a success, however, and Lita quickly recovered her energy and motivation.
Becoming bored staying home, she went to work part-time as a hostess for the passenger cruise liners at San Diego's Embarcadero. Along with her sister Lucy, Lita was instrumental in establishing the Veteran's Memorial Museum at Balboa Park and later was a charter member the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. She was interviewed for the documentary film "To Free a Man to Fight" and had several newspaper articles written about her wartime experiences.
After Raymond died in 2001, Lita moved to Palm Springs to be closer to her eldest son Christian, and his husband Grover. She enjoyed an active retirement in the next decade working as a volunteer for various charities, including "The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert" and also at a local food bank. She enjoyed cooking, oil painting, listening to music, visiting art museums, pier fishing, dining out, knitting, visiting the zoo, recreational shopping, and riding in the Palm Springs Veteran's Day parades. Lita remained very active and independent until the final 2 years of her life when she began to have mobility issues. She was admitted to a care facility where she would ultimately pass away peacefully in her sleep. Lita was 95 years old.
A memorial service was held at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at the Memorial Garden Chapel. A bell rang for Lita at the American Veterans (AMVETS) State Convention Memorial Service on June 2023. On Memorial Day 2023, a bell was also rung at the carillon at the American Veterans National Headquarters in Lantham, Maryland. At the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California a brick will be dedicated with Lita's name on it.
Lita was survived by 3 natural children, Robert Christian Anderson, Leslie Ann, and Raymond, Junior. Five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Donations are asked to be made to Lita's favorite charity, the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A.
Lita was intelligent, spontaneous, hard-working, effervescent, optimistic, intensely loyal, and would light up any room she walked into. Her many friends will miss her dearly!
Born "Estrellita de Jesus Santos" to a wealthy sugar and coffee plantation owner in Puerto Rico, she was simply known by the last 4 letters of her name, "Lita." 2 years later the stock market crashed and the prosperous family lost 7 homes, and their seaside properties in San Juan. With the depression and civil unrest on the island, the close-knit family boarded the S.S. Borinquen passenger liner in 1936 and moved to New York City. A bright teenager with high marks in school, she quickly learned to speak fluent English. Because of her bright personality, she was given the nickname "Sparky."
At the start of World War II, her father abandoned her mother, Marcella. Mature for her age, at 14 she would attend school part-time and find work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, where a brother and 2 of her 5 sisters were already employed. Because she was charming, intelligent, and literate, she worked as a translator/interpreter. It was there she was told by hotel guest, actor Wallace Beery, that she should "head west and see the world." Pianist Carmen Cavallaro met Lita and predicted she would be a "bright star and would travel far."
Lita was particularly close to her older brother Angel. He wanted to be a part of the war effort during World War II. When he enlisted, he told Lita, "The next time you see me, I'll be a General." Just before his departure, tragically he was robbed and murdered in Central Park. Lita was devastated but decided to take his place by using his name and his I.D. to enlist in the Army since she was underage at 16.
After basic training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, which was the first "WAC" training center established during World War II, she was assigned to the 2nd Signal Center at the Presidio in San Francisco. She worked with a small unit that held about 100 German prisoners of war who were secretly housed at Letterman General Hospital, a fact that wasn't known until decades later. She also worked with her sister Lucy, also in the Army, as motor pool drivers at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. It had been taken over during the war for that purpose. She also coded and decoded messages on 96 war channels in both English and Spanish. For a while, she met ships coming from overseas and wounded soldiers returning from the Pacific Theater. She handed them a sweater and their Purple Heart medal. Many had been prisoners and were painfully thin and some even died soon after they arrived.
She was then sent to Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) where she helped perform autopsies. During this time she started dating a handsome Military Police sergeant. One night he was on duty and another soldier thought he was a bobcat and shot and killed him. Lita had to assist in her own boyfriend's autopsy. She said it was one of the most difficult duties she had to perform while in the service.
Lita was transferred to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. It was there the war ended and she was given overseas orders and sailed to the Aleutian islands in Alaska, then across to Japan, where she worked with the occupational forces for 2 weeks. She then was sent to Puerto Rico's Aguadilla Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps Base as an interpreter. She also accompanied French war brides and escorted them to their American husband's hometowns. The Army then discovered Lita wasn't "Angel" and wasn't even 18, but because she had proven herself valuable, the Army kept her for the last few months of her service.
During her enlistment, she was awarded the following medals: "Women's Army Corps Service", "World War II Army of Occupation", "Asiatic-Pacific Campaign", "American Campaign", "World War II Victory" and "Army Good Conduct" medals.
When she was honorably discharged, she returned to San Francisco and rented an apartment in the Marina. A year later she met Robert Clifton Anderson. A veteran who was a woodworker, rodeo cowboy, and truck driver. The couple moved to Santa Maria to be close to Lita's family, where most of them had relocated during the war. She found work with her sisters at a Chinese restaurant owned by Art and Mary Gin.
Robert and Lita married on January 18, 1947. Their daughter Leslie Anne was born later that year. At this time, Robert was driving trucks was on driving assignments, and was sometimes gone from home for several weeks at a time. Lita assumed she was abandoned once again… this time, by her husband.
Lita would meet an active Marine named Charles Henry Cannon, Jr. The couple were legally married in 1948, so it is assumed Lita had her marriage to Robert annulled. Lita bore Charles a blue-eyed daughter named Esther Lee, however, the infant tragically died after suffocating in her crib at only 6 months of age. A newspaper article in the Highland Park News-Herald on July 19, 1948 states that Charles will be back home from military duty in Hawaii by July 26 to see his wife and in time for his 1-year-old daughter Leslie's birthday.
By 1949, most of the family began to migrate further south to the Los Angeles area, where the post-war job market was booming. Lita went along with them. Strangely, Robert returned to Lita and the couple reconciled, but in less than a month, he would disappear once again. In the fall of 1950, Lita had a son she named Robert Christian Anderson, and hoped Robert Clifton would return and see his son, but she would never see him again. Decades later she found out that Robert was living with another woman as his wife in Northern California. He had no idea he had a son, Robert Christian, who was named after him.
By 1951, Lita found it increasingly difficult to find quality work because of her lingering Puerto Rican accent. She decided to attend the Don Martin School of Broadcasting on Hollywood Boulevard, where she was taught perfect diction and enunciation. While attending school she realized she enjoyed radio broadcasting and even the mechanical aspects of keeping a station on the air. In a chance meeting with actor and singer Gene Autry, she was hired to work at radio station KMPC, which he owned.
With her mother Marcella now largely caring for her 2 toddlers, Lita began working full-time at KMPC and moonlighting as a technician at stations KFI and KFWB, keeping them on the air. Late one night the NBC studio at Sunset and Vine went off the air due to a glitch. Because Lita was working just down the street, she was called and put the station back on the air.
For a brief time she did a call-in radio advice show and "Hollywood Gossip" show under the pseudonym "Estelle Stanford." One of her most loyal fans was actress Ann Sheridan, who called in periodically.
Strikingly attractive, Lita also found work as a glamour model by famed photographer Peter Gowland. Her stunning image graced numerous calendars in the early 1950s.
Announcer Vance Graham had a popular radio show on station KMPC on Sunday mornings called "Bolero Time," where he played Latin-American music, including the "Cha-Cha-Cha", "Bolero" and "Tango" recordings that were so popular during that time. She heard he needed a bilingual co-host and she began working on his show. During the week, she also worked at the station with announcers Johnny Grant, Ira Cook, Dick Wittinghill, and Johnny Magnus. She would marry Vance in 1954. On the show, she was voted "Miss Bolero Time" and rode in parades on Hollywood Boulevard, particularly the "Hollywood Lane Parade." During the week, she also hosted her own "Hollywood News" show where she voiced commercials, broadcast the local news, and reported on-the-scene at numerous premieres on Hollywood Boulevard, including the premiers of "Daddy Long Legs" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "Pride and the Passion" (1957), "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957) and a number of others. During that time, Lita became a familiar face in Hollywood while conducting interviews with celebrities, either at "Tiny Naylors" at Sunset and LaBrea, the "Brown Derby" on Vine Street, "Nickodell's" at Argyle and Selma, "Musso & Frank's Grill" on Hollywood Boulevard, or at the "Copper Skillet" at Sunset and Gower.
Vance began to travel heavily to Europe and South America and word of his infidelity got back to Lita. The couple's divorce was finalized in 1959. Disillusioned with radio, Lita left radio broadcasting completely and found work at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center as a nursing aide and assistant.
Later in 1959, while at the American Legion at Post 43 in Hollywood, she met and fell in love with Hollywood music agent, impresario, and music critic Raymond DeArmond Bowman. Raymond was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This time her marriage was a great success and the couple remained married for the next 41 years.
In 1962 she bore Raymond a son named Raymond Bowman, Jr. With her daughter Leslie Ann to care for the baby, Lita went to work once more. She took a job as a sales associate at the May Company Department Stores in West Los Angeles on Pico at Overland. When Leslie Ann began dating, it was Lita's son Christian who took a year and a half away from school to take care of his little brother while Raymond Sr. and Lita worked.
The family moved to Redondo Beach in 1967 where Lita was transferred to the South Bay Center store. She became manager of the camera department and oversaw the Linens and Domestics department, as well. Christian enlisted into the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and Leslie Ann soon married.
Though still working full-time, Lita eagerly attended thousands of classical, jazz, and ethnic music concerts with Raymond. The couple became a fixture at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, the Ice House in Pasadena, and the Wilshire Ebell Theater in West Los Angeles. A naturally talented artist, Lita designed dozens of posters, illustrations, and brochures for concerts which Raymond presented himself. Over the years she would meet and converse with numerous music luminaries, including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Luciano Pavarotti, Gil Shaham, and Sherrill Milnes to name a few.
Raymond and Lita moved to San Diego in 1987 and Lita transferred to the May Company's La Jolla store for the next 5 years. She was a salesperson and department manager for the retailer for a total of 27 years, retiring in 1992. In that year, she began experiencing chest pains. Lita was found to have a defective valve in her heart, so she underwent open-heart surgery. The operation was a success, however, and Lita quickly recovered her energy and motivation.
Becoming bored staying home, she went to work part-time as a hostess for the passenger cruise liners at San Diego's Embarcadero. Along with her sister Lucy, Lita was instrumental in establishing the Veteran's Memorial Museum at Balboa Park and later was a charter member the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. She was interviewed for the documentary film "To Free a Man to Fight" and had several newspaper articles written about her wartime experiences.
After Raymond died in 2001, Lita moved to Palm Springs to be closer to her eldest son Christian, and his husband Grover. She enjoyed an active retirement in the next decade working as a volunteer for various charities, including "The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert" and also at a local food bank. She enjoyed cooking, oil painting, listening to music, visiting art museums, pier fishing, dining out, knitting, visiting the zoo, recreational shopping, and riding in the Palm Springs Veteran's Day parades. Lita remained very active and independent until the final 2 years of her life when she began to have mobility issues. She was admitted to a care facility where she would ultimately pass away peacefully in her sleep. Lita was 95 years old.
A memorial service was held at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at the Memorial Garden Chapel. A bell rang for Lita at the American Veterans (AMVETS) State Convention Memorial Service on June 2023. On Memorial Day 2023, a bell was also rung at the carillon at the American Veterans National Headquarters in Lantham, Maryland. At the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California a brick will be dedicated with Lita's name on it.
Lita was survived by 3 natural children, Robert Christian Anderson, Leslie Ann, and Raymond, Junior. Five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Donations are asked to be made to Lita's favorite charity, the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A.
Lita was intelligent, spontaneous, hard-working, effervescent, optimistic, intensely loyal, and would light up any room she walked into. Her many friends will miss her dearly!
At the start of World War II, her father abandoned her mother, Marcella. Mature for her age, at 14 she would attend school part-time and find work at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Park Avenue, where a brother and 2 of her 5 sisters were already employed. Because she was charming, intelligent, and literate, she worked as a translator/interpreter. It was there she was told by hotel guest, actor Wallace Beery, that she should "head west and see the world." Pianist Carmen Cavallaro met Lita and predicted she would be a "bright star and would travel far."
Lita was particularly close to her older brother Angel. He wanted to be a part of the war effort during World War II. When he enlisted, he told Lita, "The next time you see me, I'll be a General." Just before his departure, tragically he was robbed and murdered in Central Park. Lita was devastated but decided to take his place by using his name and his I.D. to enlist in the Army since she was underage at 16.
After basic training in Fort Des Moines, Iowa, which was the first "WAC" training center established during World War II, she was assigned to the 2nd Signal Center at the Presidio in San Francisco. She worked with a small unit that held about 100 German prisoners of war who were secretly housed at Letterman General Hospital, a fact that wasn't known until decades later. She also worked with her sister Lucy, also in the Army, as motor pool drivers at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District. It had been taken over during the war for that purpose. She also coded and decoded messages on 96 war channels in both English and Spanish. For a while, she met ships coming from overseas and wounded soldiers returning from the Pacific Theater. She handed them a sweater and their Purple Heart medal. Many had been prisoners and were painfully thin and some even died soon after they arrived.
She was then sent to Camp Cooke (now Vandenberg Air Force Base) where she helped perform autopsies. During this time she started dating a handsome Military Police sergeant. One night he was on duty and another soldier thought he was a bobcat and shot and killed him. Lita had to assist in her own boyfriend's autopsy. She said it was one of the most difficult duties she had to perform while in the service.
Lita was transferred to Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington. It was there the war ended and she was given overseas orders and sailed to the Aleutian islands in Alaska, then across to Japan, where she worked with the occupational forces for 2 weeks. She then was sent to Puerto Rico's Aguadilla Field, a U.S. Army Air Corps Base as an interpreter. She also accompanied French war brides and escorted them to their American husband's hometowns. The Army then discovered Lita wasn't "Angel" and wasn't even 18, but because she had proven herself valuable, the Army kept her for the last few months of her service.
During her enlistment, she was awarded the following medals: "Women's Army Corps Service", "World War II Army of Occupation", "Asiatic-Pacific Campaign", "American Campaign", "World War II Victory" and "Army Good Conduct" medals.
When she was honorably discharged, she returned to San Francisco and rented an apartment in the Marina. A year later she met Robert Clifton Anderson. A veteran who was a woodworker, rodeo cowboy, and truck driver. The couple moved to Santa Maria to be close to Lita's family, where most of them had relocated during the war. She found work with her sisters at a Chinese restaurant owned by Art and Mary Gin.
Robert and Lita married on January 18, 1947. Their daughter Leslie Anne was born later that year. At this time, Robert was driving trucks was on driving assignments, and was sometimes gone from home for several weeks at a time. Lita assumed she was abandoned once again… this time, by her husband.
Lita would meet an active Marine named Charles Henry Cannon, Jr. The couple were legally married in 1948, so it is assumed Lita had her marriage to Robert annulled. Lita bore Charles a blue-eyed daughter named Esther Lee, however, the infant tragically died after suffocating in her crib at only 6 months of age. A newspaper article in the Highland Park News-Herald on July 19, 1948 states that Charles will be back home from military duty in Hawaii by July 26 to see his wife and in time for his 1-year-old daughter Leslie's birthday.
By 1949, most of the family began to migrate further south to the Los Angeles area, where the post-war job market was booming. Lita went along with them. Strangely, Robert returned to Lita and the couple reconciled, but in less than a month, he would disappear once again. In the fall of 1950, Lita had a son she named Robert Christian Anderson, and hoped Robert Clifton would return and see his son, but she would never see him again. Decades later she found out that Robert was living with another woman as his wife in Northern California. He had no idea he had a son, Robert Christian, who was named after him.
By 1951, Lita found it increasingly difficult to find quality work because of her lingering Puerto Rican accent. She decided to attend the Don Martin School of Broadcasting on Hollywood Boulevard, where she was taught perfect diction and enunciation. While attending school she realized she enjoyed radio broadcasting and even the mechanical aspects of keeping a station on the air. In a chance meeting with actor and singer Gene Autry, she was hired to work at radio station KMPC, which he owned.
With her mother Marcella now largely caring for her 2 toddlers, Lita began working full-time at KMPC and moonlighting as a technician at stations KFI and KFWB, keeping them on the air. Late one night the NBC studio at Sunset and Vine went off the air due to a glitch. Because Lita was working just down the street, she was called and put the station back on the air.
For a brief time she did a call-in radio advice show and "Hollywood Gossip" show under the pseudonym "Estelle Stanford." One of her most loyal fans was actress Ann Sheridan, who called in periodically.
Strikingly attractive, Lita also found work as a glamour model by famed photographer Peter Gowland. Her stunning image graced numerous calendars in the early 1950s.
Announcer Vance Graham had a popular radio show on station KMPC on Sunday mornings called "Bolero Time," where he played Latin-American music, including the "Cha-Cha-Cha", "Bolero" and "Tango" recordings that were so popular during that time. She heard he needed a bilingual co-host and she began working on his show. During the week, she also worked at the station with announcers Johnny Grant, Ira Cook, Dick Wittinghill, and Johnny Magnus. She would marry Vance in 1954. On the show, she was voted "Miss Bolero Time" and rode in parades on Hollywood Boulevard, particularly the "Hollywood Lane Parade." During the week, she also hosted her own "Hollywood News" show where she voiced commercials, broadcast the local news, and reported on-the-scene at numerous premieres on Hollywood Boulevard, including the premiers of "Daddy Long Legs" (1955), "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "Pride and the Passion" (1957), "Boy on a Dolphin" (1957), "Tammy and the Bachelor" (1957) and a number of others. During that time, Lita became a familiar face in Hollywood while conducting interviews with celebrities, either at "Tiny Naylors" at Sunset and LaBrea, the "Brown Derby" on Vine Street, "Nickodell's" at Argyle and Selma, "Musso & Frank's Grill" on Hollywood Boulevard, or at the "Copper Skillet" at Sunset and Gower.
Vance began to travel heavily to Europe and South America and word of his infidelity got back to Lita. The couple's divorce was finalized in 1959. Disillusioned with radio, Lita left radio broadcasting completely and found work at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center as a nursing aide and assistant.
Later in 1959, while at the American Legion at Post 43 in Hollywood, she met and fell in love with Hollywood music agent, impresario, and music critic Raymond DeArmond Bowman. Raymond was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This time her marriage was a great success and the couple remained married for the next 41 years.
In 1962 she bore Raymond a son named Raymond Bowman, Jr. With her daughter Leslie Ann to care for the baby, Lita went to work once more. She took a job as a sales associate at the May Company Department Stores in West Los Angeles on Pico at Overland. When Leslie Ann began dating, it was Lita's son Christian who took a year and a half away from school to take care of his little brother while Raymond Sr. and Lita worked.
The family moved to Redondo Beach in 1967 where Lita was transferred to the South Bay Center store. She became manager of the camera department and oversaw the Linens and Domestics department, as well. Christian enlisted into the U.S. Air Force in 1969 and Leslie Ann soon married.
Though still working full-time, Lita eagerly attended thousands of classical, jazz, and ethnic music concerts with Raymond. The couple became a fixture at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center, the Ice House in Pasadena, and the Wilshire Ebell Theater in West Los Angeles. A naturally talented artist, Lita designed dozens of posters, illustrations, and brochures for concerts which Raymond presented himself. Over the years she would meet and converse with numerous music luminaries, including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Luciano Pavarotti, Gil Shaham, and Sherrill Milnes to name a few.
Raymond and Lita moved to San Diego in 1987 and Lita transferred to the May Company's La Jolla store for the next 5 years. She was a salesperson and department manager for the retailer for a total of 27 years, retiring in 1992. In that year, she began experiencing chest pains. Lita was found to have a defective valve in her heart, so she underwent open-heart surgery. The operation was a success, however, and Lita quickly recovered her energy and motivation.
Becoming bored staying home, she went to work part-time as a hostess for the passenger cruise liners at San Diego's Embarcadero. Along with her sister Lucy, Lita was instrumental in establishing the Veteran's Memorial Museum at Balboa Park and later was a charter member the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. She was interviewed for the documentary film "To Free a Man to Fight" and had several newspaper articles written about her wartime experiences.
After Raymond died in 2001, Lita moved to Palm Springs to be closer to her eldest son Christian, and his husband Grover. She enjoyed an active retirement in the next decade working as a volunteer for various charities, including "The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert" and also at a local food bank. She enjoyed cooking, oil painting, listening to music, visiting art museums, pier fishing, dining out, knitting, visiting the zoo, recreational shopping, and riding in the Palm Springs Veteran's Day parades. Lita remained very active and independent until the final 2 years of her life when she began to have mobility issues. She was admitted to a care facility where she would ultimately pass away peacefully in her sleep. Lita was 95 years old.
A memorial service was held at the Southern Nevada Veteran's Memorial Cemetery on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at the Memorial Garden Chapel. A bell rang for Lita at the American Veterans (AMVETS) State Convention Memorial Service on June 2023. On Memorial Day 2023, a bell was also rung at the carillon at the American Veterans National Headquarters in Lantham, Maryland. At the General Patton Memorial Museum in Chiriaco Summit, California a brick will be dedicated with Lita's name on it.
Lita was survived by 3 natural children, Robert Christian Anderson, Leslie Ann, and Raymond, Junior. Five grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.
Donations are asked to be made to Lita's favorite charity, the David Geffen School of Medicine at U.C.L.A.
Lita was intelligent, spontaneous, hard-working, effervescent, optimistic, intensely loyal, and would light up any room she walked into. Her many friends will miss her dearly!
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