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1949-1959 : 1960-1969 : 1970-1979 : 1980-1989 : 1990-1999 2000-2009 : 2010-2019
During her junior and senior years of high school she worked introducing S & H Green Stamps as a sales clerk for Grayson’s, a ready-to-wear store, and as a waitress in the family-owned Streamliner Café. After graduating from Point Loma High School, Wanda attended San Diego Business College. While in Business College she was hired as a Secretary and Bookkeeper with L.E Burner Auto Body Repair & Paint Shop where she received a million dollar education in seven years. She was the only girl working among a force of males. Her boss, Bill Burner, and his wife, treated her like family. Wanda’s free time was mostly spent at the beach or roller skating at Mission Beach Amusement Center. The love of dancing and winning dance contests to the sound of the Big Bands at the Pacific Square, The Mission Beach Ballroom and the Trianon Ballroom were special times in her life. Social Clubs and Tea Dances with the Military were very popular in the 50s. Modeling became popular. She enrolled in Powers Modeling School for Fashion and Hair Style. From 1960 to1965 she lived in Japan, traveling by train, cruising on ships and flying. Wanda studied Flower Arranging and Machine Knitting. She earned a Teaching Certificate in each. In the Hobby Shop she learned ceramics and lapidary. She was President of the Officers Wives Club of five hundred wives. After returning to San Diego she met Gene on 11 February 1967. Gene Elmore was a Commander in the Naval Reserve, a Navy Pilot on his annual two week active duty at the Naval Air Station, North Island Coronado. It must have been love at first sight; even 2,000 miles could not keep them apart. They were married on November 11, 1967 in Indianapolis, Indiana. In August 1968 they moved to San Diego and established Tele Camera of Southern California which they sold in 1995—a company that is still viable today. They have two sons, Jack and James. Jack and his wife Peggy have two daughters and a son— Christy, Sandy and David. James and his wife Elizabeth have a daughter Angelina and a son Sean. Christy has Zachary and Abby. In 1980 Gene and Wanda attended their first Death Valley Encampment. They have not missed one since. During those early years, while they still had the business, they could squeeze out a few days—generally leaving on a Tuesday and returning to San Diego on Sunday. After selling the business they stretched their stay in Death Valley to two weeks. It is interesting to note that their wedding anniversary was always spent in Death Valley and (11-11-11) is their 44 th wedding anniversary. In the late nineties Gene and Wanda signed up as Associates in the Death Valley 49ers and quickly became involved as Advisors and then Directors. Wanda became the Art Show Chair in 2001 and has continued to support the Art Show and the Scholarship Program. In 2007 Wanda organized and chaired the “Southwest Mining, Minerals, Lapidary and Craft Show. She considers it an honor to have served as the Death Valley 49ers’ 61 st President in 2010.
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Elwanda Ruth Edgil was born the youngest of six children on a farm in Jasper, Alabama. On May 21, 1945, her sixteenth birthday, she boarded a very crowded troop train with her Mother and sister, Dottie and came to San Diego. 