Lillian Nommsen enjoyed her career at City Hall
Published: Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
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There have been a lot of changes to the Petaluma landscape since Lillian Nommsen was a kid growing up on a rural chicken ranch and commuting to school by rail. So many that it would be easier to list what hasn’t changed.
“The biggest difference is in the growth, it’s staggering. In the old days, you used to know everybody who walked through the door,” said Nommsen, who’ll celebrate her 92nd birthday March 15. Of course, the door she’s speaking of was the door to City Hall where she worked in the Department of Public Works and as city clerk during the tenure of six mayors.
Coincidentally, growth was a central and sometimes contentious issue during that period when this city was negotiating its now-famous controlled-growth policy, or Petaluma Plan, adopted in 1975. At the time, our population hovered around 30,000 and the plan limited Petaluma’s growth to new 500 housing units a year. It was intended to check uncontrolled growth and prevent what some predicted would turn Petaluma into “San Jose North.”
Lillian’s parents, William and Keike Peterson, originally settled on a dairy in Orland before moving with their three daughters, Lillian, Clara and Minnie, to Petaluma, where they grew zinfandel grapes, strawberries and “netted gem” potatoes.
The kids attended Dunham School until eighth grade and would have gone on to Analy High in Sebastopol if transportation permitted, but since the tracks of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad led to Petaluma, Lillian and her sisters rode the trolley to town, and then walked to Petaluma Junior High and Petaluma High. Lillian completed her senior year at Analy after the trolley discontinued service in 1933. The P&SR ceased business in 1935.
During the Depression, the family couldn’t afford higher education, so Lillian took a job at the apple packing plant earning 17 cents and hour. “I had a frugal upbringing. We were lucky. We grew our own vegetables,” recalled Lillian. She was later hired to be on call at the Poultry Producers, which led to a full-time job as secretary to feed manager Clarence Eales. “It was fortunate that I knew shorthand and clerical work,” she added.
She met her future husband, Henry Nommsen, an immigrant from the isle of Fohr and an employee of Pioneer Hatchery, at Grace Evangelical Church, and they married in 1941. The couple bought a five-acre chicken ranch on Skillman Lane and their son, Ken, was born in 1943. Their circa 1907 farmhouse was razed in the 1950s and replaced with a new one. “People from Fohr opened delicatessens in New York or dairies in the Valley. We were working people,” she explained.
Lillian worked at the Sixth Street office of Pioneer Hatchery and at Kresky Manufacturing until the early 1950s, when city manager Ed Frank hired her to work as an assistant to City Clerk Gladys Wallin in the old City Hall. She was promoted to city clerk when Wallin retired in 1964 and held that position for 10 years. “It was a big job, lots of correspondence and paperwork. I did the minutes for all the City Council meetings,” remembered Lillian.
Department heads were encouraged by the city to join social clubs and fraternal organizations prompting Lillian to join the Soroptimists, where she’s a past president, and Eastern Star.
After retiring in 1974, she and Henry spent time camping and fishing along the Eel River and hosted large family outings at Mirabel Park. She was an avid folk dancer and belonged to several card clubs. “We always had a good time, without drinking,” she told me.
Three years after she retired, her husband died, but Lillian remained busy and in good health. She’s taken German classes at SRJC and served on the Petaluma Valley Hospital Auxiliary. She has lived at Springfield Retirement Community since selling her ranch in 2000.
(Harlan Osborne’s column, Toolin’ Around Town, appears every two weeks. Contact him at harlan@sonic.net)
