With the passing of Gwen Riggs on April 17, 2009 the Orange County Model A Ford Club has lost a truly fine Lady. It is difficult to think of Gwen Riggs without including John in your thoughts. They were an inseparable couple, married over 67 years. Both were enthusiastically involved in club activities since becoming members in 1994.
Glenn Johnson spotted the Riggs' at a local car show in Long Beach and introduced himself and urged them to join the club. John & Gwen had just finished having their December 1927 Model A Ford Coupe restored. John's father had given him the car many years before. The Riggs' were dressed in era clothing and appeared to be having a grand time. Glenn thought they would be a perfect addition to the Orange County Model A Ford Club; and they were.
The above is the front cover of the Orange County Model A Ford Club
newsletter, “The Distributor”, September 1996.
The Riggs' did everything together. Even when John was president of the club several times, Gwen was right by his side helping him. They were tour leaders many times and even this year, with her health declining, she and John were the club's tour directors and they were busy planning tours right up to the end.
Gwen was born Gweneth Margie Davis on January 18, 1925. She was born in a doctor's office on the northeast corner of the circle in the City of Orange . Her parents were Ralph and Lillian Davis. She was an only child, as was John.
John and Gwen met on a blind date. They went to the old Paramount Theater in Los Angeles in the rumble seat of a Model A Ford. Both Gwen and John lived around 87 th and Avalon in Los Angeles . Gwen attended Freemont High School . Gwen was only 16 when she and John were married on November 19, 1941. The story John tells is that Gwen's mother dropped her off for school at the front door of Freemont High. She walked in the front door and out the back door and got in John's 1936 Ford coupe and off they went to Las Vegas . Pearl Harbor was bombed a few weeks later and the following year John enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was trained as a bomber pilot and was commissioned a second lieutenant.
After the war John and Gwen began raising their family. They had two daughters, Janice and Sherry.
During their long lives together John and Gwen shared many adventures and traveled the world. For a number of years they sailed aboard a yacht belonging to the Harvey Aluminum Company where John was the boat's captain.
In any story there is usually a hero, and in this story John Riggs is certainly the hero. For the past six years John has been the dedicated caregiver to an uncomplaining Gwen. He was constantly at her side attending to her needs. He was her hero. †