Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson

Caroline Leonetti was born on April 12, 1918, in San Francisco, California.[1][2] She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California and the California School of Design in San Francisco.[3]

Ahmanson started her career as a fashion consultant on the radio and in television, including Art Linkletter's program.[4] In 1945, she founded Caroline Leonetti Ltd., a modeling agency in Los Angeles.[5] It was purchased by Raphael Berko in 1987 and renamed Media Artists Group.[6]

From 1981 to 1984, she served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.[7]

She served on the Boards of Directors of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS), the Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) and Carter Hawley Hale Stores (later known as Broadway Stores).[3] She also served on the City of Los Angeles Economic Advisory Council.[2] Additionally, she served as Senior Vice Chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.[2]

Ahmanson served on the National Advisory Council of the Peace Corps.[5] She was appointed by President Richard Nixon to serve on the National Committee on United States–China Relations, and was Vice Chairman.[1] In this capacity, she helped the Chinese government better understand about caring for the disabled.[8] A dinner conversation she had with Deng Pufang, Deng Xiaoping's son, led to a research trip sponsored by the National Committee and a meeting between Deng and President Ronald Reagan (when he was President) in the White House to talk about better treatment of the disabled.[8] She was a co-founder of the Los Angeles-Guangzhou Sister City Committee, serving as its Chairman; she and appointed Katrina Leung as its President.[4]

Later, she was appointed by President Reagan to serve on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.[1] She was also appointed to the National Council on the Humanities and the California Arts Commission.[9] She then served on the President's Council of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.[1]

She became the first female member of the Rotary Club of Los Angeles in 1987, having received its Distinguished Citizen of the Year award in 1985.[5] She served as vice chairman of the board of directors of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.[2][10] In 1985, she founded the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in Los Angeles.[11] She later served on the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Los Angeles Music Center.[1] She was a recipient of the Phoenix Award from the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California.[12] She established the Los Angeles Music Center's Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson Endowment Fund for Arts Education as a result of a charity dinner which raised $450,000 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in January, 1998.[9] She served as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Music Center Education Division from 1979 to 1998.[9] She also co-hosted fundraisers for The Salvation Army.[13]

Ahmanson married her first husband, Bernhardt Paul Heim (1917–2007), in 1940. They had a daughter, Margo O'Connell.[3]

In 1965, Ahmanson married husband Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the founder of H.F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance and savings and loan company. She became a widow when he died in 1968, and moved into a penthouse suite at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.[1]

• The Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles was named in her honor.[4]
• The Leonetti/O'Connell Family Foundation, formerly known as the Caroline Leonetti Ahmanson Foundation, was founded in 1993.[14]