Valerie Cassity-Special to the Sun

Katie Gallagher has been a true pioneer for women. As the first female Sheriff Deputy in the Kern Valley, she opened the door for others to pursue their goals regardless of gender.

Katie was born in Monrovia, Calif. and grew up in Covina, which was then still covered in orange groves. Katie lived in Covina until she was a senior in high school, at which time her family found it necessary to move to Compton. Katie graduated from Compton High School and went on to earn her Associates Degree in English and Science at Compton Junior College, because she had always planned to be a teacher, one of the few career choices available to women at the time of her youth. After junior college, Katie, 'Didn’t have money to continue my education so I got married to Dick Gallagher,' she joked.

Katie Gallagher

Katie and Dick remained in Compton for some years, but they lived for a time on Catalina Island when Dick joined the Maritime Service when their first child, Judy, now 65, was three years old. 'That was fun,' said Katie. At that time, the Maritime Service was not a part of the American Military system, but the Army was trying to draft Dick out of the Maritime service, so they gave him a deferment if he would work in the shipyards, so the Gallaghers returned to the mainland to take that opportunity.

A few years later, when Katie and Dick had added two more girls, Pam and Wendy, to the brood, the Gallagher family lived for a five months in South America, where Dick worked for a copper mine at Anaconda Copper located in Chuquicamata, Chile. 'They had hired Dick to be in charge of a warehouse that they had planned to build someday, and he quickly became disenchanted so we returned home,' Katie recalled.

A couple of years after returning from South America, Katie had her fourth and final child, this time a boy. Michael Gallagher is well-known in the Kern Valley as part of the folk trio 'Out of the Blue,' where he plays mandolin while his wife, Pat Seamount, plays guitar, and friend Terry Harris plays the steel guitar. Katie can often be seen at their performances enjoying her son’s talent, which he inherited from his father, who used to play piano professionally in addition to his other careers.

When Michael was two years old, Dick was booked for an entertainment tour playing piano, so the entire family took a three-month, 10,000-mile road trip through the western U.S., including Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Texas.

Of Katie’s four children, Michael is the only one that came along to the Kern Valley, when she and Dick moved here through a strange twist of fate. They were working in real estate in Lynwood, Calif. and a broker friend of theirs had moved to Lake Isabella. He had requested that the broker they worked for do his advertising because people were moving here from the L.A. area. Katie was writing the ads for businesses for sale, and she, 'Wrote such a good ad for the Starlite Motel in Lake Isabella that we decided to buy it,' said Katie.

Katie and Dick bought the motel, which they owned and operated for 25 years, just as Michael was beginning High School in 1964. They lived in the motel to keep personal costs lower, and in the wintertime there was not much business, much like today, and their income was drastically reduced during that season.

One day, Katie saw an ad in the paper for a county job, so she took the test to apply and did very well. Katie began as the first clerk at the Kern County Sheriff’s office in the Lake Isabella substation, which was then located next to where the Senior Center is today. In 1967, Katie was promoted to the first female deputy ever hired in the Kern Valley.

Katie had many adventures as a Deputy, but the most memorable was a woman who was reported as 'acting crazy' at Miracle Hot Springs; she was dipping her children in the river because she thought they had been bewitched. Katie and her partner took the children to Juvenile Hall (Jamison Center had not been built yet) and took the woman to jail. 'That was something else,' remembered Katie.

After working with the Kern County Sheriff’s Department for 10 years, Katie wanted to take a position with better pay and retirement benefits, so she went to work at the Kern County Health Department as the Supervisor of the Clerks in the Public Health Nursing Division until 1989, when she retired.

Since she retired, Katie has sold the motel and spent her time on craft work, particularly dollhouse miniatures, for which she has won some prizes at the Kern County Fair in the past. 'People still ask me if I’m going to enter anything in the fair, but I don’t do them so much anymore,' said Katie.

Katie was a charter member of the Kern Valley Pink Ladies, now the Hospital Auxiliary, but wasn’t able to keep up with it once she began working. She is currently active in the South Fork Woman’s Club, where she serves as Chairman of California History and Landmarks and attends the monthly meetings.

One of Katie’s many fond memories is the year that Dick campaigned for and won the Whiskey Flat Mayor race as 'Gallant Gallagher' in 1965. Back then, tickets were $.50 each, and she and Dick raised $2,300 during his six-week campaign; at the time it was the most that had been raised by any candidate. One of the most memorable fundraisers was at the long-closed restaurant Tex Oliver’s, where they had a turkey shoot. The winner was awarded a ham. Katie made five Whiskey Flat dresses which she wore campaigning with Dick, but joked, 'I can’t even get them over my head now.'

Unfortunately, Dick passed away from cancer in 2001, but Katie has many fond memories of their many adventures together throughout their marriage. She especially cherishes the camping trips they used to take once they moved to this area. 'I like the friendly people and being surrounded by mountains most in the Kern Valley; I’m a mountain woman,' said Katie. 'Dick and I really felt that we had found our true home here.'