Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 3, No. 21 - May 27, 2021
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This Issue
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Professionals.......................7
Classifieds............................2
Entertainment......................2
Hawthorne............................3
Lawndale..............................4
Inglewood.............................5
Legals............................. 2,4,6
Pets........................................8
Seniors..................................3
Weekend
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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Lawndale Tribune
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Featuring the Weekly Newspapers of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Lawndale
South Bay Teacher Wins Big for
Her Kindergarten Students
Inglewood Unified School District would like to congratulate Payne STEAM Academy Transitional Kindergarten (TK) teacher, Mrs. Cicely Bingener, who was surprised during #TeacherAppreciationWeek
by the SoCal Helpful Honda Dealers Team with $5,000 worth of classroom supplies and materials for her students. Mrs. Bingener was nominated by a former classmate and high school friend for her
hard work, dedication and commitment to her students. Like many of our amazing teachers, Mrs. Bingener rose to the challenge and continued to support her students in every way possible during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Congratulations Mrs. Bingener, and thank you for all of your efforts to ensure students receive high quality instruction and are consistently nurtured and cared for. Photo courtesy
Inglewood Unified School District.
South Bay Local Author Dick Upton; Master
Chronicler of General Custer and Indian Wars
By Duane Plank
We will start with a Thursday morning trivia
quiz…What do George Custer, the United States
general who became famous (infamous?) after
he and many of his charges were annihilated
by the coalescing of three Indian tribes on a
deadly battlefield back in late June of 1876
along the Little Bighorn River in the Montana
territory, and Hall of Famer “Prince Hal”
Newhouser, a southpaw pitcher for both the
Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, have in
common? A General and a Prince?
Tick-tock… Does anyone know the answer?
And the answer is: both men are subjects of
serious interest to El Segundo, author, publisher,
and resident Richard “Dick” Upton.
Upton has a keen interest in history, especially
the historic timeframe surrounding the life and
death of Custer. One of his books, of which
more than 50 have been published, featured
the Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the
Lakota and other Plains Indians, as the Battle
of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred
to as Custer’s Last Stand. It was an armed
engagement between combined forces of the
Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes
and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United
States Army. The battle, which resulted in the
defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant
action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. On June
25–26, 1876, it took place along the Little Big
Horn River in the Crow Indian Reservation in
southeastern Montana Territory.
The fight was an overwhelming victory for
Indians, who were led into battle by several
major Native American titans, including Crazy
Horse. The visions of Sitting Bull had inspired
it. The U.S. 7th Cavalry, a force of 700 men,
suffered the major defeat while commanded by
Custer. Five of the Cavalry’s twelve companies
were annihilated, and Custer was killed, as were
four of his male relatives; the total U.S. casualty
count included 268 dead and 55 severely
wounded (six died later from their wounds).
The battle and events in the tumultuous
ensuing decades in Montana, which became
a state in 1889, piqued the interest of Upton,
and he began a career documenting that
locales events and that period in Western
American history.
El Segundo resident Todd Felker considers
Upton a long-time friend. During our phone
conversation, Felker shared that he used to,
back in the ’90s, do some computer work for
Upton. “(Upton) has lived in town forever,”
Felker shared and is “Probably one of the
countries foremost experts on General Custer.
He has written a lot of books, published a lot
on topics related to that facet of the Civil War.”
Felker said that Upton did not limit his interests
to researching post-Civil War history. “He has
been in some bands, played baseball until up
into his 70’s, late sixties at least, and has a
lot of interesting baseball stories,” Felker said.
As he entered his golden years, Felker said,
Upton continued working, writing, editing, and
publishing his books and processing orders on
websites such as Upton and Sons.
On the sporting side, Upton was always a
baseball pitcher, Felker added. Once he entered
military service, Upton played on a ‘club’
baseball team in the Army, hoping to move
up to the varsity army team, but his superior
officer nixed that idea. Undeterred, Felker said,
Dick Upton and Wife Frankie
Upton seized an opportunity to pitch against
the regular Army team and proceeded to shut
them down, which prompted a keen baseball
observer, and Army General, to inquire “who
is that kid on the mound?” who was stifling
the bats of the top-seeded team in the long-ago
held Army tournament.
Upton said that “Baseball and the Civil War
era were two things that I seemed to excel in.
I wasn’t very verbal,” he admitted. He was
born and raised in Flint, Michigan, in 1933,
“a great time,” he said while noting that “Flint
(today) is a grim place, but in those days, was
a wonderful place. Work was good, and people
were buying second homes. It was wonderful.”
Upton said that both of his parents were from
Canada and that his mother was the child of
a “well-off” family and had inherited “some
money.” Because of health issues, the family
See Dick Upton, page 5