Bertha de Almado Clark, 230 S School Street

Bertha de Almado Clark graduated from Lodi High School in 1905, which at that time was a small building at the northwest corner of Lodi Avenue and Church Street.She moved to San Francisco to work for a newspaper just in time to experience the 1906 earthquake.After moving back home to Lodi, Bertha was chosen by ballot to become the beautiful Queen Zinfandel for Lodi’s famous 1907 Tokay Carnival. She was given $300 to create an appropriate costume. Carnival officials gave her a key to the city, and she opened the Carnival by parading around town in a decorated carriage drawn by four white horses.At a time when Lodi’s population was around 2,000, the three-day Carnival drew more than 30,000 people, many of whom used the new electric train to arrive from Stockton.Bertha stayed associated with Lodi’s Zinfandel grapes for years, both as an honored celebrity at the annual Lodi Grape Festival and by winning Packaged Grape Awards. Bertha’s beauty is commemorated with a mural at 230 S School Street.