Mabel Yank Richey221 W Pine Street

Mabel Yank (1903-1999) married Carl Richey in 1927 and the couple settled in Lodi in 1929 where they owned grape orchards and she taught at Woods School. After her husband drowned in 1948, Mabel Richey managed the vineyard and their other properties on her own and remained single until she married Douglas Stiehl in her later years.Throughout her life, Mabel Richey was very active in community activities and civic committees: serving as president of the Lodi Woman’s Club and the Business and Professional Woman’s Club, chairing Bond Day in 1943 to sell War Bonds and Stamps, inspecting WAF (Women in the Air Force) training facilities in Texas with other Lodi civic leaders in 1952, and holding leadership positions with both the March of Dimes and the American Red Cross.Because of her prominence in community work, friends and colleagues alike urged her to run for public office. In 1952, there were two open seats on the Lodi city council and eight candidates — seven men and Mabel Richey. Against those odds, she became the first woman elected to the Lodi City Council, followed in 1953 by two terms as the first woman elected mayor of Lodi. It would be another 30 years before Evelyn Olson would become the second female mayor of Lodi.