Kathy LovinMar 9, 2016 · 2 min readA page from the Los Angeles Herald newspaper announcing Capt. Nellie Truelove’s commission as a member of the LAPDOn March 4, 1903 the Los Angeles Herald newspaper reported that Salvation Army Captain Nellie Truelove would be the first woman “to be given a right to wear the nickel star and swing the black club of police authority.”
Captain Nellie TrueloveBorn in London in 1863, the aptly-named Capt. Truelove ran a home for “fallen” women at the turn of the 20th century in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
The word “fallen” in those days referred to women who worked as prostitutes or were pregnant and unmarried.
Capt. Truelove’s rescue work involved spending days and nights in bars and brothels trying to ease the burden of women in trouble. She believed that no matter how dire the circumstance, there was hope for every woman she met.
Courtesy of California Digital Newspaper Colletion: http://salar.my/CaptTrueloveOften, she would be calle..