By Theresa Phillips
This story about Fair Parade Grand Marshal Alice Dresel originally appeared in the February issue of the Ruralite Magazine.
Step into Susanville resident Alice Dresel’s home and you’ll see a story hanging on the wall – a wedding photo that almost never happened.
“I guess I’m a kind of miracle,” Alice says with a smile. “I should have never been born.”
Her father, Howard John Thomas, served in World War I, and by all rights, he shouldn’t have made it home. A bullet aimed at his heart was stopped by a small Bible tucked into his breast pocket. Fate intervened, and he returned to the States, married Alida Faie Rambo, and on February 2, 1926, welcomed their 3rd child – a baby girl named Alice.
Alice’s first memory? A bowl of steaming chocolate pudding.
“I think that’s why I don’t care for chocolate,” she says.
At 2 years old, she pulled the bowl her mother had placed in the middle of the kitchen table toward her and tumbled headfirst into it, burning her tiny face. She remembers recovering in her mother’s bed, playing with a jewelry box full of broken bits of jewelry. Decades later, while cleaning out her mother’s home, she found the tube of salve prescribed for those burns – a tangible link to her earliest memory.
Alice grew up on a 180-acre farm during the Great Depression.
“There wasn’t a lot of money, but we had chickens, ducks, and geese,” Alice says. “We didn’t go hungry like many others.”
Alice and Ralph settled in Susanville, where they raised 2 sons. Her mother sold cream to the local creamery and kept a large garden. Life was hard, but it was full.
Electricity didn’t reach the farm until Alice was 11, when San Joaquin Light and Power energized the community.
“Oh, it was a big deal,” she says. “It really changed the way we did things.”
Her father, injured in the war, spent years at a time in and out of hospitals, so much of the farm work fell to Alice and her siblings. Alice’s chores were outside.
“I collected eggs, fed the chickens, and tended to the garden,” she says.
At six, she helped her brother build a car from spare parts. By 9, she was driving hay out to the fields.
“Can you imagine?” Alice asks. “9 years old and hauling hay.” Those early days sparked a love of mechanics and dreaming. “I loved to read, but not girly stories,” Alice says. “There was 1 book about people who lived in the trees. I’d walk the fields and imagine living in those big trees.”
Alice attended a 2-room schoolhouse through 8th grade. She would walk the mile to school and back every day. She fondly remembers her first-grade teacher, Mrs. Heaten.
“She took a special interest in me,” Alice says. “I had a hard time saying certain words, and my speech was affected. She helped teach me how to recognize words and speak properly. I’ll never forget her.”
When she graduated from 8th grade, she started taking the bus into town to attend high school. Since it was more convenient to stay in town, Alice took a job as a household helper with a local family in exchange for room and board. She graduated in 1943, as World War II raged.
“Some of my classmates enlisted before school was out, and sadly, a few were killed before graduation,” she says.
Alice and her husband, Ralph Dresel, on their wedding day in 1952.
Alice’s career developed from her skills in math and art. “Our school had a row of evergreen trees,” she says. “I’d sit there and draw house plans in the dirt.”
She combined the 2 skills and became a draftsman, an unusual career for a young woman at the time.
During the war, the government offered drafting programs for women. Alice excelled and, at 17, landed a job at Joshua Hendy’s Ironworks in Sunnyvale, drafting plans for engine turbines used on ships.
“I was too young for the war department—you had to be 19— but the ironworks needed draftsmen, so they hired me,” Alice says.
When the war ended, Alice wondered what was next. While many women her age were marrying, Alice wasn’t ready to settle down. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1948 and began teaching high school art at Tulare Union High School.
One summer, she took a road trip with friends to Portland. Along the way, they camped at Silver Lake near Susanville.
“I fell in love with the area,” she says.
That trip set the stage for the biggest turn in her life. In 1949, at a Beta Sigma Phi convention, Alice met a group of women from Susanville. They told her about an opening for an art teacher at the high school in Susanville. She applied and got the job. Two years later, she met Ralph Dresel at a ski club meeting.
Alice and the family’s cat on the porch of her parents’ farm in rural California.
“I sat behind him and thought, He sure has broad shoulders.” Alice says.
A year later, they married in Paso Robles. Alice and Ralph eventually settled in Susanville and raised 2 sons, Ralph III and Tom. Alice worked part-time as an engineering aide for the city – a rarity for women at the time.
“I was a woman ahead of my time,” she says proudly.
Ralph ran the local Standard Station for nearly 20 years before joining the sheriff’s department. He passed away in 2023 after 70 years of marriage.
“I miss him,” Alice says softly, her blue eyes full of memory.
Today, Alice stays active with Beta Sigma Phi, where she’s been a member for 77 years.
“We make giving back a priority,” she says. “This year, we adopted a family through the Salvation Army and even got a bike for the kids.”
She spends her days reading and watching documentaries.
“Just the other day, I thought, ‘Wow! I never knew that,’” she says. “You should never stop learning.” After a century on this planet, Alice has learned a few things and stays true to her beliefs and words of wisdom.
Howard with his wife and Alice’s mother, Alida Faie Rambo.
“I learned that we have a God who takes care of us,” Alice says. “I feel very strongly that if you have a belief in the All Mighty and if you try your best to live by the rules he gave us, and that you are guided by your beliefs, then that’s what life is all about.”
Her advice is to stay curious and listen to others. “People need to be curious,” Alice says. “That’s how your mind stays sharp. And listen. We all need to listen more to each other. We don’t always agree but at least listen. That’s so important.”
