Remembering Alice Chandler, “Orange County’s First Female Deputy”
Alice Chandler, OCSD Special Deputy and close friend, passed away peacefully on June 10th at age 94 (she would have turned 95 on June 19th). Alice led an amazing life, becoming an Orange County Special Deputy Sheriff in 1949 at Sheriff Musick’s request to patrol the Irvine Ranch where she and her family lived and worked, fending off poachers at Peters Lake on the property. Alice was recently visited by several active and retired deputies and police officers who have embraced her going back to the time when she mailed a letter to Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, describing an incident when she was driven to the local shopping center in a Leisure World courtesy van and witnessed an apparently able-bodied man park his car in a disabled persons-only space. In 2008, Alice at almost age 80, became annoyed and told the driver the error of his ways. The man sassed her back, so Alice called the sheriff’s dispatcher and three patrol cars showed up to give the errant driver a citation. The spicy Chandler remarked to one young deputy that she might have been able to solve the problem herself, because she had a sheriff’s badge, revolver, and ID card. The deputies didn’t understand the context of Alice’s disclosure but smiled, thinking that this was the end of the story.