Ester F. Bentley Collection
Full finding aid and list of materials
In addition to the UCLA finding aid, a shortened finding aid based on this collection was created by a UCLA student receiving their Masters in Library Science.
Read UCLA Special Collection’s finding aid for the Esther F. Bentley Papers.
BIOGRAPHy
Bentley, a lifelong lesbian and Catholic, was born and adopted in Kentucky; she was uncertain of the exact date of her birth. In the 1930s, she coached teams in field hockey and tennis. She attended Spalding College, receiving a Bachelor of Science in education in 1941. During WWII, Bentley served as a director of USO programs aiding war workers and their families. Audio recordings in the collection by Bentley document her actions in the Civil Rights Movement by taking Black friends to segregated restaurants and serving them herself.
Bentley’s career as a social worker was focused primarily on orphanages and community spaces for children. She received her Master of Science in social work from the National Catholic School of Social Service at the Catholic University of America (CUA) in 1949, and became Director of the Kentucky Society for Crippled Children. She eventually moved to California, where she worked in community planning and the Girl Scouts in San Bernardino, CA and Santa Ana, CA. During the 1960s, Bentley worked for the California State Department of Social Welfare in Norwalk, CA. From 1966 to 1974, she taught at UCLA. Her final professional role was as a specialist in the Regional Center of Orange County, working with the developmentally-disabled.
She participated in panels hosted by the Mazer in the 1990s. As an older lesbian activist, Bentley was a founding member of the Coalition of Older Lesbians (CoOL), Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, and served as a member of the Senior Program Advisory Committee for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center (now Los Angeles LGBT Center). She was also a member of the Uptown Gay & Lesbian Alliance, as well as a lifetime advocate for gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church.
Ester Bentley died on January 20, 2004, at the age of 88 in Los Angeles, CA.