Former librarian kept kids happy

Joan Dugan, who dazzled young readers for 24 years as the children’s librarian at the Balboa Branch Library, passed away from cancer Thursday at her daughter’s home in Utah. She was 75.

A native of Artesia, Dugan moved to the Balboa Peninsula in 1959 and took the reins of the children’s library in the late 1960s. During her two decades there, she won a reputation as a spirited librarian and an advocate of literature for children.

“She was very uplifting, happy, much of a ham,” said her daughter, Patty Hughes. “She made you happy. She made you laugh. At the library, she inspired a lot of people. She had many kids who, after they graduated from high school or college, would come to her and say, ‘Thank you for getting us into reading.’”

Apart from reading programs, Dugan also led story times for young children and decorated the library for holidays. In a 2004 interview with the Daily Pilot, she said that she sometimes reviewed up to 50 children’s books a week.

“There’s nothing like seeing young people wanting to read because I made it fun for them,” Dugan told the Pilot then.

Mike Payne, a clerk at the Balboa Branch Library, said he often attended Dugan’s story times as a child.

“She was always very bright, very vivacious,” he said. “She was always with a smile and a twinkle in her eye, as it were.”

In addition to her work at the library, Dugan held a municipal job for the city of Newport Beach and also briefly hosted her own cable show, “Pinwheel Playhouse,” from a station on Coast Highway.

Dugan is survived by her daughter and her son, Richard Culvyhouse.dpt.26-dugan-BPhotoInfoJD1OCF4I20060226iv9j59kn(LA)