Kenneth Hahn - Biography

Biography

Hahn was born August 19, 1920, in the family home at 5931 S. Flower Street, Los Angeles, the son of Hattie W. Hahn of Nottawa, Ontario, and her husband. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1919, and Hahn's father died just a few months later. The couple had seven sons—Henry, John, Allan, Louis, George, Gordon and Kenneth.

He went to public schools in Los Angeles, including John Muir Junior High School and Fremont High School, class of 1938. He graduated from Pepperdine College in 1942. He received a master's degree in education while he was on the City Council, earned after "Six years of study in summer and late afternoon sessions." He also had a secondary-school teaching credential.

Hahn began his working career as a partner in the Hahn Brothers' Service Station at 6300 South Main Street, at the foot of San Pedro Street in the South Park area. Before World War II he was a messenger for the County Probation Department and the Los Angeles Police Department.

Hahn entered the Navy as an enlisted man in 1942 and earned a commission after studying at naval schools at Northwestern and Notre Dame universities. He was a ship's pilot in San Pedro, the youngest pilot in the history of the Port of Los Angeles. He served with the U.S. Seventh Fleet in the South Pacific as the commanding officer of a supply ship and was discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant. After the war, in 1947, he taught American government and history at Pepperdine.

He was married to Ramona Hahn. They had two children, James and Janice. They lived at 833-1/2 West 69th Street in the Vermon-Slauson district. He was a "deeply religious man who often quoted Scripture".

He belonged to an influential Los Angeles political dynasty: One brother, Gordon Hahn, replaced him on the Los Angeles City Council, while another, John, was assistant county clerk. His son, James Hahn, was Los Angeles city attorney from 1985 to 2001 and mayor from 2001 to 2005. James Hahn is now a judge on the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

His daughter, Janice Hahn, sat on the Los Angeles City Council, representing San Pedro and Wilmington, and is now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A nephew, Dale Hahn, was a Superior Court judge (in San Mateo County) until retiring in 2004.

He was no relation to former Los Angeles County Assessor Kenneth P. Hahn.

Hahn died of heart failure on October 12, 1997, at the age of 77 in an Inglewood hospital. A funeral service was held at Faith Dome of Crenshaw Christian Church on Vermont Avenue, and interment followed at Inglewood Park Cemetery.