Pasadena, Not Altadena, Post Office to Get Local Hero's Name

A bill to name the in honor of a local postal worker who served as part of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II has been amended instead to name a post office at 281 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena after him.

The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, would honor Oliver Goodall, who died in November. 

Altadena Patch that the bill would rename the Altadena post office after Goodall.  An article in the Los Angeles Examiner by reporter Laura Monteros notes the change to the Pasadena location.

Maureen Shanahan, a spokesman for Schiff, wrote in an email that the original email sent out by Schiff's office this week was incorrect, and confirmed that the Pasadena location is now being named in the bill.

The location was changed while the bill was being discussed in committee, Shanahan said.  The reasoning was that since the Altadena facility is leased, it may not remain at the spot as long as the 281 E. Colorado facility, which is the closest permanent location to Altadena.

"Such a permanent and historic venue seemed the most fitting to honor the more than 50 years of public service that Oliver Goodall provided as a Tuskegee Airman, public information officer and postal worker," Shanahan wrote in an email.

Goodall entered the service as a pilot in 1943.  He was also among 60 African-American U.S. Army Air Corps officers who were arrested for trying to peacefully integrate an all-white officers’ club, according to Schiff's press release. 

The incident became part of the inspiration for the movement to racially integrate the armed forces. 

The bill passed through the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and will next be considered by the full House of Representatives.

If ultimately successful, the post office would be known as “First Lieutenant Oliver Goodall Post Office."