Sue Townsley was born in North Hollywood, and grew up surrounded by brothers—two older and one younger. Her father was a businessman, but Townsley took a different route: Her life has always revolved around art, music and writing.
Though she had no specific career goal in mind as a young person, Townsley said she was always the helper. “Whenever there was a birthday party down the street, I was always the one helping the mom,” she said. “I was always ‘that’ person—assisting behind the scenes.”
Townsley married young, at age 20. She spent three decades working for UCLA; for the last 15, she was in the chancellor’s office.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “One day, info about ‘Friends of Jazz at UCLA’ with Kenny Burrell came across my desk.” She decided she wanted to get involved.
“It was part of ethnomusicology. It was a small concept, and not highly thought of at the beginning, because it was ‘just’ jazz,” Townsley said. “There was a large classical music department at the school at the time, so this idea was pushing against the grain a little bit. The other music departments were very structured. We were using musicians from many places, so we weren’t following accepted protocol. But we did it, and it became very popular.”
Friends of Jazz at UCLA put on numerous musical events, showcasing visiting jazz artists. The group functioned as a nonprofit within a large university, and while the college did help a bit financially early on, ticket sales kept them afloat. The majority of the artists involved were minorities, and Townsley basically ran the program, which she called ‘a lot of fun.’”
Townsley retired from UCLA in 2007—and was then asked to be the executive director of the California Jazz Foundation. Two years later, she and her husband moved to the desert, and she opened a chapter of the California Jazz Foundation here.
“Its goal is only to help musicians in need,” she said. “When I came out here, I learned that there were house parties raising money for musicians who were in the hospital, etc. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, they don’t know that this organization fulfills that need.’ So I opened the local chapter and put on lots of musical events, mostly at Woody’s in Palm Springs.” That chapter of Townsley’s life closed when COVID-19 arrived, but she still keeps in touch with people within the organization.
In 2008, Townsley had helped organize “A Great Day in L.A.” to commemorate an iconic photo of a large crowd of jazz musicians taken in New York, titled “A Great Day in Harlem,” in 1958. Some 250 musicians showed up to the L.A. event, and participated in a jam session afterward.
“After moving to the desert, I learned that a similar photo had never been taken out here, so I said, ‘OK, let’s do that,’” she said. “I called it ‘A Great Day in the Coachella Valley,’ rather than ‘in Cathedral City,’ even though it was taken on the steps of the Cathedral City City Hall. I would like to do it again sometime and include even more musicians.”
Today, Townsley is quite involved with the Cathedral City Senior Center. She is the board secretary, and she started an Arts, Culture and Humanities Committee which she co-chairs with Tom Rudolph. They produce monthly events there.
“Not every musician is famous, but many are really good, and it would be nice to see every valley city expose these artists more to the public.”
Sue Townsley
Though she’s a huge supporter of the arts, Townsley said she has no musical or artistic ability at all: “I draw stickmen!” she said.
Her son, Brian, teaches business courses online, runs his own small publishing company, and has written several novels and short stories. Her husband, Tim, who passed away in 2018 after 50 years of marriage, earned a master’s degree in art. He painted scenic and matte work for the entertainment industry in Los Angeles, including both commercial and commissioned pieces.
“When he passed away, (Cathedral City) put toppers on top of the street signs where we live that now say ‘Tim Townsley Way,’ because he brought a lot of attention from the art world to Cathedral City,” she said. “He loved painting jazz artists and philosophers. In fact, UC Riverside has his series of philosophy paintings in their philosophy department.”
Though Townsley appreciates the music scene in the valley, she’d like to see more venues offer either free or low-cost music events, so even folks without deep pockets can attend. “Not every musician is famous, but many are really good, and it would be nice to see every valley city expose these artists more to the public,” she said.
In 2020, Townsley was named the Outstanding Fundraising Volunteer by the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Desert Communities Chapter. On Friday, April 17, Townsley will be honored as the “heart of the community” at the Cathedral City Senior Center’s “A Night to Remember” gala.
Helping other people and watching them become successful seems to be Townsley’s mission in life—but what does Townsley like to do when not volunteering or promoting local musical events?
“Happy hour with the girls!” she said.
Bonnie Gilgallon has written theater reviews for the Independent since 2013. She hosts a digital interview show, The Desert Scene, which can be heard on www.thedesertscene.com and viewed on Mutual Broadcasting’s YouTube channel. Learn more at bonnie-g.com.
