Flora Thornton

A Kansas native who arrived in Los Angeles in 1948 with her first husband, Litton Industries co-founder Charles B. "Tex" Thornton, she was a major donor to numerous Southern California institutions, from the Library Foundation of Los Angeles to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. She attended Texas Tech University, where she majored in nutrition and clothing design. But she loved to sing and was a soloist in her church choir. At 22, she moved to New York City to study voice. She performed in two Broadway musicals, "May Wine" and "White Horse Inn," before marrying Tex Thornton in 1937. Among her numerous activities: serving a seven-year term on the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board and serving on the board of regents at Pepperdine University, where, among other things, she established the Flora Laney Thornton Professorship in Nutrition and the Flora L. Thornton Endowment for the Opera Program. Thornton and her second husband, Eric Small, whom she married in 2005, also supported National Multiple Sclerosis Society programs and established the Eric Small Centers for Optimal Living for people with MS and similar challenges. She is survived by her husband; sons Charles and Laney; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.