Charles Lummis, 97; Secret Service Agent, Son of Museum Founder

Charles F. “Keith” Lummis, 97, an ex-Secret Service agent and a biographer of his father, who founded Los Angeles’ Southwest Museum, died Monday in San Francisco. No cause was given.

Lummis’ book, “Charles F. Lummis: The Man and His West,” was published in 1975 by Oklahoma University Press. It described the colorful life of the senior Lummis, a newspaperman who walked from Chillicothe, Ohio, to Los Angeles, writing about his adventures and collecting Indian artifacts along the way.

The senior Lummis worked as an editor at the Los Angeles Times and a librarian for the Los Angeles Public Library, and founded the Southwest Museum in 1912.

Keith Lummis worked for the Border Patrol as well as the Secret Service, where he guarded President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

He helped preserve the Lummis legacy through the biography of his father and his contacts with the respected museum. In 1975, he gave the museum a 400-page guest book containing the signatures of his father’s famous visitors.