Area Now Has Girl Plumber,

It Leaks Out

TIMES-HERALD
Thursday, February 15, 1951

Back to Lillian Baumbach First Women Master Plumber!

By Elizabeth Shelton

The Washington area has a real life
Cluny Brown in its first woman master
plumber, Lillian Ann Baumbach, 21, a
pretty, vivacious Arlingtonian.
‘
Like the fictional Cluny, Lillian is a
plumber’s daughter and came naturally
by her bent for running “snakes” through
clogged pipes and inserting gaskets in
leaky faucets.

At 12, when most little girls are having a
hard time deciding between the last doll
and the first cosmetic set, Lillian asked
for and got a full-fledged plumber’s kit.

Tells Women It’s Tough

As a plumber’s helper, or apprentice, she
accompanied her dad, W.J. Baumbach,
on emergency repair calls to homes with
faulty plumbing and, often, flooded
basements.

She became so adept at the trade that last
week Arlington officials granted the
slender plumberess her master’s license.

“I match with Dad to see who does the
repair work at home,” Lillian said in
reply to the obvious question. Usually
she handles repairs in the upstairs
bathroom and he tends to the one
downstairs.

Despite the ease with which she mastered
the trade, usually run as a closed shop for
men only. Lillian doubts that women
would do well to follow her example and
invade the plumbing business.

Attends Plumbing Class

“On the mechanical side, I think the work
is too heavy for a woman,” she admitted,
confessing that she has been acting
recently as a receptionist t and
diagnostician, leaving the heavier work
to men she assigns to the jobs.

Lillian still attends regularly a plumbing
class which her father teaches once a
week at Washington-Lee High School.

She is the only girl among 20 boy
students and invariably makes the highest
grades.

Unlike the fictional Cluny in the Margery
Sharp novel seen recently here as a
movie starring Jennifer Jones, Lillian is
not engaged, and has no intention of
eloping with a butler or anybody else in
the immediate future.

One thing is certain, though. Her list of
qualifications for a husband will skip one
point usually rated high by potential
wives. He need not be handy with
clanging boilers and dripping spigots.
Lillian will attend to all that.

Back to Lillian Baumbach First Women Master Plumber!