Adelyn (Ade) Banks; Former City Editor

Adelyn (Ade) Banks, a former newspaper columnist and city editor, has died at a Burbank hospital. She was 64.

A longtime Burbank resident, Ms. Banks died Thursday of complications of heart and lung disease, said longtime friend Jim Bacon.

Born in Hull, Iowa, she began her newspaper career as a teen-ager on the weekly Burbank News. She joined the now-defunct Valley Times in 1951 and soon became the second woman city editor in Los Angeles history, following Agness Underwood of the former Los Angeles Herald-Express.

In the mid-1960s, Ms. Banks left the Valley Times to assist in the political campaign of then-San Fernando Valley Rep. Ed Reinecke and became his administrative assistant after his election. She later worked on the campaign of then-Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Joseph P. Busch, whose staff she joined as community liaison officer after the election. She also worked for then-Dist. Atty. John K. Van De Kamp.

In the early 1980s, Ms. Banks worked as a community columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. For the past 10 years, she had been head of production for The Consultants, a San Fernando Valley advertising agency.

She is survived by her brother, Fred Banks of Eugene, Ore., and sisters Gail Jones of La Mirada, Anne Stein of Beaverton, Ore., and Carolyn Banks of Portland, Ore.

At her request, no funeral services are planned. Burial will be in Eugene, Ore.