Lola G. Baldwin looked like other grandmothers. What set her apart was her crusading spirit and the police badge tucked inside her purse.

Baldwin became the first paid policewoman in the U.S. in 1908 and worked in the Portland Police Department for more than 14 years.

Baldwin — the mother of two sons and a grandmother to three — built a reputation as a no-nonsense law officer. Along with her job fighting crime, Baldwin also worked to protect women. She helped many find homes and jobs when they moved to the city. 

Her influence, however, was felt way beyond Portland’s city limits. A pioneer of women’s rights, Baldwin campaigned to add women to the ranks of police departments in Tacoma and Seattle. 

Baldwin, who was 97 when she died in 1957, is the subject of an Oregon Public Broadcasting documentary, “Oregon Experience: Lola G. Baldwin,” which airs at 9 tonight.  The documentary was based in part on a book about Baldwin, “A Municipal Mother,” by Gloria Myers.

Hays and her brother, Mel Baldwin, who live in Vancouver, helped flesh out the portrait of Baldwin presented in the OPB documentary.

When film producer Nadine Jelsing approached them with her plans for the documentary, Hays and her brother jumped at the opportunity to show the softer side of their history-making grandma. It was a side they say few people outside the family ever saw.

“I remember so many stories about her,” Hays, 86, said. “She really was different than what people think. Everyone thought she was overbearing, but she wasn’t. She actually had an established, quiet grace about her.”

And Baldwin loved to share stories about police work with her grandchildren.

Hays remembers her grandmother talking about how she caught a bank robber when visiting San Francisco. She brought him back to Portland to serve time for his crime.

“She saw him on the street and recognized him as a bank robber wanted in Portland,” Hays said. “She convinced him to give up and she brought him back on the train.

“There was a reward for his capture, and I don’t think my grandmother ever told anyone outside our family, but she used that reward to take care of the robber’s family while he was in jail.”

One of Baldwin’s most noteworthy cases was her battle with Sophie Tucker, a singer-comedian. Baldwin told Tucker she would have to clean up questionable words in her songs when she sang in Portland or the theater door where she performed would be padlocked.

“By today’s standards the words weren’t that bad,” Hays said. “But this was back in the early part of the century when things were different.”

Tucker balked at Baldwin’s order and tried to get city officials involved. But the padlock went on the door when Tucker failed to comply and she was sent packing.

Hays and Mel Baldwin, 83, shared many of their stories with Jelsing, as well as old photos and memorabilia.

“Meeting Lola’s grandchildren was probably the highlight of working on this film for me,” said Jelsing, executive producer of “Oregon Experience” who also wrote and directed the segment on Lola Baldwin.

“They have so many photos and items of Lola. Including her badge.”

That badge was the only visible evidence that Baldwin was a member of the Portland Police Department.

She didn’t carry a gun, refused to wear a uniform and kept the badge inside her purse, out of view.

Hays said the OPB series will offer more personal insights into Baldwin than the book, because Myers wasn’t able to track down members of Baldwin’s family, who had moved throughout Oregon.

“There’s not a lot about the personal side of my grandmother,” Hays said of “A Municipal Mother.”

That magnified Hays’ and Mel Baldwin’s desire to work with Jelsing on the television show and reveal things about their grandmother that aren’t part of the history books. Hays and Mel Baldwin have lost contact with the only other grandchild, their uncle’s adopted daughter.

Mel Baldwin said helping out with the documentary is the least they could do, considering how involved their grandmother was in their lives and careers.

For more than 40 years, Mel Baldwin worked at several radio stations in Portland. One of his jobs was reading the news on air as soon as it came into the station.

Lola Baldwin had retired when he started his career and was an avid listener of her grandson’s programs.

“She always would call me at the station to correct my pronunciation,” Mel Baldwin said. “You have to remember I was reading it as quickly as it came in and hadn’t even looked at it before reading it. But if I mispronounced anyone’s name, I knew I was going to get that phone call.”

Mike Bailey can be reached at 360-735-4510 or mike.bailey@columbian.com.