jQuery Grid Plugin - jqGrid

Hey,

When I build the jqGrid I'm creating a column that has a ddl(DropDownList) for each row.

Here is how the column is defined : 

{ name: 'Location', index: 'Location', width: 90, editable: true, edittype: "select", editoptions: { value: 'R  :Rochester;MA  :Massachusetts;DL        :Data Librarian;Buff :Buffalo /  Niagara Falls;Bing  :Binghamton / Owego / Southern Tier;Other :All other locations;Alb:Albany and all points East;'}}]

When the grid is created dynamically the Location column contains a text of the item that should be selected.

When the user clicks the edit Row button,  $("#list").editRow(rowNum); gets called and the ddl is displayed, as planned.  I'm having trouble trying to set the selected item.  I know I can use $("#ddl").selectOptions(index", true);

BUT heres the issue   I can't grab $("#ddl"). I don't know how to get the dom object from cell in the grid.

 I used var locationData = $("#list").getRowData(rowNum).Location; But this returns the html that creates the ddl.  ie 

<SELECT id=1_Location class=editable><OPTION value="R         ">Rochester</OPTION><OPTION selected value="MA        ">Massachusetts</OPTION><OPTION value="DL        ">Data Librarian</OPTION><OPTION value="Buff      ">Buffalo /  Niagara Falls</OPTION><OPTION value="Bing      ">Binghamton / Owego / Southern Tier</OPTION><OPTION value="Other     ">All other locations</OPTION><OPTION value="Alb       ">Albany and all points East</OPTION><OPTION value=""></OPTION></SELECT>

As a hack to get this to work I'm doing this. I shouldn't need to parse the list every time and create a new ddl and set the selected item.  I should be able to use the one that is created when the row is created.

var locationSelect = document.createElement("select");

var arrayLocations = ('R         :Rochester;MA        :Massachusetts;DL        :Data Librarian;Buff      :Buffalo /  Niagara Falls;Bing      :Binghamton / Owego / Southern Tier;Other     :All other locations;Alb       :Albany and all points East;').split(";");

for (var i = 0; i < arrayLocations.length - 1; i++) {

var optionItem = document.createElement("option");

optionItem.value = trim(arrayLocations[i].split(":")[0]);

optionItem.text = trim(arrayLocations[i].split(":")[1]);

//check if this should be the selected item.

if (arrayLocations[i].indexOf(rowData.Location) != -1)

optionItem.selected = true;

locationSelect.add(optionItem);}

Any help would be awesome.  

Thanks 

Brad