Bernice Young, Black Pioneer, Dead at Age 80

Bernice Melvina Young, one of the first African American students to integrate Willard Intermediate School in the late 1920s and who went on to raise scholarship funds for disadvantaged students, has died of natural causes. She was 80.

A mother of five, Mrs. Young is survived by her husband of 62 years, Baxter Young. She is also survived by 12 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

Born in 1915 in El Paso, Texas, she moved with her parents to Orange County in 1927. Only a handful of African American families lived in Orange County at the time, and Bernice Young became one of the first to attend school here, she recalled during a 1991 interview as Orange County celebrated Black History Month.

Baxter Young said his wife resisted racism by focusing on the good in others, and living according to her faith.

“She did a lot for others, that’s just the way she was brought up,” Baxter Young said.

Mrs. Young remembered a time when restaurants refused to serve African Americans and minorities were forced to sit upstairs at movie theaters. While working as a cleaning woman, Mrs. Young said, it wasn’t uncommon for her to find Ku Klux Klan recruitment literature on her boss’ desk.

She was active in the Second Baptist Church of Santa Ana, doing everything from teaching kindergarten in Sunday school to directing church choirs. She also was a member of a women’s trio called “The Three Tones” and sang at hospitals and other churches.

A church financial secretary for 27 years, Bernice Young also organized youth activities. Some recalled one incident many years ago when a bus driver became ill on an outing. Mrs. Young had never driven a bus--and a female bus driver still turned heads--but she piloted her group safely home.

She also was active with children’s Scouting groups and was a charter member of the now-defunct Educational Extension Club, which offered scholarships to low-income children.

She also belonged to the Order of the Eastern Star, a women’s fraternal organization, and volunteered to help senior citizens in her community travel to clinics, grocery stores and church.

“She was in a whole lot of social groups,” Baxter Young recalled. “That was what she liked best: doing for others.”

Mrs. Young died July 19. She will be buried in Fairhaven Memorial Park, Santa Ana. Visitation will be Friday and Saturday at Brown Colonial Mortuary. Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Second Baptist Church of Santa Ana.