Jeanne Blackwell, Anaheim Educator, Dead at 75

A memorial service is scheduled Wednesday for Jeanne Blackwell, 75, a former trustee and teacher with the Anaheim City School District. Blackwell, who also was a legal-aid attorney for 13 years, died Friday of heart failure.

Blackwell’s death came just three days after her school board colleagues accepted her resignation for health reasons. The board is expected to appoint a successor next month to serve the rest of Blackwell’s term, which expires in November.

District Supt. Jack Sarnicky said he will “sorely miss” Blackwell, whom he described as a natural leader and an enthusiastic supporter of education.

“She was always focused on what’s best for the student and how we can improve our teaching strategies to provide a better education,” Sarnicky said Monday. “She was just really a delight. I’m going to miss her as a friend.”

School board President Betty Patterson called Blackwell a kindly, insightful, soft-spoken woman who was “always a champion for the underdog.” Blackwell was also diplomatic, Patterson said, which proved an asset when closed-door board sessions became testy.

“She was the one person everyone always got along with,” Patterson said Monday. “She was always looking for the best in people. If there was rancor on the school board, she had a way of settling everything down. She had a very calming tendency in tough situations.”

A native of Los Angeles, Blackwell taught in the Anaheim City School District from 1957-80, and was first elected to the board of trustees in November 1983. She earned a law degree in 1979 from Western State University College of Law and was an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County from 1982-95.

Blackwell also was a former president of the League of Women Voters of Central Orange County, and a founding member of the Anaheim Human Services Network.

Her supervisor at the Legal Aid Society, Ellen Pierce, said Blackwell was an energetic woman “who had a strong sense of responsibility for other people.”

“She put her whole generous heart and spirit and energy on the line for all her clients,” Pierce said Monday. “She saw each client as the most important person she had to deal with.”

Pierce added that Blackwell had a sense of joy and belief in people.

“She had a wonderful attitude. You couldn’t ask for a better partner,” Pierce said.

Blackwell is survived by three daughters, Robin Blackwell, Gay Ann and Kathleen DeNichols; a brother, James Colclough; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The memorial service will begin at 1 p.m. at Backs-Kaulbars Baggot & Schacht Mortuary, 1617 W. La Palma Ave. in Anaheim.