Rose Bird Eulogized for Compassion, Strength

Compassion and conviction were the greatest virtues--and the seeds of the political downfall--of former California Chief Justice Rose Bird, speakers told hundreds of admirers at a memorial service for the late jurist Sunday.

“Her constituency was the powerless and she made an easy target,” declared federal appeals court Judge Stephen Reinhardt of Bird, who died of cancer Dec. 4 at 63. He praised Bird as “a woman of principle and passion--a passion for fairness and a passion for justice.”

Reinhardt said Bird’s ouster in a 1986 recall campaign, which centered on her unbending opposition to the death penalty, “is a black mark on the history of the state and remains a threat to the independence of the judiciary nationwide.”

The two-hour memorial at the Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood included a performance of Bird’s favorite song, “The Rose,” by its composer Amanda McBroom; a video tribute of her life; readings of the scriptures; and a dozen speeches, including one by former Gov. Jerry Brown, who appointed Bird to the court in 1977. The speakers praised her courage and her unwillingness to trim her sails in any endeavor.

Reinhardt went so far as to say, “In some ways, she was just too good, too pure to be a part of this highly political and pragmatic world of ours.”

Sunday’s event was a public demonstration of affection for a woman who had virtually disappeared from public life after being repudiated by California voters. In her last years, Bird redoubled efforts to guard her privacy and never sought publicity.

Still, it was Bird’s role as public lightning rod and steadfast friend that earned plaudits Sunday. Rabbi Leonard Beerman summed up his feelings by reading from the Book of Proverbs and describing Bird as “a woman of valor” whose “price is far above rubies.”

Bird also was praised at the gathering by the Rev. James Lawson, a longtime civil rights leader; actor Mike Farrell, an ardent foe of the death penalty; and Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills), who became a Bird ally while she was the state’s secretary of agriculture. As such, Bird played a key role in securing passage of the landmark 1975 law that granted collective bargaining rights to California’s agricultural workers.

Berman said Bird’s unyielding stand in the face of withering attacks “reminded us of why we went into politics in the first place.”

Brown, who in 1977 appointed Bird to head the state’s high court, lauded her as someone “who took the perspective of people who didn’t have power and she kept that perspective even when she had power.”

Lawson, like several other speakers, said he felt compelled to join like-minded Bird fans and to “acknowledge her underestimated life.”

That life, he and others pointed out, included many firsts--first woman public defender in Santa Clara County; first woman appointed cabinet secretary in California; first woman on the California Supreme Court; and first chief justice voted out of office. She was voted out with two other justices, including Cruz Reynoso, who was at Sunday’s gathering.

During her nine-year tenure as chief justice, the state Supreme Court overturned 61 of 64 death sentences that came before it, with Bird voting to nullify every one. The recall focused on the death sentence issue but was financed in large part by major corporate interests angry at Bird for her decisions on behalf of workers and consumers.

Thinking of Others to the End

Many of the speakers Sunday described her as a strong, trailblazing woman who would be remembered as a historic figure.

“When greatness is lost there is a stillness that settles on our hearts,” said Farrell, star of the television series “M*A*S*H.” “We’re here today to pay homage to greatness and break the stillness.”

The overflow crowd of nearly 400 was treated to numerous personal reminiscences of the former chief justice by close friends, ranging from a family lawyer to a hairdresser.

Attorney Alexandra Leichter of Los Angeles said she met Bird at a wedding in 1982 and they soon became close friends.

Leichter said that Bird evolved into a virtual member of her family, so close that Bird was given keys to the Leichter home, a place that she could duck in and out of when she needed repose. Bird was frequently a guest at Sabbath dinners and other Jewish festivals at the Leichter home and in recent years tried to arrange a date for Leichter’s son with Chelsea Clinton at Stanford.

Leichter described Bird as “the most attentive friend one could have.”

To illustrate the point, she described what happened after her last conversation with Bird, which came just a day before the former jurist died. Leichter told Bird that her own father, who Bird had come to know, was about to die. Indeed, he died 30 minutes after they got off the phone.

The next day--the very day that Bird herself died--the former justice made sure to send flowers and condolences to Leichter. “This was the Rose the public did not know,” Leichter said.

Another friend, Frank Sack, said he got to know Bird on his first day as a waiter in Palo Alto a decade ago. Bird was his first customer. Sack later became a hairdresser and Bird was his first customer, again.

“And she was the first person who called to wish me a happy birthday every year--singing a little off key,” he said.

Sack said Bird’s outlook on life was best summarized by a plaque in her Palo Alto home, which declared: “Live Simply So Others Can Simply Live.”

Joan Gottschall, a federal district judge in Chicago, described how Bird gave her courage when she was a student of Bird’s in a criminal law class at Stanford in the early 1970s, when the students helped represent indigent clients being prosecuted by the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.

“If I hesitated too long to make an objection, she would give me a swift kick in the shins,” Gottschall said, eliciting considerable laughter.

“Rose had the miraculous power to give strength,” said Gottschall. “She changed all of us she touched and her gifts are with us still.”