Louise Lillard, 86; Ex-French Teacher Became a Lawyer at 66

Louise Lillard, a high school teacher who made a longtime dream come true when she graduated from UCLA law school and became an attorney at 66, died at her Los Angeles home Sunday. She was 86.

Lillard died of breast cancer, her daughter Monique C. Lillard said Thursday.

She had spent more than 30 years teaching French classes at Beverly Hills High School and began her second career when most people retire.

“At first I thought it was ridiculous at my age,” Lillard told The Times in 1985, the year she graduated from law school. Her daughter had encouraged her to apply to UCLA. “I thought I’d take the test just to placate her,” Lillard said. “I did better than I thought.”

She was accepted by three local schools and attracted attention from the time she entered UCLA in 1982 because her daughter was a third-year law student there at the time. The Lillards were the first mother and daughter to be enrolled at the school together. A niece, Lisa Case, also studied law at UCLA that year.

Lillard graduated and passed the state bar exam on her first try, although she had been through cancer surgery and radiation treatments as a second-year student. The cancer remained in remission for 21 years.

At first she considered specializing in environmental law. Her husband, Richard Lillard, was a historian and naturalist who wrote about the environment in a number of books and articles, which she edited.

Other opportunities came her way, however. Lillard worked part time for about 10 years taking pretrial depositions and doing securities arbitration for several local firms. At one, Dieterich and Associates, where her niece was a senior associate, Lillard was “Aunt Louise” around the office.

The law was a strong follow-up to Lillard’s first career as a French teacher, from 1941 until 1975. She also co-wrote a French language textbook, “L’Hexagone, C’est la France,” in 1984.

Teaching was never her first choice for a profession, however. She graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in French in 1941, planning to teach because it offered job security.

“In the 1940s it was a wild idea for a woman to be a lawyer,” her daughter said. “My mother was a child of the Depression, so she was not one to take that kind of risk.”

Lillard was born Louise Davis in St. Louis, one of six children. Her father was a post office worker who moved the family to Los Angeles when Louise was 12.

Her first marriage ended in divorce. She married Lillard in 1949. It was a second marriage for both.

Among Lillard’s survivors are a stepdaughter, a sister, a brother, two grandsons and two nieces.

An outgoing woman with friends of all ages, Lillard was the one they counted on at election time.

“She actually read and studied everything on the ballot,” said Michael Shilub, a longtime colleague and friend. “Louise had an encyclopedic knowledge of history and politics. But if you needed really good advice about your life, she was the one to ask. Louise had tremendous depth and concern for others. That’s why she had hundreds of friends.”

No funeral service is planned. Rather, Lillard requested, “Just give one last party.”