Josie Bain; 1st Black Associate Supt. of L.A. Unified

Josie Bain, a pioneering educator who became the first black associate superintendent of the vast Los Angeles Unified School District, has died. She made a point of never revealing her exact age but was believed to be in her 80s.

Bain, who also served on the state Board of Education, died March 17 in Los Angeles of unspecified causes.

Her 30-year career with the Los Angeles schools began in 1948 when she was hired as a fourth-grade teacher at Marianna Avenue School. She was challenging boundaries even then.

“My friends thought it was a joke,” she told The Times in 1984. “There were just no blacks teaching.”

But teach she did and, by “working my heart out,” she climbed through the ranks to become a principal, an administrative coordinator and for many years an area superintendent.

When she was named one of three districtwide associate superintendents in the early 1970s, she became not only the first black to hold the position but also the highest-paid woman in the district.

Chosen early in her career to help train teachers at USC, Bain was also known throughout her school district tenure for mentoring minority administrators, said Bill Rivera, retired district public information officer.

Born in Atlanta, the former Josie Gray married Methodist minister John C. Bain after high school graduation and followed him to several ministerial posts, eventually settling in his native Los Angeles. The daughter of a minister and a teacher, she earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Drake University in Des Moines, where she and her husband were the first blacks on campus, and a master’s degree from Cal State Los Angeles.

After her retirement from the school district in 1978, Bain ran for a seat on the Los Angeles Board of Education on a platform of quality education and integration. She was defeated by Rita Walters.

“I grew up in a segregated society, and it was most separate and most unequal,” Bain told The Times during her unsuccessful political campaign. “In order to give youngsters the opportunity to be looked upon objectively, I think we must give them an education in an integrated society.”

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Bain to a four-year term on the 10-member state Board of Education in 1981, and she was elected vice president. The board sets broad education policy for public schools and also approves regulations governing special programs such as bilingual education.

In retirement, Bain also served as a consultant on education evaluation at UCLA and was founding president of Interchange for Community Action, which provided scholarships for disadvantaged minorities.

She served as a trustee of the UCLA Foundation and on the board of the Urban League.

Bain is survived by her son, John David Bain III, and two sisters, Lillian Mayes and Priscilla Rankin.