Bea Antenore, Long Beach activist who fought to desegregate schools, dies at 92

Bea Antenore, 92, a longtime Long Beach community activist whose volunteer work spaed almost half a century, died Tuesday.

Antenore died from complications after she fell in her kitchen June 26, her son, Jim, said.

Antenore served on a variety of city commissions and boards supporting the needs of senior citizens, youths and neighborhoods. She was active for almost five decades with the League of Women Voters.

Her legacy also included playing key roles in the city’s anti-poverty program in the mid 1970s, educational improvements as PTA president and working on a state guidelines study panel for the desegregation of schools in the Long Beach Unified School District.

In celebrating Antenore’s 90th birthday two years ago, former Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill said Antenore “worked longer and harder for the good of the city than any politician I’ve known.”

Services will be private.

More to come.

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