INGLEWOOD SAYS GOODBY TO TUCKER

He was the son of a Pullman porter.

He was honored Saturday as a father, grandfather, Army medic, health worker, city councilman and state assemblyman; the pioneering black politician and patriarch of Inglewood and the 50th Assembly District.

His name was Curtis Tucker. At a funeral Mass on Saturday at St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church in Inglewood, he was remembered by family, neighbors and friends--including two of the most powerful black politicians in the nation, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco).

Tucker died Oct.9 after months of treatment for liver cancer. He came within weeks of completing his seventh term as Democrat assemblyman of the district encompassing El Segundo, Inglewood, Lennox, Westchester and southwest Los Angeles. He had served as chairman of the Assembly Health Committee since 1983. He was 70.

Jackson, a surprise guest who spoke at the request of Tucker’s family, described Tucker as a hero of his community. He said Tucker was “born against the odds” in the segregated South and beat those odds all his life.

“There’s so much publicity about our children in Inglewood and Los Angeles, how they surrender to the odds, how they self-destruct and destroy each other,” Jackson said. “Curtis Tucker did not surrender. He conquered.”

The two-time presidential candidate from Chicago said the wide cross-section of mourners was a “rainbow coalition” and a tribute to Tucker’s work.

“We’re here to say thank you to a wise man,” Jackson said. “The struggle continues. Our mission is to keep conquering odds.”

The congregation also included former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp and a host of legislators and other state and local politicians.

Tucker, a bespeckled, tough-talking legislator with a passion for his family and the cooking of his native Louisiana, became an institution in the Assembly. He cultivated a relationship with constituents and campaign contributors that earned him a reputation as a traditional, nuts-and-bolts politician. He won reelection repeatedly against negligible opposition.

In the eulogy, Tucker’s long-time friend and ally Speaker Brown celebrated an “extraordinary man” with “an incredible spirit. There was no malice in whatever he said. His loudness, his interrupting you, never offended you because you knew there was love underneath.”

Brown described how Tucker, after a career as an Army medical specialist in World War II and the Korean War, moved to Inglewood in 1962. He was one of the first blacks to settle in a city that was then all-white and conservative. Tucker and his family withstood threats, vandalism and spray-painted hate slogans on the walls of their new home.

“A lesser man would have moved,” Brown said.

Tucker not only stayed, he worked to keep the city’s racial change harmonious and was appointed the first black councilman in 1972. He was elected to the Assembly in 1974 when the 50th District was created. Brown praised Tucker’s commitment to his constituents and above all to his politically active family, the “Tucker army.”

Brown drew laughter several times when he evoked the image of Tucker, a consummate card player, ruling the regular blackjack and penny-ante poker games in the Assembly members’ lounge.

“I understood that deck of cards will be buried with him,” Brown joked.

But Brown’s voice broke after he recalled that Tucker considered him a son--”He would say, ‘This is my boy.”’

Brown hurriedly finished the eulogy and sat down.

Tucker’s son, Curtis Tucker Jr., spoke last. He told the congregation that his family would always remember their father’s loud music, his affectionate “staff sergeant” demeanor, his cowboy hats, his “love of life.3

Brown intends to back the younger Tucker in a special election for the 50th District seat. That will happen if the assemblyman, whose name remains on the ballot, gets more votes than Republican Mike Davis on Nov. 8. The elder Tucker often expressed a desire that his son, an aide to Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), succeed him.

Tucker’s daughters also participated in the service. Leslie Tucker Trammel sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “We Behold Him.”

As an Army honor guard escorted the coffin from the church, a trumpeter played a slow version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”