Unruh Eulogized as Protector and Political Teacher

Jesse M. Unruh was emotionally eulogized at his funeral Sunday afternoon as a politician who believed that the truest function of government was to protect those least able to protect themselves, and as a “teacher” of government whose students were the state’s top political figures.

Hundreds of the elite of both political parties overflowed a Santa Monica church to hear the late Democratic state treasurer and former Assembly Speaker’s political skills and warm humanity extolled by the current Speaker, Willie Brown, Assembly Minority Leader Patrick Nolan, Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, former Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally and several others.

But the most emotional moments of a stirring two-hour ceremony came in songs by country music singer John Stewart and Unruh’s grandson, Geoffrey Unruh.

Stewart, a longtime Unruh friend, sang, among other songs, “California Bloodlines,” the last stanza of which goes, “There’s a California bloodline in my soul,” in honor of a man who, at his death last week at the age of 64, had long since established himself as one of the most talented and distinctive politicians of the state’s 20th-Century history.

Unruh’s 6-year-old grandson sang “The Lord’s Prayer” in clear and loud tones that reduced many in the audience to tears.

In opening the ceremony at the First United Methodist Church, Van de Kamp prayed that the Lord take Unruh, “a good man . . . into the promised land.” He, as did virtually every speaker, portrayed Unruh as the warmest of human beings.

Brown said Unruh’s stature as Assembly Speaker was such that all of those who have or will succeed him are mere “caretakers” in that post. Brown and other blacks who spoke paid tribute to Unruh, the white son of an illiterate Texas sharecropper, for his landmark support of civil rights with the 1959 Unruh Civil Rights Act.

The Assembly Speaker said he would dedicate a special desk in the Assembly Chamber on Aug. 19 to honor Unruh. The desk, always to be kept vacant, would recall Unruh’s days as the “81st member” of the 80-member Assembly, in memory of the active advisory role Unruh continued to take as state treasurer, Brown said.

Nolan, the Assembly’s Republican leader, said he had entered the Assembly detesting Unruh. But he added, once he got to know Unruh, he came to appreciate that, despite many passionate political disagreements, he and all legislators had a great deal to learn from Unruh in the ways and techniques of government.

KCBS television news commentator Bill Stout recalled many of the famous watering holes where, late at night on the occasion of political gatherings, Unruh would frequently hold forth--”Brannan’s in Sacramento, Charley O’s in New York, Dunfey’s in Boston, Joe’s in Miami, the Stockyard Inn in Chicago, Shumsky’s in Atlantic City.”

Perhaps there was reason to hope, Stout said, that after death, such get-togethers will yet occur, where old comrades will “talk about what they’re up to ‘across the street.’ ”

Frank Mankiewicz, former aide to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, recalled Unruh’s long ties to the Kennedy family.

Friend Robert de Kruif told how Unruh had once assured him that a bill he was boosting “will have a fair hearing before it’s killed.” He, like Nolan and others, said that in his years as treasurer, Unruh, in effect, had conducted a “post-graduate course” in government-- giving all comers sound counsel.

After the funeral, in a brief public statement, Unruh’s widow, Chris, said she wanted to assure all of her husband’s friends that in Unruh’s long final battle with cancer, he had comported himself “as he did through his political career . . . with dignity, courage and strength.”

Among those attending the funeral were scores of lawmakers on the city, county and state level, as well as former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, Secretary of State March Fong Eu, and state Controller Gray Davis.

Gov. George Deukmejian, who is on vacation, sent state Finance Director Jesse Huff as a representative.

President Reagan, former President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, sent messages.

The service was presided over by Bishop Leon Ralph, a former assemblyman and friend of Unruh.

Private interment followed at Woodlawn Cemetery.