Political trailblazer dies at 95
Former California legislator, secretary of state rose to fame battling pay toilets
March Fong Eu, former California secretary of state and a pioneering AsianAmerican politician with deep roots in the East Bay, has died.
Eu died Thursday following complications from surgery after falling at her Irvine home, Eu’s longtime spokeswoman, Caren Lagomarsino, said Friday.
Eu earned a level of fame while representing the East Bay in the state Assembly during the late 1960s and early ’70s with her crusade against coin-locked toilets, something she called discriminatory, because urinals were free. Her involvement in the issue helped earn her support in her run to become secretary of state.
“She will be missed,” Lagomarsino said. “She was such a groundbreaker.”
Eu was the first woman secretary of state in California and the first ChineseAmerican to hold a constitutional office in the state.
She held the office of California secretary of state for two decades, implementing innovations including voter registration by mail, at-large absentee balloting and the inclusion of candidate statements in ballot pamphlets.
First elected secretary of state in 1974, Eu served in that role until 1994, when President Bill Clinton named her ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia in the Pacific.
In 1988, midway through her fourth term as secretary of state, Eu sought the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate, hoping to be the first woman to serve as a California senator. However, she withdrew because she did not wish to disclose the financial holdings of her wealthy second husband, Henry Eu, a Singapore businessman.
Before her tenure in Sacramento, Eu worked for years in local politics around the Bay Area. A former dental hygienist, she served on the Alameda County school board in the 1950s and as president of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association.
She earned degrees from UC Berkeley, Mills College and Stanford, and was elected to represent Oakland and parts of Castro Valley in the state Assembly, where she served four terms.
Born to Chinese immigrants in Oakdale in 1922, she grew up in the back of a laundry. To Lagomarsino and others who knew Eu, this made her rise to political success all the more impressive.
“She was self-made,” Lagomarsino said, adding that Eu’s perspective and experience made her a better politician. “She went about quietly breaking barriers right and left. It was just remarkable.”
“She will be missed. She was such a groundbreaker.” — Caren Lagomarsino
The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report. Contact Annie Sciacca at 925-943-8073.