Lucille K. Steinberg Malvani

March 1, 1926 - September 9, 2022

Lucille K. Steinberg Malvani, an educator who taught for more than 50 years has died. She was also a feminist, world traveler, and social activist. She died in Los Angeles on September 9th, surrounded by family.

Born Lucille Kanne on March 1, 1926 in Chicago to Russian Jewish immigrant parents–artist Benjamin Kanne and Sarah (Sally) Luskin Kanne–she was raised in Chicago and Paris. She earned her Bachelor of Philosophy (PHb) from University of Chicago in 1946, a BA from Roosevelt University in 1948, and a Masters in International Social and Technical Assistance from Haverford College in 1953. After graduation, she worked for the American Joint Distribution Committee in Morocco (where she once had tea with American expat writer and composer Paul Bowles). She also worked with the American Friends Service Committee in Kentucky, Germany, and Mexico. In 1953, she met Raymond Steinberg Malvani while they were both working for the American Friends Service Committee in Mexico. They were married the same year in Philadelphia. In 1960, they moved to Los Angeles, raising their family in Granada Hills, with a four-year stint in Panama where Raymond worked for the U.S. State Department. While in Panama, Lucille worked as an elementary school teacher for the Panama Canal Zone School District.

After moving back to Los Angeles, Ms. Malvani worked as a teacher for the Pleasant Valley School District in Camarillo from 1971 to 1988 with a focus on developing ESL and Bilingual Education programs for Ventura County. She last taught at Los Angeles Mission College, before retiring at 81.

Her volunteer activities included working with the L.A. Unified School District’s Adult Literacy Program, being a board member for the San Fernando Valley Fair Housing Council, and as a docent for the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Lucille was a long-time member of the Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society in North Hills (The Onion), where in 1966 Ken Kesey famously held one of his Kool-Aid Acid Tests. She was a dedicated needlepoint artist, proficient pianist who loved to sing, fluent in Spanish and French, a voracious reader, and an environmentalist who enjoyed camping with her family in Yosemite. Lucille had a sharp sense of humor.

She is survived by her four children: performance artist Annie Sprinkle of San Francisco, film & TV composer David Benjamin Steinberg of Los Angeles, teacher Lora Malvani of Prescott, Arizona, entrepreneur Adam Malovani of Hermosa Beach, and two grandchildren Andrew Malvani and Arlo Malovani, and her brother Sherman Kanne of Huntington Beach.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Lucille Malvani’s name to Planned Parenthood or Braille Institute for the Blind. Memorial plans to be announced.