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Mayrene Bates — a longtime Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District (FSUSD) educator, trustee with the Solano Board of Education and active community supporter — died Jan. 6. She was 88.
“It’s a community loss,” longtime friend and retired Solano Sheriff’s Deputy Daryl Snedeker said.
Bates was born April 15, 1934 in the small town of Liberty, Tenn. At the time, the South was in the midst of segregation, and Bates had to take a bus to attend a high school that was twice as far away as the school that was designated for white students.
As an adult, Bates and her husband, Jim, would often share stories of growing up Black in the segregated South.
“It was incredible the journey in life that they had forged independently and then as a couple,” Snedeker said.
Bates ended up earning a scholarship to the Atlanta University Library School, obtaining a master’s degree in library science. She met Jim at Tennessee State University, they married and his enlistment in the Air Force brought them all over the globe. Along the way, Bates had librarian positions in Massachusetts, Nebraska and Japan.
Eventually, Jim’s service brought the couple to Fairfield in 1970. Mayrene started as a librarian at Fairview Elementary School and Grange Intermediate School, became the vice principal at Crystal Elementary School and Fairfield High School and finally promoted to principal of Crystal Middle School and K.I. Jones Elementary School.
Lisette Estrella-Henderson, Solano superintendent of schools, said she had gotten to know Bates as a seventh grader at Grange when it opened in 1974.
“As a young middle schooler, I remember her being a caring and enthusiastic educator,” she said. “You could tell she truly loved her work and the students whose lives she touched each day. I will miss her and will forever be indebted to her for encouraging the young middle schooler, me, to see the value of not only reading to learn but also reading for sheer pleasure.”
Estrella-Henderson said Grange’s yearbook that year was dedicated to her for “her hard work and continuous effort in helping our school,” as inscribed in the book.
“This quote epitomizes who I have always known Mayrene to be while she served on the County Board of Education, a deeply dedicated individual who put the needs of students at the forefront of all that she did and every decision she made,” she said.
Following her long career with FSUSD, Bates went to work for the Solano County Office of Education, first as director and then as assistant superintendent, which she retired from in 1996.
However, her service to SCOE did not end there. In 1997, she won the first of five campaigns for the Solano Board of Education, serving until 2018.
“Going into politics, while growing up in Tennessee, never entered my mind,” she wrote in a Reporter column in 2001. “At the time, I didn’t know or had even heard of a single woman in politics. Since moving to Fairfield, I’ve served on committees, study groups, commissions, boards and run for office. This, I hope, will encourage some young person to run for local, state and federal offices, and even president.”
Fellow Trustee Dana Dean praised Bates for her “absolute, steadfast, never-ending dedication to children and students” as well as being a role model for other elected officials.
“She represented everything we in the community strive to be,” she said. “Those of us who run for election and do so to serve our community, there’s no better example of how to do that well.”
Vice President Peggy Cohen-Thompson praised Bates for being a “team player” on the board.
“She was a part of the whole team, even though she was in a leadership role,” she said. “She played the part of the team as well, and that’s the sign of a true leader that doesn’t take the credit for everything.”
Cohen-Thompson said Bates was supportive of all SCOE students, right down to being a proponent of community day schools and having a scholarship fund that she and Jim gave out of their own pockets.
“Every event that the Office of Education … had that engaged students in public events, Mayrene was always there,” she said.
Along the way, Bates was involved in the community in numerous ways and received many honors. She served as president of the Fairfield-Cordelia Rotary Club and was named Rotarian of the Year in 1993, was named the Fairfield-Suisun Chamber of Commerce Educator of the Year in 2003, then-Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada’s Woman of the Year in 2009 and had a street in Fairfield — Mayrene Bates Lane — named after her in 2003. She also contributed a bimonthly column for the Daily Republic and contributed to The Reporter on occasion.
Danette Mitchell, a longtime columnist for The Reporter, said Bates always encouraged her as a writer and responded to her columns through emails, Christmas cards and notecards.
“She once wrote: ‘You deserve so much credit for all the topics you cover. Keep up the good work. It isn’t easy putting the messages out there,'” she said.
And when Mitchell told her she planned on retiring her column, Bates responded, “Most definitely, don’t stop writing. You are one of the few of us who can write the truth or as close to the truth in our polarized society. Thank you! I enjoy reading them all and sharing them with my son.”
“Rest in power to an incredible and gracious woman who never hesitated to celebrate others, no matter their background and status in the community,” Mitchell said.
Bates was also a role model for other elected officials. Fairfield City Councilwoman K. Patrice Williams said having a Black female elected official was very inspiring for her. She also praised the impact she left in the Solano education community.
“She touched so many people and so many generations in education,” she said.
Former Vacaville City Councilwoman Rischa Slade first met her in 1994 when Slade was executive director of Opportunity House. They quickly became friends.
“She knew who she was, and she always reached out to anyone and everyone who may need her help,” she said.
Slade said Bates was always very supportive of her, sending her newspaper articles on her so she could keep them in her scrapbook to send to her family. She said Bates was also present at both her swearing-in in 1996 and final meeting in 2004.
“She came to my last City Council meeting and sat right down in front and smiled at me as I was making my farewell comments and nodded her head,” she said. “I’ll never forget that.”
Vacaville City Councilwoman Sarah Chapman, who previously served as president of the Solano Community College Governing Board, said Bates was a person who always affirmed others.
“She always looked for the good in people,” she said. “She had a passion for education, and she was a lifelong educator.”
FSUSD Superintendent Kris Corey said Bates was one of the first people she met when she was hired from South Dakota to teach in the district. Initially, Corey had been recruited to teach at Crystal Middle School when Bates was principal but then was transferred to Tolenas Elementary School. She said Bates treated everyone as equals.
“It didn’t matter who you were on the campus,” she said. “Whether you were the custodian, teacher, parents, everyone was treated with the same level of high regard and respect.”
Snedeker said he had grown up in the same neighborhood as the Bates family, and Jim was also his Little League coach. His rekationship with Jim and Mayrene continued into adulthood, and the couple supported his run for sheriff.
“I’ve never met anybody like the Bates,” he said. “When you sat down with them, they were funny. They were very religious but not overbearing, trying to make everybody else be religious. They were proud of their heritage and where they had come from, which was the South in a turmoil time.”
Of Mayrene, Snedeker said she truly cared about her community.
“She made people’s days,” he said. “She was sympathetic to everybody, listened to everybody, cared about everybody and would take the time to sit down and talk with you.”
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