‘She had a heart of gold.’ Chalk mural honors SLO activist Maxine Lewis
A chalk mural of a prominent community activist has been added to San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza.
Artists completed a 20- by 20-foot mural honoring Maxine Lloyd Lewis on Saturday.
Lewis was best known for her work as an activist on behalf of community members in need in San Luis Obispo.
“In the more than two decades that she devoted to serving the community, Lewis received over 15 awards for her efforts,” San Luis Obispo officials said in a news release.
The former Maxine Lewis Memorial Shelter on Orcutt Road bore her name until 2018, when its services were merged with the 40 Prado Homeless Services Center, according to city officials.
A group of chalk muralists, including Renoda Campbell, worked to create the large mural of Lewis.
Campbell is a San Luis Obispo-based wedding and portrait photographer who has been active in diversity and inclusion initiatives at Cal Poly, Cuesta College and in the city of San Luis Obispo since 2006.
Other artists involved in the mural were Lori Antoinette, Sharyn Chan, Katy McGrath and Lury Norris. They began work Thursday and wrapped up a few days later.
In addition to a portrait of Lewis surrounded by yellow blossoms, the public art piece includes a quote from Lewis: “Give them a flower while they live — not when they are dead.”
Eight daisies in the mural represent Lewis’ eight children and “signify motherhood and hope,” according to the city.
SLO activist Maxine Lewis honored for life of service
Lewis was born Sept. 30, 1926, in Longview, Texas. The daughter of a sharecropper, she grew up seeing the poverty near Native American reservations in California and Oklahoma.
Lewis strove to help the homeless and the infirm after moving to San Luis Obispo in 1959 with her family, husband Jewel, five daughters and three sons.
She worked for the organization Grass Roots in the 1960s and founded Grass Roots II in 1968, volunteering to help the needy and serving hundreds of Thanksgiving dinners to disadvantaged residents.
Lewis was also known for caring for children and senior citizens, helping the elderly stay in their homes as long as they were able.
“Convalescent homes and geriatric wards are places to die, not to live,” Lewis told the Telegram-Tribune in 1971. “I try to help people to stay at home as long as they are able. Sometimes all they need is a daily phone call to make sure they are all right.”
Maxine Lewis died in May 1988 at the age of 61, one month after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
San Luis Obispo Mayor Ron Dunin said in a May 16, 1988, Telegram-Tribune article: “Very many times, (Lewis) was a misunderstood person,” San Luis Obispo Mayor Ron Dunin said in a May 16, 1988, Telegram-Tribune article. “She had a heart of gold but did not have a bureaucratic understanding. … She liked to do things without pressure from paperwork. She hated paperwork. But she was the biggest champion that the underprivileged people of this city ever had.”
The Mission Plaza mural of Lewis coincides with the recent launch of the city’s new Open SLO pilot program, which expands the use of city streets and other public spaces “to support physical distancing and the economic recovery of local businesses.”
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