Remembering Maxine Lewis: ‘The biggest champion’ for SLO’s underprivileged
Maxine Lewis dedicated her life to helping the underprivileged in San Luis Obispo beginning in the early 1960s.
She was a force of nature who was at her best distributing a meal, clothing or shelter at the level of need.
It was fitting that she would be long associated with an organization called Grassroots.
Her empathy and compassion was the opposite of “Fox and Friends” presenter Brian Kilmeade expressed in the last week. Kilmeade later apologized for suggesting “involuntary lethal injection” was a way to address homeless people with mental illness.
Kilmeade talks, Lewis acted.
In an arena of public service where need is never-ending, Maxine Lewis was there to answer the call for the better part of three decades.
She died at the age of 61, with eight children by her side in May of 1988. For many years the homeless shelter was named after her.
Former San Luis Obispo Mayor Ron Dunin remembered her saying, “very many times, she was a misunderstood person.”
“She had a heart of gold but did not have a bureaucratic understanding … She liked to do things without pressure from paperwork,” Dunin said. “She hated paperwork. But she was the biggest champion that the underprivileged people of this city ever had.”
The organization she was most closely associated with, Grassroots II, was founded in 1972 after the previous organization closed.
It is a tribute to her influence that Grassroots II continued her tradition until this year when the board voted to dissolve.
It will be succeeded by a new entity, SLO Grassroots.
The following is the earliest biography of Lewis that I could find in the archive.
The un-bylined story and photo ran Nov. 25, 1971, in The Telegram-Tribune and shows how far the region has come in developing services, like 40 Prado, and yet still how much need still exists over half-century later.
She’s at the bottom of Grassroots
Maxine Lewis is a tall Black woman with a face that gives away her every emotion.
She has a soft, lulling, modulated voice, most often heard answering the telephone in the one-room office of the Grassroots Center.
Her office is her second home. One wall is lined with books, two refrigerators and a stove huddle in the corner, and tables are stacked with reams of pamphlets on tenant information, family planning, sanitation and legal rights.
She is a confident woman and seems to appreciate her own value and worth. Because others seem to know her worth too, her time becomes precious and she is difficult to contact.
Maxine Lewis is a native of Texas and spent her childhood traveling all over the U.S. The places that impressed her most from her childhood were two Indian reservations in California and Oklahoma.
“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to work with people, to help people — especially children and old people,” recalls Mrs. Lewis.
She is the natural mother of eight children and the adopted mother of countless. She has raised and taken into her home more children than she can remember of over the years.
“People have stayed at my house of all race, color and creed — families with children, children without parents, runaways, lonely people. We try to straighten out their problems.”
“They find me by word of mouth. One time a family of 17 dropped in on me for two days. At the time I had a family of 13 myself,” recalls Maxine.
Maxine first came to San Luis Obispo in 1959. Then she used to work with small groups of children and their families. They would go to the mountains, the beaches, home Bible classes, and various other recreation programs. She says many of these children are now married with their own children and hopes she helped them to raise their young ones.
In 1963, Mrs. Lewis was in an auto accident and was unable to work again until 1967. She then took charge of the Grassroots center on Higuera Street.
The Grassroots Center is more or less a coordinating center for activities for low income groups in the community. It is a subsidiary of the Economic Opportunity Commission.
Maxine is also on the parents advisory committee of the program functioning under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), is active in the Emergency Food and Medical Program and is on the Citizens Advisory Committee for the city of San Luis Obispo.
She is also on the board of directors of San Luis Obispo Child Development, Inc., and responsible for the Children’s Breakfast Program in San Luis Obispo.
The Breakfast Program is one of her pet projects and deals with her favorite people — little people. This program provides a free breakfast followed by activities such as outings to the mountains and beaches, skating, swimming or visiting ranches.
Parents are becoming more and more responsive in the program which aims to “teach children to learn to love their fellow man and get along with each other,” according to Mrs. Lewis.
The program also broadens their range of experience and gives them good solid nutritional meals.
Right now, the children gather after Saturday breakfasts to practice singing spirituals and Christmas Carols.
Maxine makes a point of excluding no family or child, rich or poor. She also arranges tutoring for those children who need it.
Mrs. Lewis’ second soft spot is for the aging. “They work and contribute so much in their lives. Then they become old and crippled and seem to be forgotten.
“Convalescent homes and geriatrics wards are places to die, not to live,” according to Mrs. Lewis. “I try to help people to stay home as long as they are able. Sometimes all they need is a daily phone call to make sure they are all right.”
Her feeling about the aged is summed in her belief, “give them a flower while they live — not when they’re dead.”
As a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee, she is participating in efforts to get money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for more low-rent housing, minority housing, home financing, transportation and parks and playgrounds.
Right now the committee is working toward much-needed community center in the Hawthorne area.
“Often transportation and money are problems in getting people to participate in community recreation problems. A lot of lonely people would use it,” she said. She envisions sewing classes for women, games for kids, craft facilities and numerous other activities.
Another problem Maxine Lewis sees in San Luis Obispo that she is trying to help people overcome is their extreme ignorance of their legal rights and how to get them. She tries to direct them to the proper sources of help. “The poor are misinformed, misled and not understood.”
“Problems are being identified but not being solved. There are lots of hungry people in San Luis Obispo. For many, it isn’t their fault. They don’t have a way out.”
Nearly 3,000 people have walked through the door of the Grassroots center this year. Some only wanted directions and others were on the verge of desperation.
“I work 20 to 30 hours overtime a week and always on weekends. But this can’t keep up.”
Maxine Lewis doesn’t get paid for all those hours, and she foots a lot of bills from her own pocket. But she feels she is running out of both money and energy.
“I get so tired. Lots of times I ask for spiritual help to make that extra step.”
This story was originally published September 20, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
