Sara Kleban Radin

September 3, 1923 - October 26, 2025 It is impossible to capture a woman's life of 102 years in a few paragraphs, but lives of consequence must be noted so that we all may learn by example.
Judge Sara K. Radin was born into a poor Jewish family in San Antonio, Texas in the 1920s. Her father ran a small grocery store in a black neighborhood in Jim Crow Texas, giving credit to those who could not afford food during the Depression. Her brother organized oil workers against the union bosses and strike breakers. In families, values are passed on like genetic traits.
Sara first took a job as a chemist for Eastman Kodak and then worked in the engineering department of Lockheed during World War II. When the war ended, she worked as a legal secretary for the brother of California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk and decided to go to law school at night. When Sara passed the Bar Exam during the McCarthy era, the California Bar refused to admit her because, as a liberal woman, they questioned her "moral character". But they were severely outmatched when it came to character, she sued and won admittance as an attorney.
However, in 1956, no one would hire a woman lawyer, so Sara hung out her own shingle and practiced law for 21 years, working mainly for the rights of women, minorities, and the poor. She became President of the Santa Monica Bar Association, was a founding member of the California Women Lawyers, and served on the Board of Directors for the Legal Aid Society. She was a trailblazer and a relentless advocate for people who didn't have a voice in the legal system.
Because of her qualifications, Governor Jerry Brown appointed her as one of the first women judges in the Los Angeles Superior Court, where she served for 16 years. While a Judge, she was a founding member of the National Association of Women Judges and served on the Commission of Judicial Performance and the Commission on Gender Bias in the Courts.
While many knew her as Judge Sara Radin, her friends called her Sonny. She was open-minded, funny, and caring to everyone she met. She had the rare ability to see people for who they really were because she knew who she was and what she stood for. Sonny was an avid reader and lifelong learner, forever curious about the world. She loved tennis, art, and the theater. But she mostly loved her family. Sonny raised two boys, Jonathan Gross and Richard Gabriel as a single mother, and shared music and travel with her grandchildren, Ariell, Vanessa, Emma, Lily, and Griffin.
Her spirit lives on in her family and in those that fight for the rights of those that do not have a voice.