Funeral services for William “Bill” Elkins Jr. will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at Second Baptist Church, during which the old and the new guard of Los Angeles political activism are expected to come together and praise a man who brought new meaning to the term loyalty.

Elkins, who was Tonto to Mayor Tom Bradley’s Lone Ranger, died of congestive heart failure on May 5. He was 90 years old.

Officially, Elkins was the late Mayor Bradley’s special assistant during his historic 20-year mayoral tenure, but in reality Elkins was more than that title connoted. Elkins was Bradley’s oldest friend, confidant, advisor in all things political and social. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder making decisions bursting the mold that contained a racist-leaning backwater town and transforming Los Angeles into the more racially inclusive, socially progressive world class city it is today.

Elkins and Bradley became friends when they were students at Lafayette Junior High School. They went to UCLA together, joined the Kappas together, attended Southwestern University School of Law together and set out upon public service careers in tandem — Bradley in the LAPD and Elkins in the Probation Department. Bradley was Elkins’ best man when he married Eleanor, and Elkins was the first staff member Bradley hired when he became mayor.

Lorraine Bradley, the late mayor’s daughter, recalled Tuesday that her mother, the late Ethel Bradley, went over to Elkins’ house as soon as the first mayoral election results were final and ordered Elkins to quit his job and “go down there and help my husband run this city now!”

Adrian Dove, vice president of the Tom Bradley Legacy Foundation (of which Elkins was president) and a former Bradley mayoral assistant who worked with Elkins, noted that “everyone who was close to Elkins was amazed at how well he was able to intervene and force through actions that were desperately needed without taking any credit. He was perhaps more effective because he loved the low profile.”

Dove said Elkins’ leadership abilities shone particularly bright after Bradley suffered a stroke. “Bill was so adept in reading the intentions of Tom that he, on many occasions, was able to get up and deliver speeches that the post-stroke ailing mayor would have given himself if he had been able to speak,” Dove said. “It would be impossible for any chief executive to find a more loyal, low profile, behind-the-scenes, back-up man than this resource Tom Bradley had in Bill Elkins.”

Kerman Maddox worked with Elkins in the mayor’s office from 1985 to 1989 and he echoes Dove’s assessment that no one was more loyal to Bradley than Elkins, whom Maddox described as “the godfather of African-American staffers.” Maddox, whom Elkins always called “Kermit,” said: “Even though we came from different generations, I respected Elkins tremendously for what he and his generation accomplished.”

Before joining Bradley’s staff, Elkins directed the city’s Teen Post, which was an essential program in the national War on Poverty effort during the Lyndon Johnson era. Bradley tapped Elkins to develop and implement similar city-based programs for youth, including the L.A.City Youth Council, to which Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was named some 35 years ago.

“That was when I first met Mr. Elkins,” the supervisor said. “I remember his fierce loyalty to the mayor and his longstanding devotion to his church,” he added. Elkins had been a member of Second Baptist Church for 70 years.
Elkins’ gifts as an advisor, activist administrator and strategist were hailed by former City Councilman Bob Farrell, as well as Rep. Diane Watson, state Sen. Currin Price and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Elkins was definitely Bradley’s Kemo Sabe, as he either chaired or co-chaired every advisory committee when Bradley ran for city council, mayor, and governor. Elkins helped Bradley succeed in everything he did: passing affirmative action, aging and youth programs, securing federal funding and recognition, bringing Black and Jewish communities together and making peace between Black and Hispanic communities.

In his own words, Elkins said in a Bradley documentary: “We were caught up in a movement that involved the emotions, the sensitivities, the sensibilities of many  people — white, Black, brown, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic. And we were so very pleased with the support Tom Bradley was able to generate to bring people together and have them understand that we had a better shot at improving our lives and getting to where we wanted to get if we committed to work together.”

Elkins is survived by his wife, Eleanor; sons, William III and Larry; grandchildren, Elana and William IV (Chip); many nieces and nephews, and Expo Line activist Damien Goodmon, his grandnephew.