First Ladies of
California

Biography

Bernice Layne was an intellectually gifted woman.  As a student in an accelerated pace school program, she graduated from high school at the age of fourteen.  She then went on to graduate from the University of California at Berkeley with a teaching credential.  It was while attending Lowell High School that she met Edmund “Pat” Brown.  They eloped to Reno, Nevada on October 30, 1930, eventually having four children.  Bernice was ambivalent toward politics.  The Governor’s Office confirmed this in a 1960 press release which stated, “Mrs. Brown frankly admits she never would have chosen a political career for her husband if the choice had been hers to make.”  Despite her ambivalence toward politics, Bernice supported her husband during his long political career and gracefully assumed the role of First Lady.  As First Lady, she was a popular speaker, often offering intimate stories of family life in the Governor’s Mansion.  She was also a gracious hostess to visiting dignitaries and groups such as the San Francisco League of Women Voters.  Bernice Brown died on May 9, 2002 at the age of ninety-three.  She is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery in San Mateo, California.