Naomi Bradford, a former Denver Board of Education member who led the fight against racial busing in the 1970s and '80s, died Tuesday of heart failure at her home in Lakewood. She was 66.

During 18 tumultuous years on the school board, Ms. Bradford was at the center of controversy.

Her outspoken views on busing brought censure from fellow board members. But by the mid-1980s, the city had come around, and a new school board selected her as president.

"She spoke her mind, and she was very strong," recalled Dorothy Gotlieb, deputy Colorado education commissioner, who served with Ms. Bradford on the board.

"If there was an injustice, and she found out about it, she would put up with all the slings and arrows, and she would take it on."

Naomi Llewela Taylor was born July 1, 1940, in Los Angeles. She grew up on a farm near Mill City, Ore. She graduated from Concordia College in Seward, Neb., with a teaching degree.

She married Ronald Bradford in the 1960s. They divorced around 1979.

Ms. Bradford was a stay-at-home mom in the 1970s when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered DPS to bus children to remedy years of segregation.

"We were in elementary school, and she used to walk us every day to our neighborhood school . . . and she just thought it was awful that she could no longer walk us to school and that we would have to get on a bus and go clear across town," her daughter, Rhonda Bradford Birdnow, said.

She was elected to the school board in 1975 and responded to charges of racism by pointing to her own background. She was part Hispanic and Navajo.

For the past two years she was principal at North East Charter Academy in Denver.

In addition to Birdnow, survivors include daughter Joan Bradford Southern, of Littleton; son Ralph Bradford, of Lakewood; three sisters; a brother; and five grandchildren.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5209