Loretta Heard, who helped shape the curriculum of the Columbus Public Schools for 24 years, died yesterday. She was 71.

Heard had been ill since she was hospitalized to have her gallbladder removed in March. Internal hemorrhaging began, and then she developed lung trouble, said her daughter, Lindell Heard.

Heard had remained on a respirator since that time and had shown signs of improvement recently, said her husband, Hubert Heard.

She was moved Thursday from the intensive-care unit at the Ohio State University Medical Center to the Columbus Rehabilitation and Subacute Institute. There, she was to be weaned off a respirator, her daughter said, but she died of heart failure early yesterday.

Because of her illness, Heard had not attended a school board meeting since March. She had announced in February that she would not run for another term.

Heard’s commitment to the community was clear, school Superintendent Gene Harris said.

"The fact that Mrs. Heard was elected to six terms on the board of education speaks volumes as to how her work on the board was recognized and respected by this community," Harris said in a written statement.

In 1969, Heard and her family moved from Akron to Columbus so her husband could accept a job here. The couple’s three children enrolled in Columbus schools. Heard was involved with the schools in Akron and wanted to continue her efforts in public education here.

"She was a good mother, good wife and a good person," Mr. Heard said. "She cared about kids."

Heard was the first black president of the Columbus PTA citywide council in the late 1970s.

As a school board member, she was ahead of her time and pushed for all-day kindergarten and improved standards in assessment and testing, said Craig Toth, who met her when he taught in the district and later became the superintendent’s chief of staff.

"Columbus loses its greatest advocate for children," he said. "Anytime a city loses someone with this kind of posture in the city, it is impoverished by it."

Heard, who served as board president during 1986, also had connections that made the Columbus district better known nationally. She served as president of the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington, D.C., group that promotes legislation supporting public education.

Because she had great compassion for children, Heard was able to rise above political differences to improve education, said Bill Moss, who served on the board with her for about 15 years.

"No superintendent of the district could have had stronger and better support among board members," he said. "At the same time, she would talk to them like they were one of her children if they were off track."

Moss and Heard sometimes voted together against the majority of the board on issues.

Her opinion of how involved the board should be in personnel issues sometimes clashed with the views of other board members, said Annie Hall, who served on the board with Heard from 1988 to ’92.

"It’s a tragic loss," Hall said. "Loretta and I had very different opinions about what issues fell in the purview of the superintendent and what issues were the board’s. But there was no question that she was doing what she thought was best for the children."

The proudest educational accomplishment of Heard’s career might have come before she was elected to the school board, said Edna Glass, 80, who met her as a parent volunteer in the 1970s. Heard and Glass helped escort students into schools during the desegregation transition in 1979, Glass said.

"We knew we had to face it," Glass said. "We went through it peacefully."

Heard’s commitment to the community was answered by the voters’ trust in her, Glass said.

"The last election she didn’t campaign and she won, the public still voted her in," she said. "That tells you a lot about what the public thought of Loretta."

Heard took runs at two other offices. In 1987, she unsuccessfully challenged incumbent William Dawson for clerk of the Franklin County Municipal Court. And she screened with the Democratic Party in 1988 in an unsuccessful attempt at an appointment to an open Columbus City Council seat.

She lost a legal battle with the Ohio Industrial Commission in 1997 when it stopped disability payments that she had been receiving for 39 years.

Heard had been injured as a cafeteria worker at Akron City Hospital. She was declared permanently and totally disabled in 1973, entitling her to a $209 weekly payment for life. But the depression and anxiety that she had claimed, as well as discomfort around people, could not be supported medically or behaviorally. A hearing officer said she was too active in the community to be considered permanently disabled.

In 2001, she testified that she had witnessed a man being arrested for disrupting a board meeting. It was later proved that she had not attended the meeting.

Heard’s longevity on the school board was a major accomplishment, board president Stephanie Hightower said. "You just don’t have individuals who make those kinds of commitments."

Heard is survived by her husband, Hubert; children, Howard Heard, and Lindell Heard, both of Columbus, and Robert Heard, of Boston; and two grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were not yet available.        sherri.williams@dispatch.com