For those who are unaware, Josephine Serrano Collier was the first Latina officer for the Los Angeles Police Department. She joined the force in 1946 despite her family's objections and her fiancé calling off their engagement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Collier would serve on the force until 1960, citing back problems as her reason for retiring from her 14-year career as an officer of the law. At 91 years old, the Jerome, Ariz. native passed away from natural causes on Feb. 25 at her Tucson home.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck praised Collier for her service as an officer and a trailblazer for both women and the Latino community in a statement last week.

"Our department thanks Josephine for her sacrifices and for breaking the lines that divided women from many assignment in the early history of the LAPD," Beck said. "Those sacrifices and her commitment opened the door for many women and Latinas in the department, setting the state for future generations."

Collier had lost her job as a riveter for Lockheed at the end of World War II. She needed a job and felt that she could be a bridge between the Latino community and the LAPD, which was experiencing some tension and distrust during that time.

According to the Times, 200 women tested to join the force. Twenty-one of them were accepted while only nine, including Collier, actually made it through training.

Gail Ryan, a Women Police Officers Association of California historian, said Collier and the rest of the women who made it through initial training and graduated from the police academy didn't get a police issued firearm for nearly two years, and no ceremony was held for them.

"The women had no graduation ceremony, received no diploma, nor were they given a gun," Ryan wrote.

During Collier's first two years as an officer, she was assigned to a jail in Lincoln Heights where she was required to wear a nurses' uniform. After going through additional training two years later, she and her fellow female officers was finally issued a gun.

Ryan said Collier was given the beat to walk in the downtown area of Pershing Square where her and her female colleagues worked undercover.

"They wore a skirt and a hat and gloves," Ryan said, adding, "and walked a beat in high heels."

Collier was born on March 14, 1922 and moved from Jerome to Mexico with her family before settling down in the L.A. neighborhood of Lincoln Heights. In 1948, she married Jack Collier, a fellow officer.

After retiring from the force she became a Job Corps counselor. Her husband died in 1987.

Collier and her husband are survived by their daughter Suzanne and two sons John and David, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

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