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Jo Ann Boyce, a member of the Clinton 12, has died at 84.

The civil rights pioneer faced violent KKK mobs and segregationists as one of the first children to integrate a public school in Tennessee.

She later moved to Los Angeles, became a pediatric nurse and spent her final years sharing her story nationally.

The night before she first walked into Clinton High School in 1956, Jo Ann Allen beamed over her outfit with the excitement of any teenager starting ninth grade.

Her grandmother had sewn the dress — white with a careful trim, pleats and a wide-pressed collar. With her best friend Gail Ann Epps Upton, she buzzed about clothes, classes and making new friends.

Always buoyant,

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