Marilyn White was raised in Los Angeles, CA and is the oldest of four children. She attended a diverse elementary school, Holy Cross, where she mixed with students from various backgrounds and she was exposed to a variety of languages spoken, including Spanish, Hungarian and Mandarin.[2] She went to high school at Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto High School graduating in 1962. She competed for the L.A. Mercurettes track club.[3] She was recruited to the team out of a dance class while in high school. Prior to Title IX, high schools did not offer sports for girls. At the 1963 Los Angeles Invitational she beat Olympic champion Wilma Rudolph and set the meet record.
She attended UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) and was elected freshman class vice president in 1963. She was then offered an athletic scholarship to Pepperdine College, even though Pepperdine did not have a fully developed track program. Individually she wore her Pepperdine jersey at many high level meets.
References
^Davis, Michael (1992). Black American Women in Track and Field. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN0-89950-692-5.
