Helen S. Hawkins, Women’s Rights Leader, Dies at 59

Memorial services will be held Friday for Helen S. Hawkins, a leader of the women’s rights movement and co-founder of the San Diego chapter of the National Organization for Women. Hawkins, 59, died Thursday at her La Jolla home after a six-year battle with cancer.

She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 3, 1930, and first came to La Jolla in 1941. She attended La Jolla Junior-Senior High School and went on to study choral music at Tanglewood and international economics at Oxford University. Hawkins completed her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in U.S. history in 1950 at Wheaton College, in Norton, Mass. She was elected Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year, and was valedictorian of her class.

She married William M. Hawkins Jr., a San Diego native, in 1951 and moved back to La Jolla in 1967. After raising three children, Hawkins resumed her studies and received master’s and doctorate degrees in history from UC San Diego in 1973 and 1975, respectively.

Hawkins joined KPBS-TV in 1976 as executive director of humanities programming. She won several awards for producing television programs, including a San Diego Emmy Award in 1982 from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences for a program titled “California Rights.”

Hawkins will perhaps be best remembered for her involvement in the women’s rights movement. She was a co-founder and first president of the San Diego chapter of NOW in 1970. In 1982, she was awarded the Susan B. Anthony Award by NOW’s San Diego chapter.

She served on a number of San Diego commissions dealing with affirmative action and women’s rights, and was a member of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a charter member of Dimensions, a San Diego women’s networking group.

In addition to her husband, Hawkins is survived by her children, Gus and Angela of San Diego and Trip of Portola Valley, Calif.; two sisters, Angela Talbot of La Jolla and Dorsha Swedenberg of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and two brothers, John Schimmenti of Palos Verdes and Dr. Frederick Kinzel of Muskegon, Mich.

Memorial services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Darlington House, which is run by the La Jolla Social Service League. Ashes will be scattered at sea off La Jolla.

The family suggests memorial contributions in Hawkins’ name to the San Diego Hospice or the American Cancer Society.