June Degnan, 83; Political Activist

June Oppen Degnan, a Democratic activist and fund-raiser who also was prominent in San Francisco’s literary community, died Sept. 14 at her home in the Nob Hill section of the city. She was 83.

Degnan was well-known in state and national Democratic Party circles in the 1960s and ‘70s.

She joined the state Democratic Central Committee in 1956, and by 1962, she was a national board member of Americans for Democratic Action.

In 1971, she was treasurer for the state Democratic Party, as well as national vice chair of George McGovern’s presidential campaign.

She served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention three times.

Washington Post political columnist David Broder once described her as a “wealthy, charming and public-spirited San Francisco matron [who] by simply putting pen to checkbook” could keep a presidential candidate in the race for months.

She was known to have little patience for unoriginal candidates. Broder quoted her as saying, “Anybody who deserves to be president of the United States ought to be able, in a half-hour conversation, to express one thought I had not already thought of myself.” (Broder called this “Degnan’s Law.”)

In 1952, Degnan co-founded the San Francisco Review, a magazine that published poetry and prose. Among the writers she promoted were James Hall, William Bronk, Charles Reznikoff and her brother, the poet George Oppen.

She published three books by her brother, including “Of Being Numerous,” which won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Degnan also published Oceans, one of the first magazines about wildlife and the environment.

She attended UC Berkeley, the Sorbonne and the University of San Francisco law school. She was married for several years in the 1940s to George Degnan. The marriage ended in divorce.

She leaves a daughter, Aubrey, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.