Life in the Later Lane
As a teacher, playwright & screenwriter, Cary Pepper has lots of inside Hollywood info to share
You probably stream most of your movies. But if you happen to rent a film on old-style...
July 15, 2026
All-women punk band still on stage thanks to leader’s career, which started in a mortuary
Invite Klara Lux somewhere, and she’ll always show up early – except on the rare occasion when...
July 6, 2026
Playwright Lynne Kaufman, the author of two dozen plays and five novels, is still going strong, despite some hiccups
The day after Lynne Kaufman retired in 2005, she woke up in tears. “What had I done?”...
June 29, 2026
A win for people power: Supervisors and mayor restore millions of dollars in cut to services for city’s most vulnerable
A months-long campaign by advocates for seniors, the disabled and other vulnerable populations has convinced San Francisco's...
Following in the footsteps of heroes: My visit to the cradles of Civil Rights
SF SENIORBEAT COLUMN – March 17, 1886. A date you probably never considered. Carroll County, Mississippi. A...
June 4, 2026
Couple’s script for their own movie? Shared creative passions and a bent for banter
“I'm Chiquita Banana, and I'm here to say, bananas have to ripen in a certain way,” Margot...
May 28, 2026
Social justice lawyer and activist infusing others with her love of SF’s Great Blue Herons and dedication to conservation
One day in 1993, on her daily walk from her Richmond District home to Golden Gate Park’s...
April 29, 2026
Nonprofit director is happy to bug you, whether you’re 2 or 92, about saving the wild
If you grow up in Los Angeles, where do you find the wild? Norm Gershenz is not...
April 14, 2026
Bass playing lawyer takes on the landlords when seniors call for help
During the day, you’ll find Thomas Drohan in court or at his law office on Mission Street....
April 5, 2026
Former SFSU teacher shifts to helping union workers build leadership abilities
Like some people need coffee, Joan Wong needs to walk – and talk. Mornings, she puts in...
March 25, 2026
Joe Edley, a three-time national champion, has been racking up great Scrabble scores for decades
Joe Edley tucks his co-authored book, “Everything Scrabble,” under his arm and surveys the room. Around him,...
March 16, 2026
As the city’s older population swells, seniors who can no longer live at home face high costs, limited choices
EDITOR'S NOTE: See full profiles of the seniors interviewed by clicking links within the story. A panoply...
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Army medic settles into good life and his own home after leaping discrimination hurdles
Dugal Mitchell spent five years in the Army as a medic, two in the Korean War. After all he did and saw, his passion was to become a doctor. But when he came home and applied to the University of Texas Medical School, he was turned down. It was the early ‘50s and segregation was ...
San Francisco’s first-ever Older Adult Hiring Fair was so popular, they might just do it again
Sel Butler worked concessions for the Warriors in Oakland. A San Franciscan, he wanted a job on this side of the Bay. Angela Lee, an experienced cook, was looking for a cooking job that paid more than minimum wage. Maureen Sansburn has been looking for work for the past eight months, since leaving her job ...
‘Mayor’ of Tenderloin turned his troubles into blessings for the neighborhood
Del Seymour has seen the Tenderloin from the bottom as a street addict and later from the top, as executive director of Code Tenderloin, a jobs program for neighborhood residents, and as co-chair of the city’s homeless coordinating board. “I like the position I’m in now, but I learned how to help others from my ...
He fought for our country, then battled for dignity and justice for its veterans
Michael Blecker joined the army in 1967 to get out of Reading, Pa. “Our generation’s model of manhood was the early John Wayne war movies: Wayne never flinched and always won, that’s what we wanted. Plus the GI Bill made the Army very attractive.” Nine years later, as a law student at the activist New ...
Chance encounter with a Curry Center worker lifts bipolar sufferer back to engaged life with a new friend
CREATING COMMUNITY – Depression and confusion marked the first decades of Ray Walsh’s life. Only recently has the 66-year-old begun to feel free from the demons that controlled him. A San Francisco native, Walsh dropped out of school at 18, hoping to make it as a musician. He studied piano as a child and picked ...
Child of sharecropper and housecleaner in segregated Alabama felt destined for a better future
Mary Crenshaw came of age in segregated southern Alabama in the ‘50s, just prior to the turbulent Civil Rights Era. Her father was a sharecropper on a white person’s farm and her mother did day work for white people. But Crenshaw saw different a life for herself. “I’m a believer in that some things you ...
