Judith Anderson

Judith Anderson Also known as Judith Twomey, was born in San Mateo, California, the daughter of Charles Chester Anderson and Mabel Carne Anderson. She died on October 13 after a two year struggle with COPD and cancer. She attended San Mateo High School and, while there, developed a love for journalism. This led her to college at the School of Journalism at the University of Oregon. It was considered at the time one of perhaps four or five really good journalism schools in the country. In the 1960s she worked for Sunset Magazine where she developed several lifelong friends. Later she spent three years in Mexico City, working for the English language Mexico City News. This entailed reporting on many functions at the United States Embassy, meeting and interviewing notable Americans who made stops at the embassy. She recalled a few famous names who did not take kindly to the fact that she was a real reporter and asked the sort of questions that real reporters are bound to ask rather than the fluff that some of these stars expected. While she was at the News, her compensation was quite small. But she lived in a converted garage and was able to save money despite her small salary. In the 1970s and early 1980s Judy worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. As she began there, the Women's section was being phased into the "People" section. She worked on slower developing feature stories rather than the hard-paced news of the day. From 1979 until leaving the Chronicle in 1983, she was the Design editor. But she still worked on a wide variety of feature stories. Her most notable was a three part series on rape. Research for the series entailed riding with two officers from the rape squad, observing the actual way that rape was handled by the Police Department at the time. It was one of the very first stories of its kind to appear in a major newspaper and earned her a Penny Missouri award. The Penny Missouri awards were begun in 1960 by J. C. Penney and the University of Missouri School of Journalism and focused on the work of female journalists. In 1976, she, a single woman, was able to purchase a home in Noe Valley. She was immediately told by neighbors that she paid too much. Three years later she met her soon-to-be husband through a college chum Bill McKee, who was living in London and teaching at the American School there. It just happened that Jack grew up in Noe Valley. And Bill thought - how interesting. While at the Chronicle, she became the print representative on the San Francisco Ballot Simplification Committee; she eventually chaired that Committee and came under the fire of local politicians who wanted the Committee's explanations of the proposed propositions to favor their points of view. When she left the Chronicle, she began a new career as a freelancer. She concentrated on interior design features for the San Jose Mercury, the Sacramento Bee and other Bay Area papers. Aside from her professional career, Judy loved her cats (most recently Gracie and before her Rocky). She liked to garden, cook, and solve crossword puzzles and sudokus. She was also involved in a U.S. Post Office program that helps to see if the mail is being delivered on time. Judy's parents predeceased her. She is survived by her husband Jack Twomey, her brother Barry Anderson and his wife Hilda, her step-children Mike (Joan), Kevin and Maureen Twomey, her niece Laura Jorgensen (David ), her nephew David Anderson and a large family of Twomey in-laws. Judy's remains will be cremated and her ashes will be scattered in the Gold Country around Tuolumne City, where she fondly remembered being a child visiting her grandparents. She always had a severe disdain thinking of lying beneath six feet of dirt for eternity. There will be a memorial service for her in the Grace Chapel (the one closest to California Street) of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on Friday, October 22, at 10:30 in the morning. There is limited parking in the Cathedral garage on Taylor Street but public transportation is recommended. There will be a get-together after the service. A bus will be available at Grace Cathedral for all who need a ride to the restaurant/bar. Judy's love of animals included life long support for the SPCA.