Joanna Von Briesen

August 28, 1931 - September 27, 2022

Joan von Briesen leaned over the rail of a tiny catwalk at the top of the Golden Gate Bridge 16 years ago and reached across a 700-foot void toward a bird decomposing on a ledge.

Her hosts on her 75th birthday trip to the top of San Francisco’s signature bridge watched in horror as she teetered far above the humming roadway and roiling sea and snatched the carcass, whose colorful plumage she would later display in her dining room.

The risky quest to turn a deceased bird into art wasn’t unusual for Ms. von Briesen, who filled her Cole Valley home with nude paintings, sculptures and an eclectic assortment of dried flowers, feathers, drift wood, wigs, broken chairs and odds and ends she had collected while riding her bicycle or driving her convertible through the city.

The tennis-playing, dumpster-diving San Francisco artist, recycling pioneer and free spirit whose magnetic charm and dedication to creative pursuits inspired many, including a documentary filmmaker, died Sept. 27 of cancer. She was 91.

Born Aug. 28, 1931 in Los Angeles, her father was a neurosurgeon and her mother was a writer. She grew up in upscale Windsor Square, with a view of the Hollywood sign, and complained that she was raised by a strict, humorless family nurse who stifled her creativity. She and her three siblings went to private schools and took regular trips to their beach house in Port Hueneme.

Her neighbors and friends growing up were Dede and John Barrymore Jr., the children of film royalty. (John Jr. was the father of actress Drew Barrymore). She remembered creating a bit of a stir once when she blithely walked in on their mother, Dolores Costello, while the “Goddess of the Silent Screen” was naked in the bath.

Joanie, as she was called by most people, graduated from Stanford University in 1953 with a degree in philosophy. One of her classmates was Dianne Feinstein, the future San Francisco mayor and U.S. Senator, who recruited her to be vice president of the associated student body.

After college, she worked as a secretary for Pan American Airways, a job that allowed her to travel throughout South America, including a ski trip to Portillo, Chile, where she lived for $2 a day and hit the slopes with world champion Emile Allais.

She was living in San Francisco when she met

Ron Fimrite, a reporter and sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and later a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. They were married in 1957, had two children, purchased a home on Shrader Street and a rundown cottage at Stinson Beach, which became her bohemian second home. They were divorced in 1971.

Ms. von Briesen, who lined the front steps of her home with body-shaped stumps that she called the “torso forest,” was a founding member of SCRAP, a nonprofit creative reuse center for discarded paper and materials.

“I feel sorry for things that are not valued, and that probably comes from a feeling that I didn’t feel that I was valued when I was younger,” she told Ethan Goldwater in “Lady Bountiful,” a 2017 documentary about her life after being diagnosed with cancer. “I’ve always been noted for collecting dumb things that nobody else wants and not being able to throw anything away.”

Goldwater was one of the many artists, actors, writers, musicians, scientists, filmmakers, medical and foreign exchange students who were boarders in her house, which was always filled with interesting people and good conversation.

She played tennis, swam in the ocean, rode her bicycle to tai chi and zumba classes on the Panhandle and in Golden Gate Park well into her 90th year, always maintaining her keen sense of humor and eye for the unusual. She was a bright light in a tumultuous world, a beacon of good will, tolerance and honesty in the face of difficult times.

“Life itself exists, and it’s this marvelous miracle,” she said in the documentary. “And it, in itself, is enough.”

She is survived by her son and daughter in law, Peter and Cassandra Fimrite, of Mill Valley; daughter, Deborah Fimrite, of Berkeley; brother, Hans von Briesen, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; grandchildren, Jackson and Lily Fimrite, and numerous nieces and nephews.

A memorial service is being planned for November.