Anne N. Loftis

February 8, 1922 - November 2, 2023

Author and campaigner for social justice Anne Nevins Loftis, age 101, died on November 2, 2023 at her home in the Palo Alto Commons.

Anne was born in New York City in February 1922 to Allan Nevins, a distinguished historian at Columbia University, and his wife, Mary Richardson Nevins, a pioneering nutritionist. With her beloved younger sister Meredith, she grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, enjoying lively games in the neighborhood and spending summers at the family farm in Vermont. After graduating from Smith College, she began her literary career as a reporter for The Hanover Gazette in New Hampshire. In 1946, she married John Clyde Loftis of Atlanta, whom she had met while he was on leave from the United States Navy during World War II. They made their first home in Princeton, New Jersey where their eldest daughter was born. Following a few years in Los Angeles, the family moved north to Palo Alto where John embarked on a long career as a member of the Stanford University English Department.

By now the mother of three young children, Anne became an active member of the First Congregational Church, and also joined the Fair Play Council, an organization devoted to securing housing for minority families prior to the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Anne’s literary output matched the age of her growing daughters: children’s stories and magazine articles on childcare gave way to essays on education and social history. As a logical next step, she and a collaborator wrote The Great Betrayal, an account of the internment of Japanese-American citizens during World War II, which won a California Book Award Silver Medal in 1969 and the AnisfieldWolf Book Award in 1970. Another book documented the history of immigration to California (California Where the Twain did Meet) and others covered the history of the labor movement in the state: artistic and literary representations of the experience of migrant workers who arrived during the Depression (Witness to the Struggle) and the United Farmworkers’ efforts to unionize and improve their working conditions (A Long Time Coming).

Alongside these literary endeavors, Anne continued to campaign for the disadvantaged, and was even arrested while taking part in a peaceful protest with the United Farm Workers. She was a lifelong member of the League of Women Voters and the Women’s League for Peace and Freedom. At the First Congregational Church, she taught Sunday School and later helped to run a soup kitchen.

From their home in Portola Valley, Anne and her husband John enjoyed the company of a wide circle of friends and especially their children, and grandchildren. John’s failing health eventually led them to move to the Palo Alto Commons where he died in 2012 after 67 years of marriage. Anne continued to live there, enjoying the company of old friends and many new ones. She remained active and engaged with politics and reacted to the election of Donald Trump in 2016 by saying, “I will just have to live another four years and vote him out of office.” She is survived by her sister, Meredith Mayer of New York, her three daughters, Mary, Laura and Lucy, and their husbands, seven grandchildren, eight greatgrandchildren, and devoted friends of all ages.

A memorial service for Anne Loftis will be held at the First Congregational Church in Palo Alto on March 2, 2024.