If a homeless person was cold, exhausted, and desperate for a place to sleep, they could find it in the modest home of Judy Ann Alberti on Derby Street in Berkeley, Calif.

“She brought people into her house who needed a place to live,” said her younger sister, Toni Ellen. “Our father brought people in off the street too. It’s just the way Judy Ann was. She was a lovely person.”

Toni Ellen is deep in mourning for Judy Ann Alberti, her sister, who died recently of cancer.

Judy Ann was born in Southern California on Feb. 26, 1943, to Zelda and Anthony Alberti. The family moved to New York City. Judy Ann enrolled at the New York High School for Music & Arts. Her sister, Lydia, followed in her footsteps and enrolled at the same school. Judy Ann hoped to learn to play the piano but was instead assigned the bass fiddle, an awkward instrument to haul back and forth on the subway each school day. She became an elementary school teacher and later a legal secretary.

Toni remembers her sister as a warm, outgoing, generous person and an activist always on the go. “I was much younger, so my older sisters were out of the house when I was growing up,” Toni Ellen said.

Today, she continued, “It is the state of the world! I would go to Judy Ann to try to understand the world. Aren’t we all trying to understand it? But now there is no Judy Ann to turn to.” She remembers Judy Ann discussing the state of the world with her granddaughter, Mia. “You always have to have hope. You have to go out and fight. Stand up!”

She added that Judy Ann was “literally a lifelong member of the Communist Party, forever! The politics. Being there for people. It was the crux of her life.”

Judy Ann, she continued, was a grassroots activist, joining every mobilization for world peace, against race and gender oppression, and for the rights of workers to organize and strike. She was an important part of the struggle for socialism.

Her friend and comrade Bonnie Weiss remembers Judy Ann playing a major role in “unifying and preserving” the Northern District of the Communist Party USA in the early 1990s. Sharon Rose, another close friend and comrade, cited Judy Ann’s tireless efforts to convince people to join the CPUSA and to strengthen the unity of the party.

“After the 1991 crisis,” Juan Lopez, former chair of the Northern California district, explained,

Judy Ann played a key role in rebuilding the party, becoming a member of the CPUSA’s Northern California leadership collective and its executive committee. There she brought selfless dedication and a wealth of experience in working class struggles for a better life. She masterfully linked grassroots street heat with electoral struggle. In more recent years, she poured heart and soul into trying to defeat Trump, the MAGA leadership, and their fascist drive. Always helping to bring along neighbors, union members, and other grassroots activists. These were exemplary qualities that she brought to the CPUSA and the people’s movements.

Jon, a veteran waterfront worker and a delegate to the San Francisco Labor Council, seconded Juan’s warm praise for Alberti. “Judy Ann played a really important role in preserving the unity of the party and reestablishing the party,” Jon said. “We met at her house, in the living room, four of us. We had to compete with her parrot, Carmen.” The parrot, he said, was so talkative that Judy Ann would throw a towel over the bird cage. “The parrot became completely silent,” he said, chuckling at the memory.

Under Judy Ann’s influence, the four loyalists refused to abandon the CPUSA. “The Berkeley club was named the Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Club,” Jon said. “Alberti understood the centrality of preserving the CPUSA,” he added. “Party unity is fundamental, of utmost importance.”

For half a century, an annual cookout in Alberti’s backyard was one of the main fundraising events for People’s World. “Leftists of all stripes came to that cookout. Three years ago, Rossana Cambron, CPUSA co-chair, was the featured speaker,” Jon said. More than 50 people jammed into Judy Ann’s backyard for that fundraiser.

“Judy Ann attended club meetings,” Jon continued, “until she was diagnosed with cancer in July. She was in the thick of the drive to turn out the vote to defeat MAGA candidates in the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Today, people are talking about the problems of capitalism. Joining in that massive nationwide upsurge against the Trump-MAGA cult is the priority for the party,” Jon concluded.

She was active with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, which honored Brigade veteran Delmer Berg at the 76th anniversary celebration of their heroic struggle against Franco fascism in Spain. Berg was 96 at the time of the 2012 celebration. People’s World featured a photo of Judy Ann with her arm around Berg’s shoulders at the celebration.

She won election to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board and served with a slate that advocated for affordable housing. Housing for the homeless and for the many thousands facing eviction in the Bay Area was a high priority for Alberti. Rents and mortgage rates skyrocketed there, causing hundreds to lose their homes and be forced to starve and freeze on the mean streets.

She and Conn “Ringo” Hallinan were married in 1972. She gave birth to Antonio in 1972 and Brian in 1975. She raised her own sons and a stepson. She is survived by her partner, Bobby Hookfin; stepson Sean; sons Antonio, his wife, Tsvetina, and their daughter, Mia; and Brian, his wife, Terry, and their son, Vance. They are the descendants of the eminent human rights lawyer Vincent Hallinan and Vivian Hallinan. Vincent Hallinan was a lawyer who defended Harry Bridges during communist witch hunt trials and spent three years in prison for his vigorous defense.

This reporter can confirm that Judy Ann Alberti was indeed a generous spirit who cared for wayfaring strangers such as me. I was a People’s Weekly World staff reporter in 2003 covering the recall of California Gov. Gray Davis. Judy Ann provided a comfortable monk’s cot for me to sleep on in the basement of her small cottage in Berkeley. Together with her union brothers and sisters, Judy Ann was toiling to turn out the votes to stop Arnold Schwarzenegger’s election as California governor. However, “Conan the Barbarian” won.

Judy Ann was undaunted by this setback. She never stopped fighting to make a better world for herself, her family and community, and for the working class. She struggled to build socialism her whole life! ¡Presente!

This article was originally published as “Unifier, activist, and champion of the people: Judy Ann Alberti remembered” in People’s World on Oct. 23, 2026. The original article was edited for this publication.

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Image: Judy Ann Alberti / People’s World.