 March 20101920-2010: Eve MiltonBy Michael CondiffLongtime Potrero Hill community activist Eve Milton died on October 7, 2010. She was 89. Months after succumbing to cancer, Milton is still finding ways to contribute. Her body was donated to the University of California, San Francisco, primarily for Alzheimer’s research. “For the last 10 years of her life, she knew Alzheimer’s was affecting her memory,” said Taliaferro “Tolliver” Milton, one of Milton’s two sons. “Mom being Mom, always interested in what she could do for others, she thought it would be beneficial to leave her body, particularly her brain, to science. She thought she might be able to pass something on this way.” Milton’s dedication to community was profound. She moved to Potrero Hill in 1959, and lived in the same Carolina Street home for more than 45 years. Milton was a prominent figure in early neighborhood campaigns, joining Enola Maxwell and others in helping to establish the Potrero Hill Health Center on Wisconsin Street and the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House on De Haro Street. She organized the Potrero Hill Jobs and Health Fair, one of the Hill’s largest annual events, and was instrumental in creating after-school mentoring, tutoring, breakfast for children and childcare programs. Milton was also an early mainstay at the View. In a 2007 interview, Milton told the View that along with other “activists who were Mexican, Chinese, you name it…we provided comfort to those who needed it. Poverty is expensive and time-consuming.” Born Eva C. Zhitlovsky on May 14, 1920, Milton was raised in a household full of intellectual achievement. Her father, Chaim Zhitlovsky, was a famed Russian-born Yiddish scholar. Her mother, Nora Van Leeuwen, was an Indonesian-Dutch physician. As a young woman, Milton was a labor organizer, taught literacy to coal miners’ children in poverty-stricken Appalachia and fought racism. “Eve’s family background really influenced her approach to life,” said friend Judy Baston. “She was very open-minded, very much the earth-mother type. Her interest was not just about equality, but quality of life for every human being. Her soul was very, very big.” Milton was a talented craftswoman, particularly with the loom. She was often asked to place her delicately weaved creations on display in museums, and held a long friendship with renowned Japanese-American artist Ruth Asawa. Milton is survived by sons Christopher and Taliaferro; grandchildren Yoshi, Damien, Evangelina, Raymond, Tony and Aki; great-grandchildren Leilani, Malia, Nora and Sina; niece Sue; and countless friends. Christopher and Tolliver Milton are planning a memorial party for their mother at a date and time yet to be determined.
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