Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 06:05:13 :
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, April 7, 2002
A24
OAKTREE, Joni - Died on "moonday", March 25, 2002, of lung cancer. She was a 4th generation Marinite and was raised in a large Italian family, the Zappettini's, in San Rafael when the town still had a blacksmith's shop. Her stories of early Marin often centered around fabulous food and its loving preparation by her grandmother. Joni's love affair with cooking was legendary, and she cooked for royalty and thieves with the same gusto. A stroll through a good farmers market with her revealed a wealth of culinary secrets. She even kept her favorite chocolate mousse recipe listed in her address book for safe keeping. Joni often said, "If you don't know what to cook, just start chopping the garlic, and it will come." Before moving to the Sausalito waterfront in 1977, Joni lived in North Beach and the Mission. The Moon Goddess of the All White Room reveled in the music, dancing and cultural upheavel/freedom of the times in San Francisco. She was immortalized in a mural painted on the wall of the SPAGHETTI FACTORY, the center of North Beach Bohemian society, where she worked her magic. The mural was re-installed in ENRICO'S recently, and Joni was toasted again as the exotic woman staring at you in the turned around chair. Once she arrived on the waterfront, she lived for many years, through the turbulent times, within Gate 6, the Gates Cooperative area, where she gardened in unusual containers (fish tanks, old trophies and birdcages) and enjoyed her cats. Empowering women, young and old, to see themselves as goddesses, flowers and herbs were her political statements. In 1994, she moved "downtown" in Sausalito to Galilee Harbor where she served as President of the Galilee Harbor Tenants Association for several terms. She is largely credited for the decision to use edible landscaping in Galilee's new project. Joni is survived by her sister, Dana Miller, of San Quentin Village, and her very lovely daughter, Ana Handelman, of North Beach. Joni's last commentary on the future was, "Just tell them I have gone to France." BON APPETITE.
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