The Late Great Lindsay Kefauver: Remembering a Fierce Dog Advocate

Lindsay Kefauver and her dog Sully at Stern Grove. photo: Jean Kind

Bay Area dog lovers lost a tremendous champion in October when Lindsay Kefauver died after a recent illness, but she left behind a legacy dog lovers can be grateful for every day. Lindsay’s tireless advocacy over the last three decades played a major role in ensuring access for dog walking – especially off-leash dog walking – in San Francisco city parks and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA).

When SFDOG became an advocacy nonprofit in the 1990s, Lindsay was there. When people marched and rallied to oppose the GGNRA’s attempts to restrict where you could go with your dog, Lindsay was there (right at the front with one of her beloved Springer Spaniels by her side). At meetings with GGNRA officials, SF Recreation & Park staff, local politicians, and at City Hall hearings, Lindsay was there. She even once wore a hot, heavy dog costume to a demonstration at Fort Funston. She may have been drenched in sweat, but she knew how to make a point.

Lindsay was one of the named plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the GGNRA filed in 2000 after GGNRA staff closed part of Fort Funston to dog walking without a public process. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, forcing the GGNRA to provide public notice and a comment process for the closure. Yet, after taking public comment that overwhelmingly supported dog-walking access, the GGNRA ignored the public’s wishes and closed an even larger section than had originally been proposed. This was one of the first skirmishes in what became a decades-long fight to preserve off-leash dog walking at Fort Funston, Ocean Beach, Crissy Field, and other areas in the GGNRA, a fight we ultimately won. And Lindsay was a major part of it all.

While many who fought those early battles gradually burned out and pulled back, Lindsay stayed active in dog-related issues. Early in the COVID pandemic, she volunteered with SFDOG's Pet Food Pantry, distributing free pet food to people who needed help. She remained on the board of SFDOG until earlier this year, stepping down only after the diagnosis of the illness that would claim her.

Lindsay was a founder of Dolores Park DOG and a positive force for that park and others throughout the city. For decades, she organized park clean-ups and participated in meetings with Recreation & Parks Department staff about park issues, including a major renovation of Dolores Park, during which Lindsay made sure off-leash areas were protected before, during, and after construction. Whenever Rec & Parks staff held hearings about proposed off-leash areas in parks throughout San Francisco, Lindsay was there, speaking in support of dogs and dog owners.

Lindsay was born to activism as the daughter of Estes Kefauver, the U.S. Senator from Tennessee who led a much-publicized senate investigation into organized crime in the early 1950s. In the 1956 presidential election, Senator Kefauver served as Adlai Stevenson's running mate, ultimately losing to the Eisenhower-Nixon ticket. Her father’s daughter, Lindsay retained an interest in politics – both local and national – throughout her life, and she was a trusted advisor to those fighting political battles on behalf of dogs in the Bay Area.

So the next time you walk with your dog off-leash in Dolores Park, Stern Grove, or Fort Funston - or really any off-leash area in San Francisco and the GGNRA - say a word of thanks for   Lindsay Kefauver. Without her steadfast and passionate advocacy, we might very well have lost that precious access for our dogs. 

In fact, all Bay Area dog lovers owe Lindsay an enormous debt - one that can only be repaid by continuing to fight for the causes, including off-leash recreational access, that were so important to her.