Memorial Gathering for 710 Freeway Fighter Joanne Nuckols Set for Saturday

A public memorial gathering honoring Joanne Nuckols, the South Pasadena preservationist whose legal expertise and coalition-building helped stop the 710 Freeway extension from displacing thousands of homes in South Pasadena, Pasadena, and El Sereno, will be held Saturday at the War Memorial Building, according to a family announcement. 

Doors open at 11 a.m., with speakers from noon and light lunch and informal fellowship until 1 p.m. The free event at 435 Fair Oaks Ave. in South Pasadena requires no RSVP. 

Nuckols died August 19, 2025, at her South Pasadena home after decades of civic work anchored by what colleagues described as encyclopedic knowledge of federal and state preservation law, according to The South Pasadenan. Her funeral was private. 

Saturday’s gathering, organized by members of the South Pasadena civic and preservation community, is the first public opportunity to pay respects.

The fight she helped lead spanned roughly 60 years and became one of the longest transportation land-use disputes in American history. 

The proposed freeway extension would have carved through neighborhoods in multiple cities, displacing thousands of homes. Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB-7 in October 2019, officially ending the project, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. 

Pasadena resident and well-known preservationist Claire Bogaard said Nuckols was the person she turned to when learning about the proposed freeway. 

South Pasadena Mayor Sheila Rossi said at a December 2025 City Council ceremony that Nuckols helped build “one of the most powerful community coalitions this region has ever seen.”

“Joanne left a void,” Rossi said. “She also left a model for leadership. Fierce, principled and never careless with relationships.” 

Nuckols led outreach to El Sereno in the late 1980s to bring residents there into the freeway fight. She served as a volunteer archivist for the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, and the South Pasadena Public Library houses the Joanne Nuckols Archive, which documents her research. 

Attorney Christopher Sutton, whom Nuckols recruited to the cause, said at the December ceremony that grassroots efforts to stop the freeway had seemed like “a hopeless fight,” according to Outlook Newspapers. 

“You started from a place of hopelessness that led to an ultimate victory after many, many decades,” Sutton said. “And Joanne was so instrumental in that.” 

In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes memories and photos sent to RememberingJoanneSP@gmail.com and asks that donations be directed to the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation or the Huntington Memorial Hospital Cancer Center in Pasadena, according to the family announcement. 

The South Pasadena City Council proclaimed October 12, 2025, as Joanne Nuckols Day. Her son, Brett Nuckols, said at the December ceremony: “She wanted to live and die in this town. She got her wish. Unfortunately, she passed away too soon. But she was able to pass away in her home that she took care of for over 50 years.”