Being an out-of-the-closet communist in 1950s America was no easy task.

But Mary Davis of Berkeley, known to friends as "Bolshevik Mary," was up to it.

Friends and family say Davis, a San Francisco native, was a true activist for workers, peace and justice until the very end. She died July 7 at age 87.

Just about anyone who is politically active on the left in Berkeley — and there are plenty — knew Mary Davis.

"She was still having meetings and going to rallies and sitting there in her wheelchair holding picket signs against the Iraq war," said her son, Owen Davis.

"I kept telling her, 'Mom, this is for younger people now. We don't want to get you hurt.'"

Owen Davis said he once asked his mother about memories of red lights, stars and yelling in the darkness. Turns out mom brought him on violent picket lines in West Oakland, where she battled to bring a union to a General Electric factory at which she made light bulbs on an assembly line.

"She carried me in her arms on the picket lines, hoping the police would spare her a clubbing, because they were pretty brutal," he said. "I remember seeing lights and flashing and these big silver stars on the chests of the police and a lot of screaming and hollering and pushing."

One day on her way to work, Davis said his mother heard on the radio that she was a communist — she joined the party in the late 1930s while going to UC Berkeley — and she

For a time, she hid at a farm in San Jose to escape testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Davis said.

All her life, whenever there was a picket line, from striking nurses to Safeway workers, she was there, her son said.

Don Jelinek, a Berkeley City Councilman from 1984 to 1990 who lived across the street from Davis, said her activism spanned from her neighborhood to the world.

"The most famous neighborhood thing about her is she would alert the entire block about street sweeping day so we all wouldn't get tickets," Jelinek said.

"She would go door to door yelling. If someone died, if someone was ill, if someone needed help, if anything happened, she would be knocking on your door. She was just a dynamo around here."

Jelinek said she was involved in all the world affairs issues that the Berkeley City Council got involved in, from Israel to Palestine to calls for impeaching presidents Bush and Reagan.

"If there was an issue where a crowd of supporters were needed, Mary would get the people there," Jelinek said. "And she had the energy to do it."

Davis said his mother protested against the Vietnam War and dedicated her life to bringing races together. She went to Washington to speak for racial integration in the armed services and waited tables in a Southern restaurant where she was fired for serving black co-workers in the kitchen.

Again going against the tide of the times, Davis married a black man, Clarence Davis, and had three children starting in the 1950s.

Years after her husband died in 1968, Davis moved in with her partner, Betty Bishop. The two were together for about 25 years before she entered a nursing home in Berkeley about three years ago.

"I met her about 40 years ago," said Bishop. "When I met Mary, I didn't know what to make of her. She definitely was an eccentric. A friend of mine has referred to her as a Berkeley icon. She took up all these causes very passionately, but she still could communicate with people who had different views from her."

Davis is survived by three children, Owen, Medeline Davis and Robbin Davis.

A celebration of her life is planned at 3 p.m. Aug. 9 at Chaparral House, 1309 Alston Way in Berkeley.

Reach Doug Oakley at doakley@bayareanewsgroup.com.