June Cohen, longtime postal worker and Feltonville community advocate, has died at 83

June Cohen, 83, of Philadelphia, longtime postal worker, social justice and education activist, Feltonville community advocate, culture and climate staffer at Feltonville Intermediate school, volunteer, and devoted single mother, died Saturday, Aug. 3, of complications from lung disease at the Jeanes Campus of Temple University Hospital.

Ms. Cohen graduated from Olney High School and lived for decades with her daughters, Nina and Mylinh, in the neighboring Feltonville section of the city. She was passionate and vocal about high-quality education, economic equity, and workers’ rights, and her friends called her “feisty” and “a powerful half-pint.”

She organized marches and rallies and writing campaigns, and took to the streets and City Hall corridors when time came for peaceful protest and public discussion. She criticized unfair workplace rules and health care inequity in the 1970s and ‘80s, and demonstrated in the 1990s against the reorganization of public schools in Feltonville and Olney.

She championed women’s reproductive rights and supported the Philadelphia Free Press underground newspaper in the 1960s and ‘70s. Recently, as a Jewish woman, she was distraught by the discord in Israel and Gaza.

In 1976, she challenged then-Mayor Frank Rizzo to a debate for “his lack of commitment to the working man.” In 1994, Inquirer columnist Steve Lopez nicknamed her and three other activists the Feltonville Four after they challenged entrenched incumbents for Democratic committee seats in the 42nd Ward.

She worked as a part-time climate staffer at Feltonville Intermediate after retiring from the post office in 2016, and served on the executive board and negotiations team of its workers’ union, Unite Here Local 634. “Injustice outraged her,” said longtime friend and colleague Sally Davidow. “She was a fighter for the people, and she felt it in her bones.”

Ms. Cohen was a longtime Democratic committeeperson and leader for the Coalition of Labor Union Women. She worked as a window clerk for the postal service for 35 years and was legislative director for the American Postal Workers Union.

For decades, she championed new recreation centers, bigger playgrounds, and school programs for gifted students. She wrote letters to the editors of The Inquirer and Daily News about school funding and busing, and oversaw activities at ONE Feltonville, Neighbors of Feltonville, and other local groups that sought meaningful change.

She served as a spokesperson for an activist coalition, Rich Off Our Backs, in the 1970s, and a friend noted her “strength of will, her passion for fairness and justice, and her sense of humor” in a Facebook tribute. Other friends said she was a “24/7 union fighter,” “a committed unionist, feminist, and peace warrior,” and “one of the kindest people I have ever met.”

June Rochelle Cohen was born June 11, 1941, in Philadelphia. She worked in garment shops and other jobs before joining the post office in 1981, and became acutely aware of working-class struggles.

Her father was a neighborhood butcher, and she watched him support workers’ rights and fair play in business and society. Later, she protested to protect civil and women’s rights, and against war and violence. When things needed to get done, Davidow said, Ms. Cohen “took it to the next level.”

She adopted daughters Nina and Mylinh, and loved to take them along to meetings and protests. “They were the light of her life,” Davidow said.

She was empathetic and embraced the relationships she built with students at school and the contributions she made to their educational experiences there. Everybody in the neighborhood knew her, and she brought joy to all her activities, friends said, because “she touched people.”

“She was a rebel who always fought for the people,“ Davidow said. Her daughter Nina said: “She loved me and Mylinh, and she loved everybody. She was strong and stubborn, loving and kind. She was always working to help someone.”

In addition to her daughters and older sister, Willa Peters, Ms. Cohen is survived by other relatives.

A celebration of her life is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to Planned Parenthood, 123 William St., 10th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10038; and Jewish Voice for Peace, Box 589, Berkeley, Calif. 94701.