[3] Reflecting on her catapult into early parenthood, St. James told The Guardian that she knew it was “a mistake” and believed she would be a “bad mother”.

[4] After her marriage ended, she moved to the heart of beatnik San Francisco to pursue an art career, living first in North Beach and then Haight-Ashbury.

[3] In the 1960s, while she worked as a cocktail waitress, her apartment in Haight served as an informal salon; she lived with guitarist Steve Mann and hosted visitors including Ken Kesey, Dr. John, Frank Zappa, members of comedic improvisational ensemble The Committee, and comedian and publisher Paul Krassner.

She successfully appealed her conviction, worked as a process server for criminal defense attorney Vincent Hallinan, and became one of the first women private investigators in California.

In 1973, St. James founded COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) to push for financial security, health care, and legal rights for sex workers.

In the process, St. James worked towards reframing prostitution as a lawful profession with legitimate workplace and human rights concerns instead of something sinful.

[5][6] After her return from Europe, in the 1990s she was appointed to the San Francisco Task Force on Prostitution and in 1999 was one of three founders of the St. James Infirmary Clinic in the Tenderloin, which provides health care to the sex worker community.

[8][10] In 1996, she campaigned for a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and promised to install a red light outside the City Hall that would be turned on whenever she was present.

[6] Her famous slogan "The Lady Is a...Champ" was coined by longtime associate, chairperson of the California Democratic Party, and former member of US Congress John Burton.

[1] COYOTE's and St. James's papers are archived at Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.