Diane di Prima, a prolific poet who pursued the life of a Beat and rose to the position of San Francisco poet laureate, died Sunday, Oct. 25. For eight years, di Prima had battled Parkinson’s disease, a progressive disorder of the central nervous system, and Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease characterized by dry eyes and mouth.

She also had arthritis, which made it difficult to walk, and had been living in a skilled nursing facility not far from her longtime home in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Still she wrote poetry every day and had several book projects going even as she was moved to San Francisco General Hospital, where she died. Her partner of 42 years, Sheppard Powell, was at her bedside. She was 86.