SAN FRANCISCO—On Sunday, September 7, 2025, John Burton died from a fall at a San Francisco hospice at 92.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 15, 1932, as John Lowell Burton, he was raised in San Francisco, graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1950.

Burton earned Bachelor of Arts in Social Science at San Francisco State University in 1954, enlisting in the United States Army after graduation, serving from 1954-1956. Afterwards, he earned his Juris Doctor from University of San Francisco School of Law in 1960.

In 1961, California Bar admitted Burton, working as a San Francisco attorney and lobbyist for Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

In 1964, California State Assembly voted Burton to succeed brother Phillip Burton in 1974. After rehab from his drug addiction, he practiced

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