obtained U.S. citizenship in 1963 and within two years began involvement with local government, first being appointed in 1965 as a member of the Community Appearances Advisory Board. She became member and subsequently commissioner of the Planning Commission, until 1974, when she was elected as a Sausalito City Councilwoman. She was known for her strong environmental protectionism, opposition to council members economically benefiting from projects they approved, and her outspokenness. She served from 1974 to 1978 during the height of the rebuilding of a closed-over 100 acre shipyard sold by the US Government after World War II, Marinship on San Francisco Bay. During her term as City Councilwoman she played a significant role in the redevelopment of this and other former Marinship properties working with other architects including stopping overdevelopment projects offering to stud the shoreline of one of the most noted waterfronts in the world. One of these projects that was stopped was the first application of the Schoonmaker Project in 1972 on 37 acres by William Wurster and Don Emmons of Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons and one that was reduced in size was the six building Deak Office Park project to two buildings. She was instrumental in revising the Sausalito General Plan of 1963 and creating zoning for a working waterfront favorable to artists and small maritime businesses working alongside fellow Sausalito City Councilmember and later Mayor Sally Stanford. After her term ended as a councilwoman in 1978, she returned to the Planning Commission serving until 1980. Autumn also worked with Wright's apprentice John Lautner and had an architectural vocabulary based strongly on her former instructor, Goff. During the seventies she had an architectural partnership Davis-Autumn & Associates, with another University of Oklahoma architectural graduate John Marsh Davis. The firm won awards for their work in winery architecture including the 1974 American Institute of Architects Bay Area Honor Award for in Design Excellence for the Souverain Winery with Schaaf-Jacobs-Vinson Engineers in the Napa Valley AVA, a juxtaposition of French country-architecture with Organic Architecture. Other notable buildings include projects with her partner Davis such as Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Rutherford Hill Winery, Sullivan Vineyards, all in Sonoma Valley and Napa Valley California, the Caletti Jungsten building (1986) in Mill Valley, California, a variety of projects for San Francisco developer Fred R. Winn. As an artist and interior architect she completed a variety of handcrafted murals for the 1st National Bank