Jerry Burns, 51, S.F. Chronicle Newsman

Jerry Burns, editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle since 1984, died of cancer Monday at his home. He was 51.

Burns, city editor from June, 1979, until becoming editorial page director, had been ill since August, when he learned that he was suffering from cancer of the spleen.

A USC journalism graduate, he worked for the Santa Monica Evening Outlook and Valley Times Today in the San Fernando Valley before joining the Chronicle in 1964 as a reporter on the police beat.

Survivors include his wife, Marilyn; a daughter, Kyra; a son, Adam, Walnut Creek; a granddaughter, Natalie; his father, Morris, Camarillo, and a sister, Sharon Weber, North Hollywood.