Jane Vitray – Founding Mother – 1923-2009
A remembrance by Mary Sue Terry
I first met Jane Vitray in the old John Marshall Coffee Shop in Richmond following the 1977 Democratic primary. She was at one table and I was at another. We began a conversation and that was the last time in a figurative sense that we ever sat at different tables. Hers was a relationship that changed my life and today I grope for words that would do her justice.
Mary Sue Terry Honored Virginia's Women in History
submitted by Gail Shea
Farm Team Founding Sister Mary Sue Terry was honored Thursday night as one of Virginia’s Women in History. Mary Sue was recognized for her lifetime of public service and accomplishment as an attorney, a member of the House of Delegates, and the first and so far the only woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.
The award is made annually to recognize the often unsung contributions of women to the history and culture of the Commonwealth. In the audience for the presentation of the award at the Library of Virginia were TFT co-founders Susan Platt, Susan Swecker and Louise Ware and other Farm Team sisters.
Joining Mary Sue as a 2009 honoree were seven other history making Virginia women:
- Joann Hess Grayson of Harrisonburg, a clinical psychologist and professor at James Madison University and a leading advocate for abused and neglected children.
- Drew Gilpin Faust of Clarke County, president of Harvard University and a leading scholar of the American South.
- Claudia Emerson of Fredericksburg, Virginia’s poet laureate and the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
- Mary Randolph of Chesterfield (1762-1828), author of The Virginia House-Wife (1824), the first and still influential American regional cookbook.
- Caroline Bradby Cook of King William County (born ca. 1839), Unionist and protector of the Pamunkey heritage.
- Virginia Estelle Randolph, Henrico County (1874-1958), whose innovative teaching techniques were the model for African American education throughout the South.
- Pauline Forstall Colclough Adams (1874-1957), campaigner for women’s suffrage who was sent to the infamous Occoquan Prison for her political beliefs.
Farm Team Statewide Meeting and Democratic Gubernatorial Debate April 18-19 in Williamsburg
We hope you will join us on Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th for an exciting weekend of networking, presentations and a statewide Democratic gubernatorial debate! Creigh Deeds, Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran have all confirmed their participation in our debate during this statewide meeting. Don’t miss it!
If you are already a member of The Farm Team, there is no cost to attend the statewide meeting and debate. To join, please click here.
Please RSVP before April 10th to Julie S Copeland for hotel information and to guarantee the hotel rate. The Farm Team will then send you a registration form where you can indicate your hotel room needs, Sunday break-out session preference and other information.
AGENDA
Saturday, April 18th
12-2 Registration at Williamsburg Lodge
2-4 PM Break-out groups
6 PM – Cocktails
7 PM- Dinner with guest speaker Celinda Lake
SUNDAY, APRIL 19TH
7 AM – 5 K walk around historic Williamsburg
10 AM – Sandy Dumont, guest speaker1
1AM-12 PM Break-out groups
2 PM Gubernatorial debate hosted by
The Farm Team at the
The College of
William & Mary
The Sadler Center
featuring
CREIGH DEEDS
TERRY MCAULIFFE
BRIAN MORAN
Read moreYou're invited!
To the Farm Team
The “Good Ole Girls” Brunch will be held Sunday, March 29, 2009, at the Tysons Corner Marriott, Leesburg Pike (Rt 7)
THE HONORABLE MARY SUE TERRY, former Attorney General of Virginia, will speak about The Farm Team
Registration at 12:30pm, Brunch at 1pm
Cost – $25.00
Reservations – Emilie Miller 703-560-3533 or by email.
Read moreCelebrating Women's History Month: Flora M. Trimmer Crater
The Farm Team, in accordance with Women’s History Month, celebrates the lives of Virginia Women who were pioneers in state politics and public affairs. These are the women who felled the trees and cleared the land so that those of us coming later could till the political soil.
Flora M. Trimmer Crater 1915-2009
Small, grandmotherly, even quiet, would be a good description of Flora Crater. Not a likely portrait of someone who was a committed activist for women’s rights and the organizer of a group called Crater’s Raiders. The Raiders lobbied tirelessly for the passage of ERA in Virginia and in the U.S. Congress.
Born in Costa Rica, Flora grew up in Orange County, Virginia. Although she lived in Cuba, New York, Washington and Falls Church, Orange was always home and she spent her last years in her girlhood home there, which she rebuilt after it burned.
Like so many women, Flora’s interest in public affairs began with her interest in her children’s schools, working to integrate the Falls Church school system. But it wasn’t until 1970 when she began to work for ERA that she found her true political passion.
She served as the first president of NOW’s Virginia Chapter and was a guiding force in the Women’s Political Caucus and the Virginia Women’s Network. She convened the Virginia Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Council.
She attended Strayer College in Washington D.C., but did not obtain a BA degree until she was 67 years old and graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Government and Politics. Lack of academic credentials did not deter her from a long career in publishing. She founded the Woman Activist, Inc. and published the Woman Activist from 1973 to 2008. She also published the enormously useful Almanac of Virginia Politics from 1976 until 2003.
Inspired by the Women’s Movement, Flora ran for as an Independent in 1973 for Lt. Governor and then ran for the Democratic nomination for U. S. Senate in 1978. A long-time member of the Fairfax Democratic Committee, Flora lived long enough to vote for the first African-American for President
She received numerous awards in her long life, which might be summed up by Northern Virginia NOW’s naming her the “First Feminist of Virginia.”
Submitted by Janet
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