A Great Loss - Conservative Activist Phyllis Schlafly Dead At Age 92
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| Phyllis Schlafly and Dr. Bill Smith (ARRA News Service) Discussing Threats To America! |
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Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service: It was with great sadness that I received the news of death of Phyllis Schlafly. She had been a touchstone for may conservatives and I admired her greatly. She has been a contributor to this site and I had the pleasure on two occasions to meet privately with Phyllis in Aug 2007 and again in July 2011 in Saint Louis at events we were attending. We discuss the events of the time and the threats to our Republic. She was a great encouragement.
In the 1970s, Phyllis Schlafly is credited in the 1970's with stopping the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. But year later, the issue was raised within various states who had not previously supported the ERA. Schlafly came to Arkansas in 2007 and again in 2009 to testify and to aid us in defeating the Equal Rights Amendment in the State legislature.
Below is information from Eagle Forum addressing her death.
Ed Martin, President, Eagle Forum:
She loved her family and her work and all of us. And she loved America. We will miss her but she gave us a lot of work to do. She was proud of us - and loved you.
I hope you will join me in prayer to the Lord in thanksgiving for her life. And please join me in prayer for her family.
Phyllis is with her Lord now and with her beloved husband Fred. Rest in peace, dear Phyllis.
Arrangements for her funeral are pending. Her family will be in touch to let us know soon. We will let you know then.
Please see the statement below my signature that will go out to the press in a few minutes. I thought you would like to see it first.
Thanks for all you did for Phyllis and for all of us. Keep up your good work.
An iconic American leader whose love for America was surpassed only by her love of God and her family, Phyllis Schlafly, an indomitable pro-family grassroots advocate and organizer, was 92 years old. Mrs. Schlafly was preceded in death by her beloved husband Fred and is survived by six children along with 16 grand and 3 great grandchildren.
Phyllis Schlafly spent an astounding 70 years in public service of her fellow Americans. Her focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life. She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those values. From military superiority and defense to immigration and trade; from unborn life to the nuclear family and parenthood, Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and articulate voice for common sense and traditional values. She authored 27 books and thousands of articles. She spoke tens of thousands of times across the United States.
Her joy in life was evident to all through her smile and wit. Funeral arrangements are pending.
Comments by Others
Gary Bauer, ARRA News Service Contributing Author and President Campaign for Working Families - Goodbye, Phyllis
Phyllis Schlafly, a dear friend of many years, passed away yesterday. It is always a risk to say someone is irreplaceable. But it is hard to imagine what the Republican Party would look like, and, more importantly, what America would look like without Phyllis Schlafly.
Phyllis burst onto the scene in 1964 with her book entitled, "A Choice, Not An Echo." She wrote it to promote Barry Goldwater and, as the title implies, to ensure that voters had a real choice between the parties, not just an echo of the establishment elites. She would go on to write more than two dozen books and she became a champion of American conservatism.
Phyllis fought every four years to ensure that the Republican Party platform remained pro-life. I was honored to stand with her on many of those occasions. She led the successful campaign to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment and warned that the feminist movement would lead to all kinds of unintended consequences.
She was labeled an extremist by the media for warning that those consequences would include the blending of genders and the undermining of marriage. Recent headlines have only proven that Phyllis Schlafly was right all along.
Feminist leaders of her day like Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem were treated by the media as if they were great celebrities, precisely because they mocked motherhood and marriage, and supported abortion on demand. Conversely, Phyllis Schlafly spoke for millions of American women when she defended marriage and motherhood as good and honorable institutions. And she was vilified for it.
Phyllis had the courage of her convictions. She stood up against the left. She fought the good fight, and she won time and time again. She was called the "Godmother of the conservative movement" and the "First Lady of American Conservatism." Ronald Reagan lauded her leadership as "an example to all those who would struggle for an America that is prosperous and free." All so true.
We already miss her, but I am sure Phyllis has already heard those glorious words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp on conservative icon, Phyllis Schlafly:
We were saddened to learn yesterday of the passing of Eagle Forum founder and conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly. She was also a former American Conservative Union board member and her impact on history, politics, families, and our lives is monumental.
Years ago, as a student at Notre Dame, and the founder of a campus conservative magazine that was not always received warmly by the administration and faculty, Phyllis sat down with me and my colleague Ed Yevoli, who also sits on our ACU Board, and allowed us to interview her for our publication. Needless to say, we got an unforgettable education in what it means to be a conservative activist and freedom fighter for the Constitution. Her courage and conviction inspired us, and her reliably vigorous defenses of the American family and the unborn for 70 years, mean that I am only one of millions of lives she touched and helped guide toward a conservative and moral approach to the business of politics.
I am still humbled and honored that a star of her stature took the time to meet with a couple of ambitious college students, but that was Phyllis. She understood that the stakes are always high. Her sense of urgency was infectious and persuading people to see things our way was our best path to preserving American values.
We mourn the loss of a leader and great friend, but her life, voice, passion, and principles will continue to impact and influence future generations. Phyllis’ life was a celebration of the things that our nation was founded on, and a small part of her legacy provides, in the short-term, a road map to victory by holding fast to our principles and fighting eloquently and elegantly for our shared beliefs.
History will prove her long-term legacy to be one of intellectual and moral rigor combined with the courage and will to understand that there are, in fact, American values that we must stand up and fight for. Even if there are arrows to be taken from those who seek to water down what it means to be an American, we can take them, and we will do our best to make her proud and honor a life well-lived.
Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life:
We are deeply saddened by the death of Phyllis Schlafly. Phyllis steadfastly defended the protection of unborn children, and was a stalwart and compassionate defender of the most vulnerable members of society. Without her unwavering commitment, the Equal Rights Amendment would have been ratified 35 years ago – with all of its implications for enshrining abortion as a constitutional right. Phyllis’s dedication to the right-to-life cause helped guide the movement and her leadership proved invaluable. Our prayers and condolences go out to the Schlafly family and the entire right-to-life movement for the loss of this good and faithful servant.
Daniel Greenfield a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center:
I met Phyllis Schlafly for the first time at one of the Freedom Center's Restoration Weekends. There were many amazing people on and off the list of speakers there, but she still stood out. We have an amazing movement filled with activists and intellectuals, but there are only so many people who can actually make a difference.
And who actually do make a difference.
Phyllis Schlafly was one of them. She was an unapologetic conservative, so different from many who hope still that a modus vivendi can be achieved with the left by being inoffensive. Phyllis Schlafly did not believe in being inoffensive. She had strong, clear beliefs that no one was ever in the dark about. You always knew what Phyllis Schlafly believed.
It was her clear convictions that allowed her to make a difference.
She did not traffic in a vague idealism. Nor was she content to preach to the choir. She confronted the left, clear-eyed, passionate and calm, and that is how we ought to best remember her.
Phyllis Schlafly took on the left and did not flinch. She absorbed their nastiest attacks and their worst insults and stood all the taller for it. And in that she is an example for us all of courage, leadership and activism.
It was her refusal to retreat from the battle, to soft pedal her ideas or to give up and go home, even at her very advanced age, that are the hallmarks of a conservative champion. She will be greatly missed, yet the qualities she possessed are not lost if we make use of them.
Tom Minnery, president emeritus of Family Policy Alliance, remembers his friend Phyllis Schlafly.
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Posted by Bill Smith at 6:00 PM - Post Link
2 Comments:
Rest in Peace Phyllis ..... your work will live on in all of us!
She deserves to be remembered.
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