SUNSTONE

IN MEMORIAM

ESTHER EGGERTSEN PETERSON

By Mary Ly thgoe B1-adford

OME DAY, students of our pi- of her powers with the same feisty oneer heritage will be re- awareness that she applied to the Squired to memorize the knottiest social problems of our age. towering achievements of Esther Eggertsen Peterson, who was born HE Iron Rod and the in Utah 9 December 1906, left Utah Liahona were perfectly in 1930 as a physical education T meshed in Esther's char- teacher, and died 20 December acter-the Iron Rod, her Mormon 1997 as an unexcelled public service value system, with its work ethic pioneer. She was the first Mormon and strong social conscience; the to receive the Medal of Freedom, the Liahona, her adventurous desire to nation's highest civilian honor. take wing, to reach out and serve. Presented to her by President Jimmy She often spoke of the necessity to Carter in 1981, it camed this dedi- water her roots and exercise her cation: "Once government's highest wings. Although Esther was not al- ranking woman, Esther Peterson still ways active in the LDS church, she ranks highest among ad- actively magnified values gained vocates. She has advised presidents from her Mormon/Utah back- and the public and worked for labor ground. and business alike, always keeping As fifth of the six children of Lars the rights of all Americans to know Eggertsen and Anagrethe Nielsen, and to be treated fairly as her highest Esther was tutored by older brother priority Even her staunchest foes re- Luther and sister Algie, all having spect her integnty and are warmed by her grace and sincere concern " Ten later, Esther spoke at a Sunstone symposium, and the edl- tors ~llustrated her address, "The World Beyond the Valley" (SUN- ~rovo; ~tah,home, "living clean STONE Nov. 1991), with a photo of her hug- staffers attended parties, fund-raisers, pro- was the code . . . and our weeks were filled ging a giant globe. It had been commissioned grams, and discussions at Esther's home. with Church on Sunday and meetings nearly by consumer advocate when Sometimes I stayed overnight to arise with every day of the week." Years later, she often one of her foes exclaimed, "Esther, you can't her and the sun. Always 1 left feeling bigger illustrated her life story with the hymns she be nanny to the whole world!" and brighter. sang in those meetings: "Do What is Rght," In many ways, she was a nanny to me. I Once Esther said to me, "I just love to "Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words," "Have I was one of the privileged many she wel- feel the continuity of things. I've been Done Any Good?" comed into her private life. We met in the through a lot of phases, and I've been very Esther claimed Danish descent from "a '60s at a meeting attended by our economist fortunate." Instead of taking to the rocking long line of malcontents" from whom she in- husbands, and we soon became better ac- chair, she kept agtating for reform, some- herited a "restlessness and a willingness to quainted through her cousin and my thesis times from her bed, and she was too busy to rock the boat a bit when the need arises" subject, Virginia Sorensen. I was so in awe quit. One day, when she caught herself wan- (Restless, iii). Her parents were both educa- of Esther that, in interviewing her for dering a bit in her speech, she said, "Oh, tors-he superintendent of Provo schools Dialogue in 1980, 1 trembled at calling her this makes me mad! My mind is breaking and she a teacher. During" her father's last ill- office at the Carter White House. My ner- into pieces!" ness, Esther substituted for him, graduating vousness dissipated at her beautiful home in "I'll take a piece of your mind any day!" I from BYU the year of his death and accepting an historic section of Washington, where we exclaimed. "Other minds can't compete!" a position as physical education instructor at spent an invigorating two hours with a tape We can benefit from studylng the mind of Branch Agricultural College in Cedar City, recorder. Afterward, I and other Dialogue this valiant soul who faced the diminishment Utah. Alge's daughter Grethe Petersen de-

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scribed the sisters with their mother as a "for- Garment Workers, the Textile Workers Later, Esther served as special assistant for midable matriarchy," but these free-spirited Union, and the American Federation of consumer affairs under President Lyndon women were nonetheless expected to help Teachers established Esther as a labor profes- Johnson. Once, LBJ phoned her: "Come over with both outside and inside chores. student sional. In 1939, when Oliver took employ- here, quick!" She rushed to the White House boarders joined in lively political and reli- ment in New York with the Office of Price to find the President having lunch with gious discussions at the dinner table, and Administration, she joined the education di- David 0. McKay The LDS church president after dinner, the family read aloud from great vision of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers greeted her warmly and recalled that four- classical literature. (One of their boarders (CIO).Then, in the summer of 1941, Esther year-old Esther had broken her arm in his was Ernest L. Wilkinson.) When her mother organized textile workers in Utah, where she Ogden yard when Esther's family lived next became "matron of the poorhouse" during lobbied the Mode O'Day Company and con- door. "I had a lovely time in the White House her father's illness, Esther and her brother vinced them to sign a contract with the with him . . . and as we walked out, he put worked alongside: "We placed the legs of the Garment Workers Union. Once when Esther his arm around me." (Bruns interview.) beds in cans full of kerosene to kill bedbugs, was trylng to buy time at KSL, a friend of her When Republicans took office, in 1968, and we scrubbed bathrooms. It did not occur brother was shocked to see her. Esther, "What Esther became consumer advocate for Giant to us that we should be paid for this-we are you doing here-disturbing the peace?" Foods, where she pioneered truth in pack- were simply fulfilling part of our obligation Thus began her career of disturbing the aging, lending, and advertising. She also be- to people less fortunate than we were" (first peace, with her foes echoing the Advertising came a TV and radio personality, educating annual Alice Louise Reynolds Lecture, 22 Federation of America, which called her "the the public on nutritional best buys. When Sept. 1988, 19, pub. Friends of the BYU most pernicious threat to advertising today" Democrats returned to the White House, Library). (New York Times, 4 Nov. 1969). Esther attained cabinet status under ~oheand college training blended with Oliver was transferred to Washington, President Carter, again as special assistant for certain watershed e6erience;to create a life- D.C., in 1944, and Esther became assistant consumer affairs. She has been credited with long penchant for difficult questions. While director of the Amalgamated Clothing Work- one hundred pieces of consumer legslation still in her teens, she accompanied one of the ers of America and a legislative lobbyist in the '60s and '70s (Salt Lake Tribune, 12 family's boarders on a strike-breaking trip to working to pass a minimum wage increase. Mar. 1995). Salt Lake City "I still remember being es- She was sent back to Utah to help re-elect In her late eighties, Esther was appointed corted through the picket line by police on Senator Elbert D. Thomas. While there. she by President Clinton to the horseback. . . . A thin woman with two small also campaigned to regster women voters. as senior delegate, thereby recognizing her children caught my eye. 'Why are you doing This and other experiences, including the long service to that body. Her goal had al- this to us?' she asked." (Restless, 2.) Esther lis- birth of her fourth child. turned her attention ways been to inform the neediest people of tened when brother Luther described, from to the plight of working women. When her their consumer rights. Information, she be- his mission field in England, the dehuman- children were small, she ceased to hold nine- lieved, led to empowerment. Esther was izing conditions in British factories. "Why am to-five jobs. "I have been fortunate because I awarded numerous honorary degrees, in- I comfortable while others are hungry?" she have had a supportive husband and help at cluding one from the University of Utah and asked herself. home." She vowed that "if my kids need me, Utah State University, but not from her alma She left Cedar City and headed East to they need me-that's all there is to it." mater. In her later years, Esther often ex- Columbia University, where she met Oliver (Interview with Scott Bmns, 10 Aug. 1976.) pressed her deep connection with Mor- Peterson, from South Dakota. Almost imme- During the '50s. Esther lived in monism and her gratitude for her Mormon diately, she "knew [she] loved him, but he and Belgum while Oliver served as foreign work ethic. was a socialist who drank coffee and smoked service labor attache. She kept up her union In 1995, Esther dictated her memoirs, a pipe, and I was a conservative Mormon work, serving as delegate td the first Inter- Restless: The Memoirs of Labor and Consumer Republican from Utah." She followed her national Conference of Free Trade Unions. Activist Esther Peterson. Here, she speaks in heart and from then on credited "My Oliver" Always active, she wrote an anti-Commun- her own voice, and it is priceless. (Available with "the strength to work for change and to ism pamphlet, "Women, It's Your Fight, Too," from SUNSTONE or from Caring Publishing, disturb the peace at times" (Reynolds lecture, and helped organize the first International 5 19 C St. NE, Washington, D.C., 20003.) 22, iv). His Norwegian background and his School for Working Women in Paris. In her last years, she helped found United becoming a "solid Roosevelt Democrat" When the young family returned to the Seniors Cooperative. The last speech I heard made him acceptable to her family, so much U.S., Esther ran into Jack Kennedy, with her gve was at a United Seniors banquet, so that Oliver and Esther took her mother whom she had lobbied. He recruited her to where she presented a service award to with them on their delayed honeymoon to join his presidential campaign in Utah. After Rosalyn Carter. At Esther's ninetieth birthday Denmark and Norway The young couple he won, he offered her a U.N. appointment, party, she greeted with equal warmth her moved to ; he studied at Harvard, and but she refused so she could remain close to Utah friends and famous politicians like Ted she taught at Winsor School for Girls. home. Instead, she served as Kennedy's di- Kennedy, , and Chuck and Additionally, Esther volunteered at the rector of the Women's Bureau, which led to Linda Robb. YWCA, where she picketed with her students her appointment as Assistant Secretary of A few days before she died, I visited at the famous "Heartbreaker Strike." Bryn Labor. From this came the President's Esther at her son Lars's home in Washington. Mawr President Hilda Smith signed Esther as Commission on the Status of Women, which As she greeted me with a kiss, I realized it recreation director at the newly formed Esther asked to chair. and was our last meeting. I tried to convey my Summer School for Women Workers, where she herself vice-chaired. It was Eleanor's last gratitude for her friendship. Esther served from 1932 to 1937. ublic service, and both women were proud of Thank you, Esther, for mirroring the self I Volunteer work with the International their role in the passage of the Equal Pay Act. hope to become. 0

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