CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks E575 is preserved for our grandchildren to inherit. Even before the '30s had ended Mrs. Ross convinced her to sail abroad as a member of We will continue our fight to ensure that envi- had lived an eventual lifeÐas a ``girl cash- the Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democ- ronmental protections are among our highest ier'' at the World's Fair on Treasure Island, racy. as Northern California campaign manager prioritiies. One of only 50 American women involved, for winning Democratic gubernatorial can- she worked in makeshift front-line hospitals f didate Culbert Olson and in organizing relief to aid soldiers of loyalist Spain and inter- ON THE PASSING OF THREE for Spanish civil war refugees. national volunteer fighters including Ameri- During the early 1940s, she was a teacher EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN cans in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The and social worker in Central Valley migrant young nurse was severely wounded during a labor camps, including Marysville-Yuba bombing. HON. NANCY PELOSI City, where she met and married her late ``We were so idealistic at the time. And we OF CALIFORNIA husband, Fred Ross, a community organizer, wanted everything for a better world,'' she IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES whose careerÐincluding the discovery of recalled in 1990 after a speech to Veterans of farm labor leader Cesar ChavezÐbecame leg- Thursday, March 25, 1999 the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in New York. endary. Feinberg served as commander of the bri- Ms. PELOSI. Ms. Speaker, it sometimes Her youngest son, Fred, now chief of staff gade's Los Angeles post in the 1980s and happens that the unexpected juxtaposition of to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, re- 1990s. disparate events imposes its own logic, and called that his mother taught birth control Her injuries in Spain prevented her from as well as drama and other subjects to wives the emerging pattern rivets our attention and serving as a military nurse in World War II. of farm workers. He said, ``Birth control was But she spent that time in Ecuador, fol- commands our respect. So it is with the recent called `baby spacing,' then, and one of the passing of three extraordinary women: lowing its border war with Peru, with the women asked her, `Is that to teach us how to U.S. Government Emergency Rehabilitation Frances Ross, who died December 9th at 84 space them closer together or farther Committee organizing clinics and hospitals years of age; Helen Feinberg, who followed on apart?''' and training nurses in mountain and jungle February 22nd, also 84; and Vivian Hallinan, On the eve of World War II, Mrs. Ross communities. worked to get refugee Jewish physicians out who departed March 16th after 88 years of After the war, she returned to Europe with of Germany, and after the war began, she op- life. Of the same generation that was tem- the American Joint Distribution Committee erated a drill press and worked for racial in- to develop clinics, organize health education pered in the Great Depression and triumphant tegration at a Cleveland airplane parts man- programs and treat chronically ill victims of in World War II, all three women shared many ufacturing plant, while her husband worked Hitler's concentration camps. characteristics and values. All, of course, were with Japanese Americans who had been relo- native or adoptive Californians. And, in the cated to the Midwest from the Pacific Coast. The dedicated nurse also went to Oregon trail-blazing spirit of the Golden State, all were At age 41, Mrs. Ross returned to San Fran- with the Agricultural Workers Health Assn. cisco State and obtained a master's degree in as a circuit-riding public health nurse for true pioneers in their respective fields: Ross in migrant labor camps, and worked with the the treatment of the mentally ill; Feinberg in clinical psychology. Her professional career was interrupted by New York City Health Department setting nursing and human rights; and Hallinan in a polio, and she was unable to work for nine up community health care clinics. wide range of progressive causes. years. Working for the Union Health Care Center All three women exhibited, early in life, the When Mrs. Ross was hired as executive di- of the International Ladies Garment Work- qualities we associate with leadership. They rector at Conard HouseÐshe had been a reha- ers Union in 1952, she met and married were relentless champions of social justice, bilitation counselor at Lighthouse for the Charles Feinberg, union organizer, professor peace, equality, democracy, and freedom. And BlindÐinstitutionalization was virtually the and public health administrator. After her in the pursuit of those values, their persever- only recognized form of treatment for the marriage, she went into school nursing in New York and, after the Feinbergs moved to ance was legendary. Finally, and perhaps mentally ill. Mrs. Ross started Conard House's co-op Orange County in the 1970s, with the New- most impressive, Frances, Helen, and Vivian apartment program, which provides an ex- port Mesa Unified School District. In Orange also shared the exquisite ability to balance an tended period of recovery for clients admit- County, Feinberg concentrated on working active life in the public domain with an equally ted to the program's halfway house. with children and families of migrant work- impressive dedication to family and friends in Katherine Erickson, owner of two retail ers and other immigrants. She retired only the private realm. gift shops at Pier 39, who worked for Mrs. last year, at 83. In conclusion, Frances Ross, Helen Ross for seven years at Conard House, re- In 1985, the school district named a new fa- Feinberg, and Vivian Hallinan were coura- called her as ``the most powerful woman I've cility at Whittier Elementary School in geous leaders of a generation that is rapidly ever worked with . a most extraordinary Costa Mesa, Feinberg Hall in honor of both passing from our scene. We are losing a na- woman. She had the ability to cut through the nurse and her husband. the B.S. and see what was really going on.'' Feinberg is survived by a son and daugh- tional treasure, and we should all pause to Mrs. Ross is survived by daughter Julia, a ter, union labor lawyers Michael and Margo register our common loss. Details about the director of recovery systems in Larkspur; Feinberg, and two grandsons. wonderful lives of these three women are in- sons Robert, a high school teacher in Davis, A memorial service is scheduled at 2 p.m. cluded in the following tributes. and Fred of San Francisco; and by three March 6 at Pacific View Memorial Park in [From the San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 11, grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Corona del Mar. A memorial service will be held Dec. 19Ð 1998] The family has suggested that memorial her 84th birthdayÐat 3 p.m. in the audito- contributions be made either to the Abra- FRANCES LILLIAN ROSSÐADVOCATE FOR rium of Villa Marin in San Rafael, where she MENTALLY ILL ham Lincoln Brigade Archives, 799 Broad- had resided for the past 13 years. way, Suite 227, New York, NY 10003, or to (By Eric Brazil) The family suggests that friends wishing Whittier Elementary School, 1800 N. Whit- Frances Lillian Ross, who pioneered resi- to remember Mrs. Ross with charitable con- tier Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92627, for its li- dential treatment for the mentally ill in San tributions direct them to the Post Polio Sup- brary. Francisco, died Wednesday in San Rafael at port Group of Sonoma County, 4672 Park age 83. Trail Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95405; or to the She had been in failing health for two- Larkspur public library. [From the San Francisco Examiner, Mar. 17, months, following a stroke at her Villa 1999] Marin home. [From the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 24, 1999] From 1965 through 1997, Mrs. Ross was ex- PEACE ACTIVIST, MATRIARCH VIVIAN HELEN FEINBERG, 84; SOCIAL ACTIVIST, ecutive director of Conard House, which de- HALLINAN SPANISH CIVIL WAR NURSE veloped the model for treating mentally ill (By Seth Rosenfield) (By Myrna Oliver) patients in a non-institutional setting. SHE WAS ROLE MODEL FOR POLITICAL WOMEN ``She was instrumental in establishing Helen Freeman Feinberg, nurse and human what community mental health looks like in rights advocate who aided victims of the Vivian Hallinan, the preeminent peace ac- this town,'' said Steve Fields, executive di- Spanish Civil War and Ecuador border war as tivist, wife of the later legend Vincent rector of the Progress Foundation. well as garment workers and Latino immi- Hallinan and matriach of San Francisco, Conrad House ``was very, very much on the grants at home, has died. She was 84. best known Irish political family, whose ground floor. It was one of the first models of Feinberg died Monday of cancer in New- members include prominent criminal defense a halfway house, if not the first,'' recalled port Beach, said her daughter, Margo lawyer Patrick Hallinan and San Francisco psychiatrist Dr. Price Cobbs. Feinberg. District Attorney Terence Hallinan, has Born in San Diego, Mrs. Ross attended 13 A New Yorker trained in nursing at Brook- died. grammar schools and three high schoolsÐin- lyn Jewish Hospital, the 22-year-old Helen Mrs. Hallinan, who was 88, died Tuesday at cluding Polytechnic in San FranciscoÐbe- Freeman had barely begun her nursing ca- the Berkeley home of her son Matthew. Fam- fore graduating from San Francisco State. reer in 1937 when a meeting on Spain's strife ily members said she has been in poor health E576 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Ð Extensions of Remarks March 25, 1999 in recent weeks and attributed her death to In 1945, the Hallinans moved to political Our legislation would allow an individual to old age.