Wednesday, March 21, 2007

A Working-Class Hero will be honored Sunday evening

As you may have seen in yesterday's CA article, the annual Women of Achievement reception will be held at the U of M Holiday Inn this Sunday from 4-6 PM.

While all of the recipients are terrific, I will be in attendance for one reason: Barbara Lawing. She was the political godmother of so many of our Democrats of the past and present; go ask Harold Ford Senior OR Junior how much she meant to them, and the same can be said for Mike Kernell and Carol Chumney, and lots more Democrats that you can imagine.

Despite being a full-time wife (after having been widowed with two young children) and mother, she marched with the sanitation workers, and was one of six Memphis housewives who confronted Mayor Henry Loeb in the middle of the strike to demand that he pay them a fair wage.

Then, she went out and got a master's degree and went to work for the County; however, that was only the start. There are lots of U of M athletes that she tutored over the years, and they loved her and remembered always. I had the great fortune to accompany her to U of M football games, and "her boys" came right to her, sometimes with parents in tow, to show their folks who was helping them, but NOT coddling them.

The term in the title was used by Mike Kernell at her funeral, and she was just that, someone who helped everyone and was known and LOVED by everyone, especially in the U of M, Democratic Party and Labor communities.

She basked with obvious pride when her daughter Jackie joined the staff of then-Senator Al Gore in the 80s, and went on to a senior position at HUD in the Clinton Administration. She loved all of her children equally, though, and as I am fortunate to know them all, I can state first-hand what a wonder ful job she did raising them.

I hope that those of you who knew and loved Barbara (if you knew her, you couldn't help it) will join us at this event Sunday at 4 PM at the U of M Holiday Inn.

It should be a great time.

1 comment:

autoegocrat said...

Sounds like someone I'd like to meet.