Arden Eversmeyer
{{Short description|American LGBT rights activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Arden Eversmeyer
| birth_date = {{birth date|1932|04|04}}
| birth_place = Stevens Point, Wisconsin
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|11|14|1932|04|04}}
| death_place = Houston, Texas
| alma_mater = Sam Houston State University
| occupation = Public school teacher and counselor
| organization = Lesbians Over Age Fifty (LOAF), Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP)
| known_for = Lesbian community activism
}}
File:Arden Eversmeyer and Charlotte Avery.jpg
Jean Arden Eversmeyer, known as Arden Eversmeyer (April 4,1931 – November 14, 2022), founded the organizations Lesbians Over Age Fifty (LOAF) and Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP) to give older lesbians visibility and a sense of community and to document their stories.{{cite web |last=Wolf |first=Brandon |date=March 3, 2021 |title=Herstory Maker |url=https://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2021/03/herstory-maker/ |access-date=March 30, 2021 |website=OutSmart}}
Early life
Born to Herbert and Audrey Eversmeyer in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on April 4, 1931, Eversmeyer graduated from Texas State College for Women with a bachelor's degree in health and physical education in 1951.{{Cite web |date=November 22, 2022 |title=Jean Eversmeyer Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/jean-eversmeyer-obituary?id=38191286 |access-date=September 12, 2023 |website=Legacy.com}} In 1964, she completed a master's degree in education from Sam Houston State University.
Career and community activism
Eversmeyer worked in Texas public schools, starting in Plano and spending the majority of her career with the Pasadena Independent School District and Houston Independent School District, both as an educator and counselor. After a 30-year career, she retired in 1981.
In 1952, she met her first partner, Tommie Russum.
After Russum's death in 1985, Eversmeyer became involved in community activism focused on lesbians. She started the organization Lesbians Over Age Fifty in 1987 to create safe meeting places and a social network for mid-life and older lesbians in Houston.{{cite web |last=Ford |first=Nancy |date=October 1, 2011 |title=Lesbians Over Age Fifty (LOAF) Kicks Off Approach to Quarter-century Anniversary |url=http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2011/10/lesbians-over-age-fifty-loaf-kicks-off-approach-to-quarter-century-anniversary/ |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=OutSmart}} For 14 years, Eversmeyer served on the steering committee of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, a national organization for lesbians age 55 and older working to confront ageism and promote social justice.{{Cite web |title=OLOC Mission Statement |url=https://oloc.org/ |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=Old Lesbians Organizing for Change |language=en-US}}
In 1987, Eversmeyer became a partner to Charlotte Avery, and they married in 2008. Avery died on April 4, 2018.
In 1998, Eversmeyer founded the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project, which conducts interviews with lesbians age 70 and older to capture their personal stories and document the life of lesbians in the 20th century.{{Cite web |title=What we are about... |url=http://www.olohp.org/ |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=The Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project |language=en}} Project volunteers have collected over 800 stories from women around the world. OLOHP has published two books of oral histories: A Gift of Age: Old Lesbian Life Stories (2009) and Without Apology: Old Lesbian Life Stories (2012). Transcripts, audio recordings, photographs, and other materials from OLOHP are archived at the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History at the Smith College Libraries in Northampton, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |title=Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project records |url=https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/963 |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=Smith College Libraries}}
Arden's work with OLOHP was the subject of a documentary short film called Old Lesbians, directed and edited by Meghan McDonough in 2023.{{Citation |last=McDonough |first=Meghan |title=Old Lesbians |date=2023-11-11 |type=Documentary, Short |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29978711/ |access-date=2024-07-27}} Old Lesbians received the Audible/Aesthetica Listening Pitch{{Cite web |title=Aesthetica Magazine - 2023 Listening Pitch: Winners Announced |url=https://aestheticamagazine.com/2023-listening-pitch-winners-announced/ |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=Aesthetica Magazine |language=en-GB}} and was commissioned by The Guardian.{{Cite web |title=Old Lesbians: reclaiming old age and queerness through storytelling |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2024/may/22/old-lesbians-reclaiming-old-age-and-queerness-through-storytelling |access-date=2024-07-27 |website=the Guardian |date=22 May 2024 |language=en |last1=Poulton |first1=Lindsay |last2=Gormley |first2=Jess }}
For six years, Eversmeyer was a mayoral appointee to the Houston Agency on Aging.
Later life and death
In 2014, the National Women's History Alliance, a nonprofit educational organization, named Eversmeyer one of its Women of Character, Courage and Commitment honorees for her work on the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project.{{cite web |title=2014 Honorees: Women of Character, Courage and Commitment |url=https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/past-womens-history-months/2014-honorees/ |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=National Women's History Alliance}}
Mary Speegle, creator of the podcast The Lesbian Story Project, combined two interviews with Eversmeyer into a 45-minute episode published on October 17, 2016.{{Cite web |last=Speegle |first=Mary |title=The Lesbian Story Project Episode 08: The Lesbian Story Project with Arden Eversmeyer |url=https://thelesbianstoryproject.libsyn.com/lesbian-story-project-with-arden-eversmeyer |access-date=November 26, 2023 |website=thelesbianstoryproject.libsyn.com}}
References
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Category:American LGBTQ rights activists
Category:Activists from Houston
Category:LGBTQ people from Texas
Category:LGBTQ people from Wisconsin
Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people
Category:Texas Woman's University alumni