Frances Wheeler Sayler
{{Short description|American activist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Frances Wheeler Sayler
| image = Frances Wheeler Sayler in UE News.jpg
| alt = Photograph of a smiling young woman in a business suit
| caption = Sayler, 1944
| birth_name = Frances Lee Wheeler
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|12|18}}
| birth_place = Butte, Montana, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1957|04|27|1916|12|18}}
| death_place = Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
| other_names =
| education = Connecticut College
| occupation = civil rights activist, labor organizer, and government worker
| years_active = 1937–1957
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Frances Wheeler Sayler (December 18, 1916 – April 27, 1957) was an American civil rights and labor activist. She worked in the La Follette Committee and for the United States Women's Bureau, before became an organizer in the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union. She was active in the early civil rights movement, fighting to desegregate facilities and abolish the poll tax.
Early life and education
Frances Lee Wheeler was born on December 18, 1916, in Butte, Montana, to Lulu M. (née White) and Burton K. Wheeler.{{sfn|Birth Certificate|1916}}{{sfn|U.S. Census|1920|p=3A}}{{sfn|Scott|2011}} She was the middle daughter of the family of three girls and three boys: John L., Elizabeth H., Edward K., Frances, Richard B., and Marion M.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=356}}{{sfn|U.S. Census|1930|pp=6A-6B}} Her father was a lawyer, who served as a US Senator from 1923 to 1947.{{sfn|The Independent-Record|1957|p=5}}{{sfn|U.S. Congress|2020}} She attended Mount Holyoke College{{sfn|The Independent-Record|1957|p=5}} and then completed her education at Connecticut College in 1937.{{sfn|The Billings Gazette|1937|p=6}}
Career
Wheeler began her career working for the United States Women's Bureau.{{sfn|Scott|2011}} In the mid-1930s, she served in the La Follette Committee, a government inquiry into anti-union policies used by employers in the interwar period.{{sfn|Scott|2011}}{{sfn|Gall|1982|p=246}} In 1938, she began working for the National Labor Relations Board.{{sfn|The Montana Standard|1938|p=5}} Wheeler was active in the women's poll tax repeal movement and in the early 1940s, served as an executive secretary of the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax. Using her networks, she was able to secure office space for the committee to the railroad union.{{sfn|Podolefsky|1998|p=882}} She married Allen Sayler, a fellow government worker on August 15, 1941, in Sandy Spring, Maryland.{{sfn|The Republican & Herald|1941|p=6}} Her parents refused to attend her wedding because of her and her husband's left-leaning politics.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=356}}
Sayer and her husband first lived in Maryland. They were active in the early civil rights movement. She campaigned to desegregate movie theaters and restaurants in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, and Rockville. Allan promoted interracial education and organized a successful conference for the Elks Lodge in Washington, D.C.{{sfn|The Alabama Tribune|1957}} After she left government service in 1942, Sayler worked for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union, an affiliate of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=440}}{{sfn|UE News|1957|p=3}} She acted as a liaison between unions and their members and government. She also was named to various labor advisory committees of the War Production Board to improve relationships between various industry sectors.{{sfn|UE News|1957|p=3}}
In 1945, Saylor moved to Detroit, Michigan, and worked as a labor organizer.{{sfn|UE News|1957|p=3}} She orchestrated the 1946 two-week strike joined by the workers at the Whyte Electric Company, which made nationwide headlines.{{sfn|The Chicago Tribune|1946|p=5}}{{sfn|The Neosho Daily News|1946|p=1}} She continued working with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America until 1950, when she left because the birth of her first daughter, Diana. Three years later she had a second daughter, Gloria.{{sfn|UE News|1957|p=3}}
In 1955, Sayler was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee and questioned for suspected ties to communism.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|pp=364, 441}} Her father served as her legal counsel and though he did not support McCarthyism, he justified the actions of Joseph McCarthy, which was difficult for his daughter.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=364}} She wanted to refuse her cooperation with the committee, but her father persuaded her to answer their questions and insist that she was not anti-American.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|p=365}}
Death and legacy
Sayler died from a brain tumor at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, on April 27, 1957{{sfn|The Independent-Record|1957|p=5}} Sayler researched and began writing her father's biography in 1946. She was unable to complete the work before her death, but in 1962, Paul F. Healy used her materials as the foundation for his book, Yankee from the West: The Candid, Turbulent Life Story of the Yankee-born U.S. Senator from Montana.{{sfn|Scott|2011}}
References
=Citations=
{{Reflist|30em}}
=Bibliography=
{{Refbegin|30em}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Gall |first1=Gilbert J. |title=Heber Blankenhorn, the La Follette Committee, and the Irony of Industrial Repression |journal=Labor History |date=1982 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=246–253 |doi=10.1080/00236568208584655 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire |issn=0023-656X}}{{subscription required}}
- {{cite book |last=Johnson |first=Marc C. |title=Political Hell-Raiser: The Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FCMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA356 |date=2019 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |location=Norman, Oklahoma |isbn=978-0-8061-6377-2}}
- {{cite journal |last1=Podolefsky |first1=Ronnie L. |title=Illusion of Suffrage: Female Voting Rights and the Women's Poll Tax Repeal Movement after the Nineteenth Amendment |journal=Notre Dame Law Review |date=1998 |volume=73 |issue=3 |url=https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1776&context=ndlr |accessdate=October 28, 2020 |publisher=University of Notre Dame |location=Notre Dame, Indiana |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003185904/https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1776&context=ndlr |archivedate=October 3, 2020 |issn=0745-3515}}
- {{cite web |last1=Scott |first1=Kim Allen |title=Allen and Frances Wheeler Sayler Papers, 1945–1967 |url=http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv25930 |website=Archives West |publisher=Orbis Cascade Alliance |accessdate=November 12, 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009014419/http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv25930 |archivedate=October 9, 2020 |location=Eugene, Oregon |date=August 30, 2011 |url-status=live}}
- {{cite web |author1=U.S. Congress |title=Wheeler, Burton Kendall (1882–1975) |url=https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=w000330 |website=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774–Present |publisher=United States Congress |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030002105/https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=w000330 |archivedate=October 30, 2020 |location=Washington, D.C. |date=2020 |url-status=live}}
- {{cite web |ref={{harvid|U.S. Census|1920}}|author= |title=1920 Census, Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRFC-62P?i=4&cc=1488411&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AM8Q7-G43 |accessdate=November 16, 2020 |date=January 10, 1920 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |page=3A |id=NARA microfilm publication T625, Roll #1262, lines 19–25}}{{subscription required}}
- {{cite web |ref={{harvid|U.S. Census|1930}}|author= |title=1930 Census, Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRCJ-2ZK?i=11&cc=1810731&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXC99-NNZ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |date=April 12, 1930 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=6A–6B |id=NARA microfilm publication T626, Roll #976, lines 49–56}}{{subscription required}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|UE News|1957}}|author= |title=Frances Sayler Dies; Served UE Many Years |url=https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735066251053/viewer#page/2/mode/1up |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117195150/https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735066251053/viewer |archivedate=November 17, 2020 |date=May 13, 1957 |newspaper=UE News |location=New York, New York |page=3}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Independent-Record|1957}}|author= |title=Daughter of Wheelers Dies in East |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63257467/the-independent-record/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |date=May 7, 1957 |newspaper=The Independent-Record |location=Helena, Montana |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Chicago Tribune|1946}}|author= |title=Disagrees with Dad |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63453687/disagrees-with-dad-associated-press/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |agency=Associated Press |date=July 13, 1946 |newspaper=The Chicago Tribune |location=Chicago, Illinois |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Montana Standard|1938}}|author= |title=Frances Wheeler in NLRB Office |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63258011/the-montana-standard/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |date=October 14, 1938 |newspaper=The Montana Standard |location=Butte, Montana |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Republican & Herald|1941}}|author= |title=Marriage of Wheeler |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63257381/marriage-of-wheeler-sayler/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |date=August 29, 1941 |newspaper=The Republican & Herald |location=Pottsville, Pennsylvania |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Alabama Tribune|1957}}|author= |title=Noted Liberal Dies in Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63099986/alabama-tribune/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |agency=Associated Negro Press |date=May 10, 1957 |newspaper=The Alabama Tribune |location=Montgomery, Alabama |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite web |ref={{harvid|Birth Certificate|1916}}|author= |title=State of Montana, Standard Certificate of Birth: Baby Wheeler |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-LB2K-6QK?i=878&cc=1930397&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQKNR-7WZL |accessdate=November 16, 2020 |date=December 19, 1916 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=Department of Health—Bureau of Vital Statistics |location=Helena, Montana |id=File #19461}}{{subscription required}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Neosho Daily News|1946}}|author= |title=What a World! |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63453847/the-neosho-daily-news/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |agency=United Press International |date=July 12, 1946 |newspaper=The Neosho Daily News |location=Neosho, Missouri |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}
- {{cite news |ref={{harvid|The Billings Gazette|1937}}|author= |title=Wheeler's Daughter Opposes Dad's Views |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/63453552/the-billings-gazette/ |accessdate=November 17, 2020 |agency=Associated Press |date=March 18, 1937 |newspaper=The Billings Gazette |location=Billings, Montana |page=6 |via=Newspapers.com}}
{{refend}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sayler, Frances Wheeler}}
Category:People from Butte, Montana
Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni
Category:Connecticut College alumni
Category:United States Department of Labor officials
Category:Activists from Montana
Category:American civil rights activists
Category:American workers' rights activists
Category:United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America people
Category:Women government officials
Category:20th-century American women civil servants
Category:Deaths from brain cancer in the United States
Category:Deaths from cancer in Maryland
Category:American anti-poll tax activists