Culture
Phyllis Schlafly: Conservative Icon

Phyllis Schlafly: Conservative Icon

One of the most influential people in the conservative movement, Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of Eagle Forum, passed away in early September, but her legacy will live on. ...
John F. McManus

Phyllis Schlafly, aptly labeled by friend and foe as “the first lady of the conservative movement,” succumbed to cancer on September 5 at her home in Ladue, Missouri. She had reached age 92. Known well by subscribers to The New American and members of The John Birch Society, her long career as a prominent leader of conservative and anti-communist causes set her apart from the many liberals and internationalists who grudgingly acknowledged her tenacity and ability to stand in the way of their attempts to undo America.

Born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart on August 15, 1924, she was the daughter of Ernest and Odile Stewart, who raised her in their St. Louis home. She attended Maryville College in Saint Louis, but transferred to that city’s Washington University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in only three years. Self-financing her education during the World War II years, she worked at an ammunition plant, where her job included test-firing the ammunition in machine guns. Off to Massachusetts in 1944, she earned a degree in political science (1945) at Radcliffe College, a female college associated with Harvard that was later absorbed by the university. Originally a supporter of establishment Republicans, such as the party’s presidential candidates Wendell Willkie and Thomas Dewey in the 1940s, she also favored the United Nations and thought the United States benefited from trade pacts such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which morphed into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995. But her devotion to establishment Republicans, the United Nations, dangerous trade pacts (including the WTO), and other initiatives favored by liberals and internationalists soon faded. Early in her career, she became a leading opponent of all of them.

After gaining her 1945 political science degree at Radcliffe, Phyllis moved to Washington in hopes of securing a government job. Failing to find a place within the bureaucratic maze, she gained employment with the American Enterprise Association, eventually renamed the American Enterprise Institute. Back to St. Louis in 1946, she worked in the successful congressional campaign of Republican Claude Bakewell. From there, she took a job as a researcher at a St. Louis bank, where one of her tasks found her writing commentaries about current events. Though the bank distributed her work throughout the St. Louis area, her name never appeared as its author.

This fantastic article is for subscribers only.
Login
Lost Password?

JBS Member or ShopJBS.org Customer?

Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account username and password or use that login to subscribe.

The New American Digital Subscription The New American Digital Subscription Subscribe Now
Use code SUB25 at check out
  • 24 Issues Per Year
  • Digital Edition Access
  • Exclusive Subscriber Content
  • Audio provided for all articles
  • Unlimited access to past issues
  • Cancel anytime.
  • Renews automatically
The New American Print+Digital Subscription The New American Print+Digital Subscription Subscribe Now
Use code SUB25 at check out
  • 24 Issues Per Year
  • Print edition delivery (USA)
    *Available Outside USA
  • Digital Edition Access
  • Exclusive Subscriber Content
  • Audio provided for all articles
  • Unlimited access to past issues
  • Cancel anytime.
  • Renews automatically