Agnes Margaret Studer McCloskey

I was too young to remember anything about my mother's interest in civic life in the late 1930s, though I remember that my parents then had an active social life, going often to the Eugene Assembly Club to dance at the Eugene Hotel. But I do remember that my parents were Roosevelt Democrats; I remember arguing with the neighbor boy in 1940 over that year's presidential contest: Roosevelt vs Wilkie. I must have gotten those views from my parents. And in 1944, my parents got friends together in their living room to plan and raise money for a full-page ad in the local newspaper to support Roosevelt. I remember them complaining that no one locally had then been doing anything for him and someone ought to do something-so they did.

During WWII, my mom first ran a cooperative nursery for working mothers at the Congregational church on 13th and then later a larger kindergarten at 11th and Pearl. In the evenings, she often worked at the Filter Center at the Eugene Armory, which was a defense-related facility. There in the evenings they took reports of planes flying in from various directions, especially the coast, and followed their progress on a big plotting board, as they manually moved the models along on the board. The reports came from spotters at fire towers in the hills for miles away. As the planes flew along, new spotters would report them, identify their type, and their progress would be plotted. Suspicious ones were reported to the Army Air Force, so that fighter planes could be sent up to intercept and even shoot them down if needed. Mom was issued a gas mask which she took there in the evening and brought home afterward.

After the war, in about 1946, Mom led a strike of housewives who were protesting the lifting of wartime, OPA, price controls. Then the price of staples, such as meat, milk, and coffee was suddenly escalating. She begged Sen. Wayne Morse, who they knew, to work to keep the controls on, but he disagreed and she was angry; they thought the merchants were profiteering. The strike got lots of publicity in the local media and lasted for quite some time and made her something of a local personality.

Soon thereafter she became active in the local League of Women Voters, rising to become their local president. In the course of this work, she headed an investigation into how the local county authorities handled juvenile delinquents; their report led to the formation there of the Skipworth Home. They felt that the system at that time was severely wanting.

Before long, she also became active in the local branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and before long she also became the head of that organization in Eugene. I do not remember that she tackled any particular issue with them.

At some time in the late 1940s or early 1950s, both Mom and Dad became very involved in the local county branch of the Democratic Party. They would often attend meetings in the county courthouse where party activists would have furious internal battles over various issues. The Democrats in Oregon were then in a transition from being a minority party that rarely ever won to a party that was beginning to become competitive. Returning veterans who were young lawyers wanted control of the party there and felt it needed new blood. My parents did not disagree so much with them over ideology but felt they were too assertive and demanding.

By 1952, my mother had become vice chair of the Lane County Democratic Central Committee. In the 1952 presidential primary, my mother backed Sen. Estes Kefauver for president, who was running on an anti-corruption platform; I remember being taken to various events where he spoke. She later supported Edith Green of Portland for secretary of state. Finally, at the statewide level Democrats in Oregon began to win major offices in 1954 and 1956, including the position of U. S. Senator and U.S. Representative.

In terms of her professional life, she taught at various elementary schools over the years, teaching third grade. She taught in both public and parochial schools. She concluded her career in teaching at Adams School in west Eugene. In her later years, she was quite involved in the statewide concerns of retired teachers, going to Salem to lobby for their interests a number of times. She was also active in the Shakespeare Society. Back in the 1970s, my parents were also both active in the local Chrysanthemum Society as well.

She was an avid gardener and spent her retirement surrounded by flowers, and family. She was much loved by her children and grandchildren and lived well until 93 years of age.

Written by: Michael McCloskey, her son, Sept. 5, 2009