Schlafly told the Associated Press in 2007 that perhaps her greatest legacy was the Eagle Forum, which she founded in 1972.
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Donald T Critchlow, author of a biography of Phyllis Schlafly, said that defeating the ERA helped to usher in a new conservative era in USA politics, paving the way for Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980.
Schlafly first gained widespread notoriety through her book, “A Choice, Not an Echo”, a call to arms for conservatives and an argument for the 1964 Republican candidacy of Barry Goldwater.
Schlafly earned a bachelor of arts degree from Washington University in 1944, a masters from Radcliffe College in 1945 and a law degree from Washington University in 1978.
She was proceeded in death by her husband, Fred and survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. “She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those va”.
“Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and articulate voice for common sense and traditional values”.
She died on the day before publication of a book she co-wrote with me and Ed Martin, advocating for Trump’s candidacy. As a pro-life visionary, her contribution to empowering women to choose life will continue to impact future generations, including many who may not have been born absent her leadership. Funeral arrangements are still pending. Her death was confirmed by the Eagle Forum, the Missouri-based advocacy organization she led.
Phyllis Schlafly is a lawyer, conservative political analyst and author of 20 books. “Now we have a guy who is going to lead us to victory!”
In July, she attended the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Mike Huckabee, who ran against Trump for this year’s nomination, said Schlafly changed his life. “I’m proud to have stood alongside her for faith, family and freedom”.
One of her main arguments against the ERA – along with her beliefs that it would lead to gay marriage, and make it more hard for women to obtain custody in divorce cases – was that it eliminated the men-only draft requirement, and feared it would lead to women joining combat.
Her appeal to Evangelicals in the South “was critical to a conservative ascendancy that lasted until Obama’s election in 2008”, Critchlow said.
“Attacks on the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman come from the gay lobby seeking social recognition of their lifestyle”, she once claimed. She opposed same-sex marriage, abortion, loosening border restrictions, and feminism. “Frankly, she was smarter and tougher than the liberals she fought and conquered so joyously”. Without her unwavering commitment, the Equal Rights Amendment would have been ratified 35 years ago – with all of its implications for enshrining abortion as a constitutional right.
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This was despite her son, John, who worked for her, coming out in 1992.
