In a statement posted on its website Monday afternoon, the Eagle Forum said Schlafly died at her home in St. Louis surrounded by family members.
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After defeating the ERA, Schlafly renamed Stop ERA the Eagle Forum and worked to make the Republican Party and the nation more socially conservative.
Schlafly had been activist since the early Cold War era, but gained national prominence by leading traditional-religious women in the movement against the Equal Rights Amendment.
“In Phyllis Schlafly, America had a true hero: a woman who never shied away from her convictions and was an unabashed supporter of individual freedom and opportunity”. Although much maligned by feminists, gays and other elements of the progressive coalition, she was a powerful force in American politics, and she leaves a big hole to be filled on the American Right.
In the 1960s, her self-published book, “A Choice not an Echo”, sold more than three million copies and helped plant the seeds for a conservative revival in the 1980s under Reagan. Her legacy and name, however, will forever remain associated with the eventual defeat of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have barred gender-based discrimination in federal and state laws.
Her joy in life was evident to all through her smile and wit.
In addition to her children, Schlafly is survived by 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Schlafly backed Trump at a rally in Missouri before that state’s primary after he promised her to support the “most conservative platform we’ve ever had”, according to Eagle Forum President Ed Martin. She single handedly killed it in the 1970s by appealing to primal fears over unisex bathrooms and women in combat, issues that four decades later continue to resonate politically. It did not change her opinion of gay rights, though.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, was a longtime friend of Mrs. Schlafly, who spoke at the annual SFLA national conferences and who was a mentor to Ms. Hawkins as well.
As CNN reports, the death of Phyllis Schlafly was confirmed on Monday evening by her “advocacy organization”, the Eagle Forum.
She also apparently had some Brock Turner-ish views on campus rape and who the real victims of college sexual assault actually are. We honor Phyllis for the lessons that she taught us all. She also authored almost two dozen books and wrote a syndicated weekly column.
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“She was brilliant, tough, tenacious, and driven by absolute adherence to principle and not to personalities”.
