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Crystal Lee Sutton - inspiration for "Norma Rae" has died

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Dennis Donovan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 06:00 AM
Original message
Crystal Lee Sutton - inspiration for "Norma Rae" has died
Edited on Sat Sep-12-09 06:01 AM by Dennis Donovan
http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/rae-28060-burlington-sutton.html

Sutton, inspiration of 'Norma Rae' and Burlington resident, dead at 68

September 11, 2009 4:31 PM
Times-News

Times-News

Crystal Lee Sutton, the Burlington resident and former textile mill worker who tirelessly campaigned for workers’ rights and inspired an Oscar-winning film, died Friday.

Formerly known as Crystal Lee Jordan, Sutton died at the Hospice Home of Burlington. She was 68.

In 1975, New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote “Crystal Lee, A Woman of Inheritance,” a book that chronicles Sutton’s life and efforts to unionize employees of the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids in the early 1970s. That story was later adapted into the 1979 film “Norma Rae.”

Sally Field portrayed Sutton and won her first Academy Award.

“Crystal Lee Sutton was a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally,” Field said in a statement Friday. “Portraying Crystal Lee in ‘Norma Rae,’ however loosely based, not only elevated me as an actress, but as a human being.”

More at link...


Thank you Crystal Lee!!:patriot:
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imdjh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 06:33 AM
Response to Original message
1. knr
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MrsBrady Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 07:18 AM
Response to Original message
2. a real fighter for the worker.
I had read a few months ago that she had cancer.
I'm sorry to hear of her passing.
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 07:52 AM
Response to Original message
3. PHOTOS:


Eli Zivkovich and Crystal Lee Sutton spent several years handing out fliers and organizing the workers before the union won the right to represent the workers.




Postcard showing Crystal Lee Sutton from her personal collection.




Crystal Sutton with actress Sally Field who played Norma Rae, at a Hollywood labor benefit.




Sutton with activist Gloria Steinem




Leslie Thompson, President Bill Clinton and Crystal Lee Sutton. Taken April 2008. Burlington , NC. Crystal Lee Sutton meet with President Clinton.




Still from the motion picture "Norma Rae," 1979




Poster for the motion picture "Norma Rae," 1979
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Dennis Donovan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 08:11 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. GREAT pics! Thanks, Hissyspit!
:hi:
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Chorophyll Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:09 AM
Response to Reply #3
8. Inspirational photos!
Thank you, Hissyspit!
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xchrom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 08:17 AM
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5. thank you from myself as well. nt
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Alameda Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 09:24 AM
Response to Original message
6. She was only 68, and in a hospice. What did she die of?
Do you or does anyone here know what happened to that textile mill?
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:07 AM
Response to Reply #6
7. Cancer
Edited on Sat Sep-12-09 11:18 AM by Hissyspit
Meningioma - central nervous system.

This happened in the 1990s: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n19_v87/ai_16717094/

J.P. Stevens signed a contract with the ACTWU at the Roanoke Rapids plant AFTER the movie came out.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:11 AM
Response to Reply #7
9. Was it work related?
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:21 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. No one really knows what causes cancer of the meninges.
It could be environmental, it could be both.
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. What is the meninges?
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Hissyspit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 12:48 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Membranes surrounding brain and spinal cord - central nervous system
As in meningitis.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:11 AM
Response to Original message
10. Vaya con Dios, Mrs. Sutton. You certainly fought the good fight in this life..
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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-12-09 11:32 AM
Response to Original message
12. What a great lady. She will be missed.
People like her are an inspiration to people like me. I saw the movie at a fairly young age and it saddened me to see the rough conditions that so many people labor in and the toughness to take an unjustly unpopular stand was inspiring.

Please make comments on the news site to refute/nicely smack down the anti-union doofii that will likely start making teabagger comments.

Thanks.
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