http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/294900
Published: 05.29.2009
Life stories : Peace activist Schroeder fought for her beliefs
By Kimberly Matas
| "She (Betty Schroeder) believed the country could change, but she believed we needed to get out there and do what we could, whether it was go out there with signs or sing silly songs. Whatever we could." Connie Graves, activist the series This feature chronicles the lives of recently deceased Tucsonans. Some were well-known across the community. Others had an impact on a smaller sphere of friends, family and acquaintances. Many of these people led interesting — and sometimes extraordinary — lives with little or no fanfare. Now you'll hear their stories. On StarNet Did you know Betty Schroeder? Add your remembrance to this article online at azstarnet.com/lifestories and find a collection of photos at azstarnet.com/slideshows |
Betty Schroeder was an angry woman — and she made sure people knew it.
As a member of the
Her protests at Raytheon Missile Systems added two more arrests to her rap sheet.
She drove around
Her general philosophy, said longtime friend Pat Birnie, was: "People are no damned good!"
Yet, it was her deep compassion for people that made Schroeder so determined to make the world a kinder and safer place.
Her mission now is in the hands of others. Schroeder died of cancer May 8. She was 78.
Schroeder was born in
While attending high school, Schroeder got a job as a nursing assistant and made a career of the work.
Her future husband, Gene Schroeder, was an engineering student when they wed. They started their family while still living on campus in student housing. All the while, Betty continued to work.
After her husband graduated, they moved to
"These guys played football on the fields after they tested atomic weapons and they were all told there'd be no harm," Schroeder said in a 2005 article in The Sunday Times Online in the United Kingdom. "These were brilliant engineers — my husband had an IQ of 160 — yet they were out playing in the sand."
Though her husband never faulted the government for the chronic health problems he suffered after leaving New Mexico, Betty Schroeder believed his ailments and his cancer death in the early 1980s were linked to work with radioactive materials, according to the Times article.
Four years before her death, Schroeder developed a chronic lung disease associated with the inhalation of beryllium, a mineral with atomic properties. Schroeder suspected her illness stemmed from washing her husband's work clothes decades earlier, Birnie said.
Schroeder's interest in environmental and social issues began when she was working as a nursing assistant in
Her interest turned to action when she met Birnie in the mid-'80s. The widows decided to pool their finances and share a home and living expenses. Birnie was active in the peace movement and introduced her friend to direct, nonviolent action.
In the Times article, Schroeder said it was her activism — and her occasional stints in jail as a result of her protests — that led to a 20-plus-year estrangement from her four children.
After Schroeder retired, the two women lived in
Schroeder and Birnie joined the local peace movement, protesting outside Davis-Monthan Air Force Base over the use of depleted uranium in weapons, attending vigils to promote peace in the
It was while sitting together in the back of a police van after a 2003 arrest at Raytheon that peace activist Gretchen Nielsen got to know Schroeder and Birnie.
"That was better than tea at the White House any day," Nielsen said. "I was honored to be there with those women."
In the summer of 2005, Schroeder was one of five Raging Grannies — peace activists in their senior years — arrested for trespassing at a military recruitment center in
The women became international media sensations, appearing on NBC's "Today" show, where they sang protest songs, and making headlines in newspapers throughout Europe and as far away as South Africa.
"We went in asking to be sent to
Birnie and Connie Graves also were arrested at the center.
"Betty was a tough lady. She was stubborn. Pretty much unmovable,"
Added Birnie: "Everything she did was with gusto. Everything she did was with her whole heart.
"She felt very strongly about peace and justice issues, but she was a difficult person to get along with because she always spoke her truth," Birnie said.
"She wasn't in this world to make friends, but she had a lot of them."
When Schroeder wasn't planning vigils, protesting war or calling members of Congress, she hiked in the desert with her dogs, toured her
"She was really direct, but it was complemented by the genuine concern and encouragement she would give you," said activist Jack Cohen-Jopa, who received a huge box of food and groceries from Schroeder and Birnie to help ease his recovery after he broke his arm a couple of years ago. "It clearly came through that she was a nurturing and loving person in her personal day-to-day life."
It was that passionate concern for the welfare of others that drove Schroeder to activism.
"She stood by her beliefs,"
Schroeder's life, it seems, was fait accompli, as she told The Times in 2005:
"One thing I'm certain of is, I'll be doing this with my life until they carry me away. That way, the day the missiles start coming over, I can look up to the sky and say: 'By damn, I did all I could.' "
"She (Betty Schroeder) believed the country could change, but she believed we needed to get out there
and do what we could, whether it was go out there with signs or sing silly songs. Whatever we could."
Connie Graves, activist
the series
This feature chronicles the lives of recently deceased Tucsonans. Some were well-known across the community. Others had an impact on a smaller sphere of friends, family and acquaintances. Many of these people led interesting — and sometimes extraordinary — lives with little or no fanfare. Now you'll hear their stories.
On StarNet
Did you know Betty Schroeder? Add your remembrance to this article online at azstarnet.com/lifestories and find a collection of photos at azstarnet.com/slideshows
To suggest someone for Life Stories, contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191. Read more from this reporter at: go.azstarnet.com/lastwrites
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"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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