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KATE SWIFT - Co-author (with Casey Miller) of Handbook of Nonsexist Writing Dies at age 87.
At 5:40 AM on Saturday, May 7, 2011, we lost an early pioneer in the Women's Movement, a Feminist Veteran, an author/editor, photographer, mentor and friend. Barbara 'Kate' Swift of East Haddam, CT gently gave up her battle with cancer and left this earth much in the same way she lived - in total control, and with an unmistakable elegance.
In the early 70's, Kate worked, as per Elizabeth Isele, "to raise editorial questions that shook the foundations of standard English language usage as we had known it. What began with her "simple" copy-editing assignment, developed over a period of years into a ground-breaking essay for MS magazine, an original article for the New York Times Magazine, and consequently developed into two unique books on gender-equality in language."
Kate and her partner Casey Miller quietly worked out of view of the nay-sayers, raising issues that needed to be addressed about how our language shaped culture and how culture shaped language -- both to the oppression and abasement of women. Kate and Casey questioned the sexist nature of accepted English usage; and their work was - and still is - something that has altered our complacent perception of language as it has harbored the 'continual humiliation of half of the world.' (New York Times Book Review, Sunday, July 4th, 1976)
NO SWIFT JOURNEY
to Kate, with love from Gina Walsh (granddaughter)
Two weeks ago
today
we brought you in to die.
Definite, unwavering, non-apologetic,
you wanted what you wanted
and didn't take 'no' for an answer.
You had a time-frame in your mind,
a reason for your decision -
it was so much like all of the previous ones
in your life: the decisions
of who you were,
what was right and fair,
whom you believed in and championed,
the people you loved, and
those you didn't.
This time you're fighting
for what you want and deserve,
but the battle is bigger and longer
than you
had imagined.
Two weeks ago
today
we brought you in
and have watched
as you've slowly slipped away
in your uninterrupted journey
toward forever.
Whether striding along Main Street in East Haddam, captaining her skiff Daisy on the Kennebec, riding the bus down to Washington to march and fight for women's rights, or sharing martini's on her porch at Eastward, Kate had the undeniably open and loving, affirming and sensible demeanor of one who was fully at peace with herself - an enviable mien, at any age, position or sex.
Thank you Kate, for your friendship and love and the times we spent together.The world is a poorer place without you.
Contact: Gina Walsh, East Haddam, CT ginawalsh@gmail.com
Comments: Jacqui Ceballos jcvfa@aol.com
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