Inspiration for movie 'Norma Rae' dies at 68....

[bliss_eternal]

Inspiration for movie ‘Norma Rae’ dies at 68
Labor organizer succumbed to long battle with brain cancer


updated 2 hours, 25 minutes ago
RALEIGH, North Carolina - Crystal Lee Sutton, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants with low pay and poor conditions was dramatized in the film “Norma Rae,” has died. She was 68.

Sutton died Friday in a hospice after a long battle with brain cancer, her son, Jay Jordan, said Monday.

“She fought it as long as she could and she crossed on over to her new life,” he said.

Actress Sally Field portrayed a character based on Sutton in the movie and won a best-actress Academy Award.

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In 1973, Sutton was a 33-year-old mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at J.P. Stevens when a manager fired her for pro-union activity.

In a final act of defiance before police hauled her out, Sutton, who had worked at the plant for 16 years, wrote “UNION” on a piece of cardboard and climbed onto a table on the plant floor. Other employees responded by shutting down their machines.

Union organizers had targeted J.P. Stevens, then the country’s second-largest textile manufacturer, because the industry was deeply entwined in Southern culture and spread across the region’s small towns. However, North Carolina continues to have one of the lowest percentages of unionized workers in the country.

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see more at link (below)

excerpts from:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32842182/ns/business-us_business/?gt1=43001

[ismnotwasm]

1. I loved that movie

I haven't seen it in years. Her story is incredible.


Only 68, so sad.

[bliss_eternal]

2. it helped sally field earn her oscar.

it's #15 on AFI's list of 100 best heroes in films (or heroines).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI's_100_Years%E2%80%A6100_Heroes_and_Villains


death at 68 seems indicative of years of hard labor having taken it's toll, and the stress of being a single parent. :(

link below includes early photo of Crystal Waters (inspiration for film, Norma Rae):
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/14/national/main5310449.shtml

[comtec]

3. She didn;t have to die

the medicine exists but her insurance company denied her.
that is the real crime.
if she had been the opposite, and fomented a major crush of labor she would have been set for life.
how fucking sick is that?

do good, get punished, forgotten, and murdered by the insurance company that you have paid tens of thousands to whe you need it!!!

Sad as it is... she can be our battle cry for one more thing.... strong, single payer!

How many more hero(ine)s have to die before we have a working medical system again?!