Jaki Jean & Edith Bunker

When I read Jean Stapleton’s obituary, I learned something I never knew about her.

I knew she was an accomplished actress, that her career spanned more than her time as Edith Bunker on “All in the Family.”

What I did not know about Jean Stapleton until she died was that she & I once shared a moment in space & time.  

The year was 1977. 

Jean Stapleton was one of 45 International Women’s Year commissioners to attend the National Women’s Conference in Houston.  She shared that stage with other fierce women:  Maya Angelou, Roslyn Carter, Betty Frieden, Betty Ford, Gloria Steinem, Lady Bird Johnson, Bella Azbug, Ann Richards, Sissy Farenthold, Coretta Scott King.  And over 2,000 delegates from the 50 states.

The Conference is embedded in my memory, not for the 25 resolutions passed, all of which addressed issues important to women not just in 1977 or 2013, but throughout the ages.  

 

Arts and humanities, Battered women, Business, Child Abuse, Child Care, Credit, Disabled Women, Education, Elective & Appointed Offices, Employment, Equal Rights Amendment, Health, Homemakers, Insurance, International Affairs, Media, Minority Women, Offenders, Older Women, Rape, Reproductive Freedom,  Rural Women, Sexual Preference, Statistics, Women Welfare & Poverty . . .

In 1977, I did not know that the National Women’s Conference existed.  And I sure as hell did not know it was going on in downtown Houston.  I was walking from a building that no longer exists, down Lamar Street to McKinney & the Julia Ideson Library.

It was November & the city was filled with birds.  Birds on lines, birds in trees, birds on buildings.  Birds singing, birds talking, birds vying fir attention.

And the streets of downtown Houston were filled with nests of women.

Women talking, women debating, women supporting, women vying for attention.

As I walked to the Julia Ideson Library, I was struck by the sounds of the birds & the women.

Oblivious to the existence or the importance of the National Women's Conference, I knew something important was happening.  If only to me.

Because at that moment, listening to the birds & the women, I knew I had a voice & that I could soar.

After Jean Stapelton left her role as Edith Bunker, she told the Asoociated Press in 1979:

I am not constituted as an actress to remain in the same role.  

That day in 1977, I knew I was not constituted as a woman to remain in the same role for all time.  

I understood that my roles could, & should, change as I explored & learned & grew.  

All these days & years later, I am still changing, exploring, learning & growing.  

Because one day, in 1977, I listened to the voices of the birds & women around me, telling me to

Soar.