Newsletter – December 27, 2024
Last week I mentioned going to see Suffs on Broadway as our early Christmas present to the whole family. Years ago, my sister-in-law had suggested that experiences were great gifts for the holidays because of the special memories they created. She was so right!
The title of the musical comes from the suffragists—not suffragettes, which has a diminutive suffix meaning “lesser.” These women fought long and hard for women’s right to vote, enduring everything from simple political posturing to outright torture in the form of forced feeding. These heroes include familiar names, like Carrie Chapman Catt and Ida B. Wells, as well as many other women that deserve equal recognition. They get that in this musical.
Suffs won Tony Awards this year for “Best Book of a Musical” and “Best Original Score” and, like Hamilton, it was steeped in historical accuracy, an epic scope, and dynamic characters. It closes on Broadway at the beginning of January to prepare for the national tour. I urge you to see it when it arrives in your neck of the woods. Learn more about it at suffsmusical.com. (National tour not yet posted.)
So what about that campaign button at the top of the newsletter? That was from my mom’s first run for mayor and was given to me recently by someone who’d worked on her early campaigns. Mayor Margerum was inaugurated in January of 1980 and would go on to serve six terms before retiring in 2004.
It’s incredible to think that my mother was born only ten years after women were granted the right to vote in the US. She earned her Master’s Degree in Political Science in 1979 and became the first woman mayor of my home town within a year. Today the City Hall is named after her. I wish she could have seen Suffs, I think it would have meant a lot to her.
My mother also donned the costume of Helen Gouger, a local suffragist and member of the temperance movement who sued the county for denying her the right to vote. My mother would visit schools in character and talk to the students about the 19th Amendment and women’s suffrage.
My daughter later portrayed her grandmother in a short one woman play she created in grad school. My mother would have liked to see that, too.
It’s just a few days until New Years Eve and I usually don’t bother with resolutions, but this time I have a very specific goal—retraining myself to speak. I’ll tell you about it next week.
TTFN
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Eric Margerum 