Fran Buss

I was raised in Dubuque, Iowa, the daughter of a radio engineer. I became a feminist in Colorado in 1971 and founded a Women's Crisis and Information Center that eventually became a rape and battered women's shelter, one of the first in the nation. I went to seminary and was ordained in 1976, then began my subsequent career as an oral historian, specializing in oral histories of poor and working class women, especially women activists. I received my PhD in women's history in 1995. I won the first Catherine Prelinger Prize from the Coordinating Council for Women in History for outstanding contributions to the field of Women's History in 1998. I have a collection of oral histories in seven research libraries. I also have written or edited five books, including "The Moisture of the Earth: Mary Robinson, a Civil Rights and Textile Union Activist," to be published in April 2009.