Hero's: RGB

A Wordsketch by Michael Easterling

11/18/20

How could the death of a stooped 87 year old woman

have such an effect on so many?

Her bent body had become so familiar

not only to old timers 

but to baby boomers and millennials as well.

College students wore sweatshirts with her face on them calling her NOTORIOUS!

She battled colon cancer in 1999,

pancreatic cancer in 2009 and lung cancer in 2018.

It seemed like nothing could stop her.

Then little RBG said  goodbye.

Now she was always a Brilliant Student:

graduating number one in her class at Cornell;

an academic star at Harvard Law School;

graduating number one in her class at Columbia Law.

She Broke Barriers:

one of five women at Harvard Law  school in a class of 500 men;

the first woman on the Harvard Law Review;

the first women elected to the Columbia Review at Columbia;

the first tenured female professor at Columbia;

the 2nd female Justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

Nothing seemed to Discourage her:

at Harvard Law School the Dean frowned on her,

telling her she shouldn't be taking a slot meant only for a man;

after Law School no law firm in New York would hire her;

she was recommended for a clerk position 

on the Supreme Court and was not even interviewed;

to make ends meet she finally took a job as a typist.

She was Tireless—her  Work Ethic was legendary.

While at Harvard her husband Marty got cancer—

he had several surgeries and aggressive radiation.

Later Marty wrote of RBG

“So that left Ruth with a sick husband , a three year old, the Law Review, classes to attend and feeding me. Ruth would start studying at 2 am for classes the next day.”

As a judge and Justice RBG’s MO was to work fifteen hour days.

She was a Warrior for Gender Equality.

While teaching at Rutgers she began working 

with the Civil Liberties Union on gender discrimination.

She continued this after she became a professor at Columbia.

In the !970’s she won six land-mark cases in the Supreme Court.

Frontiera vs Richardson (1972)

Striking down laws discriminating against female service members.

Kahn vs Shevn (1974)

Striking down laws relating to widowers and property taxation.

Weinberger vs Weisenfeld (1974)

Gender based distinctions and SS benefits for widowers.

Edwards vs Healy (1974)

Relating to foreign ship owners and labor unions.

Califano vs Goldfarb (1976)

Striking down laws denying benefits to widowers.

Duren vs Missouri (1978)

Striking down state laws discriminating against women

In 1980 she was appointed to the US Court of Appeals in DC by President Jimmy Carter and

in !993 she was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton.

At the Court she was a tireless Champion for Women’s Rights.

She wrote the majority opinion in the US vs Virginia  holding that qualified women could not be denied admission to VMI.

She dissented in the Ledbetter vs Goodyear Tire Case about female workers being paid much less than male counterparts.

She worked with President Obama as he signed the Ledbetter Fair Play Act of 2009.

Back to the question.

Why did RGB’s death have such a deep effect on so many?

Of course we could point to all of her strengths and successes.

But maybe the main reason is that she was so REMARKABLY HUMAN.

She was born during the Depression.

Her father was a simple merchant and mother was a garment worker.

They lived in a low income working class neighborhood.

They lived in Brooklyn, the home of Flatbush Avenue, the Dodgers, the Naval Shipyard and Coney Island.

In high school she was a baton twirler in the marching band.

In college she fell head over heals in love with Marty Ginsberg.

While teaching at Rutgers she wore her mother in law’s oversize clothes to hide her pregnancy not wanting to jeopardize her employment.

She loved Shakespeare.

She loved Opera. Beautiful music could move her to tears.

She was shy and retiring but was capable of unrestrained laughter.

She loved exercise. Went to the gym regularly. Had a personal trainer.

She attended Addas Israel Synagogue on Connecticut Avenue.

She argued with opponents but didn’t hold grudges.

She was a staunch liberal—-Anthony Scalia was a staunch conservative—-they battled in Court— went to the opera together.

After he died she said:  “He was a great jurist with captivating brilliance and wit. We were best buddies.”

She broke tradition and wore a necklace with her robe in Court.

She fell asleep at the 2015 State of the Union, later admitting she was “not entirely sober. At dinner the wine was just too good to resist.”

She loved Marty deeply and it was entirely mutual. Before Marty died he wrote this to her: “You are my life —the only one I have ever loved.”

And so, on December 18, 2020 the notorious RBG was gone.

The brilliant courageous jurist was gone.

The stooped feminist icon, so remarkably human, was gone.

The little baton twirler from Brooklyn was gone.

But RBG will never be forgotten.