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Show MOUNTAIN WESTERN Pree : Gr POL A nybody who thinks one person ‘ant make a difference has never met Frances Farley. As the only woman member of the Utah State Senate in the 1970s and 1980s, Frances Farley was a voice in the wilderness for women’s issues, as well as progressive ideas in the social arena, like removing sales tax from food. And it was Frances Farley’s run for Congress in 1982 and again in 1984 that further opened elective politics to Utah women, paving the way for Karen Shepherd and, somewhat ironically, for people like Enid Greene Waldholtz. But perhaps her biggest contribution was the leadership role Frances took on in 1979 to stop the gigantic MX Missile project from being installed in Utah and Nevada. The MX proposal would have placed 2,300 missiles, each with 10 nuclear warheads, on a_ so-called racetrack in the western one-third of Utah and eastern third of Nevada. The “Hide and Seek” basing mode would have shuttled the missiles along thousands of miles of rail track the length of the state and hidden them among thousands of hardened silos in a nuclear shell game. “Someone told me, “There is nothing you can do to stop it, Frances. But I knew if people understood the enormity of it and that it was going to destroy our WOMAN Wie ss TATES WOMAN A-YOLCE IN THE ITICAL WILDERNESS beautiful deserts, it wouldn’t happen: The gling later, Gov Scott Matheson reversed his decision to invite the Air Force and the MX would have notched up the arms race and made Utah and Nevada the Soviet’s number one strategic MX to Inc. Environmental Planning ’e Large and Small Site Design e Project Master Planning 1976-1990 ¢ Helped remove sexist language from the Utah Code in 19 * Sponsored The LDS Church followed suit. The MX was defeated Swaner Landscape Architecture ¢ Custom Residential Design e Drought Tolerant Design Frances Farley Utah State Senate, * Helped form the Utah Women’s Politcal Gaucus in 1972. Utah target. But Frances located To those of an Air Force us who believe maps; Of. Ethe one person giant missile can’t make a system and cific remic es, smuggled it to Frances says, Frances Farley at bome Salt Lake ‘City don't be silly newspapers. The map and the enor“There is always something you can mity of the project stunned the pubdo, if you care.” ; Now, at 71, Frances says her lic. political days are behind her. The Frances Farley’s quest to stop the most important thing these days is MX blossomed. her daily walk with her husband of Soon, former members of the +8 years, Eugene. Now she has time Joint Chiefs of Staff and other retired to appreciate things, like afternoon military leaders had joined the moveshadows and toddlers tripping down ment. An MX Information Center the sidewalk. sprung up, thanks to Frances and But she recalls with some satisseveral local Protestant Church faction her days as the only female, groups. and a Democrat at that, in the Utah “J think you could call me an Senate — dominated by Mormon activist,” Frances says from a commen, who were mostly conservative fortable chair in her Salt Lake City Republicans. home. “I don’t sit around and weep “It didn’t bother me being the about things, I just say, I'll go see.” only woman, because I was very fond Three years and a lot of wran- Socwell Architecture © Custom Residential ¢ Commercial ¢ Institutional SteenY, TIMES i a WASATCH ed on the law mandatory age in that eliminat retirement based 1979 * Leadership of referendum to put removal of sales tax from food on the ballot in 1980. e Successfully sponsorsed education bill in 1988. * Successfully Fair Housing sponsored statute © Successfully law to cases, of men,” AIDS in Utah's 1989. sponsorsed redefine consent Utah in rape 1989. she says with a pert smile “You have to make alliances when you are in a body like that. You can’t stay on your own side of the aisle when you are in the minority.” And she was successful accomplishing many things on her agenda. She brought into focus for the State Legislature, many important social issues, from discrimination to housing. “So few people think they have power. But it’s amazing what you can do, if you want to change thing,” she says. @ some- |
