Oral history interview with Jean A. Eilers [Session 08, Recording 01]

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SR11262_T12S1

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Oral history interview with Jean A. Eilers [Session 08, Recording 01]

Date(s)

  • 2011-12-04 (Creation)

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Audiocassette; 00:31:18

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Biographical history

Jean Anne Eilers was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1940. She attended Seattle University for one year before joining the Society of the Holy Child Jesus convent in Rosemont, Pennsylvania, in 1959. She taught at Catholic schools from 1962 to 1976. She earned a bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College and studied for a master's degree at California State University, Los Angeles. In 1981, she left the convent. The next year, she and Robert Byrne were married; they later had one child. She was a labor paralegal and organizer for United Farm Workers from 1976 to 1981; an organizer for SEIU Local 49 and SEIU Local 503 OPEU, retiring in 2010; and state director of the AFL-CIO from 1994 to 2005.

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Tape 12, Side 1. In the eighth and final interview session, conducted on December 4, 2011, Eilers' daughter, Michela Byrne, discusses her early life as the daughter of a priest and a nun who were labor activists; her education; and her career as a teacher. Eilers' husband, Robert Byrne, discusses his involvement in the labor movement, and talks about leaving the priesthood. Eilers also discusses balancing her career and raising a family.

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Session 5 and portions of session 7 are restricted until 2032. The transcript and digitized audio files have been redacted to reflect the restriction. The remainder of the interview is open for research.

Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

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  • eng

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