This collection includes four interviews detailing the life and political career of Jeannette Rankin. The interviews were conducted in 1980 by Helen Bonner, a University of Ohio graduate, as research for her screenplay, A Higher Loyalty: The Jeannette Rankin Story. The interviewees include: former Montana legislators Thomas Haines and Winfield Page; Rankin’s former press secretary Belle Winestine; and Vivian Halinan, former president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. They discuss Rankin’s involvement with the women’s suffrage movement and Montana politics from the 1920s to the 1950s. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 104 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 4 interviews.
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Belle Winestine Interview, July 14, 1980
Belle Winestine
Belle Winestine reminisces on the years she and Jeannette Rankin spent working for women's suffrage in Montana and her experience giving speeches on the street in favor of a woman’s right to vote. Winestine recalls how she quit her job as a reporter and went ... Read More
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Tom Haines Interview, July 8, 1980
Tom Haines
Former Montana legislator Tom Haines recalls interactions with Jeannette Rankin and her brother Wellington Rankin throughout his political career, during which he served 11 consecutive terms (1950-1974). Haines talks about Jeannette Rankin’s tenacity in pursuing votes on the campaign trail. He then discusses Wellington Rankin, ... Read More
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Vivian Halinan Interview, July 16, 1980
Vivian Halinan
Vivian Halinan describes traveling with her friend, Jeannette Rankin, to Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) in 1968 when they were both members of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Halinan talks about Rankin’s non-political interests and activities, noting that Rankin was not the ... Read More
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Winfield Page Interview, July 9, 1980
Winfield Page
Winfield Page discusses his relationship with the Rankin family, most notably Jeannette Rankin and Wellington Rankin, as well as his own involvement in Montana politics from the 1920s to the post-World War Two period. Page, who served in the Montana Legislature from 1943 to 1961, ... Read More