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Article: United Around Mother Jones; Illinois Town Remembers Worker Rights Advocate
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 5, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Nine years after Margaret Orner first donned spectacles and a long
black dress to impersonate famed labor crusader Mother Jones, she's
gotten used to the questions and curious stares.
But that doesn't happen in this sleepy town, a place Mother Jones
(whose real name was Mary Harris Jones) never lived, but where she
spends eternity in a union-owned cemetery.
A 22-foot granite obelisk rises from the graveyard tucked between
cornfields to mark the tomb of an activist who was both reviled and
revered.
"When you go to Mount Olive, it's like she died a month ago. She's
so loved," says Orner, who spent three days here in costume at the
town's inaugural Mother Jones Festival. "I never had my picture ...