| APRIL 13, 2011 -- This fall, Ellington native Isabelle Kelley will make history once again, this time as an inductee to the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
As the principal author of the Food Stamp Act of 1964, Kelley will share the honor with the Denise L. Nappier, the first African American woman in the United States to be elected State Treasurer and first in Connecticut elected to statewide office, and the Patricia M. Wald, the first woman judge to sit on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The three are being recognized as women of influence who have contributed to social change.
Kelley, who died November 29, 1997, was born July 17, 1917 in Ellington and raised in Simsbury. She graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1938 with a degree in agricultural economics, completed her graduate work in food economics at Iowa State University and was hired by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in 1940.
"Most of my aunt's 33-year career was involved with working on programs with feeding the hungry," said Kelley's nephew, Robert Moran, who over the years sought support for his aunt's induction into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.
In a letter of support for her induction Moran wrote that Kelley had spent her entire adult life committed to helping the hungry and needy of this country and that thanks to the inception of the Food Stamp Program and her efforts, tens of millions of men, women, and children have staved off hunger.
As a child of the depression, Moran said his aunt was very much aware of the struggles families were going through during those times simply to put food on the table.
"She was a lovely, lovely lady, who couldn't wrap her arms around the concept that in the richest country in the world, there were still children who went to bed hungry," he said.
In the early years of her career, Kelley focused on establishing free and reduced school lunches and other nutrition programs for needy families. She received the Department of Agriculture's Superior Honor Award for her work in initiating the Penny Milk Program. In 1961, during the Kennedy Administration, she was one of four appointees to a task force to design a food stamp program, of which she was the principal author. The following year, the then Secretary of Agriculture, Orville Freeman, appointed her to be the first national director of the Food Stamp Program, the first woman to become the director of a national action program in the Department of Agriculture. By the time of her retirement in 1973, she had advanced to the post of Assistant Deputy Administrator for Program Operations with the Department of Agriculture and coordinated policy for all Food Nutrition Service programs and field operations.
Moran described his aunt as a social liberal, but fiscal conservative who worked well under multiple administrations starting first with Franklin D. Roosevelt and retiring under the Nixon administration.
"A lot of women got their start because of her," Moran sad. "She firmly believed the people she hired had to be the best."
Under Kelley's leadership, the Food Stamp Program went into an expansion mode in the late 1960's and she hired a fair number of women including Alberta Frost and Bonny O'Neill, both of whom remember Kelley well.
"We were all in awe of [Kelley]. She was one of the few female role models at the time," Frost said. "She was in a non-traditional job and opened many young women's eyes to the idea that they needn't be as constrained in their career or academic choices as they thought."
"It was a heady time," O'Neill said. "[Kelley] was a career bureaucrat dealing directly with Secretary Freeman."
O'Neill said the initial food stamp program that came out of the task force was established as a pilot that ran from 1961 to 1964, after which Kelley joined Freeman when he testified before the Senate and House to ask that the program be made permanent.
"The program she designed and implemented is essentially the same program that is run today with a few modifications," O'Neill said.
"She was not so much a mentor than she was a role model. She was incredibly demanding, with an impeccable work ethic," said O'Neill.
O'Neill said that by the time Kelley was appointed to the 1961 task force, Kelley already had some experience with Food Stamp programs, as she was involved earlier in her career in evaluating a short term program that operated from 1939 through 1943 and was later suspended. She said Kelley wanted the new program to address two purposes: surplus agriculture and income maintenance. For this reason it was very important to get a handle on what level income determined eligibility in the program, she thought.
"Her background as an economist played into everything she did," said O'Neill, adding that Kelley's role as national director of the Food Stamp Program required her to work with grocers, banks, state and regional offices, as well as the federal reserve, and to oversee a huge number of government dollars.
Frost said she admired Kelley, as she never stepped back from criticisms of the Food Stamp Program. She recalled one particularly difficult time when people camped out on the mall and demonstrated for better treatment of the poor.
"Some people were very critical of the Food Stamp Program and it came under attack, but even though she had invested a lot of time and effort in it and was obviously hurt by some comments, she stayed open, listened, and worked hard to talk to political decision-makers about how to make things better," said Frost.
"She had people's trust, regardless of whether they were Democrats or Republicans, and she always made clear with us that we were working for elected officials and needed to be respectful of that," Frost said.
Although she retired officially in 1973, Kelley remained active and was often invited back to give talks on food nutrition programs and educate newcomers on the history of federal food programs.
Even if it was a social visit, O'Neill said one never went to see her unprepared, as Kelley was always up on the latest developments in the Food Nutrition Service. Frost added that Kelley had a "fabulous instinct about how government worked even long after she left."
In addition, in 1987, Kelley was one of 38 women selected by Radcliffe College's Schlesinger Library to participate in its Federal Government Program to record autobiographical memoirs of women who held significant federal government positions in the mid-20th century.
A modest woman, Moran said his aunt never bragged about her work for the government and family did not even know about most of her accomplishments until after her death.
Frost recalled an anecdote that summed up Kelley's attitude. At one time a civil rights director for the Food and Nutrition Service, Frost said she invited Kelley, who was by then retired, to speak at a women's month celebration.
“We were taking questions, and someone in the audience posted a question, more like a statement, saying, ‘Surely, you must have felt discriminated against as a woman during your career,’” Frost said.
In her response, Kelley put things in perspective and said that during her years in government she saw African-Americans having to eat in separate cafeterias, and realized then that she didn't have anything to complain about as a woman.
"The room got very quiet then. It was a wonderful, thoughtful observation," said Frost.
"We respected, admired, and, yes, even envied her because she got to work on important programs when they were actually formed. She got to exercise a lot of creativity, and the fact that those programs continue today in similar form--it's amazing," Frost said.
Kelley will be inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame on Oct. 25 at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. |
