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Short biography of Mary Skubitz:
Mary Skubitz, later identified as one of the leaders at the December
11th meeting, spoke five languages. She was born in 1887 and came to
America at the age of 3 from Slovenia with her coal miner father,
Andrew Youvan and her mother, Julia. Mary along with her mother was
among those arrested and held on seven hundred and fifty dollars bond
instead of the standard two hundred. Mary kept a journal of the events
surrounding the march.
"There was absolutely no fear in these women’s hearts.
Like the lion they would face and fight anything bare handed - no
weapon of any kind - they would face the militia - their only thought
was something must be done..."
-from Mary Skubitz’s Journal, 12/1921
Short biography of Clemence Degruson:
Clemence DeGruson was born on March 1st 1903 in Roseland Kansas. Her
father was a coal miner and her mother Marie Merciez ran a grocery
store in opposition to the company store there. The store was later
moved to Camp 50 in 1915. Clemence and her mother attended the 1st
meeting of the women marchers in Franklin. The plan was to march on the
mines and barricade them from nonunion workers. The women were to sing
and drum on pit buckets, throw red pepper into the eyes of anyone who
tried to stop them and join hands at the mines entrance. Marie
volunteered to supply the red pepper from her store. Later Clemence’s
son, Gene, Curator and Director of the Special Collections Library at
Pittsburg State University, wrote of his mother’s experience in the
poem entitled "Alien Women."
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