Phyllis Schlafly is interviewed while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington, Friday, Feb. 19, 2010.

Associated Press</s>Phyllis Schlafly, the US conservative icon and grass-roots activist for traditional family roles who led the successful campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday. She was 92.

"Today, Phyllis Schlafly passed away in the presence of her family at her home in St. Louis, Missouri," the Eagle Forum, the conservative interest group she founded, said in a statement posted on its website.

A deeply polarizing figure for decades, the constitutional lawyer campaigned against communism, abortion rights and, most famously, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which died after it was already passed by both houses of Congress in 1972 and ratified by 35 of the required 38 states.

"Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and the 'kingmakers' on behalf of America's workers and families," Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump -- whom she had endorsed -- said in a statement Monday night.

The Eagle Forum called Schlafly an "iconic​ American​ leader​ whose love for America was surpassed only by her love of God and her family​​" whose focus "from her earliest days until her final ones was​ protecting ​the​ ​family, which she understood as the building block of life."

Schlafly's critics liked to point out that being editor of a monthly newsletter, author of more than 20 books and a regular public speaker didn't exactly fit the self-described housewife's stated view that women's roles were as full-time mothers and wives.

The Radcliffe graduate who married a member of a wealthy Illinois family came to prominence in the 1960s with her self-published book "A Choice, Not an Echo," supporting the presidential campaign of senator Barry Goldwater, who helped lay the future foundations of an increasingly hardline Republican Party.

Schlafly's campaign against the ERA -- which would have expanded women's rights by outlawing gender-based distinctions in federal and state laws -- pitted her against Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and other feminist icons.

"First of all, I want to thank my husband, Fred, for letting me come," she liked to announce at anti-ERA rallies. "I always like to say that, because it makes the liberals so mad."

She argued the ERA would end women's privileges, including dependent benefits under Social Security, separate public bathrooms and exemption from the draft.

"Since the women are the ones who bear the babies and there's nothing we can do about that," she argued in 1973, "our laws and customs then make it the financial obligation of the husband to provide the support."

During one debate, Friedan said Schlafly should be burned at the stake for betraying her sex.

Along the way, Schlafly helped lay the groundwork for a grassroots conservative movement that grew in opposition to the cultural changes of the 1960s and came into its own with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, mobilizing many thousands of volunteers.

Schlafly's latest book, "The Conservative Case for Trump," with co-authors Ed Martin and Brett Decker, is set to be released on Tuesday, The Washington Times reported.

She is survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.</s>Phyllis Schlafly, the conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, has died. She was 92.

Schlafly died of cancer Monday afternoon at her home in St Louis, surrounded by her family, her son John Schlafly said. Funeral arrangements are pending.

She rose to national attention in 1964 with her self-published book, A Choice Not an Echo, that became a manifesto for the far right.

The book, which sold three million copies, chronicled the history of the Republican National Convention. It is credited for helping conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona earn the GOP nomination in 1964.

Schlafly later helped defeat the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, which would have outlawed gender discrimination.

She graduated from college while working overnight at a factory during World War II and her newspaper column appeared in dozens of newspapers.

Schlafly remained politically active into her 90s and was at every Republican convention since 1952. She attended this year's convention as a Donald Trump delegate.

Yet she told The Associated Press in 2007 that her greatest legacy was perhaps the Eagle Forum. She founded the movement in 1972 in suburban St Louis, where she lived.

The ultraconservative group has chapters in several states and claims 80,000 members.

'I've taught literally millions of people how to participate in self-government,' Schlafly said. 'I think I've built a wonderful organization of volunteers, mostly women but some men, willing to spend their time to get good laws and good politicians.'

The Eagle Forum pushes for low taxes, a strong military and English-only education.

The group is against efforts it says are pushed by radical feminists or encroach on US sovereignty, such as guest-worker visas, according to its website.

The website describes the Equal Rights Amendment as having had a 'hidden agenda of tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriages'.

The group said in statement on its website announcing Schlafly's death that her 'focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life'.

As momentum grew in the 1970s for the Equal Rights Amendment, Schlafly became its most outspoken critic — and was vilified by its supporters.

She had a pie smashed into her face and pig's blood thrown on her, and feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: 'I'd like to burn you at the stake.'

Schlafly was criticized in a 1970s Doonesbury comic — a framed copy of which hung on her office wall.

'What I am defending is the real rights of women,' Schlafly said at the time. 'A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.'

Thirty-five states ratified the amendment, three short of the necessary 38. Schlafly said amendment supporters couldn't prove it was needed.

'They were never able to show women would get any benefit out of it,' she told the AP in 2007. 'It [the US Constitution] is already sex-neutral. Women already have all the rights that men have.'

Saint Louis University history professor Donald Critchlow, who profiled Schlafly in a 2005 book, said the defeat of the amendment revived conservatism and helped pave the way for Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.

'What the ERA [defeat] did was show the right, and especially Reagan strategists, that a new constituency could be tapped to revitalize the right. It allowed the right to take over the party,' Critchlow told the AP shortly after his book was written.

Schlafly was born on August 15, 1924, and grew up in Depression-era St Louis. Her parents were Republican but not politically involved.

Her own activism was born partly out of convenience. With the country involved in World War II during her college years, Schlafly worked the graveyard shift at the St Louis Ordnance Plant.

Her job included testing ammunition by firing machine guns. She would get off work at 8 am, attend morning classes, then sleep in the middle of the day before doing it all over again.

The schedule limited her options for a major. 'In order to pick classes to fit my schedule I picked political science,' Schlafly said in 2007.

She graduated from Washington University in 1944, when she was 19. Her first taste of real politics came at age 22, when she guided the 1946 campaign of Republican congressional candidate Claude Bakewell, helping him to a major win.

In 1952, with her young family living in nearby Alton, Illinois, Schlafly's husband, attorney John Schlafly Jr, was approached about running for Congress.

He declined, but she ran and narrowly lost in a predominantly Democratic district. She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970.

Schlafly earned a master's degree in government from Harvard in 1945. She enrolled in Washington University School of Law in 1976, and at age 51, graduated 27th in a class of 204.

Schlafly received an honorary degree at Washington University's commencement in 2008.

Some students and faculty silently protested by getting up from their seats and turning their backs to the stage, but Schlafly called it 'a happy day', adding: I'm just sorry for those who tried to rain on a happy day.'

Schlafly was an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and loosening US border restrictions.

Citing Schlafly's views about homosexuals, women and immigrants, protesters said she went against the most fundamental principles for which the university stood.

Schlafly remained active in conservative politics well into her later years, during which she kept writing her column that appeared in 100 newspapers. She also did radio commentaries on more than 460 stations and published a monthly newsletter.

She endorsed Trump in early March and introduced the then-GOP front-runner at a St Louis rally.

Trump praised Schlafly as 'a patriot, a champion for women and a symbol of strength' after the news of her death Monday.

He called her 'a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement and fearlessly battled globalism and the "kingmakers" on behalf of America's workers and families'.

Trump said in a statement released Monday night: 'She fought every day right to the end for America First.'

She co-authored a book called The Conservative Case for Trump, to be released Tuesday. Trump said he was 'honored to spend time with her'.

Schlafly's husband died in 1993. She is survived by six children, 16 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.</s>'Game of Thrones' ad: Vote for Cersei in 2016</s>WASHINGTON, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Phyllis Schlafly, who became a "founding mother" of the modern U.S. conservative movement by battling feminists in the 1970s and working tirelessly to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, died on Monday at the age of 92, her Eagle Forum group said.

Schlafly, who lived in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri, died at her home in the presence of her family, Eagle Forum said in a statement. The cause of death was not given.

She was still a conservative force and popular speaker in her 90s, endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and praising his policy on immigration. She was a delegate to the Republicans' convention in Cleveland.

Schlafly once called feminists "a bunch of bitter women seeking a constitutional cure for their personal problems," Time said, while insisting that "women find their greatest fulfillment at home with their family."

Her political ardor did not fade with age and in 2014, as President Barack Obama pushed for pay equity for women, Schlafly sparked controversy with a column for the Christian Post saying a man's paycheck comes first.

"The pay gap between men and women is not all bad because it helps to promote and sustain marriages," she said. "... The best way to improve economic prospects for women is to improve job prospects for the men in their lives, even if that means increasing the so-called pay gap."

Schlafly promoted traditional family values and once told a reporter that she always listed her occupation as "mother" when filling out applications. But she was hardly a typical stay-at-home housewife/mother.

Shortly after marrying lawyer Fred Schlafly in 1949, she became active in Republican Party politics in Alton, Illinois, and ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice. She would go on to found the Eagle Forum grass-roots conservative group, write a newspaper column and newsletter and author some 20 books.

Her crowning achievement was crusading to prevent the Equal Rights Amendment from being added to the U.S. Constitution and it made Schlafly a leader in the modern American conservative movement.

"Phyllis Schlafly courageously and single-handedly took on the issue of the Equal Rights Amendment when no one else in the country was opposing it," said James C. Dobson, chairman and founder of Focus on the Family. "In so doing, she essentially launched the pro-family, pro-life movement."

Biographer Donald T. Critchlow said defeating the ERA helped usher in a conservative era in American politics and boosted Ronald Reagan to the presidency.

In her decade-long fight against the ERA, Schlafly traveled across the country to speak at rallies and persuade state legislators not to approve the ERA.

Along the way she often debated feminist writer Betty Freidan, who called Schlafly "a traitor to her sex" and once told her: "I'd like to burn you at the stake."

The intention of the ERA was to ensure women were treated the same as men under state and federal laws. Schlafly's attack on the proposed amendment was based on the premise that the rights of women already were well protected by the U.S. Constitution. She said the ERA actually would erode women's standing, leading to homosexual marriages, women in combat, government-funded abortions and loss of alimony.

In 1972 she started the Eagle Forum, now located in Clayton, Missouri, along with Stop ERA, bringing in legions of supporters who had been regarded as non-political housewives. In a 1978 appearance at the Illinois capitol she was accompanied by backers bearing loaves of home-made bread.

Described by Time magazine as "feminine but forceful" and with her hair always carefully styled, Schlafly said she attended 41 state hearings to testify against the Equal Rights Amendment. When the ERA's ratification deadline expired in 1982, having been approved by only 35 of the 38 states needed, Schlafly threw a party in Washington.

Phyllis Stewart was born Aug. 15, 1924, in St. Louis and grew up in a home she described as Republican but not activist. She put herself through Washington University by firing weapons as an ammunition factory tester and later earned a master's degree in political science from Radcliffe. In 1978 she graduated from Washington University's law school.

The left attacked Schlafly for promoting domestic life to her supporters while spending so much time pursuing her ambitious political agenda. She responded by saying she never told women they should not work.

"I simply didn't believe we needed a constitutional amendment to protect women's rights," Schlafly told the New York Times.

Schlafly first became a political presence with her 1964 self-published book "A Choice, Not an Echo," which championed the conservative politics of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.

Schlafly also built a reputation as a strident anti-Communist and opponent of arms control treaties. After the ERA's defeat, she continued to preach conservative causes such as limited government, anti-abortion laws, traditional education, strong defense and keeping out illegal immigrants.

She frequently criticized immigration reform and the Obama administration. She wrote more than 25 books, including "How the Republican Party Became Pro-Life"in 2016 and "No Higher Power: Obama's War on Religious Freedom" in 2012.

Schlafly also was a critic of gay rights, which proved to be a sensitive topic in 1992 when the oldest of her six children, John, who worked for the Eagle Forum, acknowledged he was homosexual.

Schlafly's husband died in 1993. (Writing and reporting by Bill Trott; Additional reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Diane Craft)</s>By Jim Salter, The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Phyllis Schlafly, the outspoken conservative activist who helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and founded the Eagle Forum political group, has died. She was 92.

Schlafly died Monday afternoon of cancer at her home in St. Louis, her son John Schlafly said.

Schlafly rose to national attention in 1964 with her self-published book, “A Choice Not an Echo,” that became a manifesto for the far right. The book, which sold three million copies, chronicled the history of the Republican National Convention and is credited for helping conservative Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona earn the 1964 GOP nomination.

She later helped lead efforts to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment that would have outlawed gender discrimination, galvanizing the party’s right. She’d graduated from college while working overnight at a factory during World War II, her newspaper column appeared in dozens of newspapers and she was politically active into her 90s — including attending every convention since her first in 1952.

Yet she told The Associated Press in 2007 that perhaps her greatest legacy was the Eagle Forum, which she founded in 1972 in suburban St. Louis, where she lived. The ultraconservative group has chapters in several states and claims 80,000 members.

“I’ve taught literally millions of people how to participate in self-government,” Schlafly said. “I think I’ve built a wonderful organization of volunteers, mostly women but some men, willing to spend their time to get good laws and good politicians.”

The Eagle Forum pushes for low taxes, a strong military and English-only education. The group is against efforts it says are pushed by radical feminists or encroach on U.S. sovereignty, such as guest-worker visas, according to its website, which describes the Equal Rights Amendment as having had a “hidden agenda of tax-funded abortions and same-sex marriages.”

As momentum grew in the 1970s for the amendment, Schlafly became its most outspoken critic — and was vilified by its supporters. She had a pie smashed into her face and pig’s blood thrown on her, and feminist Betty Friedan once told Schlafly: “I’d like to burn you at the stake.” She was chastised in a 1970s “Doonesbury” — a framed copy of which hung on her office wall.

“What I am defending is the real rights of women,” Schlafly said at the time. “A woman should have the right to be in the home as a wife and mother.”

Thirty-five states ratified the amendment, three short of the necessary 38. Schlafly said amendment supporters couldn’t prove it was needed.

“They were never able to show women would get any benefit out of it,” she told the AP in 2007. “It (the U.S. Constitution) is already sex-neutral. Women already have all the rights that men have.”

Saint Louis University history professor Donald Critchlow, who profiled Schlafly in his 2005 book, “Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman’s Crusade,” said the defeat of the amendment helped revive conservatism and helped pave the way for Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980.

“What the ERA (defeat) did was show the right, and especially Reagan strategists, that a new constituency could be tapped to revitalize the right. It allowed the right to take over the party,” Critchlow told the AP shortly after his book was written.

Schlafly was born Aug. 15, 1924, and grew up in Depression-era St. Louis. Her parents were Republican but not politically involved.

Her own activism was born partly out of convenience. With the country involved in World War II during her college years, Schlafly worked the graveyard shift at the St. Louis Ordnance Plant. Her job included testing ammunition by firing machine guns. She would get off work at 8 a.m., attend morning classes, then sleep in the middle of the day before doing it all over again.

The schedule limited her options for a major. “In order to pick classes to fit my schedule I picked political science,” Schlafly recalled in the 2007 interview.

She graduated from Washington University in 1944, when she was 19. Her first taste of real politics came at age 22, when she guided the 1946 campaign of Republican congressional candidate Claude Bakewell, helping him to a major upset win.

In 1952, with her young family living in nearby Alton, Illinois, Schlafly’s husband, attorney John Schlafly Jr., was approached about running for Congress. He declined, but she ran and narrowly lost in a predominantly Democratic district. She also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970.

Schlafly earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard in 1945. She enrolled in Washington University School of Law in 1976, and at age 51, graduated 27th in a class of 204.

Schlafly received an honorary degree at Washington University’s commencement in 2008. Though some students and faculty silently protested by getting up from their seats and turning their backs to the stage, Schlafly called it “a happy day. I’m just sorry for those who tried to rain on a happy day.”

Citing Schlafly’s views about homosexuals, women and immigrants — she was an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion rights and loosening U.S. border restrictions — protesters said she went against the most fundamental principles for which the university stood.

Schlafly remained active in conservative politics well into her 80s, when she was still writing a column that appeared in 100 newspapers, doing radio commentaries on more than 460 stations and publishing a monthly newsletter.</s>Schlafly, an outspoken voice against the liberalism of the 1960's and 1970's, was a towering figure in what emerged as the modern religious right. Her death was confirmed by the Eagle Forum, the Missouri-based advocacy organization she led.

"Her focus from her earliest days until her final ones was protecting the family, which she understood as the building block of life. She recognized America as the greatest political embodiment of those values," the statement read. "From military superiority and defense to immigration and trade; from unborn life to the nuclear family and parenthood, Phyllis Schlafly was a courageous and articulate voice for common sense and traditional values."

Schlafly was most well-known for her work fighting the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970's, emerging as one of the leading female critics of the feminist movement.

Schlafly, until her death, remained in the political arena and recently made the case for electing Donald Trump president. On Monday night the Republican nominee eulogized Schlafly in a statement.

"Phyllis Schlafly is a conservative icon who led millions to action, reshaped the conservative movement, and fearlessly battled globalism and the 'kingmakers' on behalf of America's workers and families," Trump said. "I was honored to spend time with her during this campaign as she waged one more great battle for national sovereignty." The new women's movement: Reviving the ERA fight In her final days, Schlafly caused consternation among some conservatives by backing Trump. She endorsed the billionaire at a rally in her home city of St. Louis, Missouri in March, despite the fact many of her fellow travelers in the movement don't see the Republican candidate as a true ideological conservative, likening him to Ronald Reagan. "I can remember 1980 when a lot of us didn't think Reagan was an authentic conservative," Schlafly told CNN in an interview in May. "Reagan turned out to be best president of the century," she said. She backed Trump partly because he was the only candidate talking about illegal immigration, which she said was "the most important issue in the country." Funeral arrangements are still being finalized, according to the Eagle Forum.
American Conservative icon Phyllis Schafly dies at the age of 92.