Ollie Tucker Osborne Papers
Collection 93
Osborne, Ollie Tucker (1911–1994). Papers, 1927–1985
24 ½ feet; oversize
Ollie Tucker Osborne's papers detail the activities of one of Louisiana's leading advocates of women's rights during the 1970s. Osborne was extremely active in the League of Women Voters and the Evangeline ERA coalition. She attended conferences and workshops throughout the South. She was appointed to the 1977 state women's convention in Baton Rouge and was elected a state delegate to the national convention in Houston. She helped organize and coordinate a number of workshops and conferences in Louisiana on women's rights. Much of this often-frenetic activity can be seen through her papers.
Osborne was born in Northern Louisiana and educated at Whitmore College and Louisiana State University. Just before graduation, she married Louis Birk, a salesman for McGraw-Hill & Company, and moved to New York. After several false starts, Osborne launched a career in public relations and advertising which she pursued for twenty years. This included some pioneering work in television advertising. Following the sudden death of Birk in 1952, Osborne returned to Louisiana where she met and married Robert Osborne, an English professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette). During the next two decades, she was busy as president of Birk & Company, a publisher of reading rack pamphlets.
Osborne's introduction to politics at the state level was as an official League of Women Voters observer of the 1973 Constitutional Convention. Early in the year, she determined that some on-going communication link was necessary to allay voter fear and apathy about the new constitution. Osborne was also deeply involved in the campaign to ratify the new constitution.
This experience introduced Osborne to the Equal Rights Amendment, which she decided to support. She became coordinator of the local ERA coalition and deeply involved with the state effort. In addition, she worked for or supported women's conferences and organizations, which shared or explicated her goals such as National Organization of Women; Women's Political Caucus; Louisiana Women's Conference; Conference on Louisiana Women and others.
The papers reflect Osborne's activities in the women's movement and her career in advertising. There are several scrapbooks concerning her years in New York. The largest series contains League of Women Voters records of the local and state levels. The collection includes memos, correspondence, publicity materials (a great interest of Osborne's) and, often, photographs. Her photographs of delegates to the 1973 Constitutional Convention are probably one of the better visual sources on its participants.
Ollie Tucker Osborne donated the papers as part of the Women in Louisiana Collection.
Series:
I. Personal | |||||
A. | 1927-1952 | Box 1; Box 47; Box 48 | |||
B. | 1953- | ||||
1. | Personal | ||||
a. | Correspondence | 2-01 through 2-11 | |||
b. | Miscellaneous | 2-12 through 2-19 | |||
c. | Photographs | 2-20 and 2-21 | |||
2. | Birk and Company Records, 1953-1971 | Box 3 | |||
3. | Organizations | 4-01 through 5-09 | |||
4. | Police Jury Campaign | 5-10 through 5-15; 48-01 | |||
5. | Women's Movement | ||||
a. | Judicial Selections | 5-16 through 5-18 | |||
b. | Discrimination Cases | 5-19 through 6-02 | |||
c. | General and Miscellaneous | 6-03 through 6-08; Box 47, Tape 9 | |||
II. League of Women Voters (LWV) | |||||
A. | Lafayette, Louisiana (LWV-Lafayette) | ||||
1. | Organizational Records | 6-09 through 7-18 | |||
2. | Subject File | 7-19 through 8-10; Box 47 | |||
3. | Photographs | 8-11 and 8-12 | |||
B. | Other Leagues in Louisiana | 8-13 through 9-13; Box 47 | |||
C. | Louisiana [State] (LWV-La) | ||||
1. | Records | ||||
a. | General | 9-14 through 11-06 | |||
b. | Ollie Osborne (mainly as publicity chair) | 11-07 through 12-20; 49-02, 49-03; Map Case 24-02 | |||
c. | Workshops, etc. | 12-21 through 13-08; 49-04; Box 47 | |||
2. | Subject files | 13-09 through 13-24; Box 47 | |||
3. | Task Force Records | 14-01 through 14-09 | |||
4. | Miscellaneous | 14-10 through 14-19 | |||
5. | Photographs | 14-20 through 15-15; 49-04 | |||
D. | United States (LWV-US) | ||||
1. | General Publications and Memoranda | 15-16 through 16-08 | |||
2. | Subject Specific Publications and Memoranda | 16-09 through 17-04; Box 47 | |||
3. | Miscellaneous | 17-05 through 17-11 | |||
E. | Constitutional Convention, 1973 (CC/73) | ||||
1. | Ollie Osborne's Newspaper Articles & Other Writings | ||||
a. | Records | 17-12 through 17-21 | |||
b. | Publications | 17-22 through 19-35 | |||
2. | League of Women Voters-Louisiana and Constitutional Convention/1973 | 19-36 through 20-06 | |||
3. | Ollie Osborne Miscellaneous | 20-07 through 20-15; Box 47, Tape 2 | |||
4. | Clippings | 20-16 through 22-05 | |||
5. | Official Documents | 22-06 through 23-19 | |||
6. | Miscellaneous | 23-20 through 24-04 | |||
7. | Ratification | ||||
a. | League of Women Voter's Role | 24-05 through 25-16; 49-05 | |||
b. | General (Clippings) | 25-17 through 26-03 | |||
8. | Photographs | 26-04 through 27-05 | |||
III. Women Conferences and Organizations | |||||
A. | Conference on Louisiana Women (1975) | 27-06 through 28-05 | |||
B. | Louisiana Women's Conference (1977) | ||||
1. | Coordinating Committee | 28-06 through 29-10; 49-06, 49-07, 49-v.1 | |||
2. | Women and Law Workshop | 29-11 through 30-01 | |||
3. | Final Report | 30-02 through 30-13 | |||
a. | Photographs | Box 31 | |||
C. | National Women's Conference | 32-01 through 33-12 | |||
D. | Others | 34-01 through 35-02 | |||
E. | Organizations | ||||
1. | Women's Political Caucus | 35-03 through 35-24 | |||
2. | National Organization of Women (NOW) | 35-25 through 36-04 | |||
3. | Louisiana Bureau on the Status of Women | 36-05 through 36-12 | |||
4. | Others | 36-13 through 36-16 | |||
IV. Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) | |||||
A. | Evangeline ERA Coalition | 36-17 through 37-19; 49-08, 49-09 | |||
B. | ERA United | 37-20 through 38-23 | |||
C. | Other Groups | 39-01 through 40-13; Box 47, Tape 1 | |||
D. | Research Materials | 40-14 through 41-10; Box 47, Tape 6 | |||
E. | Opposition | 41-11 through 42-04; 46-21; 47-01 through 47-5; 49-08 | |||
V. Miscellaneous | |||||
A. | Lafayette and Louisiana | 42-05 through 43-02 | |||
B. | Women | 43-03 through 43-10 | |||
C. | Miscellaneous | 43-11 through 43-16 | |||
D. | Clippings (mainly from 1970s) | 44-01 through 47-05 | |||
E. | Media | Box 47 | |||
VI. Oversize | Box 48; Box 49; Box 50; Map Case 24-02, 24-09 |