September 3, 2026, at age 92, the inimitable Gloria Steinem passed away, leaving an unparalleled legacy.
Reminiscing about one memorable moment, where I was fortunate to be present, when all the great feminists of the 70s congregated for a historical conference in 1977. It was the impetus that moved me to act and advocate.
Excerpt from my memoir, A Long Tme Coming: Running through the women’s marathon revolution (chapter 15).
If I was influenced by the turbulent 1960s to question
authority, I was further influenced by the 1970s
feminist movement. The United Nations proclaimed
1975 the International Women’s Year. As a result,
President Gerald Ford established a commission for its
observance in the U.S., and events were held over the
following two years. In 1977, more than 130,000
women attended state conferences across the country.
President Jimmy Carter appointed Bella Abzug to
preside over the culminating event in Houston, Texas,
which attracted more than 2000 delegates. A torch relay
originated in Seneca Falls, New York, with 3000
women carrying the flame to Houston. Texas
Congresswoman and Houston native Barbara Jordan
delivered the keynote speech. Dignitaries in attendance
included Lady Bird Johnson, Rosalyn Carter, Betty
Ford, Coretta Scott King, Gloria Steinem and Billy Jean King.
According to the Handbook of Texas, “The
conference opened with a clear sense of purpose as well
as much fanfare… Although the 1977 National Women’s
Conference was not a lawmaking body and could only
propose nonbinding recommendations, it was directed
to arrive at a national plan of action to help remove sex
barriers and better utilize women’s contributions.”
Proposals would be submitted to the President and
Congress.
These lofty goals are what attracted my best friend,
Leal-Ann Reinhart, and me to the conference. Leal-Ann
was the reigning women’s national marathon champion
of 1977. We went seeking help for our cause on behalf
of women runners with the objective of gaining
Olympic inclusion for all distance-running events.
“Twenty-six major topics were considered by the
delegates, including the ERA [Equal Rights
Amendment], abortion, lesbian rights, child care,
minority women, homemakers, battered women,
education, rape, health and a cabinet-level women’s
department,” the conference report stated. The enormity
and importance of these issues empowered me and at
the same time humbled me to the point that I felt
fortunate I had rights to run at all, and perhaps was
being somewhat selfish to ask for more.
What I could not anticipate at the time were the
future influences and activism of several women I met
that week in 1977: Henley Gibble, Peggy Kokernot and
Mary Cullen. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of
the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), writer Jim
Ferstle interviewed Henley (now with the last name
Gabeau). Her comments:
“In 1977, Jeff Darman (then RRCA president)
asked me to be the RRCA contact and liaison to the
U.S. State Department for the International Women’s
Year torch relay that started in September in Seneca
Falls, New York, and finished in Houston, Texas, in
late November.
“I was to coordinate all of the running clubs,
women and logistics of the RRCA participation, and
other stuff. It was a time when Bella Abzug, Gloria
Steinem and Coretta Scott King would amble in and out
of the office as I sat with a phone glued to my ear, in
awe of these women.
“I was sent to Houston to organize the last week,
where I met Jacqueline Hansen and Leal-Ann
Reinhart… who were there to lobby for the inclusion of
a women’s marathon in the Olympics. It was that
meeting that sent me back to Jeff Darman in the fall of
1977 with a mission: to have the RRCA be a force in
that effort.”
Darman promptly appointed Henley chairwoman of
the RRCA’s Women’s Distance Committee. She
became a tireless advocate for women distance runners,
hosting speaking events and the RRCA Women’s
Distance Festival of races across the nation. She and I
joined efforts as members of the International Runners
Committee, starting in 1979.
Peggy Kokernot was the amazing young woman
who picked up the torch relay in the state of Alabama,
where Phyllis Schlafly of the “Stop ERA” movement
had urged Alabama women not to support this feminist
organization event. There was a 16-mile stretch left
vacant of runners that marathoner Peggy was asked to
cover. She did and saved the torch relay from being
stopped in its tracks. Her picture on the cover of Time
magazine, combined with her winning the Houston
Marathon shortly after the convention and the strength
she found after experiencing the conference, opened
opportunities she never dreamed of before, according to
her mother, Edith Grinell.
Peggy introduced me to Mary Cullen at the Houston
conference. Mary’s influence is felt in two seemingly
separate worlds, as a long-distance runner actively
competing in masters races and as a philanthropist who
supports athletics and is a major patron of the arts. We
spent a memorable journey together in 1987 when I was
the U.S. head coach and Mary the U.S. team manager
on a trip to Japan for the International Women’s Ekiden
competition in Yokohama.
In retrospect, I am pleasantly surprised at the effect
this Houston conference had, not only for me but also
for each of my friends. The seeds were sown, and the
years ahead were full of action. This “child of the
sixties” had become a “feminist of the seventies.”
