Fran Leeper Buss

Fran Leeper Buss (March 1942–July 2022) was an American oral historian, ordained minister, author, teacher, social worker, photographer and feminist.

Fran Leeper Buss was born Francis Barker in Manchester, Iowa, in 1942. Her mother was Wilma Irene Barker, a clerk in a sewing department.^[1] Her father, Clyde Francis "Frank" Barker was a radio engineer.^[2] Her childhood was mostly spent in Dubuque. She gained a teaching degree from the University of Iowa in 1964^[3] and a Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. In 1995, she gained a Ph.D. in 20th century American history from the University of Arizona.^[4]

In 1971, Buss was the co-founder of the Women's Crisis and Information Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.^[5][6] She and her second husband, David Buss,^[7][8] served as ministers^[9] in the Campus/Community Ministry in Las Vegas, New Mexico.^[10] In 1976, Buss was ordained.^[11] She also taught women's studies at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater,^[12][13] and taught at the University of Arizona. Over four decades, Buss collected the stories of marginalized women in the USA. Firstly, while living in Las Vegas, Buss interviewed Jesusita Aragon, a traditionally trained midwife. In 1980, Buss published Aragon’s life story as La Partera: Story of a Midwife with The University of Michigan Press.^[14] Buss moved to Wisconsin in 1976. She wanted to continue her work as an oral historian though the field was in its infancy and she had little money or academic support. Often living at a distance from the women she wanted to interview, she sorted out a system of visits throughout the USA involving a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a secondhand camera and an old car. This eventually led to the publication of Dignity: Lower Income Women Tell of Their Lives and Struggles: Oral Histories (Women and Culture Series) (1985) The University of Michigan Press 978-0472100613.^[15][16][17]

Buss also worked and became long-term friends with Maria Elena Lucas, a migrant Chicana farm worker activist and Mary Robinson, a textile union activist. Based on the transcripts of interviews with these two women, Buss published Forged under the Sun/ Forjada bajo el sol: The Life of Maria Elena Lucas (1993) The University of Michigan Press^[18][19][20] and Moisture of the Earth: Mary Robinson, Civil Rights and Textile Union Activist (2009) University of Michigan Press 978-0472065875.^[21]

After retiring from teaching, Buss analyzed her many oral histories of poor and working-class women and published Memory, Meaning, and Resistance: Reflecting on Oral History and Women at the Margins (2017) University of Michigan Press 9780472053599.^[22]

The original transcripts of Buss’s oral history interviews are housed at Harvard University at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library of the History of American Women along with notebooks on her techniques as an oral historian and her journals. A collage of her photographs can be viewed on her website.^[23]

In 1991, Buss published a novel for young adults, called Journey of the Sparrows. with Puffin Books ISBN 9780142302095. It has been translated into six languages, including Norwegian and adapted into a play. The novel depicts the lives of illegal Latin American migrants to the United States of America.^[24] The book won the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in 1992.

Buss had three children from an early marriage to fellow student Dennis Leeper.^[25] After the marriage ended in divorce, Buss took several jobs but still ended up nearly homeless and had to go on welfare. This led to her lifelong interest in economic justice and the status of women. Having medical problems, she consulted a doctor and had an unnecessary and botched hysterectomy which left her in debilitating pain for years. This experience added to her empathy for the powerless and politically voiceless.^[26] Buss died in July 2022 and is survived by her second husband, three children, seven grandchildren, her sisters, her brother and many nephews and nieces.^[4][27]

The first, annual Catherine Prelinger Prize for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Women’s History in 1998.^[28]

American Library Association (ALA) 2018 Choice, Outstanding Academic Title.^[29][30]