Arvonne Fraser - ForeverMissed.com Online Memorials

Let the memory of Arvonne be with us forever - The Memorial Service will be held August 30th, 2018 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, 40 Power St., Minneapolis 55401

Arvonne Skelton Fraser, (September 1, 1925 – August 7, 2018) passed at our St. Croix River house at the age of 92. He husband, Don Fraser, died 11 months later on June 2nd, 2019.

Arvonne was a feminist, ambassador, author, wife of Don Fraser, sister of Bonnie Skelton, mother of Tom, Mary, John, Lois, Anne and Jean, grandmother of seven grandchildren, and friend, mentor and teacher to so many..

If you want to honor Arvonne then please go out and organize for a cause, donate and volunteer for candidates, read the news and talk to your family, friends, neighbors and elected officials about important issues.

Arvonne would also be pleased if you help young women and men pursuing policy change by donating to the University of Minnesota Foundation -- Humphrey School Arvonne Fraser Fund, P.O. Box 860266, Mpls, MN 55486, or Emily’s List, 1800 M St NW, Ste 375N, Washington, DC 20036.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/obituaries/arvonne-fraser-strong-voice-on-womens-issues-dies-at-92.html

http://www.startribune.com/arvonne-fraser-blazed-her-own-trail-as-women-s-rights-advocate/490315871/

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December 22, 2018

The link for the renaming of SE Library to the Arvonne Fraser Library.

https://hennepin.novusagenda.com/agendapublic/CoverSheet.aspx?ItemID=5981&MeetingID=624

full text:
Board Action Request
18-0552R1
Item Description:
Authorize the renaming of the Hennepin County Southeast Library to the Arvonne Fraser Library - offered by Commissioner McLaughlin
WHEREAS, Ms. Arvonne Fraser was a leader in women’s rights, a long-time activist in elevating women’s influence on public policy-making, and a passionate advocate for public libraries; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Fraser maintained her independence as a leader and educator while raising a family and supporting her husband, Donald Fraser, in his career in the Minnesota State Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, and as the Mayor of Minneapolis; and

WHEREAS, a fierce proponent of women’s rights, Ms. Fraser immersed herself in the emerging feminist movement in the 1970s; and

WHEREAS, throughout the years, Ms. Fraser founded the Women’s Equity Action League, served as the director of the Office of Women in Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development, as the U.S.representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; and at the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute (now School), directed the International Women’s Rights Action Watch and cofounded the school’s Center on Women and Public Policy; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Fraser was the recipient of many awards and recognitions including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Macalester College, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota, and the Prominent Women in International Law, Women’s Interest Group from the American Society of International Law (becoming the first non-lawyer to receive this award); and

WHEREAS, Ms. Fraser and her husband Don celebrated the lives of two of their daughters by creating the Anne and Lois Fraser Memorial Fund that helps the Hennepin County Library expand its children’s collection as well expanding art, music, and literature; and

WHEREAS, while Ms. Fraser was chair of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library she worked tirelessly to raise money for additional library hours, and when merger discussions started between the Hennepin County Library System and the Minneapolis Library Board, she exerted her influence to ensure a smooth transition that would help increase the number of hours Minneapolis libraries would be open; and

WHEREAS, once the Minneapolis libraries were folded into the Hennepin County Library system the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library disbanded, only to be replaced by the Friends of the Minneapolis Central Library, a group that Arvonne Fraser joined and served with through 2017, helping to raise money, update bylaws, and volunteering at library events; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Fraser and her husband, Don, were long-time residents of Southeast Minneapolis and her belief in the value of libraries was famous to her neighbors, sometimes showing itself by her taking neighborhood children on their first trip to the Minneapolis Central Library; and

WHEREAS, before her passing, Ms. Fraser was actively engaged in the public discussions for the planned rehabilitation of the Hennepin County Library–Southeast; and

WHEREAS, Ms. Fraser died on August 7, 2018, leaving a legacy of championing women’s rights, defending her strong belief in public service, and demonstrating a longstanding love of and commitment to public libraries; therefore
Resolution:
BE IT RESOLVED, that in recognition of the significant contributions that Arvonne Fraser made to our community, across our country and to the world, that, upon its reopening, the Hennepin County Library–Southeast be named Hennepin County Library–Arvonne Fraser.

September 5, 2018

Arvonne Fraser a leading voice on women’s Issues, Nationally and Abroad read the headlines in the New York Times. The Times listed her many national and international accomplishments, books she had written and numerous articles. Enormous accomplishments. The Arvonne Fraser that I knew, was the person who ran Don’s multiple campaigns, entertained, welcomed the community to her home, was an interesting and fun person to be with, and had a glorious and welcoming smile, and told funny stories. She was the person in our neighborhood who took time at the grocery store, after a meeting, or on the Stone Arch Bridge to ask us how we were, or our spouse, or an issue. She remembered and she cared. Arvonne, with Fraser, at her side, would wave off offers for a ride as they walked in a cold, snowy night. She cared deeply about Fraser, their children, their grandchildren, sharing their hopes and dreams, giving guidance, by a phone call, an email or a note. She attended long neighborhood meetings and took an active interest in her community, knew her neighbors by name and their histories. She could keep secrets, started a community women’s group for mature women called OUR TURN. Being in a political family is not easy. It is not easy for the spouse or the family. Don had the courage to be a politician and a supportive husband as Arvonne led a National movement on women’s rights and issues that many thought were not the preview of a politician’s wife, especially, a Mayor. It is with deep appreciate and love that I thank the Fraser family for your gifts to us, and sharing Arvonne.
Diane Hofstede

September 2, 2018

There are so many things coming into my minds when I think of Arvonne.
I first met Arvonne in December 1989 when she came to Tokyo to speak to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Women’s Convention (UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) for a women’s organization called Japanese Association for International Women’s Rights (JAIWR). This organization was born because Yasuko Yamashita, the founder of JAIWR, met Arvonne in Nairobi in 1985 and was inspired by the IWRAW (International Women’s Rights Action Watch) which Arvonne started. The JAIWR is now a leading organization in supporting and promoting the Women’s Convention in Japan.
When I met Arvonne in Tokyo, I told her I was interested in coming to the then Humphrey Institute to study for my second masters in the Women and Public Policy program, of which, again, Arvonne was a co-founder. When I arrived in Minneapolis, I found out that Arvonne prepared a scholarship for students who wanted to study international women’s rights, including myself, with a generous donation by Kay Cram. This Cram-Dulton Scholarship for International Women's Human Rights was designed so that I was able to work for the IWRAW project as a research assistant. This RA assignment gave me an opportunity to learn international activism of women at first hand. I am now teaching International Human Rights Law with a focus on women’s human rights in Nagasaki University in Japan and still work on Women’s Convention with Marsha Freeman, who was the Deputy Director at that time and now is the Director of the IWRAW, Minnesota.
I was also fortunate to stay in one of the apartments on the 2nd floor of the 7th Street house of the Frasers during my study in Minneapolis. Arvonne kindly shared her New York Times with me every day. She marked the articles that she wanted to keep and I cut them out and gave these back to Arvonne after I read the paper. Both in the office and in the 7th street house, we discussed about many news on women around the world. She was always full of ideas and inspired us all around her. She always encouraged us with her big smile, which I can still recall very easily with her voice. It was such a precious experience that I was able to spend so much time with Arvonne in those days.
Thank you, Arvonne – you made so much difference for me.

August 30, 2018

Arvonne and her sister, Bonnie are the best and most inspirational cousins that anyone could ever have. As a child they “babysat” me and my sister, Margot and in many ways were idols for me. I am blessed to have them and their family in my life and will do my best to pass the inspiration on to the women in my life....family and friends. They are the BEST!!

August 28, 2018

Arvonne was my “shero” long before I met her in 1977. From Liberia, I had followed her work on women-in-development (WID) and advocacy for the Percy Amendment and cheered at her appointment as the founding Director of the Office of Women-in-Development at USAID. So when my family and I were relocating to Washington to be part of the new Carter Administration, I was delighted to get a meeting with Arvonne.
She welcomed me with her inimitable warmth and asked me what I wanted to do. When I launched into the importance of girls’ education and women’s literacy she broke into a wide smile and we bonded for a lifetime. Arvonne recommended me to Sarah Weddington, resulting in my appointment to lead U.S. efforts in the 1980 Copenhagen Conferencee of the UN Decade for Women. Arvonne was one of the most effective delegates, easily forming friendships with delegates ranging from Jamaica to Sri Lanka.
Arvone was also a great political strategist and a formidable organizer, whether for WEAL or a conference of women’s political participation in Bellagio. We worked together on all kinds of women’s issues, but more important we became good friends. Sometimes we would fantasize: I remember one phone conversation before the 1984 election when we agreed that Mondale-Ferraro were going to win because millions of women were going to come out in a great feminist wave to elect the first woman vice president!
Arvonne mentored a host of women, modeling a committed feminist who saw the importance of listening, compromise and building coalitions. She also gifted us with an example of a marriage partnership in which she and Don shared a passion for public service with an emphasis on human rights, democracy- strengthening and women’s equality--both in the developing world and here in the U.S.
Arvonne was my North Star. I thank her for rich memories and her legacy as a strong feminist and a global citizen of integrity and conviction that will continue to guide the next generation. Thank you, Arvonne.

August 27, 2018

I had the privilege of meeting my dearest Arvonne when I was a H.H.H Fellow in 1985 and we have remained friends since then! I learned so much from her caring and strong style. So may memories and conversations we had over the Chilean dictatorship and its transition, on my dream to become Mayor of Maria Pinto...my dear Arvonne I will!!! Of the times she opened her home to host my MN friends when I would travel to visit. What a diamond of person so committed to public service and political activeness. And you passed on my birthday! Was thinking about you and honoring you all day, and will honor your life! For sure my dear Arvonne, I will miss you! Maricarmen Cortes, HHH Fellow 1985 and a MN fan!

August 22, 2018

As an elementary school age child, I was at a Saturday political event with my parents. Precinct caucus? No idea, but the adults there were voting. Arvonne carefully explained to me that although there were three candidates on the ballot to be ranked, if there was only one you truly wanted, you didn’t have to rank all three. Only vote for one! What I took away besides the utility of the tactic and inclusion in the event, was Arvonne’s respect for the intelligence of children. Never too young to be involved.

August 22, 2018

I first interviewed Arvonne on what may have been one of the longest evenings of the Fraser family’s political life – primary election night, 1978. She had arrived from Washington not long before I appeared at Fraser’s headquarters hotel – the Radisson, I believe, not the Leamington, given the identity of Don’s U.S. Senate opponent! She was tired and seemed dispirited. My hunch now is that she had already seen the vote counts coming from the Twin Cities and knew that they weren’t large enough to overcome an expected deluge of votes for Bob Short from the Eighth District.
Arvonne could have ignored the 25-year-old rookie reporter from the Tribune who was looking for a few quotes. Instead, she invited me into the private portion of the suite, plopped down on the bed and invited me to perch at its foot while we talked. It was a gesture of kindness and intimacy that made me an instant Arvonne fan.
A few years later when I was seeking extra income by moonlighting, Mpls/StPaul magazine dispatched me to write a profile of Arvonne. It was not long after the tragic death of Lois, the beloved daughter she called YoYo. I sat down to interview her with trepidation, wondering whether and how to raise the subject of loss and grief. We sat at the well-used dining room table as she helped me get through a tough conversation. At some point, we both wiped tears from our eyes, then got practical as we decided what should be shared with magazine readers. In sharing with her fellow citizens, then and at so many other times, Arvonne was extraordinarily generous.
What I came to appreciate even more was her knack for saying just what I needed to hear, when I needed to hear it. She coached me through my early years as a working mother, inviting me to believe that I was not betraying feminism or risking hard-won career gains if I slowed down for a few years to be a good parent. “Women have long lives. We can have it all, but we don’t need to have it all at once,” she said.
She had encouraging words for me as I moved from newspaper journalist to author, and confidence in me as we collaborated on “She’s No Lady.” I’ve been named as an editor on other book projects when in fact, I was the book’s ghostwriter. Not so with “She’s No Lady.” Arvonne is a fine writer who only needed an editor’s help to bring her essays together. It was an honor for me to play that role.
Our friendship deepened in the last decade as we discussed children, grandchildren, husbands (mine, Martin Vos, adored her, and I think the feeling was mutual) and always, Minnesota politics. For Arvonne, there was little separating the public and the personal. Her ideas about citizenship and the duty humans have toward one another were always expansive and inclusive.
When we were last together shortly before she died, we talked about things we would do together when my work at the Star Tribune ends. I’m so sorry that I won’t share those activities with her. But no matter what I do when those days come, I’ll remember Arvonne.

August 20, 2018

I am privileged to have had several incredible sponsors in my life. Arvonne Fraser was front and center. In my 20’s, new to Washington, Arvonne embraced me. Not with a hug, but with her conviction that she had ideas about how to make our country better, more fair and that I could help her make that happen. She didn’t so much guide or mentor me; rather, she just threw me into her world with confidence that I would make the most of it. I loved working with her, for her; absorbing her energy and clear-headed, plain spoken way of tackling seemingly intractable problems of social injustice. Barriers were just problems to solve. She was shrewd and understood power and politics; she used her gifts to make the world better and in the process made me better too.

August 16, 2018

The memory of Arvonne I offer is from many, many years ago, during the height of the Vietnam war. It was on the footpath in front of their place on the St Croix. She was wearing a light blue sweatshirt with a white "peace" dove on the front and she explained to my mother that she was wearing it with some trepidation, but felt it was important to make a statement. I was perhaps 9 or 10 at the time, but that memory has stuck with me all these years as it was at that moment I became aware that there were views and opinions other than those of my conservative parents. I like to think that event helped me to develop into an adult with the ability to see and evaluate different points of view. Thanks Arvonne.

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Her Life

Touching video just before she passed - on how she met Don, her husband

August 12, 2018

Just before she died August 7th, 2018, Caroline Stacey, a neighbor, took this touching video of Don and Arvonne discussing how they first met.

Last Chapter - August 7th, 2018

August 12, 2018

Arvonne Skelton Fraser, feminist, ambassador, author, wife of Don Fraser, sister of Bonnie Skelton, mother of Tom, Mary, John, Lois, Anne and Jean, grandmother of seven grandchildren, and friend, mentor and teacher to so many, died on August 7 at our St. Croix River house at the age of 92.

A Good Neighbor

August 21, 2018

Arvonne was a five-foot giant and while she could wield policy and travel to distant lands promoting justice, she was also very present as a neighbor. The Frasers commanded one end of 7th Street SE in Minneapolis. Arvonne’s perennial garden was a site to behold. She held parties where we came to exchange plants on her porch. No one left empty handed – Arvonne pressing a pot or two into hesitant hands, insistent her bounty be shared. And on all occasions, for she loved gatherings, that dining room table!.. the food, the wine, and surrounded by those engrossed in interesting conversation. How wonderful to break bread inside the Fraser home.

We were neighbors for twenty years. An early memory was Arvonne calling to ask if my daughters, then perhaps 3 and 6 come spend the day. I bundled them up and sent them down the block. Arvonne’s plan was to instill the value of public transportation. Off they hiked to the bus stop. Then to the downtown library they went. The girls came back exhilarated as if they had taken the best trip ever. On their coat lapels were green pins “Keep Libraries Open.”

A common site outside my window was Arvonne and her good friend Janet, walking. In all weather, every day. She paid attention to the changing riverfront, and she paid attention to all that mattered. A small group of us, led by Arvonne started the Stone Arch Discussion Group, gathered early Saturday mornings in coffee shops, to discuss issues of the day. We spent many Thanksgiving mornings together, including last year, banded with other neighbors as chosen family, a collective pause before the chaos that inevitably comes with each holiday season.

So my accolade for Arvonne, among those from dignitaries, is simply a nod to being a good neighbor. Plant, walk, pay attention, serve. May we carry such lessons forward in her honor.

A note from David Dillon to his friend John Fraser

August 20, 2018

Hi John,

Just a note of condolence on the loss of your mother. There is sort of a divide for (most) every man; when your mom is still around and then when she isn’t. Roles change and evolve over the years but, no role, not there, is different.

For my part I’ll add to the chorus of praise by saying I always felt loved by Arvonne and it meant a lot to me. As a little kid, crossing the river from Afton in those scary big aluminum boats with motors that had to be heaved and yanked into life; I remember arriving to the distant shore with this small powerful woman somehow focused on little old me asking if I was OK and helping with whatever I needed. As an adult I remember her phone call saying that she had learned I was running for Congress, she didn’t agree with my politics but was thrilled I was running. Up front, kind and with her own compass. It was a nice conversation.

As I think back over the endless political conversations of my formative years, and in which the Don and Arvonne were ever present, I don’t recall Arvonne ever once insulting or name calling the other side. I do recall her hands in the air as a sort of dismissal / disgust I give up gesture. ; ) And, it’s probably best we weren't talking politics in the age of Trump. Anyway, my point is larger than being well behaved. While our political views diverged over the years as I evolved more in the tradition of Charles Krauthammer, Arvonne made it easy to consider the other view. That was both useful and comforting in a discussion. And a model legacy for the role of women in politics on Earth.

Remembrance from Arvonne's sister-in-law, Elizabeth

August 19, 2018

I think of her a lot and am going to miss her very much. The first time I met Arvonne was at the remembrance gathering for Annie at the Washington house. As I was commiserating with Arvonne she said to me with great feeling "And I am sorry for your loss, too." (I had just had a miscarriage.) I was to learn that she was always this way, very solicitous of others and their difficulties even as she was suffering even greater miseries.

Her notes and post cards and giant emails have been encouraging and enjoyable over the years. Her child care advice for an overwhelmed, inexperienced, older first time mother was wonderful. I particularly liked her advice to Mac that a new full time mother, fresh from a more adult workplace was like a "time bomb sitting in the middle of the kitchen table" (her words). She encouraged him to take over more and to find me some help. It would be nice to think of Mac and Arvonne having a good political discussion in some alternative world.

We are all very sorry about our sudden loss. I am especially unhappy about not having seen Arvonne since 2006! She had planned a more recent visit here when she was to attend a meeting in Amherst MA, but at that time she decided Don was not strong enough to take the trip. I thought I would take an Elderhostel tour to Minneapolis, but never got around to it. I will always remember our marvelous stays at the River, the parties Arvonne gave and many other happy times together out there and in Washington.

May we all have good memories and see more of each other.

With love to you all and also to the next generation. Please share my thoughts and love with them.
Elizabeth

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