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Florine Koole Dies; Pioneer Among CWA Women
Florine Koole, one of CWA’s early female staff representatives who rose to be assistant to the executive vice president, died at her Edina, Minn., home of cancer on May 8. She was 79.
Koole went to work as a telephone operator for Northwestern Bell in 1941 and joined the union six months later, as soon as she became eligible. She served as a steward, chief steward, secretary and vice president of Local 7102.
In 1958, she applied to be a staff representative and received many letters of support.
Jim Gordon, who was District 7’s vice president and who died one day before Koole, recommended her for the job in a letter to CWA founding President Joseph Bierne. “Through her leadership, CWA has the respect of all other organized labor in the city of Des Moines, Polk County and the state of Iowa,” he wrote.
Koole’s daughter, Joanne Leiman, remembers summers growing up when her mother would let her choose a friend for long trips through the back roads of Minnesota, where she was organizing phone workers and firefighters — an unusual position for a woman at that time. “She’d find a nice hotel with a swimming pool and we’d stay busy while she was busy with her meetings,” Leiman said. “It was a wonderful way to spend the summer.”
Koole was promoted to assistant to District 7 Vice President E. J. Follis (Gordon’s successor) in 1974 and six years later moved to Washington, D.C. to be the assistant to Executive Vice President John C. Carroll. She retired in 1987.
“She loved the union and the opportunities it gave her,” Leiman said, noting that her mother was very active in the women’s movement and in politics. “I’m cleaning out drawers, and I have so many pictures of her with presidential candidates, all kinds of people, lots of famous faces.”
Koole received many honors during her career, including being named “Woman of the Year” in 1978 by the Omaha Women’s Political Caucus, being elected to the National Democratic Committee in 1977-78, chairing the 1978 Nebraska Democratic Convention and being appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the President’s National Advisory Committee for Women.
Koole was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the early 1960s and doctors told her she wouldn’t survive. But Leiman said she not only beat it, she lived life to the fullest for nearly 40 years before falling ill with cancer caused by the radiation from her 1960s treatment. “She was very strong-willed,” her daughter said.
In addition to Leiman, of Illinois, Koole is survived by four grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Koole went to work as a telephone operator for Northwestern Bell in 1941 and joined the union six months later, as soon as she became eligible. She served as a steward, chief steward, secretary and vice president of Local 7102.
In 1958, she applied to be a staff representative and received many letters of support.
Jim Gordon, who was District 7’s vice president and who died one day before Koole, recommended her for the job in a letter to CWA founding President Joseph Bierne. “Through her leadership, CWA has the respect of all other organized labor in the city of Des Moines, Polk County and the state of Iowa,” he wrote.
Koole’s daughter, Joanne Leiman, remembers summers growing up when her mother would let her choose a friend for long trips through the back roads of Minnesota, where she was organizing phone workers and firefighters — an unusual position for a woman at that time. “She’d find a nice hotel with a swimming pool and we’d stay busy while she was busy with her meetings,” Leiman said. “It was a wonderful way to spend the summer.”
Koole was promoted to assistant to District 7 Vice President E. J. Follis (Gordon’s successor) in 1974 and six years later moved to Washington, D.C. to be the assistant to Executive Vice President John C. Carroll. She retired in 1987.
“She loved the union and the opportunities it gave her,” Leiman said, noting that her mother was very active in the women’s movement and in politics. “I’m cleaning out drawers, and I have so many pictures of her with presidential candidates, all kinds of people, lots of famous faces.”
Koole received many honors during her career, including being named “Woman of the Year” in 1978 by the Omaha Women’s Political Caucus, being elected to the National Democratic Committee in 1977-78, chairing the 1978 Nebraska Democratic Convention and being appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the President’s National Advisory Committee for Women.
Koole was diagnosed with cervical cancer in the early 1960s and doctors told her she wouldn’t survive. But Leiman said she not only beat it, she lived life to the fullest for nearly 40 years before falling ill with cancer caused by the radiation from her 1960s treatment. “She was very strong-willed,” her daughter said.
In addition to Leiman, of Illinois, Koole is survived by four grandchildren and a great-grandson.