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Harry L. and Gretchen Billings Papers, 1940-1984

Overview of the Collection

Title
Harry L. and Gretchen Billings Papers
Dates
1940-1984
Quantity
6.8 linear feet
Collection Number
Collection 2095, MtBC, us (collection)
Summary
The Harry L. and Gretchen Billings Papers consist of correspondence, speeches, research notes, and printed publications pertaining to the Republican far right, especially the John Birch Society in Montana during the 1960s. These papers are the resource material that explain the positions taken by The People's Voice and also document the tie between the Billings and the Montana AFL-CIO. Since the Billings were involved in many political issues, they corresponded with many high ranking government officials.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Harry L. Billings was born in Somers, Montana, in 1913 where his father worked in the lumber mill. His mother was a homesteader and early day schoolteacher in the Hot Springs area where he was raised. He was a graduate of Thompson Falls High School and earned a degree in journalism from the University of Montana in 1933. His wife, Gretchen Garber Billings was a native of Whitefish whose grandparents homesteaded in the Plains area in the mid-1880s. The Billings jointly edited the farmer-labor owned newspaper The People's Voice in Helena from 1946 to 1969, resigning after a lengthy dispute with organized labor over support of the Vietnam War. Billings opposed American involvement in Korea and Vietnam. During the sales tax fight of 1971, Harry coordinated the successful opposition to enactment of the proposed tax, and then spent two and one half years as Director of Education and Research for the Montana State AFL-CIO. He was also a member of the Montanan Bicentennial advisory council in the mid-1970s and in 1983 was awarded the University of Montana's distinguished alumni award. The Billings retired first to their home in Thompson Falls and then moved full-time to Apache Junction, Arizona, when Harry began suffering respiratory problems. He died on April 23, 1990.

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Content Description

The Billings papers contains correspondence, speeches, research notes, and printed publications pertaining to the Republican far right, especially the John Birch Society in Montana during the 1960s. These papers are the resource material that explain the positions taken by The People's Voice and also document the tie between the Billings and the Montana AFL-CIO. Since the Billings were involved in many political issues, they corresponded with many high ranking government officials, including John F. Kennedy, who wrote to the Billings after a trip to Montana in 1959, and Vice-President Hubert H. Humphrey, and Jeanette Rankin, a personal friend of the Billings. They also worked closely with several Montana governors and senators. Included in the papers are letters written by Mike Mansfield, Lee Metcalf, John Melcher, James E. Murray, and Burton K. Wheeler as well as governors Sam C. Ford, John W. Bonner, Tom Judge, and Ted Schwinden. Billings also collected the papers of Colonel Jerome G. Locke who was appointed General Surveyor of Montana by President Taft. Included in the Billings papers is Locke's certificate of his appointed signed by Taft. The Billings papers have been topically divided into series.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Series 1 Harry L. and Gretchen Billings Correspondence and Speeches, 1946-1984

Series 2 Labor Movement, 1944-1979

Series 3 Montana AFL-CIO, 1956-1984

Series 4 General Subject Files, 1940-1981

Series 5 Individuals, 1947-1984

Series 6 The Right Wing, 1948-1968

Series 7 Group Research, Incorporated, 1961-1967

Series 8 Photographs and Audio Recordings, 1948-1974

Acquisition Information

Harry L. and Gretchen Billings donated their business and personal papers to Special Collections in the fall of 1982. A seperate donation of papers in 1984, originally accessioned as collection 2123, was combined with this collection during processing.

Processing Note

This collection was processed 2009 April 1

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Kim Allen Scott, 2009
May 22, 2017

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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