Collection is open for research.
Nancie Peacocke Fadeley, nee Nancie Newell Peacocke, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1930. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Central College in Fayetteville, Missouri, then continued her studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. In 1953, she and Edward Norman Fadeley were married; they later had two children. A year after they married, the couple moved to Eugene, Oregon, and she taught kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary School. In 1974, she earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon. From 1971 to 1981, she served in the Oregon House of Representatives. After leaving the Legislature, she served as vice provost at the University of Oregon, and later worked as a freelance journalist.
Sources: Vital records in Ancestry.com; information provided by Fadeley in her interview.
An incomplete transcript (20 pages) is available for in-person use at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Oral history interview with Nancie P. Fadeley, by Linda S. Dodds, SR 9522, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
This oral history interview with Nancie P. Fadeley was conducted by Linda S. Dodds at the Capitol building in Salem, Oregon, on April 2, 1981, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library's oral history program. At the time of the interview, Dodds' name was Linda S. Brody.
In this interview, Fadeley discusses her marriage to Ed Fadeley, talks about their reasons for moving to Eugene, Oregon, in 1954, and speaks about raising a family while working as an elementary school teacher. She discusses Ed Fadeley's career as a lawyer and his service in the Oregon State Legislature, and talks about working as his secretary. She then discusses her own service in the Oregon House of Representatives from 1971 to 1981, including the challenges she faced as a woman campaigning for office, and how attitudes towards women in politics changed during her legislative career. She talks about legislation she worked on regarding women's rights, including her role in Oregon's ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and legislation to improve the social safety net for women. She shares her experience of studying journalism at the University of Oregon in the 1970s, and discusses her failed 1980 re-election campaign. She closes the interview by talking about her role in the passage of SB 100, Oregon's landmark land-use legislation.
Copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: Creative Commons - BY-NC-SA,