Eileen Anderson, Flamboyant Protest Candidate, Dies at 65

Eileen Anderson, the perennial political protest candidate who, through her abbreviated costumes, flaming red hair and marathon dancing, became recognized as one of the city’s truly free spirits, has died.

Her daughter, Lisa Andreson, said the outgoing Irish-English immigrant who delivered her message via song and dance outside public buildings in Downtown Los Angeles died Sunday of cancer in a Studio City convalescent home. She was 65.

She began her protest performances, her daughter said, after being seized by Secret Service agents while trying to dance an Irish jig for presidential candidate Hubert H. Humphrey during a Los Angeles campaign stop in 1972.

For the next 16 years she could be found--primarily at Temple and Main streets during afternoon rush hour--bopping to an imaginary beat.

She became a unique part of the Downtown culture. Motorists would honk and wave, and she would return their greetings but without interrupting what appeared to be perpetual motion.

She also became one of the so-called Rodney Dangerfield candidates on the local political scene--men and women who doggedly pursued public office but didn’t get much respect (and fewer votes). Her most recent foray into public life came this year when she was one of 24 candidates for Los Angeles mayor. That was her 17th run for office, and her 1993 platform centered on using lottery money to hire more police officers.

She had begun calling herself a “dancing landmark” and had proved a breath of fresh air through many mean-spirited campaigns for Congress, City Council, district attorney and other offices.

Mrs. Anderson had trained as a dancer and model, and she managed to care for a husband and three children despite her political efforts. She never was known to point a finger at any of her dozens of opponents and never appealed to fear. Campaign funding never became an issue either: What little she spent was provided by friends and family.

There also was a refreshing consistency to the theme of her campaign statements and songs: Peace, love and understanding were her goals.

“Show love to the people,” was to be her first official act as mayor had she won this year.

Show it even to those homeless people who had trailed and mocked her as she walked from her car to her daily performance sites, forcing her in 1988 to abandon her afternoon terpsichorean triumphs?

Most particularly for them, she replied.