Bridie Letzer, 78; Former Political Prisoner, Civil Rights Activist

Bridie Letzer, 78, who as a teenager was imprisoned in her native Belfast for possessing a political leaflet and later became a crusader for civil rights there and in the U.S., died June 25 in Northridge of undisclosed causes.

In 1939, the 15-year-old watched her brother sent to prison by the British in their native Northern Ireland. Soon afterward, someone handed her a leaflet denouncing such internments and demanding the release of those jailed for no crime. The flier was found in her pocket, and she was sentenced to three years at hard labor in a women’s prison. Only the ability of the Irish people to laugh, help each other and hope, Letzer often said, enabled her to keep her dignity and endure the suffering.

After she came to Los Angeles in 1946 as the bride of an American soldier, she became a leader among Southern California’s Irish Americans and a staunch advocate for civil rights around the world. She went daily to the British Consulate to protest the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland. She also campaigned for fair employment practices by American companies doing business in Northern Ireland.

Letzer also protested apartheid in South Africa and worked for black and Latino rights in the U.S.