Mary Jean Tully, 78; Feminist Headed the Legal Fund for NOW
Mary Jean Crenshaw Tully, 78, a feminist leader and activist who once headed the Legal Defense and Education Fund for the National Organization for Women, died Dec. 27 in Westchester, N.Y., of a heart attack.
Born at Ft. Sill, Okla., Tully attended Stanford and the universities of Texas and Chicago before earning a master’s degree in sociology at Wayne State University in Detroit.
She was a dedicated member of NOW, having founded the Westchester chapter before she worked for the national organization.
Tully served as co-editor of NOW’s newsletter before becoming president of its powerful legal fund.
In the 1970s, she helped launch a NOW advertising campaign with the catchy reverse-psychology slogan: “Hire Him. He’s Got Great Legs.”
She later started a feminist oral history project at Harvard that inspired her to found another group, the Veteran Feminists of America. Tully was one of the first members of the New York State National Women’s Political Caucus.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
