Elizabeth Jane Pearson
died at the age of 86 at Hillcrest Parkside in Hibbing, MN on September 30, 2010. She was born in Ithaca, NY on April 7, 1924. She graduated from Cornell University in 1946.
Most of her adult life she lived in Albany, NY. She worked vigorously and courageously for peace, justice and human rights both locally and internationally. She volunteered for Planned Parenthood for over 40 years. She also volunteered for American Friends Service Committee, AAUW, Cornell Women’s Club, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Save the Pine Bush, Mediation Matters, Capital Area Council of Churches, Alternatives to Violence Program, and Christian Peace Makers Team and many other organizations. In 1993 she was a founding board member of the Nippozan Myohoji Buddhist Peace Pagoda, Grafton NY.
She took part in national and international walks for Peace and Justice. She was present at the March on Washington, following Martin Luther King in 1963.
In 1976 she organized a walk for peace and justice from Albany NY to Washington, D.C. In 1992 she walked from Panama City, Panama to Washington, D.C. to bring focus to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. She walked from Auschwitz to Hiroshima in 1995 on The Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life in remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps in Europe and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Her social justice work took her to Haiti, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Palestine, Iraq, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. She was a facilitator in the Restorative Justice Program and in 2001 she was presented with the Victor A. Lord Courage of Convictions Award.
She was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) in Albany for 50 years.
She is survived by her two children Kathleen Lee Stewart (Karl Hansen) of Grand Marais, MN and Richard P. Millard of Troy, AL. She has three grandchildren, Laurel Alison Stewart, Rachel Leigh D’Aiuto (Peter), Emily Elizabeth Thomas (Peter); four great-grandchildren, Ryan Stewart, Dina D’Aiuto, Lisa D’Aiuto, and Monica D’Aiuto. She has four step great-grandchildren. She is also survived by six nieces and nephews and many foster children and grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her brother Edward Pearson, and sister Mary Ellen Brandis. Memorial donations may be made in her name to the Albany Friends Meeting, 727 Madison Ave., Albany, NY 12208
There will be a memorial worship held at The Albany Friends Meeting in Albany, NY at a later date.
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