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Fannie <I>Mooney</I> Sellins

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Fannie Mooney Sellins

Birth
Death
26 Aug 1919 (aged 46–47)
Brackenridge, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA
Burial
Arnold, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
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American Union Organizer.

After the death of her husband, Charles Sellins, this widowed mother of four worked in a garment factory in St. Louis and there helped organize Local #67 of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union. She later worked for the United Mine Workers of America in West Virginia, then in Western Pennsylvania. It is thought that her success was attributable to the fact that she realized that the backing of the miner's wives was crucial to the formation of unions and the success of a strike. She also recruited many black workers originally brought North as strikebreakers. On the eve of a nationwide steel strike, a confrontation occurred between workers and company guards of the Allegheny Coke and Coal mine at Brackenridge, and she was brutally murdered, along with miner Joseph Starzelski. Although her killers were acquited, she remains, for many, a symbol of sacrifice and devotion to the union cause.

American Union Organizer.

After the death of her husband, Charles Sellins, this widowed mother of four worked in a garment factory in St. Louis and there helped organize Local #67 of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union. She later worked for the United Mine Workers of America in West Virginia, then in Western Pennsylvania. It is thought that her success was attributable to the fact that she realized that the backing of the miner's wives was crucial to the formation of unions and the success of a strike. She also recruited many black workers originally brought North as strikebreakers. On the eve of a nationwide steel strike, a confrontation occurred between workers and company guards of the Allegheny Coke and Coal mine at Brackenridge, and she was brutally murdered, along with miner Joseph Starzelski. Although her killers were acquited, she remains, for many, a symbol of sacrifice and devotion to the union cause.


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  • Created by: KLF
  • Added: Sep 1, 2008
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/29470046/fannie-sellins: accessed ), memorial page for Fannie Mooney Sellins (1872–26 Aug 1919), Find a Grave Memorial ID 29470046, citing Union Cemetery, Arnold, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, USA; Maintained by KLF (contributor 46954712).