EMMA LOU EASTMAN LITTLE

Nov. 25, 1923 – July 10, 2015

Born soon after women earned the right to vote, Emma Lou Little relished politics. She loved President Obama because he restored honor to the State of Illinois, delivered intelligent speeches and listened to his wife. Emma Lou’s father took her as a child to see each president who visited the Midwest. At her wedding reception, a friend was deputized to keep her father, a staunch Republican, away from her father-in-law, a Milwaukee socialist. There was some fear a fight would break out over three initials... FDR.

Emma Lou was elected as a Republican to the Winthrop Harbor School Board when she was a young mother, but settled in comfortably voting Democrat with her husband, splitting the difference between their fathers. She liked liberal Democrats and voted happily for Senator Durbin whenever she could. Over 90 years old and using a wheelchair, Emma Lou said she’d like to take her walker down and join the Occupy protesters. Emma Lou was antiauthoritarian at its finest and because she could vote, brought her views to the ballot box. If she lived until the 2016 primary she might have joined the over-90-year-old contingent voting for Bernie. Her father-inlaw would have been proud.

No tribute to a Midwestern girl would be complete without mention of her love of the land and her baseball team. Emma Lou went for the underdog in baseball too, wearing her Cubs socks proudly. In regards to the land, Emma Lou used to say, “If the topsoil is good, the leaves will show it.” She lived her life cultivating good topsoil and watering her gardens.

Susan Allen, daughter