Betty Wagner Spandikow: Difference between revisions
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'''Betty Redmond Wagner Spandikow''' ( |
'''Betty Redmond Wagner Spandikow''' (September 27, 1923 — October 26, 2008) was a founder of the [http://www.llli.org/Release/BettyWagnerSpandikow.html La Leche League (aka LLL; LLLI)]. She was a co-author of ''The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding'', which has been translated into eight languages and [[Braille]]. |
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She was born in 1923 to a Roman Catholic family and raised in the [[Chicago]] area. She worked in the field of accounting before starting her family. In 1956, she and six other women met in [[Franklin Park, Illinois]] to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies. The group quickly attracted the attention of other women and became an organization called “La Leche League”. |
She was born in 1923 to a Roman Catholic family and raised in the [[Chicago]] area. She worked in the field of accounting before starting her family. In 1956, she and six other women met in [[Franklin Park, Illinois]] to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies. The group quickly attracted the attention of other women and became an organization called “La Leche League”. |
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Revision as of 21:45, 29 April 2010
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Betty Redmond Wagner Spandikow (September 27, 1923 — October 26, 2008) was a founder of the La Leche League (aka LLL; LLLI). She was a co-author of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, which has been translated into eight languages and Braille.
She was born in 1923 to a Roman Catholic family and raised in the Chicago area. She worked in the field of accounting before starting her family. In 1956, she and six other women met in Franklin Park, Illinois to share information on how to successfully breastfeed their babies. The group quickly attracted the attention of other women and became an organization called “La Leche League”.
The breastfeeding support group had been fascinated by the importance placed on breastfeeding by early Spanish settlers in America who, in 1598, dedicated a shrine to “Nuestra Senora de la Leche y Buen Parto” (“Our Lady of Happy Delivery and Plentiful Milk”). From these roots grew La Leche League International, a breastfeeding support not-for-profit organization.
The LLLI now has groups in every U.S. state and in 64 nations. Betty Wagner Spandikow was a member of the Board of Directors for the League, and at various times served as Treasurer, Business Manager, and Executive Director, a title she held for 19 years until she retired at age 70. She initiated "flex hours" and a family-friendly workplace in the 1960s, long before they became commonplace. The business hours at La Leche League International were flexible to facilitate new mothers spending more after-school time with their children.[1]
Family
Her first husband, Robert Wagner, by whom she had seven children, died in 1975. Betty Wagner went on to marry Paul Spandikow.
Death
Betty Wagner Spandikow had suffered a stroke and been dealing with Alzheimer's disease at the time of her death at the age of 85 on October 26, 2008.