Freedom From Religion founder Anne Nicol Gaylor dies [View all]
Anne Nicol Gaylor, one of the founders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, died Sunday.
Gaylor, 88, formed the group with her daughter Annie Laurie Gaylor in 1976 in Madison and is credited with expanding the small group to a large national association of atheists and agnostics while serving as its president from 1978 to 2004.
The foundation often courted controversy and filed lawsuits challenging religion in schools, government and social programs.
She died at a Fitchburg hospice after she was hospitalized May 30 following a fall at her Madison apartment, according to a news release posted Monday on the Freedom From Religion Foundation website.
Gaylor grew up in rural Tomah and began first grade at the age of 4 in a one-room school. She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and earned an English degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1949, the same year she married Paul J. Gaylor.
She started the first private employment agency in Madison that she sold in 1966 and became editor of the Middleton Times-Tribune. Gaylor wrote a book called "Abortion Is a Blessing" and edited "The World Famous Atheist Cookbook."
No memorial service will be held, at her request. And her tombstone in her family's plot in Sparta will be inscribed "Feminist — activist — free thinker."
She is survived by her children, Andrew, Ian, Annie Laurie and Jamie, brother Tom Nicol and grandchildren.
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