CAROL CONNOLLY:

Carol Connolly (née McLellan), a lifelong resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota, was born in 1934. Connolly's first career was raising seven children born to her and husband John S. Connolly. Although active as a volunteer in many organizations during her twenty-one years of marriage, it was after divorcing in 1979 that Connolly's public life took on a higher profile. Throughout the years since then, Connolly has been variously known as a political candidate, activist, journalist, poet, and playwright.

An active DFL member, Connolly first became politically involved through the peace movement of the 1960s and the various campaign activities of her husband, who later became a Ramsey County District Court judge. In 1968 she volunteered for the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign and they became close friends. While a 1980 bid for a seat on the Saint Paul City Council was unsuccessful, Connolly remained politically involved over the years through fund raising for the campaigns for many other, mainly female, candidates.

Women's rights emerged as the focus of her civic and political activities, which included serving as co-chair of the Minnesota Women's Political Caucus and coordinating the Wonder Woman Foundation, a New York City-based organization which recognized and rewarded women over forty for heroic accomplishments, as well as work with numerous other feminist and women-centered organizations in the Twin Cities area. In 1977 Connolly was appointed to the St. Paul Human Rights Commission, where she served for nine years, five of them as chair. As the first woman ever appointed to the commission, she worked to bring women's causes to the forefront. Motivated by a desire to make sure that women would have a presence in the new industry, Connolly sought and received an appointment from the governor to the Minnesota Racing Commission when it was formed in 1983 and served as chair of the commission's affirmative action committee.

In addition to her civic and political activities, Connolly gained attention and acclaim for her literary accomplishments. She began writing poetry in 1976 by accident, when the fiction class she wanted to take was full. She signed up for a poetry class instead and published her first collection, Payments Due, in 1985. The poems were later adapted for a stage performance that played successfully to audiences in the Twin Cities and Los Angeles. In 1989 and 1991 she appeared as a stand-up comic in the Dudley Riggs Experimental Theatre Company (Minneapolis, Minn.) production entitled, What's So Funny About Being Female? From 1988 to 1991 she wrote a gossip column called Connections for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch newspaper. She also wrote for Mpls.-St. Paul, the Star Tribune, Minnesota Journal, and Ladies Home Journal. Connolly was also a political and gossip commentator for Barbara Carlson's radio show on AM 1500 KSTP. In 2006 Connolly was appointed the first poet laureate of Saint Paul, Minnesota by Mayor Chris Coleman.

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Materials date from 1927 to 2012, but primarily cover the period from the late 1970s to 2008. The collection is organized into series representing Connolly's activities in the St. Paul Human Rights Commission, her own and other political campaigns, women's organizations, other organizations, and her literary career, as well as personal papers.

There is no box 12.

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These records are divided into the following eight sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Carol Connolly and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession numbers: 12,841; 13,044; 13,285; 13,371; 13,554; 13,681; 14,221; 14,975; 15,058; 15,287; 15,657; 15,930; 16,063; 16,179; 16,536; 16,568; 16,822; 17,108; 17,276

Processing Information:

Processed by: Lara D. Friedman, June 1997.

Additions by: Lara D. Friedman, August 2002; Rich Arpi, December 2005; Meagan Kellom and Alex Kent, January 2011; Meagan Kellom, June 2011; David B. Peterson, November 2013 and June 2016

Processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with a Basic Project grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

Catalog ID number: 990017294410104294

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Connolly's nine years of service on the St. Paul Human Rights Commission (1977-1986) are represented by a series of files including minutes, memoranda, reports, and other related papers arranged chronologically. In addition to these general files, there are files documenting the commission's work on the issues of affirmative action, gay and lesbian rights, and discrimination against families with children in rental housing. Also of interest are materials relating to the commission's study of the St. Paul Human Rights Department, which was undertaken on the heels of a 1984 controversy surrounding criticisms directed at the state human rights department.

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Political papers in the collection consist of two major groups of material: files documenting Connolly's 1980 Saint Paul City Council campaign, and her fund raising and support for other political candidates. The latter are organized alphabetically by candidate name.

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Materials documenting Connolly's involvement in women's organizations and activities consist primarily of records from two groups. The Wonder Woman Foundation was a short-lived organization (1981-1986) founded by Warner Communications, Inc. and DC Comics, Inc. to honor heroic women over forty years of age. Connolly worked as a consultant to the foundation and coordinated its annual awards ceremony. Files include correspondence, publicity materials, awards programs, program scripts, and biographies of nominees. The materials focus primarily on the tasks of raising awareness of the foundation and its awards as well as fund raising.

The other major group of files in this series document Connolly's involvement in the Minnesota Women's Political Caucus, which she served as chair. These files include minutes, agendas, memoranda, correspondence, publicity, and other materials related to the organization's work of supporting female candidates for political office. Materials are mainly from the state-level branch of the organization but also include some items from the national and county organizations

Also extensively documented is the Women's Consortium, an association of feminist individuals and organizations devoted primarily to influencing legislation affecting women.

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The collection documents many other organizations and activities in which Connolly was involved. Files on artists and artistic groups include diverse materials such as programs and publicity for events around the Twin Cities, correspondence from a local book club, as well as a Guthrie Theatre script for Execution of Justice, a play concerning gay rights and the murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk. Also of particular interest are files relating to Project Interaction (PI House), a halfway house for women released from the state reformatory in Shakopee, Minnesota.

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A complete run of Connections, a gossip column written by Connolly for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch is included in the collection, along with related correspondence. Also available are copies of articles written for the magazine Mpls.-St. Paul.

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Payments Due is Connolly's first book of poetry first published in 1985 with a revised edition published in 1995. It was adapted into a stage play and performed in Los Angeles, California, and Minnesota.

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Personal papers in the collection include correspondence, invitations, financial papers, notebooks, and newspaper clippings documenting Connolly's activities, travels, family and social life, and wide acquaintance. A series of files containing correspondence, legal documents, and financial records provide extensive documentation of Connolly's divorce from John S. Connolly in the late 1970s. Transcripts of depositions given by Connolly and her husband in preparation for the divorce trial provide a detailed picture of the family's financial and other issues that arose during the divorce process. The personal papers also include a series of notebooks used by Connolly to plan her activities, jot down thoughts, and draft correspondence. Researchers should note that much of the material in these notebooks is written in shorthand.

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James A. Larson was Connolly's maternal grandfather and served in the Minnesota House of Representatives and as Assistant Secretary of State. Mary McLellan Mund was Connolly's aunt on her father's side. Russell was Mary's son and Clayton was her son-in-law.

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Connolly's publications of poetry are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society's print collection.

A videotaped 1993 interview with Carol Connolly for the PBS television show Northern Lights and Insights is separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society's sound and visual collections.

Records of the Minnesota Women's Political Caucus, 1971-1985, of which Connolly served as chair, are separately cataloged in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

Records of the Minnesota Racing Commission, many of which were collected and donated by commission member Connolly, are separately cataloged in the Minnesota State Archives.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topic Head:

Affirmative action programs -- Minnesota.

Arts -- Minnesota -- Twin Cities Metropolitan Area -- Societies, etc.

Discrimination in housing -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Divorce -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Electioneering -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Feminism -- Minnesota.

Feminists -- Minnesota -- Societies, etc.

Homosexuality -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Irish-Americans -- Minnesota -- Twin Cities Metropolitan Area -- Societies, etc.

Politics, Practical -- Minnesota.

Presidents (U.S.) -- Election -- 1968.

Presidents (U.S.) -- Election -- 1988.

Women -- Political activity -- Minnesota.

Women poets, American -- Minnesota.

Women prisoners -- Minnesota.

Women's rights -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Amundson, Roland C., author.

Bouza, Anthony V.

Brubaker, Clayton Kenneth, author.

Connolly, John Stevens.

Hodgson, Jane E.

Humphrey, Hubert H., 1942-.

Larson, James A.,

McCarthy, Eugene J., 1916-.

Mund, Russell Edward, author.

Organizations:

Coffee House Press, author

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota Programs for Victims of Sexual Assault.

Parents Anonymous of Minnesota.

Project Interaction (Saint Paul, Minn.).

Saint Paul (Minn.). City Council -- Elections -- 1979.

Saint Paul (Minn.). City Council -- Elections -- 1980.

Minnesota Women's Political Caucus, author.

Saint Paul Human Rights Commission, author.

SASE: The Write Place (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Wonder Woman Foundation, author.

Meridel Le Sueur Library Foundation (Minneapolis, Minn.), author.

Occupation:

Politicians -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

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