Fran Leeper Buss

Fran Leeper Buss (March 1942–July 2022) was an American oral historian, ordained minister, author, teacher, social worker, photographer and feminist.

She gained a teaching degree from the University of Iowa in 1964[3] and a Master of Divinity from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado.

Firstly, while living in Las Vegas, Buss interviewed Jesusita Aragon, a traditionally trained midwife.

Often living at a distance from the women she wanted to interview, she sorted out a system of visits throughout the USA involving a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a secondhand camera and an old car.

Based on the transcripts of interviews with these two women, Buss published Forged under the Sun/ Forjada bajo el sol: The Life of Maria Elena Lucas (1993) The University of Michigan Press[18][19][20] and Moisture of the Earth: Mary Robinson, Civil Rights and Textile Union Activist (2009) University of Michigan Press 978-0472065875.

Having medical problems, she consulted a doctor and had an unnecessary and botched hysterectomy which left her in debilitating pain for years.

[26] Buss died in July 2022 and is survived by her second husband, three children, seven grandchildren, her sisters, her brother and many nephews and nieces.