[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 121 (Tuesday, October 3, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1652-E1653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING FLORENCE WALTON RICHARDSON WYCKOFF

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. SAM FARR

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 3, 2000

  Mr. FARR of California. Mr. Speaker, today I pay tribute to a woman 
who helped shape

[[Page E1653]]

the history of the State of California, and in the process touched the 
lives of countless individuals. Ms. Florence Walton Richardson Wyckoff, 
who would have been 95 this week, died in her sleep on September 20, 
2000 in her Watsonville, California home.
  Florence was born on October 5, 1905, to Leon J. Richardson and Maud 
Wilkinson Richardson in Berkeley, California. She earned a B.A. in fine 
arts at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1926, and it was 
there that she met her future husband, Hubert Coke Wyckoff. In 1931 
they married and moved to San Francisco, where Florence became involved 
with politics and what would become her life's work, activism. While in 
San Francisco, she worked with the San Francisco Theater Union and the 
National Consumers League for Fair Labor Standards. She also worked 
with the gubernatorial campaign of Cuthbert L. Olsen, and was appointed 
by Governor Olsen as Director of Community Relations for the California 
State Relief Administration. It was in this position that she began 
traveling and investigating the living conditions of farm laborers in 
this country.
  Shocked by the standards she saw, and by the lack of access to such 
basic necessities as education and healthcare for migrant workers, she 
became a powerful lobbyist for social change in these areas. During 
World War II, her husband, Hubert, recruited my father, the late 
Senator Farr, to work at his side in Washington, DC as a Deputy 
Administrator in the War Shipping Administration. While in Washington, 
Florence testified before congressional committees for minimum wages 
and public health improvements for farm workers. It was at this time 
that she also served on the Boards of Directors of the National 
Consumers League and Food For Freedom.
  After returning to California, she worked to begin the first 
citizen's health council in Santa Cruz County, and was appointed by 
Governor Earl Warren to the Advisory Committee on Children and Youth. 
She served on this board for twenty years under four governors, and 
worked to establish health-care clinics for farm workers along the 
migrant routes used in the nation. Additionally, she was appointed by 
Governor Edmund G. ``Pat'' Brown to the State Board of Public Health in 
1961, and it was during this time that Florence was integral to the 
creation and passage of the Federal Migrant Health Act, which remains 
in effect today.
  Never one to sit down when she was needed, she continued to work 
tirelessly almost until the day she passed away. She helped found 
organizations that would assist migrant children in attending college, 
and was a crusader in promoting reading and education among all 
children. Her last project was the successful recent opening of the 
Freedom Branch Library, which began as a small library for the children 
of migrant workers. Florence was also active in many organizations, 
including Migration, Adaptation in the Americas (MAIA), The Friends of 
the Freedom Library, The Corralitos Valley Community Council, the 
Coastal Resource Management Project, the Migrant Agricultural History 
Archive at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Santa Cruz 
County Community Foundation Board.
  I will really miss one of my late mother and father's best friends. I 
will miss her smile, charm, love for friends and never ending support 
and stories of my parents as young activists. As described to me, she 
was a leader in her life in creating a more compassionate and just 
society. We have lost a person of history who made this country a 
better place because of her deeds.
  Described by friends and family as ``tenacious and determined,'' 
``influential'' and ``caring,'' and ``A woman that made a difference,'' 
Florence Wyckoff will be sorely missed by her sister, Jane R. Hanks of 
North Bennington, Vermont, as well as the many nephews, nieces, friends 
and the California community, in general.

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