Martha Ballou (Martha Ballou)

Webster Groves High School

Class of 1964

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Martha Ballou - Class of 1964 - Webster Groves High School

First Name	Martha
Last Name	Ballou
Maiden Name	Ballou
Graduation Year	Class of 1964
Gender	Female
City	N/A
State/Province	NY
Country	United States
Occupation	Attorney
Married	Divorced
Favorite School Memory	Smoking and hanging out with "the group" after school. We thought we were very cool.
About Me	I had a ball. All my dreams came true and I lived the life I wanted to live. For 20 years after college I organized poor people and we generally fought utiility companies and won things like the Winter Shutoff rule. Then i became a political organizer and helped elect one of Minnesota's most progressive governors - Rudy Perpich. And i ran the state's Homeless and Hungry programs during the 19893 recession so no one froze to death. Then I worked on the farm crisis for the Ag Commissioner trying to renegotatie lower interest rates for farmers during that crisis. I went into law as a second career. Continued to work with low income, disadvantaged and abused women. Built a practice that did political work as well as law. We took on the Republicans when they had their convention in St. Paul in 1984 and put giant jumbotrons out and ran Frontline and Robert Greenwald films challanging them on the cooked books on Iraq and torture. Was an early straight supporter of gay marriage and made part of our practice gay family law to give same sex couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. We used contracts as the vehicle to accomplish this. Moved back to NYC fall 2012. This truly is like living in Oz. Everything is amazing and the show never stops. I came here for the ideas and the art, and my son is here working for Google. But this City draws talent from all over the world, so much is always abrewing. I was on the subway last night coming home and i was looking at the people on the opposite bench. They were (right to left) from Ethiopia (he was reading his paper in his language), Central American with Mayan ancestors, East Asian (could not tell if he was Japanese or Korean), Ireland, African American, and Jewish. This City is full of the whole world, Our common humanity is so palpable and obvious. My plan is to have my ashes thrown in the harbor so i can see the skyline and maybe catch a current out to sea and have more adventures. PS. The very best part of my life is being a mother to my wonderful son, Brendan (age 26), who is funny, handsome, brilliant, honorable and having a ...(read more)