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Sadie L. White
Born: 1901 in Bolton, VT
Died: January 2, 1999
Religion: Catholic
Ethnicity: Franco-American
Primary Residence: Burlington, Vermont
Sadie Lucy White (Tatro) was born in Bolton, Vermont in 1901. One of seven children, she grew up on a dairy farm near Underhill, Vermont. She attended school at a one-room schoolhouse through 10th grade, when she left home to work as a weaver at the American Woolen Company mill in Winooski, Vermont. White began running one loom in 1917, and worked at the mill until it closed in 1954, at which point she was running six looms at once.[1] After the mill closed, she worked briefly as a pastry and meat cook, and then pursued her career in politics.
White met her husband, William H. White, in the weaving room. The couple was married on September 7, 1923 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington, of which she was a life-long member. White’s husband, a veteran of World War I, was gassed during the war, giving him life-long stomach pain, and helping shape Sadie White’s consciousness of veteran’s issues.[2] He also helped to organize a union at the mill in 1943, and served as president of the Textile Workers Union of America (CIO-TWUA), which spurred the organization of unions throughout Vermont.[3] William White died of a stroke in 1975.
Sadie White became involved in politics while she worked at the mill, as a labor organizer, a volunteer for the VFW, and as an inspector of elections. In 1965, at the urging of a mentor, State Senator Jack O’Brien, Sadie White campaigned for a seat as state representative from Burlington’s Ward 3. A longtime resident of Blodgett Street, White’s Old North End and downtown constituents elected her, and she served until 1984, with the exception of a term on the Burlington City Council from 1981-1982.
Though a Democrat, White was fiscally conservative. Her issues included expanded at-home nursing, care for veterans, the elderly, and the disabled, and supporting and protecting the poor in her Old North End neighborhood. One of her major accomplishments was redirecting the Beltline highway proposed in 1968. White worked doggedly to change the Beltline’s planned route, saving more than 20 houses in an Old North End neighborhood from destruction. White was a staunchly independent politician, but retained powerful friends such as Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders. She had a history of winning close elections only when absentee ballots – those of the elderly and disabled – were tallied after she collected them personally.[4]
When Sadie White served on the Burlington City Council in 1981 and 1982, she broke ranks with Democrats and used her considerable political influence to support Bernie Sanders in 1981 in his successful run for mayor.[5] She was also a member of the Burlington Senior Citizens Club, American Legion Auxiliary, president of the VFW Ladies Auxiliary, the Order of Women Legislators, and Chittenden County Democratic Women. At the end of her last term in 1984, Sadie White, at 82, was the oldest serving member of the House of Representatives. She also served as a Justice of the Peace for over 20 years.
In the 1990s, Sadie White was honored by a variety of political figures. Senator Patrick Leahy and then Representative Bernie Sanders entered statements about her into the Congressional Record in 1992, and she was honored by the Vermont Labor History Society in 1993. Peter Clavelle, then mayor of Burlington, declared August 29, 1992 Sadie White Appreciation Day.[6] White died in 1999 at age 98.
[1] Paula Routly, “Sadie White – At 91, She’s seen it all in Burlington Politics,” Vermont Times. Reprinted in Congressional Record, Proceedings and Debates of the 102d Congress, Second Session. Washington, DC: Friday, August 7, 1992. Vol. 138, No. 116. Sadie L. White Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
[2] Rae Ellen Bradley, “Biographical Sketch.” Intermezzo: 14 Vermont women discuss works in progress: the composition of their lives. Newswriting, Fall 1995, Professor M.J. Alexander, St. Michaels College. Sadie L. White Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
[3] Roberta Strauss, “Winooski Union Victory in ’43 Significant to Vermont.” In Krawitt, Laura, ed. The Mills at Winooski Falls: Illustrated Essays and Oral Histories. Winooski, Vermont: Onion River Press, 2000, 171-176.
[4] Boston Sunday Globe. Sunday, June 10, 1984. Sadie L. White Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
[5] Boston Sunday Globe. Sunday, June 10, 1984. Sadie L. White Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
[6] Appreciation Events, 1992-1993. Sadie L. White Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
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