Elgin activist going strong at 76

If you drive over the Kimball Street bridge in downtown Elgin on any given Saturday, you'll likely spot 76-year-old Mary Shesgreen on the sidewalk, waving at drivers and holding signs proclaiming progressive causes.

Tax the rich. Stand up against racism. Support single-payer health care. Don't bomb North Korea.

Shesgreen has been doing that most Saturdays since October 2011 - that's 315 Saturdays - since the formation of Occupy Elgin, the local offshoot of the nationwide movement. Only rain or can't-miss political engagements will stop her from showing up.

"I don't try to personally argue or harangue people," she said. "I'll hand them a flyer, and I'll tell them what I feel and what I believe in."

A diminutive woman with a halo of white curls and an unassuming manner, Shesgreen, of Elgin, is well-known in the Fox Valley area for her indefatigable activism.

She leads Fox Valley Citizens for Peace and Justice and is involved in, to name a few, Northern Illinois Jobs with Justice, Save our Illinois Land and The Long Red Line, the Elgin version of the One Billion Rising movement fighting violence against women. The groups are fairly small - Fox Valley Citizens has about 20 active members - but Shesgreen is always busy researching issues, making connections, organizing meetings, going to events, maintaining listservs and creating handbills.

"(Activism) does take a lot of my time," she said. "More than my husband would like. But he is supportive."

Shesgreen was given the lifetime achievement award last week by the Community Crisis Center in Elgin.

"It's such a well-deserved award for someone who has worked tirelessly for so many efforts," said Maureen Manning, the center's director of client services.

Danise Habun, a member of the Elgin Human Relations Commission, agreed.

"She is a pure activist. She has it in her heart and in her soul. She believes in peace and justice in her soul, and she just pursues that," Habun said. "She's not afraid to speak truth to power."

Shesgreen grew up in Chicago's Avalon Park, where her father, Jim O'Gallagher, modeled tolerance and inclusion when she was a little girl. Unlike some other residents in their Irish neighborhood, he was welcoming to the first black family to move there, she recounted.

She graduated from Loyola University and taught English in high schools and - after she earned a master's degree - at Waubonsee Community College. She then found her passion in psychotherapy. She became a licensed marriage and family therapist, running a private practice for 30 years until 2011. "It was fun, interesting, meaningful," she said.

She was involved in the women's movement and the anti-Vietnam War effort, and became interested in social justice via her therapy work, she said. She found her political stride around 50 when she joined the Fox Valley Pledge of Resistance. "It was like, 'Aha! Kindred spirits,'" she said.

Deirdre Shesgreen said she admires her mother's commitment to her causes.

"It's fantastic. I'm so glad she's so engaged," she said. "We talk every Sunday and she runs through everything that she's done that week ... and I'm always amazed. I don't have the stamina to be at the corner at the Occupy protest in minus-20 degrees Illinois weather. I'm definitely in awe of her stamina."

Shesgreen is an inspiration to many, said longtime friend Sally Brown of Lake Barrington. She encourages people to inform themselves and "leads by suggestion, with kindness," Brown said.

"At a meeting where everyone is riled up or angry about something, she manages to prevail in a rational, 'What do we do now?' kind of way. She doesn't raise her voice or play on people's angry emotions."

Has her activism made a difference? That's impossible to measure, Shesgreen answers.

"Sometimes I meet somebody who tells me that they became an activist because of something I said or did long ago. But who knows?"

Her outlook on the future is bleak. There's been progress, at least in the United States, in women's equality, gay rights and mental health treatment, she said. But she believes the election of Donald Trump was a big blow, and there are the rising tides of inequality and damage to the environment.

"What's happening is catastrophic," she said. "We don't know if we've already reached the tipping point as far as climate change."

Her antidote to despair is precisely her activism - and doing yoga several times a week, she said.

"I joke and I say, 'I despair on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but I am hopeful on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,'" she said. "It kind of depends on which articles I have just read. Which people I have heard speak."

She has no plans to quit, but is slowing down to care for her husband, Tom Powers, who is ill, she said. "The activities are very energizing. The friendships that I have been able to share have been wonderful," she said. "We don't always agree, but we have meetings and we talk and we share ideas. We educate each other."

One thing she'll never do is reproach others for not getting involved, Shesgreen said.

"Most people are just struggling to survive ... I don't blame people or feel angry at people," she said. "I wish they would come out and join us, certainly. And when they do, it's wonderful."

Strong: Activist has no plans to quit