Anne Nicol Gaylor was 88 years old, when she died late Sunday at a hospice in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Gaylor propelled the creation of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1976 and served as its president until 2004. It went national in 1978 and claims 23,000 members today. The organization has continuously launched legal actions to keep religion and government separate and prevailed, for instance, at having Wisconsin's Good Friday holiday declared unconstitutional.
Gaylor also fought for abortion rights and helped start programs to benefit indigent women.
She was born in Tomah, earned an English degree from UW-Madison, married and had four children. One of them, Annie Laurie Gaylor has remained in a leadership position with the foundation.
According to a release from the group, Gaylor will be buried in Sparta with a tombstone she ordered reading: “Feminist – activist – freethinker.”