Sadly, Skip Drumm took her last breath around 5 pm today, July 1, 2023. What follows is a description of her life. Skip DeeAnna Drumm, an only child née Mary Evelyn Spivey, was born on September 23, 1938, in Savannah, Georgia. Around age 6, she and her parents moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she lived through college graduation. She was raised Southern Baptist and tutored by her parents in the racist and sexist culture of the time. She attended Westhampton College majoring in sociology, and it was a sociology professor who opened her eyes to a wider acceptance of others. Skip’s professional career as a social worker involved a variety of activities that put her values into action. She worked as a hospital social worker, in a battered women’s shelter, in a half-way house for recovering women, and retired from the NJ Department of Health, HIV/AIDS Division, where she supervised AIDS services grantees. Skip’s first marriage of 12 years ended in 1974 when her then-husband unexpectedly called her at work to say he had moved out. A co-worker invited Skip to her home that evening and introduced her to the National Organization for Women (NOW). From that point on, NOW focused her political activities. She was a chapter president on and off for years and attended the NOW National Conference almost every year from 1975 until the COVID pandemic. An interview with Skip on her feminist work can be found here: https://now-nj.org/2020/10/16/skip-drumm-alan-gross/. There is a short dramatization of one of Skip’s experiences, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxhQfa5iwAk. Skip was also included among 2220 biographies published in Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975, edited and published by Barbara J. Love, 2006, p 124-5, a copy of which is appended below. Skip met Alan Gross in late 1980, and they had their first date, square dancing of course, on January 12, 1981. Over 18 years later, they married on June 12, 1999. Skip was an avid dancer enjoying square dancing, round dancing (stylized, non-competitive ballroom dancing), and of course, social dancing. Skip continued dancing until her physical condition made it impossible, which coincided with the onset of the pandemic. Skip suffered from lung issues and age-related degenerative issues. In December, 2021, she got to the point that she could no longer stand, even holding on. And she continued to get weaker month by month until she breathed her last on July 1, 2023. Skip is survived by her husband, Alan Gross, two step-children, Jeremy Westerfield and Hillary Gross, and a niece from her first marriage who kept in touch, Amy Drum. From Feminists Who Changed America, 1963-1975, edited by Barbara Love, p124-125: Drumm, Skip DeeAnna (also known as Evelyn Drum) A member of NOW since 1974, Drumm has been an elected delegate to NOW national conferences each year since 1975; served as president of Somerset County (NJ) NOW (1976 and 1977); and president of Middlesex Count NOW (1994 and 1995). From 1980 – present (2004), she has been a NJ NOW state board delegate, and helped plan the NJ NOW Stand UP for Choice rally in Trenton (2000). Drumm helped establish a rape crisis center at Raritan Valley Hospital (1975), and founded and co-facilitated a battered women’s support group (1976-1979). Drumm chaired the women’s bodies women’s health NJ NOW committee (1976 and 1977), participated in the White House ERA vigil (1976), and was a delegate from NJ to the National Women’s Year Conference in Houston (1977). From 1978-1985, she founded and facilitated a personal growth group for divorced women. She has worked aggressively to support women’s right to choose, including infiltrating (1991) the Right to Life and Army of God’s Operation Goliath in Dobbs Ferry, NY, a weeklong effort to shut down all the abortion clinics in the area. Drumm posed as an anti-choice rescuer, then funneled information back to the clinic defenders. From 1991-2000 she attended the NJ Right to Life annual convention as a mole, and from 1994-1996 attended the NJ Committee For Life in the same capacity. In 1991 Drumm founded the Amethyst Circle of Sisters, a Dianic Wiccan Coven, and continues to serve as high priestess. In 2000 Drumm attended the LGBT March on Washington. She earned her B.A. (1961) from Westhampton College, University of Richmond.

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