Ann M. Shepherd PFLAG papers

Collection

Identifier: Coll 1096

Staff Only

Content Description

The collection consists of material compiled by Ann Shepherd relating to her involvement with the Portland, Oregon chapter of PFLAG. Items include Portland PFLAG newsletters edited by Shepherd, advertisements and brochures for fundraisers and events, and photocopies of articles and newspaper clippings written by or featuring Shepherd or her daughter, activist Susie Shepherd. Many of the clippings deal with efforts to pass legislation supporting gay rights in Oregon in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection also includes copies of Portland gay weeklies Just Out and City Weekly, and a 1986 issue of Newsweek magazine featuring a story titled "Growing Up Gay."

Dates

Creation: 1977-1999

Creator

Shepherd, Ann, 1918-2003 (Compiler, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical note

Ann Shepherd was born Ann Robart Marcotte in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1918. In 1926, she moved with her family to Evansville, Indiana, and in 1935, the family moved to Portland, Oregon. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, then completed a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Missouri in 1940. She returned to Oregon and worked as a journalist for the Bend Bulletin and for the Telephone Register. In 1942, she was hired by the Oregon Journal, a Portland newspaper. In 1944, she married William Kemp Shepherd, and they later had five children. From 1944 to 1945, Ann Shepherd served in the U.S. Coast Guard. She then returned to her job at the Oregon Journal for another year before leaving the workforce to raise a family. In the late 1970s, she served on the 12-member Task Force on Sexual Preference, launched by Governor Bob Straub in 1976 to conduct research and recommend actions the state could take to provide equal civil rights for gay and lesbian people. In 1977, she co-founded the group Parents of Gays in Portland, which became a chapter of PFLAG (then Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) in 1982. She was active in lobbying the Oregon State Legislature and other Oregon government officials on gay rights. She died in 2003.

Sources: Vital records on Ancestry.com; oral history interview with Ann Shepherd, Oregon Historical Society Research Library; "The Governor's Task Force on Sexual Preference: What's It All About?" by Oral Bullard, Oregonian, Northwest Magazine, February 6, 1977, Page 12; "State Gay Community Loses Mother Figure," Oregonian, January 8, 2003, Page D9; "Rediscovering Family: The Ann and Bill Shepherd family," by George T. Nicola, Oregon Queer History Collective website, January 26, 2018 (accessed September 2025), https://www.glapn.org/6060RDFShepherd.html

Historical note

PFLAG, formerly known as Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, was founded in 1972 in New York City by Jeanne Milford, and supports LGTBQ+ people and their families. The Portland chapter was started in 1977, when two couples, Ann and Bill Shepherd and Rita and Charles Knapp, founded a support group named Parents of Gays. This group joined the PFLAG National Network in 1982.

Sources: "PFLAG - Our History," PFLAG website, https://pflag.org/our-history/; "PFLAG Portland - Our History," PFLAG Portland website, https://pflagpdx.org/our-history/

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (2 folders in shared document case)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Collection consists of newsletters, publications, clippings, announcements, and other materials related to PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and gay rights issues. The materials were compiled by Ann Shepherd (1918-2003), who was the co-founder of the Portland, Oregon chapter of PFLAG.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Ann Shepherd, July 1999 (Lib. Acc. 23914).

Related Materials

Other materials at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library relating to Ann Shepherd and the Portland chapter of PFLAG include an oral history interview with Shepherd, SR 4141; an oral history interview with Shepherd's daughter Susie Shepherd, SR 4150, available online in OHS Digital Collections at https://digitalcollections.ohs.org/sr-4150-oral-history-interview-with-susie-shepherd; the Shepherd family papers, Mss 2988-15; and the Parents & Friends of Lesbians and Gays Portland Chapter Records, Mss 2988-25.