ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, NORTH DAKOTA

JANE FRAZER SUMMERS PAPERS

COLLECTION: OGL#1086

DATES: 1923 - 2002

SIZE: 1.25 linear feet

INTRODUCTION

ACQUISITION: The Jane Frazer Summers Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Jane Frazer Summers in January 1987 (Acc.#87-1498), on October 31, 1990 (Acc.#91-1734), and on May 3, 1996 (Acc.#96-2065). Additional material was deposited by her daughter, Anne Summers, Bismarck, North Dakota, on April 21, 2005 (Acc. #2005-2744).

ACCESS: Available for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.

RELATED COLLECTION: Lawrence Summers Papers, OGL#1484

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Rose Jane Frazer was born on August 13, 1923, to George P. and Myrtle Anne (Weir) Frazer, in Dalton, Kentucky. She graduated from Providence High School, in Providence, Kentucky, before her family moved to Barberton, Ohio.

Frazer attended Brenau College for Women in Gainesville, Georgia, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and music in 1945. She married Lawrence Summers at her family’s home in Barberton, Ohio, on March 16, 1947. Soon after, they moved to Ames, Iowa, so Larry Summers could finish his postgraduate studies at Iowa State University.

The couple moved to Grand Forks in 1950 when Larry Summers was hired as a faculty member in the chemistry department at the University of North Dakota. During the late 1950s, Jane Summers worked as an interviewer for the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. After her children, Anne and Edith, left home, she worked as a Realtor with Valley Park Realty in Grand Forks. She also managed the state motor vehicle license office in Grand Forks, and was employed part time in the Department of Special Collections at UND’s Chester Fritz Library.

Summers was a musician and supporter of the arts her entire life. She played violin and later viola in the Greater Grand Forks Symphony for 35 years and also served as a member of its board. She also played viola in the UND Faculty String Quartet during the 1960s and 1970s, and joined the Bismarck-Mandan Symphony for several concerts in the 1990s. She was an active member of the North Dakota Council on the Arts, in addition to raising funds for and volunteering at the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks.

Summers served as President of the Grand Forks League of Women Voters in 1952-53, and helped organize the North Dakota League of Women Voters. In 1958, the group was officially recognized and Summers acted as its first President. In the 1960s, she became active in the Democratic/Nonpartisan League. She was the first President of the Democratic Women of Grand Forks, in which she was active for many years. Summers was a member of the Executive Committee of the District Democratic Party for sixteen years, the State Democratic Policy Committee for five years, and the State Democratic Central Committee for three years. She was appointed to and served on the North Dakota Advisory Committee for the United States Civil Rights Commission for seventeen years.

Beginning in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, she lobbied the North Dakota Legislature on behalf of the North Dakota Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. She later lobbied for women and children's groups from Grand Forks. Jane Frazer Summers died on November 1, 2002, in Bismarck.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Jane Frazer Summers Papers date from 1923-2002, and consist primarily of correspondence. Included are letters that she wrote to her mother and father as well as correspondence received from her mother and father. Also included are letters from her daughters, Anne and Edith, plus letters from her husband, Larry, as well as letters from her sister, Georgana, and her friend Isla Ederstrom.

Also included is one folder of personal newspaper clippings, and two folders which relate to her political career. The first folder contains letters from President Jimmy Carter, North Dakota Governors Bill Guy, George Sinner, and Ed Schafer, and United States Senator Kent Conrad. Also included is an invitation to attend the 1993 Inauguration of President Bill Clinton and Al Gore. The second political folder contains material related to the North Dakota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. Material from her musical career with The Greater Grand Forks Symphony is also included.

44 photographs were separated and placed in the Photograph Collection.

BOX AND FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1
Folder

1. Personal newspaper clippings
2. Correspondence to her mother and father: 1942-54
3. Correspondence to her mother and father: 1955-91
4. Correspondence from her mother and father: 1947-78
5. Correspondence from her mother and father: 1980-96
6. Correspondence from her daughter, Edith: 1980-81
7. Correspondence from her daughters, Edith and Anne and Granddaughter Edith (also known as “Pretty”): 1971-95
8. Correspondence from her sister, Georgana: 1944-96
9. Correspondence from her husband, Larry: 1952,54,61, 1992-95
10. Correspondence from her friend, Isla Ederstrom: 1984-93
11. Correspondence from miscellaneous people
12. Christmas cards from miscellaneous people: 1960-93
13. Post cards from miscellaneous people: 1923, 1963-95
14. Political correspondence and pamphlets
15. American Civil Liberties Union
16. The Greater Grand Forks Symphony: 1964-70, 1981
17. Poem by Jill Ruckelshaus: 1977
18. Citizens for a Real Choice Leaflet: 1999
19. Memorial Service: 2002
20. Selection of Various Poems transcribed by Jane Frazer Summers: undated

SEPARATIONS RECORD

38 photographs were separated and placed in the Orin G. Libby Photograph Collection

One audio cassette tape, #2078, of Jane Frazer Summers' Memorial Service, dated November 9, 2002, was placed in the Audio Tape Collection.

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