Lonnie Nelson

Lonnie Nelson (1932–2014), also known as Madelon Nelson and Madelon S. Healy, was an American labor, peace, civil rights, social justice, and Indigenous peoples activist in Seattle, Washington in the United States.

Following her death in 2014, Nelson was described by the Rev. Harriett Walden, the founder of Seattle Mothers for Police Accountability, as someone who "never got discouraged."

"To the very last minute, she was still organizing. Sometimes people stop, or they give up or they say 'I'm done with this,' but that wasn't Lonnie's way."

Formative years and family Born as Madelon Sue Nelson on August 20, 1932, in Seattle, Washington in the United States, Lonnie Nelson was a daughter of Burt Gale Nelson and Alma Viola (Nickerson) Nelson. Her father, a leader of the Communist Party in the State of Washington, was one of the founders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

She then went on to attend Seattle Central Community College (now Seattle Central College) and subsequently followed her father into Communist Party work after joining the party in 1951.

Activism During the 1950s, Nelson helped to gather signatures for a petition drive in support of the Stockholm Appeal and helped to plan peace protests against negative positions taken by the United States government against Cuba and Vietnam. After traveling with her uncle to Spain as members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, she and her uncle were honored for their efforts there to fight the fascist policies of Francisco Franco. stated that tribes were entitled to half of the salmon catch each year. Nelson was arrested for civil disobedience during that campaign. Employed by Providence Hospital as a daycare worker during the 1980s, she joined the Service Employees International Union (SEIU Local 6) in 1985. She then helped to organize her fellow daycare workers and secure their representation by SEIU.

Nelson was also still involved with Seattle Mothers for Police Accountability at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Illness and death An active member of the Communist Party until she suffered a stroke in early February 2014, Nelson died at Seattle's Swedish Hospital on February 12 of that year. She was eighty-three years old.