MOUNT OLIVE, Ill. (AP) — The monument to “the grandmother of all agitators” in Mount Olive has been rededicated. Mary Harris “Mother” Jones requested burial among the rank-and-file workers in the Union Miners Cemetery when she died in 1930.
The (Springfield) State-Journal Register reports that more than $76,000 was collected to restore the 22-foot pink Minnesota granite obelisk erected in 1936.
A state grant and donated labor helped spruce up the rest of the site. Visitors to the Saturday ceremony included U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat who has suggested Mother Jones replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill.
Jones was a labor activist who organized strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World. Mount Olive is planning a Mother Jones museum in a building housing city offices.