Wide Awake Woman: Josephine Roche in the Era of Reform

When Josephine Roche challenged Big Ed Johnson for the Colorado governorship in1934, an editorialist wrote: "Miss Roche has proved beyond a doubt that a wide-awake woman is more valuable than a drowsy man." She lost the election, but the sentiment remained true. As a mining executive, Roche helped end decades of labor strife. As a New Deal policy maker, she helped frame the Social Security Act, and as director of the United Mine Workers Welfare and Retirement Fund, she helped create and administer a boldly ambitious employee benefits program. "My hobby is humanity," Roche once declared, but that understated the case. Helping humanity was her crusade and her passion — as this first-ever Roche biography illustrates.