OGDEN – When Bettye Gillespie first moved to Ogden in the 1940s, around the time of her 13th birthday, the color of her skin prevented her from swimming in the city’s public swimming pool.
But Gillespie, who was black, refused to stand idly by and accept such injustice. Although Gillespie was still a teenager, Gillespie and several other members of Ogden’s Youth NAACP contacted the Ogden City Council because blacks were being denied access to the Lorin Farr Swimming Pool.
“We went to the … council meeting on the Lorin Farr Park swimming pool and some council members denied the discrimination,” said Gillespie in a 2014 oral lore published by Weber State University’s Special Collections Division. “As a result, I went home to get my swimsuit.”
Oral tradition goes on to tell Gillespie how she and two other NAACP youth marched to the pool on 17th Street, where all three were denied entry. The Standard Examiner reported on the incident, and while the guidelines at Lorin Farr did not change immediately, the WSU, then located on 25th Street, made their pool available to the Black Ogdenites.
The episode marked the beginning of Gillespie’s life’s work: speaking for the unheard of and helping them fight for change. The Ogden civil rights activist and lifelong black activist died on July 2nd. She was 93 years old.
Oral tradition says that Gillespie was born in Ft. Worth, Texas, but her family moved to Ogden after a friend of her father’s talked about the mountainous beauty of the city and the jobs in the area that were connected to the Union Pacific Railroad.
“I had heard of Utah, but I had never heard of Ogden and thought we were moving to Oregon,” said Gillespie.
She attended Central Middle School and graduated from Ogden High when she was 15. According to her obituary, she attended Howard University in Washington, DC for a while and later earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of Utah. She served as the director of the Equal Opportunities Office at Hill Air Force Base for 20 years. Gillespie and her husband Jim Gillespie were both well known on the Ogden civil rights scene, said Sarah Langsdon, director of special collections at WSU.
“Between her and her husband, Jim, they were really revolutionary about the NAACP,” Langsdon said. “After WWII, people came to Ogden from all over and they were part of the first group (the NAACP) that really got going here. If you talk about the civil rights movement, they really are one of the most powerful “influential people Ogden has ever had.”
Jim Gillespie served as the director of the Ogden NAACP for more than 30 years and together the two were members of the organization for life. According to her obituary, Glllespie was known for leading voter registration drives and often taking her own young children door-to-door to register voters.
Adrienne Andrews, WSU’s chief diversity officer and Gillespie’s step-granddaughter, said when she turned 18 she was pushed to register too.
“I had just turned 18 and she invited me,” Andrews recalled. “She told me that people died for my right to vote and that I have to take it seriously.”
Gillespie was also actively involved in Ogden’s Your Community Connection Family Crisis Center, the League of Women Voters and Habitat for Humanity, where she served as president. In 1996 she was appointed to the Utah State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Commission. She served on the University of Utah’s Board of Trustees from 1974 to 1981, the first black to receive such an appointment.
Betty Sawyer, who serves as the coordinator for community engagement for access and diversity at WSU and currently president of the Ogden NAACP, first met Gillespie in the 1970s.
“I was just in awe of her,” Sawyer said. “She always had a special presence that made her intimidating, but when you got to know her, you felt like she was your mother or your aunt.”
Sawyer and Andrews continue to carry the civil rights torch that Gillespie lit decades ago as both are heavily involved in civil rights affairs in Ogden and beyond.
“I credit Mrs. Gillespie and people like her for the fact that I’m here today,” Sawyer said.
Andrews said it was important to recognize pioneers like Gillespie because they provide inspiration and a concrete roadmap for the changes needed.
“She was an amazing woman,” said Andrews. “She did things in her life that seemed unachievable at the time. She set an example of what was possible for many of the people who came after her.”
A tour of Gillespie will take place Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm at Myers Mortuary, 845 Washington Blvd. in Ogden. A celebration of life takes place on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 2374 Grant Ave.
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