Judy Mathe Foley, longtime writer, editor, publisher, and social activist, has died at 81
She championed social justice and women’s rights, and helped shape the media landscape in Philadelphia for more than half a century. “She loved language the way artists love color,” friends and family said in a tribute.
Judy Mathe Foley, 81, of Philadelphia, longtime writer, editor, publisher, printer, media consultant, and tireless social activist, died Saturday, Jan. 27, of age-associated decline at her home in Spring Garden.
Driven to improve social justice, expand women’s rights, and influence other progressive causes in Philadelphia and across the country, and devoted to the craft of grassroots journalism, Ms. Foley wrote countless articles, stories, columns, essays, book reviews, and letters to the editor for The Inquirer, Daily News, and other local and national publications for more than half a century.
She was lured to Philadelphia after graduating from Pennsylvania State University in 1965 for a job as managing editor, reporter, and news editor for the Episcopalian, then the national publication of the Episcopal Church, and she oversaw its 24 regional editions and 250,000 readers for 22 years.
She also cofounded Distant Drummer, a local counterculture newspaper, in 1967 and, as owner of Ideas Into Print and Penitentiary Printing from 1988 to 2001, produced and printed many magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and brochures for local societies, associations, leagues, councils, universities, and organizations of all sorts.
“Judy was a wordsmith,” her family and friends said in a tribute. “She was a big communicator, maintaining rich daily email conversations and trading news articles, political cartoons, and life stories with many people.”
In the community, Ms. Foley worked on political campaigns and helped change laws to support women’s rights and other social justice issues. She served as vice president of public relations for the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women and chair of the public relations committee for the YWCA of Philadelphia.
She worked with activists Gloria Steinem and Ernesta Ballard, was a founding member of the Philadelphia Women’s Political Caucus, and active with the Mayor’s Committee for Century IV, the Bicentennial Women’s Center, and other civic groups. “She was a pioneer in so many ways,” said her sister Nancy. “And she pushed me along with her.”
Judith Mathe was born Feb. 15, 1942, near Laporte, Pa., about 53 miles northwest of Wilkes-Barre. Her mother, Elizabeth, was an artist, and Ms. Foley learned early to use words to express herself. “She loved language the way artists love color,” family and friends said.
She worked with her parents and sister at the family-owned Mokoma Inn near Lake Mokoma in Laporte, and they called her “Heidi who moved to the city” after she left for Philadelphia. At Penn State, she was a member of the Daily Collegian student newspaper and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1965.
She married Richard Foley in 1969, and they had son Timothy, and spent monthlong vacations in Paris and summers at their rustic cabin in Laporte. Her husband died in 2019.
Ms. Foley liked to garden and volunteered for many activities at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. She cooked stuffed cabbage rolls for her annual open house at Christmas and met often with friends for coffee and Saturday breakfast at Reading Terminal Market. She was a block captain for years, and her neighbors in Spring Garden called her “the beating heart of this community.”
She enjoyed crime novels, liked to reform waste material into new things, and was a whiz with a chainsaw. She shared her birthday with famed women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony and celebrated them both with a grand party in 1981.
Ms. Foley was witty and fun, friends said, and her business cards for Penitentiary Printing featured the motto: “When you’re up against the wall, we help you out.” Her husband bought her a T-shirt with words printed on it: “I just started talking, and I just can’t stop.”
She hung out with other journalists and night owls at all-night diners after putting her publications to bed. Her final writing project was a history of Laporte for the town’s enhancement committee.
“She has left everyone who was lucky enough to have known her enriched and loved and strengthened,” family and friends said. “She has left a huge Judy-shaped hole in all of our hearts.”
Services were private.
Donations in Ms. Foley’s name may be made to the Laporte Volunteer Fire Company, 114 Maple St., Laporte, Pa. 18626.