Crystal Lee Sutton | Was real 'Norma Rae,' 68

Crystal Lee Sutton, 68, whose fight to unionize Southern textile plants was dramatized in the film

Norma Rae,

died Sept. 11 at a Raleigh, N.C., hospice after a long battle with brain cancer.

Actress Sally Field portrayed a character based on Ms. Sutton in the movie and won a best-actress Academy Award. Field said in a statement that Ms. Sutton was "a remarkable woman whose brave struggles have left a lasting impact on this country and without doubt, on me personally."

In 1973, Ms. Sutton was a 33-year-old mother of three earning $2.65 an hour folding towels at J.P. Stevens when a manager fired her for pro-union activity. In a final act of defiance before police hauled her out, Ms. Sutton, who had worked at the plant for 16 years, wrote UNION on a piece of cardboard and climbed onto a table on the plant floor. Other employees responded by shutting down their machines.

Bruce Raynor, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, worked with Ms. Sutton to organize the Stevens plants. In 1974, the Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union won the right to represent 3,000 employees at seven plants in North Carolina.

She became a nursing assistant in 1988 but was not able to work for several years because of illnesses. - AP