In 1968, speaking before a group of teachers, Senator Tom Eagleton looked out over the audience and stated, “I know only one teacher here and that’s Lorna Bottger from Paris, Missouri. Now, where were all of the rest of you during my campaign?”
That teacher was a charter member of MNEA. Lorna was at the forefront of political action for teachers and public education throughout her professional life. She was the “voice crying in the wilderness” for teachers and school children for years. In her half-century of political work, her impact was felt from the schoolhouse to the statehouse to the White House.