An oral history interview with Ann Purcell

              WISCONSIN
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
An Oral History Interview with
ANN PURCELL
Interviewer: .Anita Hecht, Life History Services
Recording Date: October 22, 2010
Place: Brooklyn, New York. Length: 2.0 hours
Ann Purcell was raised in Washington, DC. She graduated from St. Mary's Academy, a private Catholic
girl's school. She received a B.A. from George Washington University and, in 1995, an M. A. from New
York University from the Draper School of Interdisciplinary Studies of the Humanities and Social
Thought.
In 1964, she took a position on Capitol Hill as a receptionist in Sen. William Proxmire's office. .After six
months, she was appointed his personal secretary and a legislative aide. She wrote human rights and other
speeches, radio scripts, and legislative position papers and correspondence. For the 1970 campaign she
did varied and extensive campaign work including co-producing and writing 26 TV films and radio
campaign commercials.
Purcell recalls that Sen. Proxmire had a knack for picking excellent staff. 'The Senator was always open,
professional, non-sexist, and non-discriminatory, and kind to his staff," she said. She remained in his
office through his 1970 campaign.
She later worked on the Presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern. She eventually moved to
New York and became a professional artist whose paintings are in many museums and important private
collections.
Ms. Purcell was invited to copy-edit this transcript and made a number of small changes.
Scholarly researchers may want to listen to the original audio file, which is available by
contacting askarchives@wisconsinhistorv.org or submitting feedback from this page.
Ann Purcell Transcript 1 Proxmire Oral History Project