Once named "the most dangerous woman in America," Mary Harris Jones — or "Mother Jones" — was famous for her success as a labor organizer and cofounder of the Industrial Workers of the World.
However, it was her ability to carry on in the face of disaster and loss that made her a legend: her family left Ireland during the potato famine and eventually migrated to the US. In 1867, she became a widow and childless mother when her husband and four children died from typhoid fever, and then just four years later, she was forced to rebuild her life again after losing everything she owned in the Great Chicago Fire.
Never one to give up, these hardships connected Jones to her life's purpose as a labor activist. A champion of the working class, she endured jail and death threats for her cause and continued working until her death at nearly 100 years old.
