According to the LA Times, Crystal was born into a family of textile workers. By age 17 she was in the mill. In 1973 at age 33 she was working for $2.65 an hour at the J. P. Stevens factory in Roanoke Rapids, NC sporting a union pin. A coal miner-turned-organizer, Eli Zivkovich, was attempting to unionize the workers.

She angered management and was fired for supporting the union. Immediately afterwards, she wrote “UNION” on piece of cardboard, climbed onto a table with the sign raised. The workers switched off their machines. Crystal was arrested. The next year the plant voted in the union. She won back wages (only $13,000) and moved on.

Her subsequent union advocacy cost her a second marriage. The story of her heroism was written in a 1975 book and inspired the movie “Norma Rae,” which led to Sally Field’s Oscar winning performance depicting Crystal. The producers fought Crystal over details of the movie; she forbade them from using her name.

Crystal Lee Sutton worked as a maid and security guard until her health deteriorated.

Her legacy : “It is not necessary I be remembered as anything, but I would like to be remembered as a woman who deeply cared for the working poor and the poor people of the U.S. and the world.”