Photo of Jean and her daughter Pattie taken by Jean’s grandson, Randy Rogan II.
On Monday, November 19th, 2014, despite a blanket of snow and cold temperatures, ninety-eight pro-life people came to the New Englander Banquet Center to honor our Founder, Jean Rogan and to help celebrate her 40 years of defending God’s Gift of Life!
Jean formed the New Castle Chapter of People Concerned for the Unborn Child in 1974, several months after attending the very first “March for Life” on January 22, 1974 in Washington, D.C. Jean had seen a message in the St. Joseph the Worker Parish bulletin that a group from Pittsburgh had buses going to Washington,D.C. to attend the “March for Life”. She asked her priest what it was about and he told her that since abortion had been made legal by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973, the Pittsburgh group was going to Washington to speak out against the killing of the unborn. Jean couldn’t believe that America could permit this killing and felt called to be a part of the group, so she was in the crowd of over 20,000 from across the nation who gathered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and then went inside to speak with their legislators. The temperature in Washington that day was 70 degrees!
Among her many local pro-life activities and events with PCUC, New Castle Chapter, Jean organized a bus or buses to “the March” for thirty-five years, from 1975 through 2009. She took hundreds, possibly thousands of Lawrence County people to “the March”. Once you went on that bus with Jean, who talked (educated) all the way down and all the way back, you became committed to the mission of defending God’s Gift of Life! (I know, because that’s what happened to me in 1983! Jean has a gift for inspirational speaking.)
As Jean looked out at those gathered at The New Englander a few weeks ago, she said “I can’t believe how many people came out in such bad weather.” We who have been inspired and motivated by her for many years weren’t at all surprised! In fact, we know that if we had invited the public, not just family and PCUC contacts, the New Englander wouldn’t have been able to seat everyone!!