The Campaign Button Designs of Shirley Whitney
Shirley Whitney was a vivacious little
old lady that was loved by just about all that knew her, except a few
California politicians. I first met
Shirley when I visited the 38th Assembly District Republican
Headquarters in 1980, during the National Presidential election. I was looking for a few legitimate campaign
buttons to add to my collection.
Shirley, who ran the headquarters, gave me a few and was quite pleased
to tell me a story about one of them.
Shirley and her husband, Jim, had just come back from Europe from a
vacation and had experienced seeing the many signs with the “universal no
slash” on their travels. This gave her
the idea for the button that she made up that had the toothy grin of Jimmy
Carter on a donkey (she called it something else) and the circle with a slash
for “no.” This started her creative
juices to flow.
In 1981, she had made up what is now her
most famous political button, the “Fruit Fly of the Year” satirical piece on
Jerry Brown. She struck pay dirt with
the pink caricature. Her original order
of 1,000 buttons sold out in days. All
tolled she had made up over 18,000 of them.
They were sold for $1 a piece and paid for the campaign headquarters for
several years. In later years,
collectors and party faithful would pay up to $75 for one. The Wall Street
Journal, Newsweek, and many newspapers ran stories about the piece.
Lloyds of London ordered several (they had insured many California crops). In
fact, Lyn Nofzinger, Assistant to President Reagan for Political Affairs, wrote
to her that the entire staff and the President had gotten a “kick out of it.”
Shirley would always attend the Republican Conventions and bring back a “goodie” bag for me. She knew I would stop by the headquarters and she had such a delight telling me the different stories about the items she brought back.
Shirley knew how to get your attention as
well. At the 1984 Republican convention
she caught the attention of Tom Brokaw on the floor. She was true to form and was interviewed for about 5 minutes
showing off her hat and vest full of buttons.
Mr. Brokaw was particularly interested in her “Hot - Lites” button,
which had blinking lights
and played the “Star Spangled Banner.” She had that for me in my “goodie” bag for
1984.
In 1984, Shirley had a button made that she knew would upset a
few women’s groups. She wanted to stir
things up and enjoyed doing it. 
The
button was a 2 ½” white button with a couple of ladies holding a banner which
read “Elect Reagan Again.” The “E R A”
was made to stand out and she hoped that there would be a stir over the Equal
Rights Amendment being associated with Ronald Reagan.
In the late 1990’s her eyesight began to fail and Jim passed away. This made it impossible for Shirley to continue as the campaign headquarters manager in the west end of the San Fernando Valley. I would stop by her home and visit from time to time, and I always wanted to get a picture of her with all her buttons pinned on, but she would not have it, telling me maybe next time when she had her hair done. Shirley passed away in January of 2000, and with her passing ended a colorful chapter in Republican campaign history in the San Fernando Valley.
Presented here are her button designs that she was kind enough to give to me over the years. I miss Shirley, DBH.
See an example of Shirley's design work