Vivien Kellems Papers

Vivien Kellems was born 7 June 1896 in Des Moines, Iowa, to David Clinton and Louisa Flint Kellems. Shortly after her birth, her parents, both Christian Ministers, moved their family to the west coast and settled in Eugene, Oregon. Being the only girl of a family with seven children, Vivien developed a rugged and competitive personality from a young age. Attending the University of Oregon, she participated as the only female on the debate team. Vivien Kellems obtained a bachelors degree in 1918 and a masters degree in economics shortly there after. Following graduation, she moved east to New York City in pursuit of a doctorate from Columbia University and the University of Edinburgh.

While in New York, an improvement on an existing cable grip was made by her older brother, Edgar E. Kellems, which he patented in the late 1920s. Using the patent as the focal point, Ms. Kellems founded Kellems Cable Grips, Inc. in 1927 and eventually moved her plant to Stonington, Connecticut. Successfully operating the company as president for over thirty years, the company's devices were used most notably during the construction of the Chrysler Building, George Washington Bridge, and also played an important role in production of wire and artillery shell grips used during World War II.

In her personal life, Vivien Kellems encountered various struggles for justice as she fought for women's equality, equal suffrage along party lines and tax reform. As a member of the Liberty Belles, Vivien led by example as the group encouraged equality of women in the home, workplace and society. Running as an independent candidate for U. S. Senate, Ms. Kellems protested strict party line voting that only required a single lever pull rather than voting individually by candidate. Through civil disobedience, Vivien Kellems made her position known as she sat in a voting booth for nine hours straight before she fainted from exhaustion. With a degree in economics, unfair taxation by the government was at the forefront of Kellems' battles. In 1948, alongside of her business partner and brother David Kellems, she protested against withholding taxes from her employees' checks claiming, "if they wanted me to be their (tax) agent, they'd have to pay me, and I want a badge." After a lengthy court battle ensued, it was found that the Kellems Co. would go bankrupt if they continued to not withhold taxes. Admitting defeat, Vivien would later fight against the singles income tax law that was enacted after World War II. In the law, citizens who were not married paid twice the amount of income tax than did those citizens of equal earnings who were married. In protest, from 1965 until her death, Vivien Kellems would merely send in tax forms with no pertinent information instead sending a blank form with her signature. Coming close to victory many times in the United States Supreme Court during the first half of the 1970s, Ms. Kellems' fight in this case ended in vain, as she died before her final appeal was heard in 1975.