Parsons, Gerald E., 1940-1995

Administrative History and/or Biographical History

This collection arose out of the American Folklife Center's 1984 involvement with the House Subcommittee on Census and Population, which was then responsible for reviewing commemorative measures. This subcommittee turned to the Center for assistance and guidance in planning and developing the public hearing on H.R. 1706, a bill designating the square dance as the national dance of the United States. As an expert in American folk culture, Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian for the Archive of Folk Culture, was detailed to help organize the hearing. The materials he accumulated for this task form the basis of this collection. Hearing testimonies, newspaper and magazine articles, and editorials in the collection provide insight into the perspectives of both proponents and opponents, while government documents trace the official legislative history.

Biographical History

Penne (Penelope) Laingen is the wife of Bruce Laingen who was serving as the charge d'affaires of the United States Embassy in Tehran when Iranian student revolutionaries seized the Embassy on November 4, 1979, and held the staff hostage until January 20, 1981. A few days after Bruce was taken hostage, Penne Laingen hung a yellow ribbon around a tree in the yard of her Bethesda, Maryland home as a symbol of support for her husband and the other American hostages. She did this as a way to bolster her own strength and that of their three sons throughout the crisis.