Born in Iowa in 1878, Naomi Achenbach married Jesse Noble Benson in 1921 and settled in Everett, Washington, in the late 1920s. At that time, she became active in the Snohomish County Democratic Party and the Washington State Progressive Party. Benson worked on behalf of a variety of liberal causes in the 1930s through the 1950s, including civil liberties and freedom of speech, liberal relief policies, pacifist foreign policies, equal rights for women and minorities, and public power. In 1936 she became a dedicated Democratic Party activist, working for the party into the early 1940s. In 1946 she founded the Everett Consumers Cooperative Association with her husband and served on the coop's board of directors. Benson joined the Progressive Party in 1948, when it split off from the Democrats, and served on its Washington State executive board. She resigned from Progressive Party leadership in 1950, when members of the Communist Party asumed top positions among the Progressives. Although she fought communists' efforts to control left-wing organizations, she opposed the state legislature's Canwell Committee, which investigated suspected communists, and the federal government's efforts to prosecute "subversive" organizations. Benson died in 1961.
From the description of Naomi Achenbach Benson papers, 1895-1961 (bulk 1935-1961). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 39367133
