Opening door to prison reformer's life

Actress Libby Franck visits the Framingham jail quarters used by Miriam Van Waters. (Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff)

For three months in 1949, local front pages were consumed with one riveting scandal: the firing of prison-reform pioneer Miriam Van Waters. Day after day, newspaper headlines shouted the latest from her heated court battle to win back her job as warden of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women at Framingham.

"It was a foreshadowing of the McCarthy era. It was a witch hunt. The old boys' network was out to get Miriam," said historical actor and storyteller Libby Franck of Framingham.

Many saw it coming. The outspoken Van Waters was a magnet for conservative ire. After all, on her 17-year watch, inmates had been renamed "students." Intellectual classes were held and clubs formed. Job skills were taught. Plays were staged. Poets, musicians, and great thinkers came to speak or perform. Equal pay was demanded for female staff. And in one telling act that sums up her ethos, in 1932 Van Waters ordered that the bars be removed from some of the windows and then stored carefully - in case they could come in handy as flower trellises in the prison garden.

"She was ahead of her time," said Franck. "She didn't see the women as criminals. She preferred to say they had 'made poor use of their leisure time,' and that she was 'trying to educate them to help them make better choices.' "

At 3 p.m. Sunday, Franck will portray Van Waters in a living history performance titled "Rebuilding Lives," sponsored by the Framingham Historical Society and Museum, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church on Maple Street. Singer Deborah Rocha of Newton will accompany her.

The event is part of the society's efforts to increase its programming and reach wider audiences. New initiatives include a name change to the Framingham History Center, which will be formally announced next month. The group is holding monthly events, often geared toward families. As a result the society added 180 members last year, and it also saw increased donations.

"Holding more living-history performances featuring Libby is a great way to follow through on our plans to reach more people. It just brings history to life," said the organization's executive director, Anne Murphy.

Franck, who performs as various historical figures in venues across the region, will channel the wit, gravitas, and pluck that made Van Waters famous in her day. Remaining in character, she will recount the fray of the trial, reminisce about the unusually collegial life within the prison walls, and share stories of her "students," most of whom were not criminals but rather victims of the times.

"Yes, there were some forgers and thieves among them, but most were charged with things like homelessness, drunkenness, or adultery. Or they were charged with being unwed mothers or a stubborn child," said Franck. "These are not things we would consider reason for incarceration today. These are women who were shunned by their families."

To ready herself for the role, Franck poured over countless materials. She read letters, biographies, research papers, and newspaper accounts of Van Waters, who held a doctorate in anthropology from Clark University. Old recordings of her WKOX radio show, "Dr. Van Waters Speaks," were dusted off and played. In the archives of Radcliffe's Schlesinger Library, Franck immersed herself in stacks of letters and cards.

"There were so many folders of mail sent to Miriam by former inmates, and what was astounding was how normal their lives were. They didn't go off to do great things, but they also didn't reoffend," said Franck. "The programs she used worked. That's why it's good to be reminded of them now."

Franck, who lives around the corner from the reformatory's successor, MCI-Framingham, also tapped local knowledge. She gathered oral histories from area residents, visited Van Waters's grave at Pine Hill Cemetery in Sherborn, and interviewed people who recalled the inmates on work release who served as maids in their homes - including one who was caught reading comics instead of cleaning.

She also found and interviewed Charles Ayer, who cut his teeth as a reporter covering the trial for the Framingham News.

"It was really exciting to hear about what it was like in the courtroom from him," she said. "Van Waters had a crackerjack lawyer, and they made fools out of her opponents."

Van Waters won her case, went back to work, and lived a life with many tales to tell. Franck's portrayal of the best of them so captivated her audience at a debut performance of "Rebuilding Lives" that the Framingham History Center asked her back.

"When Libby performed this last year, people loved it. They were very moved. It was very emotional," said Murphy. "She falls in love with her subjects and you feel that when she performs. She's witty, she gets into the character, and she really brings you back to the time she's talking about."

Because this is a local figure, there may also be surprises. At the first performance of "Rebuilding Lives," audience members with connections to the warden piped up and shared their own stories after the show.

"The same thing happened when Libby performed last year as a librarian involved in the Framingham Chautauqua movement for us," said Murphy. "At that show, she had someone perform a Chautauqua song, and it turned out that the grandson of the man who had written it was in the audience. When you do local history, the connection that people have sitting in the room is powerful."

"Rebuilding Lives: Miriam Van Waters and the Framingham Women's Reformatory" will be performed Sunday, 3 p.m., at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 3 Maple St., Framingham. Tickets $10; Historical Society members $5. 508-872-3780, www.framinghamhistory.org.

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