Marin Women's Hall of Fame

  Toni Busse

By Eleanor Kellogg Smith
In conjunction with the Writer's Center of Marin

        Toni Busse has distinguished herself in Marin County by her involvement for fifty years, in improving the lives of people, especially those ignored by society as not worthy of notice. She has spent her life overcoming obstacles that would have discouraged others. She also helped created innovative programs that would eventually become permanent parts of the community.  An important part of her philosophy is to have people who are marginalized be able to advocate for themselves to the point that she and others would no longer be needed.

         The main focus of her energy was in mental health and women’s health issues.  Early on she participated in volunteer efforts when she was in college and later in her community, such as in the PTA, while her children were young.

         Toni’s interest in helping others started at an early age.  She came from a close family that encouraged her to become involved with people around her.  Toni grew up in San Mateo, California.  She could have anything she wanted, including a good education.  Her father worked for an insurance brokerage in San Francisco and, according to Toni, was a risk taker.  Her mother, being more inward, was interested in gardening and reading.  Her parents trusted their children to act responsibly, and the children in turn earned their trust.  Although both parents were conservative when they were young, Toni says that, as they aged, they became more liberal.  Toni had three sisters who, Toni says, were quite high-spirited.  As a child, she was a constant reader, and enjoyed the freedom she and her siblings had in roaming the hills above San Mateo.

         One of Toni’s greatest role models was her grandmother, Cornelia McFarland, who lived with Toni’s family later in her life.  She marched with the suffragettes when American women were fighting for the vote.  A multi-faceted woman, Cornelia studied opera and architecture in Germany when she was young.  When her husband was bringing the telephone across the country he and Cornelia were trapped in a snowstorm in Montana and a tribe of Blackfoot Indians took them in.  The tribe made them honorary Blackfoots.  The family kept in touch with them and when the they were brought to the 1918 Exposition in San Francisco, they visited Cornelia’s home and brought the family bows, arrows and woven baskets. Cornelia believed in respecting all people.

         In the 1890s, Toni’s grandmother helped start Hillsborough School, a public school, where only private schools had existed before. Toni says the most memorable message her grandmother gave her was that you have to risk in order to gain.

         Toni didn’t let anyone or anything keep her down.  As a child, she was inactive because of asthma and read a lot, but at the age of 12 she decided not to let the condition run her life.  Her grade school principal told her that she was a nice girl who wouldn’t get anywhere in life.  Obviously, as proven by her later accomplishments, Toni didn’t listen to his words.  In fact, Toni says that the principal’s attitude may have been a spur.

        While Toni attended San Mateo High School she took an extra-curricular class on social problems, which she says, “caused a turn around in my life.”  She hadn’t been aware of the conditions that others in American society were going through, such as racial prejudice and poor people on welfare.

         Toni had a dream of becoming a member of the diplomatic corps when she grew up.  During World War II she attended the University of California in Berkeley where she majored in liberal arts with a minor in international relations.  At the university she took on 20 hours of volunteer work weekly as a nurse’s aide at Alta Bates (then Peralta) Hospital in Berkeley and was trained by the Red Cross.  She often sat with patients in labor and delivery, an experience that she used later in life.  Noticing the change in her, her family began to see her as a maverick.  In her own words Toni says, “My father would tell you that in college I majored in Communism.”

          After she graduated in 1948, she looked for a job, but it wasn’t easy.  During World War II, while men were in the service, women held responsible, well paid jobs, one of which was helping to build ships in the shipyards.  After the war, unfortunately for women, most of the responsible jobs reverted to men when they returned from the service. The jobs open to women at the time were mainly clerical and Toni didn’t want to work as a secretary in an office.

         A friend told her about a job at the San Francisco Chronicle, and she decided to apply for it.  She really wanted the job and persuaded the people there that she could fill the position of merchandising manager, attracting advertisers, doing surveys and creating displays at KRON which was owned by the Chronicle.  At this time the well-known Paul Smith, who Toni calls brilliant, was editor.   She met her future husband, Walter Busse, who worked in promotion at the Chronicle.  He was responsible for advertisements for the Chronicle in the Bay Area, and even put ads in the New Yorker.  After their marriage, she continued working.  When her first child, Sarah, was born the family moved to Marin, where Cornelia, Barbara and Matt were born.  Later, for five years or more, Cornelia’s friend Terri, who Toni describes as her fifth child, was welcomed by the family because Terri’s mother had died.

         Besides raising her children, Toni’s focus, now as a young wife and mother, was as a volunteer at Brookside School in San Anselmo, the school her children attended.  Those activities including raising money for the school, starting a library, and even painting fences. She realized then that her interest was in working together with other people to create a sense of community and get things done.  She says that cohesiveness was important to her then and in later projects.   Although later Toni was to become a mentor herself, Doris Harnsberger, who was also a school volunteer, became one of her first mentors.  Doris taught her much about the diplomacy of working together.  When Doris left the San Anselmo School Board, Toni replaced her. Toni was also President of the Brookside P.T.A.. When her children grew older, she volunteered in the P.T.A. at Sir Francis Drake High School.  All of the experience she gained working cooperatively with parents and staff in schools Toni included later in the volunteer and paid work that she was involved in.

         One of Toni’s friends, Mary Bailor, knew Toni for 41 years.  Their friendship started when they were both young mothers involved in the Brookside P.T.A.. Mary remembers that Toni always had “incredible energy and enthusiasm.”  When there was a problem, she would ask “What can we do about it?,” and she would always look at different opinions.  They were later both involved in the Marin Volunteer Center and the Jail Program.  To Mary, the aspects of Toni that stood out were her “sense of humor, appreciation of others’ humor, her compassion and listening skills.”  She felt that a combination of everything she did defines Toni.

        Since she was trained as a nurse’s aide in college, Toni went to work for the American Red Cross in Marin, and there, Maggie Anderson, a social worker (later Executive Director), became her mentor.  She learned a lot from her, including, as Toni says, “listening with the third ear.”  In other words, what a person said might mean something else.  She also learned from Maggie how to relate to people in a compassionate way.

          While working for the Red Cross, a friend of Toni’s who had been in the Marin County Jail, was released and told her about the less than human conditions for women in the jail, which were crowded and in which women had no privacy.  For example, in order for the women to go outside the men were locked up and the women were marched through their quarters.  Toni persuaded the Red Cross to sponsor a program to improve the conditions there.  Toni showed the women prisoners how to work together to achieve what they needed. Toni related the needs of the prisoners to the deputies at the jail.  She felt that women who were busy would fare better in jail.  Women volunteers in the jail program would go in three or four times a week with projects for the prisoners.  While working on the projects, volunteers and women prisoners would sit around the table and talk.

          The improvements that were brought about were the formation of a jail library, the purchase of sewing machines, making quilts, and sewing a layette for a pregnant inmate.  Before the relations between the guards and women prisoners had been tense.  Toni realized it would be an asset if they could have the guards’ support, and with diplomacy she won them over so they became more cooperative.

         Perhaps Toni’s greatest contributions in Marin were in the mental health system.  Edward Walker, past Mental Health Director, writes in a letter of support, “Toni moves people and institutions to see the strengths of others who are stereotypically overlooked and undervalued.”  The seventies were a time when responsibility for the mentally ill was moved from the state mental hospitals to local communities, where there wasn’t much money to set up programs for them.  Toni believed in emphasis on the mentally ill client, so as a volunteer, she was hired by Marin County to carry out a Federal grant program called “The Companion Program” which sought to match clients with volunteers.  Mental health clients were often lonely and needed to have friends and get out into the community.  This work led to Toni being hired by the Mental Health Services division of County Mental Health Services as Community Services Coordinator.  The Companion Program in Marin was so successful that other counties replicated it.  Many of the people who volunteered to be companions were interns studying for degrees in psychology where they could gain experience working with mentally ill clients.  At one time there were 62 matches between clients and companions. 

        Toni’s theory was that the more people in the community got to know the mentally ill, the less stigma there would be.  She considered herself a community organizer and spoke in the community and recruited people to help with the mentally ill.  Toni also wanted to be sure that clients’ families were included in the whole helping process and not separated from family members.  For instance, at Marin General’s Crisis Center families were asked to sit outside on a bench when their family member went inside.

         Gie Van den Pol was Toni’s indispensable partner in the Companion Program for ten years starting in 1971.  They complemented each other.  Gie handled the clinical side of the program and also supervised student interns and others who were companions.  Gie says that their desks were facing each other so they were in communication all the time.  Through this close contact they became close friends.  Toni kept the program supplied with volunteers and presented the program to the community.  Gie sees Toni as a strong person who is dedicated to justice and fairness.  She remembers in the floods of 1982 when people in San Anselmo were staying home, Toni was undaunted, and in her Toyota managed to make it to Marin General Hospital.  So few people were there that Toni was asked to take over the leadership in Community Mental Health and managed to answer questions although she wasn’t a clinician.  

       Toni believed in being compassionate, but she also believed in setting limits with clients.  Once while walking down the street in San Anselmo, a client rushed up to her, picked her up and whirled her around.  Toni had to explain to the client that this was not appropriate behavior.  Another story she tells is when a companion and client hiked on Mt. Tamalpais.  The client stood on a cliff and picked up rocks and threw them. The companion noting this behavior told the client that he was walking down, telling him that he could decide what to do.  Without complaint, the client followed.

        The Companion Program was started in the seventies when the idea of self help, one-on-one, and mentoring was popular.  Toni points out that later on this concept led to mentoring elders, children and other groups.  The Program was given an award and on it was written that often you couldn’t tell the difference between the client and the companion.  The Companion Program still exists today.

         In the late 1970s, the state legislated that mental health clients should have knowledge about what their rights were.  A patient’s rights advocate would help clients understand how the mental health system worked.  Because of her previous successful experience with clients, Toni was asked to organize a Patients Rights Office.  Before moving forward, Toni called a meeting of family members, mental health providers, clients and mental health advocates, because she wanted everyone involved to have input on what the Patient Rights Advocates position should involve.  Toni saw this position as a way to empower clients to know their rights and stand up for them.  One of her main beliefs overall was to give people, and in this case mental health clients, the ability to advocate for themselves.   After the Patient Rights Advocate job was created, Toni was asked to fill the position.

         According to Ed Walker, “Perhaps Toni’s most telling work was her involvement with the Marin Network of Mental Health Clients.  The Client Network is a true mutual help organization founded by clients who were too often and wrongly thought incapable of directing their own lives.”  Before she became involved, Toni asked the clients if they wanted her help in forming the network.  The clients approved and she became a volunteer.

         The Client Network decided that they should have their own place to meet where they could drink coffee, read the newspaper and give each other support for the issues that they were experiencing. Toni worked to get other people and organizations to support this project which became the Enterprise Resource Center.  The first one was located in San Anselmo.  Before it opened, Toni openly told the community about it so they would be sure to have their approval, and as a result there was no real opposition. The first furniture they acquired was from an estate sale in San Francisco.  Other friends and groups made donations.  The Center is now located in San Rafael.  Mental health clients run the center and do their own hiring and firing of employees.

          Eventually the Client Network became a nonprofit corporation, and merged with Community Action Marin (CAM), a nonprofit agency that works with low income and disadvantaged people, so they would have the administrative help that CAM could provide them such as accounting and grant writing.  Toni was asked to become a member of the client network board, and, before the merger, served on CAM’s board of directors.  The network has regular meetings and also meets with the Marin Mental Health Director on a regular basis to discuss their concerns.

         Gail Theller, Executive Director of CAM, believes that Toni was the person who was responsible for making the Network of Mental Health Clients Program a reality.  Toni approached Gail and made such a good argument for CAM taking fiscal responsibility for the program that they agreed to take it on.  What was originally a $40,000 program, eventually became a $1,000,000 program.  Phoebe True and Harriett Richards, associates of Toni’s, and Toni were great forces in mental health in Marin.  Gail believes that Toni’s articulateness and ability to move easily among policy makers were two of her greatest assets.   As an after thought, when I spoke to her, Gail added, “....and I just love her hair!”

         Gail relates that another program Toni helped develop was the Marin Child Care Council  (originally called Project Care for Children), a clearing-house for child care and child-related services. She spent much time with the program, even helping to write their personnel manual.  She often volunteered every day.

          After the floods in 1982, when many people all over Marin lost their housing, people needed support for the problems they were facing and Toni was involved in assisting people adjust to their situation, including helping them see, if they could, the positive side.  They got permission from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) to do exit interviews with people who had losses in the flood.  At this time, Beverly Abbott was Executive Director of Community Mental Health, and Toni gives her credit for bringing mental health services into the community.

         Toni had always been interested in assisting women who were pregnant and she thought it was important for them to have support during labor.  A friend gave her a flyer offering training for working with women in labor.  Together with other women who were advocates for pregnant women, Labor Support Services was founded in 1985.  Suellen Miller, of the School of Public Health at the University of California, and Dr. Edward Boyce, a Marin obstetrician, were concerned about the level of care for pregnant women during labor in Marin General Hospital.  Suellen writes, “Toni came forward with scientific evidence and incredibly moving anecdotes to urge us to utilize a ‘doula’ or ‘with women’ concept.  For me, as a midwife, this idea was congruent with my belief that women in labor should never be alone, but should always be supported by wise comforting companions.”  To Suellen, Toni was a role model and “inspired me to continue to fight for the personhood of those marginalized by society.”  Although many women chose to have their babies naturally, which Toni advocated, those who wanted it were given an anesthetic.  It was their choice. Toni wanted the women to feel that “This was their process, this was their baby,” so the women were encouraged to ask questions instead of always accepting what was being done.  The success of the program demonstrated Dr. Boyce’s theory that women needed support during the labor process. 

        Bobbie Wunsch first met Toni when she came to Dr. Boyce’s office about the Labor Support Program and became involved herself.  She relates that most people said that being coached by Toni was an unbelievable experience.  Bobbie was especially impressed with the fact that Toni, who by this time had grey hair, was interested in coaching younger women through labor. Of course, Toni’s interest probably went back to the days when Toni was in college and sitting with women in labor and delivery.

         A business was started in which these women were trained to be with patients during labor.  They also were involved in follow up if the women were depressed or had problems with nursing.  Groups like this now exist all over the country, and Marin’s Labor Support Services may have been the model.  Because Toni sight is decreasing due to macular degeneration, she no longer goes to hospitals to be with the women in labor, but she remains as part of the group.  Toni actually was able to assist when her daughter Barbara’s best friend had a baby recently.

         Another important person in Toni’s life, Kendra Downey, first knew Toni in 1985 and was the one who actually started the labor support business.  The model for the labor support group was Mt. Zion’s birthing program.  The group started in Dr. Boyce’s office where he offered the labor coaches to his patients.  The women were often present at long labors and would relieve each other when necessary.  Eventually the labor support group became part of Marin General Hospital where, Kendra says, “Toni was beloved by everyone.”  Toni had a way of making everybody feel comfortable, and she also made an effort to included men in the birthing process.  She was so accepted at the hospital that doctors often would stop and ask her for a back rub, as did other staff.

        According to Kendra, Toni was always learning and when she couldn’t answer a question she would say, “You gotta ask Kendra.”  Every year the labor group would have a three or four day retreat at Sea Ranch.  Linda, one of the group, gave massages and told Toni that she would give her one, but that she would have to take her clothes off.  Toni, responding in her usual humorous way, said, “You mean you want the whole enchilada?”

        When Toni was 68, macular degeneration set in, and six year later she is almost completely blind.  According to Toni, this has been a solitary journey because sighted people can’t imagine not being able to see.  She can still see objects but no longer can see color. However, she did say that occasionally she sees flashes of color such as red.  Her initial reaction was that going blind wasn’t fair.  Her mother had developed macular degeneration also at the age of 68, but her three sisters don’t have the disease.  Her main regret is that she can no longer be as independent as she was since she can no longer drive.  Being a person who overcomes obstacles, though, Toni faces her decreased sight realistically.  In her own words she says that “what’s there is there” and she deals with it.  Interestingly, although she can only see objects vaguely, Toni says, with a delighted chuckle, that sometimes “I can point out a parking place to a friend!”  Family and many friends help out.  One friend reads to her every other day and others transport her, so she actually gets out almost as much as in the past.

        Toni’s four children see her as a role model, a woman who has influenced them to be sensitive to and respect other people.  They were often taken along as Toni carried out her volunteerism.  Sarah, the oldest, remembers at the age of four being in the car when her mother transported handicapped children.  That Toni spent many hours helping others was just a fact of life, according to Sarah.  When she took on new jobs which would take her away from home she always explained to her children why.

        Matthew was always proud of his mother and feels that she made him a more outgoing, sensitive person.  He remembers that in grade school when a child was hurt on the playground, he would take the child home after school and have his mother tend to her.  Matt actually thought his mother was a nurse until she had to explain to him and the other children, that she wasn’t.

         Cornelia, the second oldest says that besides being a “fantastic role model,” Toni instilled in her the importance of giving back to the community.  She learned a lot from her, including what it means to be a woman in our culture, and opened her eyes to the possibility of being a feminist.

         Barbara, the youngest, feels that Toni is “one hell of a lady” and “a fantastic mother.” Although her mother started working full time when she was in third grade, Barbara says, “she always watched over me.”  Once Barbara wore shorts to school, knowing that her mother didn’t want her to, and Toni, with a mother’s intuition, showed up at the school the same day!  Many of Barbara’s friends considered Toni a second mother, and five attended the Women’s Hall of Fame dinner honoring Toni and three other women.  Barbara says that Toni inspired her to go for her dreams.  Recently she has decided to go back to school so she can support women when they are in labor and during deliveries.

         For all of her work in the mental health field, in 1997 Toni received the Marin County Mental Health Board’s Recognition Award, also awarded to seven other people, at the “Celebrating the Uncelebrated” Dinner.  The awards are presented every two years to people who have given extraordinary service to the mentally ill, and to mental health clients themselves who have had the courage to rise above their illness to serve other clients.

          One nominator felt Toni should get the award because of her belief that, “...advocating for the clients and educating the community are essential for proving that the seriously mentally ill can come through crises and become productive again.”  Another nominator pointed out Toni’s tenacity in restarting the Peer Companion Program through NAMI (the National Association for the Mentally Ill) and the Client Network when funds were no longer available.  A third nominator wrote, “(Toni) was both a leader and a mediator in the community around Mental Health issues and patients rights.  She never gave up.”  The nominator also mentioned Toni’s special qualities that stood out as,”Leadership, patience, creativity, positivism, persistence, humor and warmth.”

         Another honor came in 2000, when Toni was nominated for the Marin Women’s Hall of Fame, a top honor for women of distinction in Marin.  The Hall of Fame has been honoring outstanding women in Marin since 1987.  The areas in which women are honored include the arts, health, education, public affairs, community service, social change, environment and business.  Toni was chosen in the field of health and was one of four women who won the award that year.

         Her nominators, Bobbie Wunsch and Mary Bailor, wrote:   “Coming out and supporting the mentally ill and incarcerated women takes courage today, doing so in the far more conservative 50s and 60s took even more.  As a woman standing up for the rights of women, whether they were in jail or in mental institutions, or laboring in male-dominated hospital wards, Toni distinguished herself as both a risk taker and a visionary.”

         Ethel Seiderman, for many years director of the Fairfax-San Anselmo Children’s Center, wrote in a letter of support for Toni’s nomination: “Toni has shown tremendous courage, tenacity and persistence in speaking out on behalf of those who do not have a voice or whose voice is often not heard.  But beyond speaking out, she has talked the talk and walked the walk by establishing enduring services to meet their needs....”

        When Toni was honored by the Marin Women's Hall of Fame, The March 8, 2000, Twin City Times wrote an article about her.  The article quotes Toni as saying about the Companion Program, “In many cases it was giving away tools that clinicians and professionals have and working with people with mental illness in the community.”  About her winning the award, Toni said, “I was very surprised--I didn’t handle it very well...I’m used to working in the background. “  She did, however, thoroughly enjoy the awards dinner with her friends and family around her.

         When interviewed by the Independent Journal after receiving the Hall of Fame award, she was generous when she said that she couldn’t have done it without other people.  In her own words, “Nothing is created without a whole lot of people pulling together...All elements had to come together to make it continue.”

         Being limited in what she can do now doesn’t discourage or anger Toni.  She feels that “she lived life to the hilt.”  When asked what motivated her to do what she did, she replies that it was “a sense of responsibility to a community to participate as much as possible.”  When obstacles appeared she considered them learning opportunities.  Her work taught her the lessons of life and she was enriched.  Her four children are now leading committed lives, and she has five granddaughters.  One of them wants to become an astronaut, which the family enthusiastically supports.

         Toni’s husband, Walter, supported her in her interests but was involved in his own activities, which included the Marin Art and Garden Center and the Family Service Agency.  They acted as sounding boards for each other’s community involvements.

         One of her Toni’s interests beside her work is traveling.  She and her husband have traveled in the United States and all over the world.  Their most recent trip was to Florida.  Other special interests she has are writing and cooking.  Active physically, Toni swims laps in the family’s pool, and is a powerful swimmer according to her friend Gie Van den Pol.  She does regret the sense of independence she had when, for instance, if her daughter Sarah was sick, she could get in the car and drive down to Southern California and take care of Sarah and her family.  Since losing her sight, she says her children have been wonderful and are there whenever needed.

         Although not involved in formal religious worship, Toni has experienced spirituality through a sense of well being gained by seeing her clients develop the ability to take care of themselves and create their own lives.

        When asked about mistakes she made along the way, Toni says that she never worried about mistakes.  She learned from them and didn’t let them hold her back.  Once Toni says she made a mistake accidentally when she brought a watermelon into the women’s section of the jail with a long knife to cut it.  Suddenly she realized that knives weren’t allowed in the jail, and threw it outside of the entrance.  No one commented about what happened.

         Tony says that she feels privileged for the at least 20 or 30 people who encouraged and gave away their skills to her.  The one regret she has about her life was that she wasn’t a doctor.  When she applied, medical schools were not accepting women over 35, a rule which did not apply to men at the time, or to women at the present time.

         At 75, Toni is still overcoming obstacles, the most difficult one being her blindness, which she doesn’t let keep her down.  She is a role model for aging.  Toni retains her contacts with the community and periodically lunches with professionals she has worked with in the past.  Her house is open to organizations she has been connected with for special events.

         Because of her creative ideas and persistence in carrying them out, Marin County is a better place to live for all, especially for those who are on the fringes of society.  The results of her commitment to improve the lives of others in the face of adversity is Toni Busse’s invaluable legacy.