Eileen Hallet Stone, an author and historian whose books and articles exposed readers to Utahns whose contributions to the state’s history are often overlooked and underappreciated, has died after a protracted battle with lung cancer. She was 80.
Stone, who died Thursday, was born July 9, 1943, in Boston and grew up in Maine. After arriving in Utah in 1973, she became a prolific writer whose columns on the state’s ethnic and cultural diversity were a fixture in The Salt Lake Tribune from 2005 to 2017. She was equally accomplished as an author, writing six books that detailed important but little-known chapters of Utah history.
Rather than follow the oft-traversed “faith in every footstep” narrative many historians trod in writing about early Utah, Stone’s books gave the unexamined lives of working-class laborers, immigrants, miners, prostitutes and prisoners of war their historical due. As a result, many took a shine to her unvarnished accounts of the pioneer past she gleaned from meticulous research of dusty records, first-person diary accounts and interviews with living witnesses.
For example, in “Selling Sex in Utah: A History of Vice,” her latest offering, Stone portrayed the plight of the working girls who plied their illicit trade in covered wagons or in upscale bordellos and shined a light on the corrupt lawmen and pious Utahns who pilloried or profited off of the women.
As Stone described it, prostitution in frontier Utah was more squalid than sexy — and it was dangerous. Contraceptives were rare, venereal disease ran rampant through the mining camps and what little medicine was available (typically mercury and arsenic) was more likely to kill rather than cure those who were afflicted.
In writing the book, Stone recounted the popular adage of the times: “A night with Venus, a lifetime with mercury.”
Stone’s “Missing Stories: An Oral History of Ethnic and Minority Groups in Utah,” a book she co-wrote with Leslie Kelen in 1996, provided a glimpse into the role minorities played in Utah through the years. Stone followed that six years later with “A Homeland in the West: Utah Jews Remember.”
“Auerbach’s: The Store that Performs What It Promises,” the book Stone penned in 2018 about the Salt Lake City department store founded by brothers Frederick and Samuel Auerbach in the mid-19th century, was well received. So was “Hidden History of Utah,” which won Salt Lake City Weekly’s Readers’ Choice Award in 2014.
‘Real sympathy’
“She did not write with a broad brush; it was a detailed brush that [delved] into … events and the day-to-day consequences for people,” said former Salt Lake Tribune Editor Terry Orme, who edited Stone’s columns. “She had a real sympathy and soft spot for people whose stories didn’t commonly get told — the people whom history books haven’t included.”
Randy Silverman, Stone’s husband of 33 years, said his wife’s ability to mine historical gems that others routinely missed was due to her empathy for others and her ability to listen — not just to what was said but also what was unspoken. Peg McEntee, a former Tribune news editor and columnist who hired Stone to contribute to the paper’s “Living History” column, previously lauded the author for her listening skills.
“With Eileen, the bottom line is that she knows how to listen to people, to really hear them, and capture their stories and memories and joys and heartaches for her readers,” said McEntee, who died last year.
Silverman, head of preservation at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library, said his wife showed empathy with words and actions. As president of the Utah section of the National Council of Jewish Women more than three decades ago, Stone led and remained involved with “Shalom Salaam Tikkun-Olam,” an effort by Utah’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities to serve homeless individuals, senior citizens and refugees and their families.
In addition to her empathetic ear, Stone also was lauded for a manner that put people at ease and made them feel heard and important.
“She would walk into a room and start talking to the person who was really quiet, ignored or disliked because they were different or a different shade of color,” Silverman said. “She naturally or instinctively strived to include all people.”
‘Great sense of humor’
Silverman said his wife’s kindness and inclusiveness help explain the diverse crowd that gathered Sunday for her funeral at B’Nai Israel Cemetery. Her hairstylist, eye doctor, dentist and mail carrier were part of her circle of admirers at the service.
So was Anne Holman, Stone’s close friend and co-owner of The King’s English Bookshop in east Salt Lake City, which hosted many of the author’s book signings. “I always knew it was her when I’d pick up the phone and she would say, ‘Hi, doll,” Holman said. “She had such a great sense of humor, and you could always find the humanity and humor in her books.”
Silverman attributes his wife’s endearing characteristics to her upbringing as a Jewish girl in overwhelmingly Christian Maine.
“She is a remarkable woman who understood what it was like to be part of a group that isn’t in the majority,” he said. “...And the endearing thing about her is that she crossed all the barriers that divide people seamlessly and touched them in their soul, just by talking with them and being near them.”
Perhaps the family obituary’s last line best speaks to Stone’s personal life and professional legacy: “In remembrance of Eileen, please be kind to people.”
