Eugenia J. Vogel papers

Eugenia J. "Gene" Vogel was born in 1932 and grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Upon marrying the pastor of a Presbyterian church in 1953, she and her husband, George William "Bill" Vogel Jr., moved to Ganado, Arizona. Having recently graduated Maryville College with her B.A. in English, and having given birth to her and Bill's first of five children, the couple settled down with Bill as the pastor of the Ganado Presbyterian Church and Gene raising their children. Gene and Bill moved again, first to Winslow, Arizona, then to Phoenix, Arizona where they adopted their fifth child in 1967: a five-year-old South Korean son. They moved again in 1978 to Bellevue, Nebraska where the first of their grandchildren were born. This was also when Gene's work with Central American refugees and sanctuary began.

Following Bill's death in 1984, Gene moved in with her mother-in-law before returning to Phoenix. There she joined the Orangewood Presbyterian Church and worked on various projects and programs with the church, including COUGAR (Churches Opposed [to] Underground Governmental Activities [in] Religion), until she retired in 1997. COUGAR included four churches that were allegedly invaded by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service during which they attempted to get information that would assist them with a case against the sanctuary movement. A lawsuit was later filed against INS by the churches.

In 2014, Gene moved again to be closer to her eldest daughter and her daughter's husband in Salt Lake City, Utah where she passed away in 2024. She is survived by one sister and all of her children and grandchildren.