Far-right activist, author Phyllis Schlafly; at 92

In her time, Mrs. Schlafly was one of the most polarizing figures in American public life, a self-described housewife who displayed a moral ferocity reminiscent of the ax-wielding prohibitionist Carrie Nation. Richard Viguerie, who masterminded the use of direct mail to finance right-wing causes, called her "the first lady of the conservative movement."

On the left, Betty Friedan, the feminist leader and author, compared her to a religious heretic, telling her in a debate that she should burn at the stake for opposing the Equal Rights Amendment. Friedan called Mrs. Schlafly an "Aunt Tom."

Mrs. Schlafly became a forceful conservative voice in the 1950s, when she joined the right-wing crusade against international communism. In the 1960s, with her popular self-published book "A Choice, Not an Echo" (it sold more than 3 million copies) and a growing legion of followers, she gave critical support to the presidential ambitions of Senator Barry Goldwater, the hard-right Arizonan who went on to lead the Republican Party to electoral disaster in 1964, but who planted the seeds of a conservative revival that would flower with the rise of Ronald Reagan.

And in the 1970s, Mrs. Schlafly's campaign against the Equal Rights Amendment played a large part in its undoing. The amendment would have expanded women's rights by barring any gender-based distinctions in federal and state laws, and it was within hailing distance of becoming the law of the land: Both houses of Congress had passed it by a vote of more than 90 percent, and 35 state legislatures — only three shy of the number required for adoption — had approved it.

But the amendment lost steam in the late 1970s under pressure from Mrs. Schlafly's volunteer brigades — mainly women, most of them churchgoing Christians (Mrs. Schlafly was Roman Catholic) and not a few of them lugging apple pies to cajole legislators. Despite an extension of the deadline, the amendment died, on June 30, 1982.

Many saw her ability to mobilize that citizens' army as her greatest accomplishment. Angered by the cultural transformations of the 1960s, beginning with the 1962 Supreme Court ruling prohibiting state-sponsored prayer in public schools, her "little old ladies in tennis shoes," as some called them, went from ringing doorbells for Goldwater to serving as foot soldiers for the "Reagan revolution."

"Schlafly had discovered a genuine populist sentiment in a large female population that opposed the ERA, feminism, and modern liberalism with the same intensity of emotion that feminists brought to their cause," Donald T. Critchlow wrote in "Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade" (2005).

Without her and her followers, Critchlow said, the conservative intellectuals, research organizations, and foundations that are often credited with reshaping the contours of American politics might have failed.

The conservative theorist and organizer Paul Weyrich said that Mrs. Schlafly "dressed up the conservative movement for success at a time when absolutely no one thought we could win."

Feminists said it was her husband's wealth — he was a lawyer from a rich Illinois family — that had liberated her to politick.

Her energy was formidable. She wrote or edited 20 books, published an influential monthly newsletter beginning in 1967, appeared daily on nearly 500 radio stations, and delivered regular commentaries on CBS television in the 1970s and CNN in the '80s. In 1972 she formed a volunteer organization called Stop ERA, which three years later became the Eagle Forum, to coordinate her campaigns.

In 1975, when she was living in Alton, Ill., Mrs. Schlafly announced to her family at dinner that she was going to enter law school at Washington University in nearby St. Louis. Her husband, by her account, disapproved of the idea at first, and she abandoned it, only to resurrect it when he changed his mind.

She received her law degree in 1978, ranked 27th in a class of 186, and passed the Illinois bar a few months later.

Some opponents called Mrs. Schlafly a hypocrite for pursuing so energetic a career while championing traditional female roles. She replied by calling her political career "a hobby" and saying she would never offer an opinion on whether women should or should not work outside the home.

Other detractors, like Karen DeCrow, a former president of the National Organization for Women, praised Mrs. Schlafly even as they castigated her politics.

"She's an extremely liberated woman," DeCrow said in an interview with Carol Felsenthal for her book "The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority: The Biography of Phyllis Schlafly" (1981). "She sets out to do something and she does it. To me, that's liberation."

Still, Mrs. Schlafly's pronouncements drove her antagonists to distraction, though they suspected that her biting language was calculated precisely to provoke their outrage. She said that "sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women" and that "sex-education classes are like in-home sales parties for abortions."

In 1980, a protester threw an apple pie in her face at a Women's National Republican Club reception in New York, painfully scratching an eye.

But Mrs. Schlafly was never outwardly ruffled. When Friedan, during a debate at Indiana University in 1973, recommended that she burn at the stake, Mrs. Schlafly replied in an even voice that she was pleased Friedan had said that because, she said, the comment had made it plain to the audience just how intolerant "intemperate, agitating proponents of the ERA" were.

Mrs. Schlafly leaves six children, 16 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Schlafly maintained an energetic pace into advanced age. In 2011 she spoke out for "shotgun marriages" as the solution to unwanted pregnancies.

Even as supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment tried to revive it, Mrs. Schlafly strove to make sure it stayed dead.

In 2016, she endorsed Donald Trump for president, saying he had "the courage and the energy" to do "what the grass roots want him to do."