By BILL SCHLEICHER

Debra E. Bernhardt, a labor historian who documented and told the stories of unsung working people, died March 22 at home in Brooklyn. She was 47.

Dr. Bernhardt spoke at DC 37 and many other area unions like a labor Johnny Appleseed, spreading the kind of information that gives people strength.

Her exhibit, “100 Years of Labor in New York City,” and the book she co-authored with Rachel Bernstein, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives,” feature the voices and faces of “ordinary” people. They include many DC 37 members, who did the extraordinary by making the city what it is.

In 1998, she spearheaded the successful campaign to make Union Square, home of the first Labor Day parade, a national historic landmark. At New York University, Dr. Bernhardt headed the Wagner Labor Archives, which holds the historical records of many DC 37 ?locals. She also helped union members learn the crafts of historical research and oral history and started numerous locals toward writing their histories.

Pride in the the working class ran deep in Debra Bernhardt. Her nickname was Debs, after the famed socialist union leader Eugene Victor Debs, and she sang joyfully in the New York City Labor Chorus.

Ms. Bernhardt is survived by her husband, Jonathan Bloom, and her children, Alexander and Sonia. When she died, she was hard at work collecting union banners, buttons, art and photos for the soon-to-debut Labor Arts web site.