Readers Respond

Geoffry Phillips McEnany, Peaks Island, Maine: My maternal grandmother, Mette Madsen Leavitt, was a Danish immigrant who came to Maine with her family in 1896. She was an avid reader and athlete and belonged to the Portland Women's Literary Union and the Portland Women's Swimming Association. Part of her routine was to swim between Peaks Island and Portland four times each summer—a 3.5-mile swim. These groups were critically important to her acculturation to American life in the early 20th century.

Margaret McCrea, Portland, Oregon: My grandmother Maud Richardson McCrea was an active member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Cashmere, a small town in central Washington. According to my mother, Maud was an excellent parliamentarian. She had a heart condition that severely limited her activities, but she used her energies on behalf of an organization that gave her an outlet for her skills and passion.

Canice K. Levin, Annandale, Virginia: My mother, Jean Lynch Kelly, attended the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (MCP). She joined the American Association of University Women (AAUW) after challenging AAUW to accept MCP as a university. She then served as president of the Burlington County, New Jersey, AAUW chapter. As a proud Navy wife, she belonged to many Naval Officers’ Wives Clubs. She also helped create the Navy Wife Line, a precursor to Navy Fleet and Family Support Centers.

James Funk, Findlay, Ohio: My grandmother, aunt, and cousin belonged to the Rudolph, Ohio, Mount Olive Friendship Circle, formed in 1939. The Circle met once a month to lunch, quilt, and sew pillowcases and lap robes. They also performed charitable work like packing boxes for soldiers during World War II. Information on the Mount Olive Friendship Circle is available from the Center of Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University.  

Kathleen McKay, Auckland, New Zealand: During World War II, my mother, Kathleen Joyce Mottram, married my father, Herbert Wiliam Schall, Jr., and moved from her home in New Zealand to his hometown in Easton, Pennsylvania. There were many other foreign war brides in the town—from Australia, England, France, Italy, and New Zealand. They formed an American War Brides Club to support each other and to make new friends. My mother’s best friends from the club were from Australia and France. In 1964, my family moved to New Zealand. My mother kept in touch with her Australian friend by mail and the occasional toll call for more than sixty years.

Jerilyn Marshall, Griffith, Indiana: My great-grandmother Josephine (Monroe) Marshall of Michigan belonged to Ladies of the Maccabees (LOTM), the women’s auxiliary to Knights of the Maccabees. From 1903 through 1907, she traveled as a speaker for LOTM. She was rarely home after 1904 and eventually she sent letters to her husband, William, instructing him to forget about her. William filed for divorce in December 1907 on the grounds of desertion; the divorce papers stated that “the defendant became impressed with the idea that a career was open to her in the work as Deputy Great Commander of the Ladies of the Maccabees." The divorce was granted in January 1908.