The Life of the Future
The Cincinnati Woman’s Club
The Life of the Future
The Cincinnati Woman’s Club
For 125 years, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has steadfastly valued traditions, resolute in its belief that neither fads nor trends should sway its course. At the same time, the Club remains firm in the conviction that advances in education, philanthropy, civic improvement, and the world of ideas never go out of style. In The Life of the Future—The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, author Michele Marill explores how this organization, one of the oldest civic groups in the city, has admirably balanced honoring the past with embracing the future. Founded in 1894 by women eager to develop their full potential and make their voices heard in Cincinnati, the Club and its impact on the Queen City grew over the decades. Today, it is a financially solid organization which annually benefits college students, relief agencies, social service organizations, and other non-profit entities in the surrounding community. Its charming Lafayette Avenue clubhouse, managed by a professional staff with member oversight, hosts more than four hundred events a year, from concerts, lectures,
and classes to banquets, programs, and philanthropic activities. Beyond appreciating access to all the Club’s educational events and charitable endeavors, members recognize that perhaps the greatest benefit of membership is simply being there, wrapped in the warmth of the friendships quickly formed by new members or the ones forged over many years of working together on shared projects. “Life at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club is timeless,” the author writes, “in the way that graciousness and kindness are timeless.” In The Life of the Future, which takes its title from the words of an ancient philosopher, the story stops in 2019. But in the years to come, the Club’s 125-year-old commitment “To be such as help the life of the future” will continue to vibrantly evolve. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michele C. Marill, a graduate of Northwestern University, has been writing professionally for more than thirty-five years. She got her start in daily newspaper journalism before branching out on her own. Since then, she has authored twelve books and hundreds of magazine and web articles. She and her husband live in Decatur, Georgia, and have two grown daughters.
The Cincinnati Woman’s Club 1894–2019
THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE The Cincinnati Woman’s Club
THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB Copyright Š 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The Cincinnati Woman's Club.
The Cincinnati Woman's Club 330 Lafayette Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45220 Phone: (513) 961-6535 cincinnatiwomansclub.com
Project Team Mary Lou Motl, Mary Ellen Betz, Julie Hotchkiss Author Michele C. Marill Editor Rob Levin Photography Glenn Hartong, Gary Landers, Judy McKinney 125th Anniversary Book Committee Barbara Bardes, Louise Cottrell, Nancy Hancher, Cathy Huenefeld, Michelle Nagle, Carol Parsons, Ruth Rubendunst, Laura Skidmore Designer Rick Korab 125 CWC Logo Design Eliza Gantt
Book Development www.bookhouse.net
Printed in South Korea
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FOREWORD
IX CHAPTER ONE
A Home of Our Own 1 CHAPTER TWO
A Higher Conscience 31 CHAPTER THREE
A Center of Thought and Action 59 CHAPTER FOUR
How We Make It Work 87 DONORS TO THE BOOK PROJECT
11 2 INDEX
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The Life of the Future
Julie
captures a brief period
cations Coordinator, who came
of time in the long
armed with her editorial energy
life of The Cincinnati Woman’s
and book production expertise,
Club—mostly
program
and Judy McKinney, our skillful,
year 2017–2018. Our Club is clearly
tireless, dedicated Club photog-
recognizable because, even after
rapher. Members of the 125th
adapting to 125 years of changes
Anniversary Book Committee,
in society and community needs,
listed on the copyright page, gen-
its original purpose, providing a
erously contributed their ideas
center for women organized to enrich
and diligently reviewed the man-
lives through philanthropic action
uscript and the design alternatives
and educational opportunities, is still
numerous times throughout the
during
vibrantly alive. These
pages
celebrate
our
day-to-day activities to illuminate
Mary Ellen Betz and Mary Lou Motl at the 2017 Christmas Crème Tea, an annual event sponsored by the Hospitality Committee and enjoyed by many members and guests.
Hotchkiss,
Communi-
development stages. To you, dear member, The Life of the Future is a gift. We hope you
a broader, more integrated vision of the Club as a mission-driven
will treasure this loving depiction of life at The Cincinnati Woman’s
organization. All that the Club has accomplished and will continue
Club at its 125th year milestone.
to achieve in the future is undeniably the product of dedicated participation and generous giving by energetic and highly capable members working together, supported by our exceptional, caring staff. The anniversary book project, which continued for more than two years, was initiated by Mary Ellen during her term as president. From the beginning, we made a good team, which also included
Mary Ellen Betz
Mary Lou Motl
President, 2016–2018
Chairman 125th Anniversary Book Committee
ix
The Club brought these gates from its original Oak Street location to Lafayette Avenue. The architect found ways to blend them and other original garden features into the new Terrace landscaping.
With her colorful confetti, Marty Humes, president (2004–2006), personifies the celebratory nature of Homecoming 2017.
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CHAPTER ONE
“There is a kind of therapy there for women who lead routine lives, something that comes of giving one’s self, of working with others, and for a common goal, of being asked to do something creative . . . This is a tremendous outlet for pent-up talent.” — Louise Nippert, president, in a 1965 speech welcoming new members
A Home of Our Own
T
he midday sun glistens on the crystal teardrops of the chandeliers, and the hum of conversation recedes into silence as members of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club settle into their seats in the Auditorium. Past presidents sit on the stage amid a sense of anticipation. This is a rare moment for them to mark, collectively, all the work and progress—and joy—of the past few decades. n Teresa Moffitt,
a newer member who is chairman of the day, asks the women to pause and reflect on their drive into the Club, past the brick entrance markers and the stately trees just beginning to turn shades of yellow and orange. “Take a moment to look all around you,” she says. “See this friend and that one. Some you’ve met recently, and still others you’d like to know. These are our treasures, the warmth and the friendships. This is coming home. This is Homecoming.”
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Each fall, Homecoming marks the official opening of the yearly Club activities. But as the Club nears its 125th anniversary, the significance runs even deeper. Eleven past presidents each take a turn at the podium to recall accomplishments that strengthened the Club: the growth of the Operating Endowment Fund, hiring professional staff, improvements in Tea Room food and service, redecoration of the clubhouse and installation of sprinklers and security, key decisions that led to financial stability, membership initiatives, and the recent kitchen renovation. Led by Marty Humes (2004–2006), the past presidents developed the day’s program to highlight the vibrant life of the Club. They recount changes that presented challenges but ultimately proved to be sensible: switching to rolling admission of new
“Take a moment to look all around you, see this friend and that one. Some you’ve met recently, and still others you’d like to know. These are our treasures, the warmth and the friendships. This is coming home. This is Homecoming.”
members, adopting computers and online reservations, reimagining the Club website, relaxing some elements of the dress code, and offering beer and wine at special functions. These past presidents belong to a unique society, one that recognizes the multitasking, diplomacy, creativity, and many hours—almost a full-time job—it takes to steer the Club for two years. But at this Homecoming 2017, they are full of gratitude and warmth as they recall, once again, what makes The Cincinnati Woman’s Club relevant after so many years. This is a community of women,
Teresa Moffitt
deeply engaged in the world of ideas, of art and music, and of civic improvement. Life at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club is timeless, in the way that graciousness and kindness are timeless. Some members find a respite from the surfeit of daily life, from too many work and family obligations and emails and texts. Others come to discover what is missing in their lives—people who take time to listen and people willing to share their knowledge and skills. For 125 years, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has provided thousands of women with an avenue to make a difference in their community, by initiating and participating in philanthropic continued on page 6
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Twelve former presidents gather on the Terrace at Homecoming. Front: Patty Wasmer, Emily Todd, Jane Tuten, Ann Wiethe, Ruth Insko. Back: Suzanne Losekamp, Leslie Mowry, Mare Hagner, Mary Ellen Betz, Marianne Beard, Mary Lou Motl, Marty Humes.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
The World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. The building was designed in the Classical Revival style by prominent architect Daniel Burnham. The Club’s seven founders visited the Exposition and returned energized to establish their own woman’s club.
Founders Carried “A Spirit of Love and Justice” “[Miss] Annie Laws, it is clearly evident, has been the leading spirit in the whole enterprise. Active, willing, informed on all the subjects of the day, possessed of wonderful executive ability and having a sweet, lovable nature that makes all who come in contact with her love her, she is the brave General who is leading the army on to a pinnacle of victory and glory. . . .”—News report of the Club’s first year, May 1895 The founding of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club inspired accolades for its founders as women of strength and conviction. Annie Laws was already well known for her civic deeds before she led the women’s delegation to the World’s Columbian Exposition. She launched a kindergarten movement in 1880 and cofounded the Cincinnati Training School for Nurses in 1889. Now she wanted to raise the voice of women in the civic life of Cincinnati, a quest she pursued with six other strong women. Laws became the first president of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, and her artistic counterpart, Clara Chipman Newton, became secretary. An artist, calligrapher, and ceramicist who selected art pieces for the Cincinnati Room of the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Newton handwrote each of two hundred invitations to the exploratory meeting and presented a paper titled “The Possibility of a Woman’s Club in Cincinnati.”
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CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
Newton was “a visionary with the priceless ability to think in practical terms” and with a “unique capacity for friendship,” according to a biographical sketch from the Club’s seventy-fifth anniversary. She served as custodian (later called business secretary) until her retirement in 1929.
Annie Laws, left, an educator and philanthropist, was the first president of the Club. Clara Chipman Newton, above, held various early leadership roles at the Club, and lived at the Oak Street clubhouse while it was under construction. She and Laws authored the first history of the Club, published in 1919.
Mary Prudence Wells Smith, a published author, chaired the Committee on Literature for the Woman’s Columbian Exhibition Association and became the first vice president of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club in 1894. Like Newton, Katherine Bartlett Yergason was a founding member of the Cincinnati Pottery Club. She would later chair The Cincinnati Woman’s Club’s Committee on Location, which found the vacant lot on Oak Street. She signed the contract to build the clubhouse. Margaret Monfort Morehead, who first expressed the dream of building a clubhouse, had the honor of laying its cornerstone in 1908. Two other founders were not able to share in that joy. Sophie Beadle Mallon died in the Club’s first year, although even on her sickbed she continued to give her input as vice president. Susannah Gest, a world traveler, served as vice president for two years but became a corresponding member when she moved to New York City and later to California. The seven founders shared a desire to make the world a better place—and a commitment to shaping the future of Cincinnati. 5
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 2
projects that shape the life of the city. And the Club has given them a warm community of their own. The Club has evolved over a century and a quarter. The founders were well-connected women who forged their own power in a time when women couldn’t vote or hold most public offices. By The Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1893. Activities within this building legitimized the skills and accomplishments of women and helped launch the woman’s club movement in the United States. The Cincinnati Room displayed the works of local women artists and artisans.
comparison, opportunities are limitless for today’s women. Yet the collective efforts of Club members still outweigh what they can accomplish alone. Their common purpose sustains the Club.
Morning fog rises from the valley like steam from a bowl, obscuring the Ohio city’s skyline. From one of the steep hills overlooking the city, it is possible to imagine Cincinnati as it was 125 years ago, when the Queen City of the West loomed large on a sparser American landscape. Lively beer gardens and saloons flourished in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Steamboats and barges plied the Ohio River, the major route to the West. Cincinnati had its beautiful Music Hall, built to serve the robust German choral singing tradition, as well as a flourishing art and literary scene— enough activity to acquire a nickname as the “Paris of America.”
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Enthusiastic board members, seated in the Auditorium, enjoy a 2017 program. Attendance at programs is a board tradition. Front: Deborah Wyght, Susan Noelcke, Sandy Harte, Pat Krumm, Jean Crawford. Back: Cynthia Cole (obscured), Gary Copes, Nancy DeCastro, Sarah Warrington, Amelia Crutcher, Michelle Nagle.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
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Tea Room at the Oak Street clubhouse. Among the first purchases for the Club were cups and saucers. Tea was the primary refreshment because the facility had no kitchen.
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
In 1893, Annie Laws led a group of prominent local women to Chicago, where they displayed works of women artists in the Cincinnati Room of the Woman’s Building of the World’s Columbian Exposition. Just having a Woman’s Building was controversial and exciting in a time when women were pressing for greater rights. The exposition sprawled like an exotic White City over six hundred acres. It featured a South Sea Island Village and belly dancers on a Street in Cairo, the nation’s first movie theater and first Ferris wheel. But seven Cincinnati women were most deeply impressed by their spirited conversations in the Woman’s Building, where displays highlighted dress designs for a New Woman and the Organizations Room promoted the national movement of woman’s clubs. Laws, Clara Chipman Newton, Susannah Bailey Gest, Sophia Beadle Mallon, Margaret Monfort Morehead, Mary Prudence Wells Smith, and Katherine Bartlett Yergason came home determined to make a difference in their city. On February 9, 1894, they met in Newton’s pottery studio to plan their next steps. “The time seemed favorable,” Laws and Newton later recalled, “for the organization of a body of women which should be widely representative of the best interests of women, and with a view of ultimate improvements in matters relating to cultural and civic conditions.” They sent out about 200 invitations, and 124 women became
Susannah Bailey Gest, one of the Club’s seven founders, served as a vice president. A descendant of Daniel Boone, she is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery. Some of her descendants are members of the Club in 2018.
founding members. Together, they recited the pledge: “Holding
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
my membership in The Cincinnati Woman’s Club as something sacred and worthy of unfailing loyalty, I will sustain the Club in its good work and guard its reputation as long as I am a member.” The Club began with seven departments of learning for lectures and discussions. The members quickly asserted themselves in civic life. By 1897, they had created a public playground and public baths on Pearl Street, and two years later they created Vacation Schools to keep children engaged and out of trouble.
Three pillars delineate the work of T he Cincinnati Woman’s Club—philanthropy,
education,
and
fellowship—and
the
clubhouse serves as the hub of those activities. On a typical day at the Club, knitters in the Tea Room are working on sweaters, hats, and mittens for donation, a member is settled comfortably on a sofa with a book in the Library, and a speaker is explaining the subtle symptoms of a particular cancer or sharing photographs of exotic locales in the Lecture Room. Around them, treasured items mark the journey through their history: a punch bowl hand painted by Clara Chipman Newton Jane Hlad and her mother Betty Pogue joined ten years apart. Both are former board members and are typical of many family legacies at the Club.
in 1899 to honor the fifth anniversary, a sixty-foot-long Greek frieze in the Auditorium donated by the Greek Circle in 1911, the Rookwood tile fountain featuring the Boy and Dolphin designed
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March event for 2018 President’s Project supporting Bethany House. Participants are Carole Williams, Carolyn Washburn (Bethany House), Nahamani Yisreal (former Bethany House client), and Mary Ellen Betz, president (2016–2018).
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
by sculptor Clement Barnhorn and acquired at the twenty-fifth anniversary. The decor at first glance seems chosen for its elegance, but the pieces actually reflect cherished donations made by generations of members. Margaret Monfort Morehead, a Club founder and president, was the first to suggest that the Club needed a home of its own. In 1899, the next president, Mary Gallagher, appointed a committee to seek a home “as stable and stately as we believe our organization to be.” The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, created by and for women, was determined to organize the project on its
Legacies—“It Was Time for Me to Join.” By Barbara Bardes In almost any setting at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, it is possible to find a member who is related to another member, whether it is a sister, an aunt, her mother, grandmother, or mother-in-law. These members do not wear a special name badge, nor are they recognized in any other manner, but they share the memories of another generation.
own—at a time when married women had just gained rights over their own property and women could vote only in school board elections. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club House Company issued fifteen hundred shares of stock, at fifty dollars each. Many members bought shares and donated them back to the Club; the Club eventually purchased other outstanding shares and was able to gain full ownership and close the Club House Company in 1916. It took ten years to gather the funds and make the plans, but in 1909, president Lucy Carter Hosea helped lay the cornerstone with a stirring speech: “The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, to which this building is a monument, stands as a bulwark to our city—a
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Diane Bishop and her mother Barbara Schanzle. They have shared more than twenty-five years of membership, attending events and programs, and overseeing the annual OEF pecan fundraising activity since 2004.
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
Some of these “legacy” members joined the Club while they were quite young. Carol Parsons remembers her grandmother, a petite force of nature, telling her mother and her aunt that they must join the Woman’s Club. As a young woman, Carol “poured” with her mother even though she was not a member, so it was not a surprise that when she was in her late thirties, her mother said, “You need to join the Woman’s Club now. I have the nomination papers all in order.” Carol and her mother shared the Club’s activities for many years. In the case of Deborah Wyght, she knew that her mother truly enjoyed the Club but, as a young woman, did not see it as something for herself. Later, having enjoyed her career, Deborah joined before her mother passed away. Some families regard membership as a tradition, including longtime familial stalwarts such as the Garrison and Todd families, whose memberships stretch back three and four generations. Like all young people, members may have pushed back against their mothers’ choices. Can we imagine the mini-skirted, rebellious young women of the sixties and seventies yearning for the elegance of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club? But their memories of coming to the Club as young girls remain: Ellen Zemke, thinking back to her trips to the Club with mother, Jane Boling, always wanted to have her engagement shower in the Private Dining Room. And she did just that, before her mother passed away and before she became president of the
Sisters Barbara Bardes and Deborah Wyght, daughters of member Marian Hill, now deceased. Both have served as board members and committee chairmen.
Club. Other women joined when mother said, “It’s time for you to join; you are old enough now.” Why do women want to share this legacy with the next generation? Just as women invite their friends to join, mothers and aunts want to share the friendships and wonderful experiences offered by the Club with their loved ones. While some daughters join to please their mothers, they soon find their own friends and activities within the walls of the CWC and, over the years, understand more deeply why “Mom said it was time for me to join.” Barbara Bardes has been a member of CWC since 2000 and was a member of the Club’s executive board from 2006 to 2009.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
safeguard—it is a Court of Appeals, a higher conscience of the people. Here we stand ready to further any humanitarian movement or frown upon any abuse.” Clara Chipman Newton moved into the partially finished building to supervise its completion. Members donated fine furnishings: a teak table for the Tea Room, carved chairs upholstered in green velvet, a mahogany table as a rostrum. The House Committee cleaned and dusted, moved furniture, and arranged decorative pieces. Theirs was the first woman’s club in Ohio to own its own home. The opening reception, a formal affair, overflowed with members and guests. Grecian columns flanked the front entrance of the red brick, Georgian-style home on Oak Street in Walnut Hills. A sweeping staircase opened onto the wide hallway. “It is such a stairway as poets of colonial days have written of,” a local newspaper report gushed. “ Up the broad stairway moved the throng, commenting on its beauty [with] every step. . . .” The members thought this would be their forever home. But in 1954, news reports of a Northeast Expressway sent a shock through The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. The Club argued for a change in route, which also threatened other historic sites, and the city council considered alternatives. As the debate dragged on, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club lived in a prolonged state of uncertainty. The fan window, the entrance doors, and the columns from Oak Street are incorporated into the clubhouse on Lafayette Avenue.
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Finally, the city confirmed their fears. In 1963, the council approved a path taking the Interstate 71 expressway through
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
With the OEF, the Club’s Future Is Secure Let gratitude for the past inspire us to the future. This motto of the Operating Endowment Fund (OEF) perfectly describes the motivations of the women who helped secure the day-to-day finances of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. The executive board established the OEF in 1992, designating that once it reached $500,000, up to 5 percent of the fund could be transferred each year to the operating budget. “It is an instrument through which we can assure the future of the Club,” said Joyce Holmes, president (1990–1992). Jeanette Nieman championed the OEF, organized the first OEF Committee, and held meetings to inform members of the various ways they could donate, including through bequests, life insurance benefits, and other planned gifts that provide tax advantages. Shirley Chewning, president from 1992 to 1994, helped launch OEF fundraising at the Club’s centennial celebration. Seventy-eight members became charter members of the Lafayette Leaders in 1994 by making a gift of $1,000 or more. The Club was able to transfer $19,000 from the fund to help pay for operating expenses in 1995. By the OEF’s twenty-fifth anniversary in 2017, the fund’s value reached close to $13 million, providing about $623,000 toward the Club’s annual budget. The Yearbook listed sixteen members Linda Myers, Laura Skidmore, Nancy Clagett, and Becky Mirlisena, active members of the OEF 25th Anniversary Committee, with Terry Waldo, the noted Ragtime pianist from New York City. Waldo received a standing ovation from more than three hundred members and guests.
as Laureate Leaders, having given $10,000 or more to the fund. Eighteen were Legacy Leaders, with donations of $5,000 to $9,999, and 124 were Lafayette Leaders, with donations of $1,000 to $4,999. This list includes only current members, not the many OEF donors who have passed away or resigned. The OEF includes much of Louise Nippert’s approximately $10 million bequest to the Club in 2012. Members show their support for the OEF through memorial donations and honorariums, attendance at the annual jazz evenings, pecan sales before the holidays, and their responses to the president’s annual appeal. The Club also sponsors fundraising trips; in 2017, it was a steamboat cruise on the Mississippi; a trip to Biltmore Estate in Asheville in 2018; and in 2019, Santa Fe is the destination. With the orderly OEF withdrawal providing more than a third of the annual budget, it enables the Club to flourish. “The Club is such a special place to so many women,” says Laura Skidmore, OEF chairman (2016–2019). “[The OEF] gives us peace of mind.”
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The Library was the first room renovated during recent Club interior décor improvements. A hand-carved plaque over the fireplace, originally at Oak Street, displays the Club’s motto: “Let us be such as help the life of the future.”
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
their Oak Street property. The Club quickly regrouped and began planning for a new home. President Louise Nippert reassured members in a 1965 address: “[The Club] will flourish because it does not depend on walls and roof but on the spirit that emanates from within its members through friendships and mutual interests, and from working and studying together.� Besides, they had no time to wallow in sadness. They had work to do. The Site Committee located two adjacent parcels on Lafayette Avenue in Clifton. The House Project Committee oversaw the construction. The Ways and Means Committee supported a fund drive that raised almost $800,000. Members spent eight days painstakingly tagging each object in the clubhouse, indicating whether it would be discarded or stored and reinstalled in the new one. The Club even hired plant nursery experts to dig up bushes, shrubs, and small trees and replant them to complement the beautiful hardwoods that graced the new site. They saved some decorative items, such as stained-glass windows, from the grand houses torn down to make way for the clubhouse. Those windows found their way into the new clubhouse, adding elegance to the Tea Room, Library, and Hampton Court. When they walked up to the new clubhouse for the first time on March 6, 1967, members saw stone benches rescued from the Oak Street garden and wrought-iron window grillwork
Custodian Terry Jones with one of the newly installed chandeliers in the Auditorium. The chandeliers came from historic Cincinnati Music Hall and were unveiled in March 2017 for the fiftieth anniversary of the Lafayette clubhouse.
repurposed as umbrella stands. They entered through the very
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
The Rookwood fountain in the Presidents’ Gallery was commissioned by the Club for its twenty-fifth anniversary and was later moved to the current clubhouse.
same door, with its distinctive Georgian fanlight. Inside, they found the Rookwood fountain flanked by the phone booths, the Greek frieze in the Auditorium, the Waterford crystal chandeliers in the Tea Room. The board table became the speaker’s table, also in the Tea Room. It felt like home.
On March 6, 2017, exactly fifty years after the ribbon-cutting of the clubhouse on Lafayette Avenue, members gathered in the Auditorium for an unveiling. The Interior Décor Committee had managed to rescue two chandeliers from Cincinnati’s grand Music Hall, which was undergoing a major renovation. They couldn’t have found a more fitting way to honor the memory of the women who rescued the Oak Street clubhouse by re-creating it on Lafayette. The chandelier acquisition reflected the resourcefulness that has shaped The Cincinnati Woman’s Club from its earliest days. A year earlier, when president Mary Lou Motl (2014–2016) learned from a speaker at the Club that Music Hall chandeliers might become available, she engaged some of the Club’s enterprising members in the quest. Sharon Denight, chairman of the Interior Décor Committee and a lighting expert, agreed to lead the effort to purchase, restore, reassemble, and rewire the mammoth fixtures.
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A few of the many paintings featured throughout the clubhouse. Clockwise from left, the artists are William-Adolphe Bouguereau and accomplished Cincinnati artists Frank Duveneck and his student, Dixie Selden.
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The porte cochère and glass enclosure at the main entry were added in 1973, and since then the entrance features spectacular holiday decorations that have a different theme each year. Much of the seasonal dÊcor is created by members.
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Shannon Carter was able to connect with key people at the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall and obtain details of the impending sale. The incoming president, Mary Ellen Betz (2016–2018), and executive board continued to support the complex project to its completion. Installing the chandeliers was daunting. They measure six feet across; their brass frames carry eighteen electric candles and weigh in at over three hundred pounds. After the Auditorium ceiling was reinforced, two hoists were installed to lower the chandeliers for cleaning and maintenance. As resonant and somber organ tones of the Phantom of the Opera overture played from a recording, the chandeliers rose dramatically toward the ceiling, and at the crescendo the electric candles lit the room for the first time. This was a thrilling moment that showed the Club honoring its past, while anticipating a lively future. By displaying the chandeliers, the Club preserves a treasured bit of Cincinnati continued on page 24
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
“Every Woman Deserves a New Kitchen Once Every 50 Years” Like a stainless-steel wonder, the kitchen gleamed when the new clubhouse opened in 1967, its modern conveniences offering restaurant-style efficiency. But fifty years later, the sheen had long faded. Members cooking for One Way Farm Children’s Home and GLAD House were dumbfounded when they had to use pliers to turn on the only two burners that worked properly. It was time to bring the kitchen into the twenty-first century. Leslie Mowry, chairman of the Long-Range Capital Planning Committee, advised the board that a total kitchen reconstruction should be the Club’s highest priority. They agreed, and launched the biggest clubhouse project since the move to Lafayette Avenue. The logistics were daunting. Summer programs could be relocated, but the construction timeline spanned only those three months. The Club would reopen as usual on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Fortunately, the Club had access to talented project coordinators. Mary Gregory, a nurse who specialized in hospital design, became chairman of the kitchen renovation effort. Bryan Duquin, the Club’s general manager, is also a chef, which gave him insight into kitchen operations. Gregory assembled a committee of Club members with a range of expertise, and Mary Lou Motl adopted the project as a perfect complement to her President’s Project to 22
support Cincinnati COOKS!, a program that teaches commercial culinary skills to people who are jobless or underemployed. The first step was to inform the members. At a General Meeting in 2016, a mannequin in work boots and hard hat held blueprints that proclaimed, “Every woman deserves a new kitchen once every 50 years.” Mary Gregory posed a question: “How many of you remodeled your kitchen and wished you could just go away and return when it was all done?” A sea of hands went up. “Then you understand why the Club needs to vacate the clubhouse in the summer of 2017,” Gregory responded. As it has throughout its history, the Club relied on teamwork and dedication to do the job. Fran Kohl, Education Coordination chairman, began searching for a temporary location for the Summer Program, with help from Mary Douglas, member services coordinator. Sandy Harte, Personnel Committee chairman, strategized General manager Bryan Duquin and president Mary Ellen Betz review final drawings for the kitchen renovation.
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with Duquin about staffing needs and assured employees that their jobs and salaries would be safe during an unusual summer. Mary Ellen Betz consulted with museum curators on how best to store the art collection and protect the Rookwood fountain from jackhammer vibration. Suzanne Lakamp led the 2016 President’s Project Committee that urged members to “Pitch-In for the Kitchens!” Through fundraising festivities and generous gifts from members, they raised more than $126,000 for Cincinnati COOKS! and the Club’s kitchen, including a $25,000 matching grant designated for Cincinnati COOKS! The kitchen needed to change from restaurant-style—preparing individual dishes made to order—to a banquet-style facility. Duquin worked on the plans with a commercial kitchen consultant and provided input as the Kitchen Renovation Committee selected an architect and general contractor. And how could the Club pay for the $766,000 redo? Ellen Zemke, treasurer, and Rob Himmler, comptroller, analyzed optimal financing options. Of course, unexpected challenges arose. The clubhouse needed a complete electrical upgrade. That could have derailed the timeline, but a current member who is a former Duke Energy executive provided helpful advice, and the utility responded quickly to facilitate the work. On September 29, 2017, the Big Reveal began with a slideshow. Ladies gasped at scenes of gritty demolition and intricate construction. Then the contractor explained why the project went as smoothly as it did: workers went the extra mile because they respected Duquin for being with them, learning their names, and helping solve problems, all day, every day.
Suzanne Lakamp; Kurt Reiber, CEO of Freestore Foodbank; and Mary Lou Motl, president (2014–2016) with the van donated to the Freestore as part of the 2016 President’s Project.
In a behind-the-scenes tour, members saw the new grill, a combi-oven that can be used as a smoker, a two-sided production line that makes it possible to plate three-hundred-plus dishes in a mere twelve minutes, and new plate warmers that ensure hot food doesn’t cool down on a cold plate. Then came the showcase: prime rib, slow-cooked overnight in the high-tech cooker and kept at the perfect temperature, and shoestring potatoes from the new self-filtering fryer, which infuses fresh oil and expels the old. Chocolate éclairs topped off the luncheon menu that truly revealed the good taste of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 21
heritage, an appropriate role for an organization that has cherished and supported musicians since its inception. None were more dedicated to Cincinnati’s musical foundation than Louise Nippert, whose legacy is ever present. “ I’m sure she’d be very pleased to have the chandeliers from the Music Hall brought here,” says Mary Lou Mueller, who joined the Club in 1961.
The Cincinnati Woman’s Club is a sisterhood woven around shared interests, commitment, and history. Yet even for daughters with a legacy of membership, joining the Club is an act of discovery. Nancy VandenBerg grew up practically across the street from the clubhouse. Her great-great-grandmother was Susannah Gest, one of the founders. Her mother and grandmother both served terms as president: Emily Todd from 1980 to 1982, and grandmother Ruth Todd from 1958 to 1960. But VandenBerg went away to college at eighteen and lived far away for the next forty years—and didn’t think it likely that she would ever join the ladies of the Club. VandenBerg’s husband died when their children were in high school and college. She returned to Cincinnati, a city she barely Mother and daughter members Emily Todd and Nancy VandenBerg, another pair of many Club legacies, joined almost fifty years apart (1967 and 2015).
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recognized as her own, and ventured to the Club to find a way back into life in her hometown. She remembered the Club as a
Former president Jane Tuten (2000–2002) speaking at Homecoming 2017, wearing the traditional CWC monogram brooch given to retiring presidents.
Mare Hagner, who as president (2006–2008) spearheaded the serving of wine at evening Club events, changing years of tradition.
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
place of formality and tradition. What she found was something closer to her heart: a place to forge new friendships, to learn, and to become involved in the community. Suddenly, she understood what drew her mother to the Club so many years before. Emily Todd enjoyed her life as a homemaker, but when she sent her children off to school each day, she appreciated having the time and a place to pursue her own interests. “Some of the things we wanted are universal,” says VandenBerg. VandenBerg joined in 2015, and the next year, she worked on the Lecture & Enrichment Committee. She became chairman of the New Member Orientation (NEMO) to help others feel the warmth of the Club. “It’s wonderful,” says VandenBerg. “I knew she’d love it once she was involved,” says her mother, with a knowing smile. “But I tried not to push.”
Sarah Warrington expected to find comradery, but her sense of discovery came with a twist. A recent empty-nester, she was one of thirty-nine women to join in 2013–2014. “ One of my first impressions of the Club is how kind and welcoming all the members were, without having met me,” she said in her speech as the new member selected to respond to the president’s Welcome Address in May 2014.
Ginny Neave, who joined in 1950, is a life member and served on the board. At Homecoming 2018, she was honored as the member with the most seniority.
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General manager Bryan Duquin and member Shirley Cadle share the excitement of the Kitchen Reveal in 2017.
CHAPTER ONE A HOME OF OUR OWN
Warrington’s family has deep roots in Cincinnati, and feeling curious after the welcome, she wandered down to the Club Archives. She found records showing that her greatgrandmother was one of the two hundred women who received an invitation to become a founding member in 1894. Her grandmother also was a member. Warrington was carrying on a legacy she hadn’t even known about. She became a board member (2017–2020) and chairman of the Education Coordination Committee (2018– 2019). As a new board member, she served rolls in the Tea Room, signed in members at the registration table, and occasionally helped find hostesses and greeters. “A lot of the emphasis of the Woman’s Club is just making people feel comfortable and glad to be there, rather than isolated or alone,” she says. “ It doesn’t matter that you don’t know anybody [as a new member]. People are still going to be friendly and inclusive.” For 125 years, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has been a place for women to grow intellectually and artistically, to enrich their community. Above all, it has been a place of fellowship. A home. “At this anniversary, we’re celebrating the sound thinking, the wisdom, the planning and decisions that were made from our very beginning,” says president Mary Ellen Betz (2016–2018). “ Each generation of women continues that process.” “The Club honors its history by moving resolutely into the future,” says president Ellen Zemke (2018–2020). “ We will always be respectful of the founders, but we also reflect the times we live in,” she says. “The anniversary celebrates not just who we are, but who we hope to be.”
Mary Gregory, chairman of the Kitchen Renovation Committee.
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Members sort goods at the Freestore Foodbank warehouse. The effort that day, part of a 2018 Summer Program Can Do event, resulted in more than two hundred packed boxes. Shown are Joan Dornette, Pat Humphrey, and Sarella Walton.
CHAPTER TWO
“Greater problems lie before the world than it has ever known. It is the high privilege of the Club to bear its share in facing these problems, answering the call of humanity with a spirit of love and justice.” — Annie Laws and Clara Chipman Newton at the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1919
A Higher Conscience
T
he members of the Club don’t know exactly what to expect as they approach the modern, red-brick Anna Louise Inn in Mount Auburn. They are only a few blocks from the site of the original clubhouse and the neighborhood where many of the Club’s early members lived, but here they are a world apart. n They sign in at the security desk and become buzzed in as they balance containers of barbecue pulled pork and chicken, salads, and desserts. They are headed to Off The Streets, a program of healing and sanctuary
for women seeking to escape sex trafficking and drug abuse that is housed at this homeless shelter for women. n The Club regularly helps agencies that serve people in need, providing meals, grocery gift cards, and notes of encouragement. Philanthropy is fundamental to The Cincinnati Woman’s Club and has been since its inception, with projects that focus on four major areas: supporting the military, providing college scholarships, serving the needs of women and children, and helping the disadvantaged.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
But this evening is different from other recent projects. Club members joining the Can Do philanthropic activity will stay for dinner. They walk into Off The Streets’ small kitchen, where the women wait at two long tables set in an L shape. Some are only a few years out of their teens and others are well into middle age. Any shyness dissolves as the members join the buffet line and settle in among the women who tell their stories—of stints at River City Correctional Center, children sent to foster care, rejection by family, and betrayal by boyfriends. One resident shows off her room, down a hallway, a dorm-like space with a twin bed and a narrow closet. “ I came with the clothes on my back. My closet is full,” she says, displaying shelves with a few piles of outfits. “ I had nothing two days ago. I used to sleep in a park,
“I came with the clothes on my back. My closet is full, I had nothing two days ago. I used to sleep
eat out of a dumpster.” Like the other women, she is thrilled to have visitors. “ It makes us feel human, to have people who care about us,” she says.
in a park, eat out of a dumpster. It makes us feel
Conversation moves easily through the dinner and afterward to the
human, to have people who care about us.”
multipurpose room, where plastic chairs encircle the space. The “gratitude circle”
Off The Streets Resident
their lives: I am grateful to be clean and to have hot showers and to be in this program.
begins, and these women who have suffered so much talk about the goodness in I am grateful to be safe today. I am grateful for hope and second chances.
Soon it is time for Pat Krumm, Club Philanthropy chairman (2017–2019), to add her thoughts. She gives thanks to them: “ I am grateful to have been invited into your home and been given the gift of your strength and your positivity. I’m grateful for you giving me that look at what courage and strength really are.” By the time the session is over, the women have bridged the chasm of different life experiences. They hug. The Club members promise to return. continued on page 36
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Club members pause for a moment during their food-handling day at the Freestore Foodbank.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Mentorship Becomes Friendship for CWC Scholars Jamie Sohngen steps into the Drawing Room, searching for a familiar face. Across the room, it takes Carolyn Srofe a moment of recognition—Jamie has lightened her hair from brown to blond—then she hurries forward to embrace her. At the Scholars Tea, sixteen University of Cincinnati students selected for Cincinnati Woman’s Club scholarships have a chance to mingle with their mentors. “I want to introduce you to a wonderful gal,” Srofe says to Scholarship Committee members, putting her arm around the University
Mentor Betty Tonne with scholar Megan Williams, a University of Cincinnati student, at the Scholarship Luncheon. In 2018, eighteen women were awarded scholarships.
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CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
of Cincinnati senior as she adds, with a smile, “I can’t understand why they gave her to me to mentor.” “They probably knew we would like each other a lot,” says Sohngen, not missing a beat. The CWC Scholars program dates to 1927, when The Cincinnati Woman’s Club decided to financially support a high school student, “a boy of exceptional ability and small means.” The second scholarship went to a girl from Walnut Hills High School. In 1929, the Club established the Scholarship Fund. Today, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club provides scholarships of $10,200 over three years to promising young women entering their second year at the University of Cincinnati; one of them is a voice performance major who receives the Nippert Scholarship in memory of philanthropist and singer Louise Nippert, who was Club president from 1964 to 1966. Sohngen exemplifies the qualities the Club looks for in its scholars: passion, drive, commitment. An international business student who has worked and studied in Spain, China, and Germany, she wants to travel to Dublin to pursue graduate work in conflict studies. At each step in her education, Srofe celebrates her progress—and the opportunities that were unthinkable for women of an earlier generation. “I think I receive more than I give,” she says of her role as a mentor. “I’m extremely proud of [Sohngen] and what she’s doing, with her life and her studies.” Unlike most other scholarship programs, which involve just the transfer of money, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club Scholars
program sparks a special bond, an intergenerational connection. Lisa Wilson meets with her mentee, a UC dietetics student, every couple of months. A consultant with a major health insurance company, Wilson has a doctorate in nursing. With advice and encouragement from Wilson, Colbey Coombs decided to pursue an accelerated master’s degree in nursing and become a diabetes educator. Wilson even coached her in a mock interview as Coombs prepared for the admissions process. “It’s very rewarding to see her grow personally and in her educational endeavors,” says Wilson. “And we have a friendship. She’s such an honest and compassionate person. I look forward to her one day not being my mentee but being one of my colleagues.”
Left: Mentors Jean Crawford and Carolyn Srofe share fun memories of their times with the scholars. Right: UC student Colbey Coombs with her mentor Lisa Wilson. 35
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 32
Three weeks after the visit to Off The Streets, Club members meet for an annual event known as Gift Research—a major focus of the Club’s philanthropy. A team of new members, each assigned to a local agency, spends time during the summer visiting and learning about the compelling needs and good works of their agencies. At the General Meeting in November, the new members present their findings and the members in the audience vote for their top choices. All the agencies receive unrestricted donations, but the top vote-getters receive the most. In 2017, the agencies shared gifts totaling $38,000. Off The Streets comes in as the second-highest vote-getter and receives a check for more than $6,000. “ I think they’re in a position to do great things with the money,” says Krumm. “ Having met the women and seen just this tiny sliver of how they operate, it just seemed like such a positive force.”
Being a positive force is a quest that has guided The Cincinnati Woman’s Club from its inception. The Club’s motto is carved into an oak plaque above the fireplace in the Library: “ Let us be such as help the life of the future.” Clara Chipman Newton suggested the quote from the Persian prophet Zoroaster as a statement of purpose, and it resonates in modern times. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club exists to contribute to the greater good. Still, today’s members might be surprised to learn how politically involved the Nominator Suzanne Schweller (right) and her candidate for Club membership, Melissa Loyd, enjoy lunch in the Tea Room during a Greet activity.
Club was in its early days—not in a partisan way, but as an influencer of civic life. The Club sponsored a lecture by Booker T. Washington and sent profits from the event to his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which trained black teachers. The Civics Department helped coordinate an antituberculosis campaign
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Dazzlingly colorful roses in bloom on the clubhouse Terrace.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
to halt spitting in public places and advocated for nonpartisan elections to A member since 1987, Judy McKinney has served two terms on the board and many more years as the dedicated Club photographer, capturing wonderful images of the Club and its members.
the school board. The Club’s playground programs spanned fifteen years, until the city’s Park Commission took them over. While pleasant stories about the Club’s teas and lectures filled the “women’s pages” o f the local newspapers, Club activities spilled into the news as members rocked City Hall. They argued for better pay for teachers and urged the firing of a waterworks engineer they deemed “utterly incompetent.” T hey rallied for better child labor laws and better treatment of women prisoners. In 1905, the Club’s Civics Department spent several weeks surveying the city from a perch on the Ida Street bridge in Mount Adams. On Sundays, they reported, “ Buildings all over the city were distinct, the outlines softened slightly in the autumn haze.” But by Tuesday, after factories ran for a full day, “ The entire city lay hidden under a pall of smoke.” T he members drew a detailed map, citing which company smokestacks put out the worst emissions. They decried the “many towering piles of brick from which issue almost incessantly plutonic volumes of densest smoke . . . pouring down upon innocent people.” Women did not have the right to vote, but they had the power of conviction. “ They went to City Hall and demanded the men do something,” says Carol Parsons, chairman of the Archives Committee. Today, civic involvement emerges from philanthropy, not just through one or two favorite projects, but in a blend of activities and donations. The Club’s focus hasn’t wavered; its members continue to honor the military, address the needs of women and children, give aid to the disadvantaged, and provide scholarships.
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Mary Newman and Barbara Hild cook food for Joseph House. One afternoon of work provides up to six days of meals for agency residents.
Kay Eby helps a veteran select his lunch from a buffet provided by members at the Project Healing Waters Can Do event.
CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
Every week, there are opportunities to make a difference. Members leave old eyeglasses and empty pill bottles in the coat room
Joni Welsh, former board member and co-chairman of the 125th Anniversary Steering Committee.
to be reused by charities, or give donations of cash, gift cards, hygiene items, and winter accessories for the monthly Gift Sleigh. They sew clothes for dolls and Teddy bears to be distributed by the Salvation Army. They prepare welcome bags for shelters and fleece blankets for nursing homes, and each month cook meals for agencies such as Joseph House and the Center for Respite Care, that serve veterans and the homeless. The Can Do hands-on volunteer events bring members close to the people they help. “It’s not just writing a check. It’s saying we’re here to do. We’re all here together,” says the Rev. Noel JulnesDehner, an Episcopal priest and documentary filmmaker who joined the Club in 2013. Julnes-Dehner founded Summer Camp Reading to help struggling third- and fourth-graders; in 2017, it was the top vote-getter among Gift Research recipients.
Light wind ripples the dark water of the lake at Miami Meadows Park, where veterans who have seen the worst of humanity can close their eyes and feel the restorative power of nature. On an early June day, as about two dozen veterans of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam gather on the shore with their flyfishing rods, they care less about catching fish than about grasping a
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Lisa Dir serves homemade treats to veterans at the 2018 Project Healing Waters Can Do event.
CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
peaceful moment. They come together for Project Healing Waters, the local chapter of a national organization that promotes fly-fishing as a form of rehabilitation for wounded or disabled veterans. Lafayette Avenue seems a world away, but for members of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, honoring veterans lies as close to their heart as their Tea Room traditions. As the fishing flies soar in an arc and settle softly into the water, Club members led by chairman Kay Eby spread cloths on picnic tables and lay out the fixings for barbecue sandwiches, deviled eggs, chips, brownies, and drinks. They visit with the veterans and even try a hand at casting a fly rod. They have no real agenda for their visit, except to show support. “It’s a good way for our organization to say, ‘ We honor you, thank you for your service, you are not forgotten,’” says Becky Mirlisena, who coordinated the first Can Do for Project Healing Waters, which is now a yearly event. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has a long history of supporting the military and veterans, from rolling bandages in 1898 for the Spanish-American War to selling war bonds and sewing surgical dressings during World War II. Often around Veterans Day, the Club honors the nation’s military during a special event. In Project Care, members pack boxes of snacks, personal care items, and books and write personal letters to troops serving overseas. The Club supports Fisher House, which provides lodging for the families of veterans
Carol Parsons, Archives chairman, and Blanche Sullivan, co-chairman of the 125 Artifacts Committee, coordinated interesting exhibits of documents and artifacts during the year of celebration.
continued on page 46
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
The CWC Archives—Preserving the Club’s History for Posterity By Blanche Sullivan and Carol Parsons Starting with the 1894–1895 annual report, the ladies of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club understood the organization would be truly special and needed to be preserved for posterity. During the first planning meeting on February 9, 1894, Clara Chipman Newton volunteered to be the secretary pro tem, before being tapped as the organization’s first recording secretary. As Clara wrote in her first annual report in June, 1895, “It seems fitting to incorporate with a summary of the other records, a brief outline of the history of the organization.”
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That simple notation by Clara launched a long CWC tradition that continues to the present day, morphing over time into Club Yearbooks brimming with detailed annual reports, names of officers and members, and numerous summaries of activities of the various groups. Remarkably, Yearbooks also feature speeches and treasury reports, not to mention the CWC Constitution. Indeed, the wish to preserve for posterity the activities of the Club has become an annual anticipated tradition. We also know that some of the ladies saved newspaper articles, programs, and other ephemera in large scrapbooks, which are preserved in the Club Archives. We can only imagine the early members toting all this treasure from meeting place to meeting place until the Oak Street clubhouse was finally built—finally a home for our Club and our Club’s history.
CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
When the Oak Street clubhouse was slated for demolition, the women made sure all this history was protected. As Madame President Gatch moved into the temporary offices at the Hotel Alms, she ensured the Club’s historical papers were safety stored with various members across the city. And when the Lafayette clubhouse was built, a room was specifically designated for the organization’s archives. Gatch’s dream of collecting all of the Club’s records in one place would now be possible. She tapped Alice Hook to be the Club’s first Archives chairman. Using her background as a librarian, Hook gathered and organized the materials, arranged storage, and educated the members about the Archives contents. As time progresses, the collection grows. It continues to include all the Club’s annual reports, materials from the Columbian Exposition, information about major anniversaries, event calendars, play scripts,
photographs, original building drawings, and even some objects, such as a Columbian Exposition medal, Club pins, a trowel, shovel, hat, gavel, seal, and stamps. In 1989, to honor Hook for her dedication and tireless efforts to preserve the Club’s history, the Archives Room was dedicated to her. The Archives are often tapped by women researching relatives who are past members, and some members go to the Archives for inspiration about future programs. And now with the Club celebrating its 125th anniversary, some of the pieces are being pulled for display, enabling the past to come alive once again. Blanche Sullivan has been a member of CWC since 2012, and is chairman of Art Inventory and the Clubhouse Guides. Carol Parsons joined CWC in 1984. She served on the executive board from 2001 to 2004 and is the chairman of the Archives Committee.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 43
being treated at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center, and Joseph House, which provides transitional housing, treatment, and recovery programs for veterans with addiction. In 2015, Mirlisena met with veterans at Project Healing Waters and offered a moving description to members in her Gift Research presentation: “ We know what to do when our veterans come home. We certainly know how to grieve when they don’t return. But what do we do with those men and women who come home broken and damaged? Project Healing Waters is one way we can support them.” The Club gave more than $7,000 to Project Healing Waters, which helped fund the purchase of rods and the equipment for making flies. Beyond that one-time gift, the Club now has a relationship, and furnishes a picnic lunch each June, another way to give back to veterans.
As the Club approached its 125th anniversary, president Mary Ellen Betz (2016–2018) sought a project that would reflect its long-standing philanthropic traditions. How better to “ help the life of the future” than to address the needs of the most bereft children? Almost one hundred thousand children live in poverty in greater Cincinnati. Families make up about one-third of Hamilton County’s homeless population. Monique was one of them; she never expected continued on page 51
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CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
The 2018 President’s Project Committee gathers in the Main Gallery after a successful January kickoff event. Left to right: Vikki Nutter, Teresa Summe-Haas, Jenni McCauley, Barb Carrelli, Diane Bishop, Cathy Roberto, Cindy Huber (chairman), Mary Ellen Betz (president), Ellen Gottschlich, Jenny Moore, Jane Clarke, Jill Haft, and Clarissa Rentz.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Susan Noelcke, board member, assembles a casserole during a Can Do cooking session in the Club kitchen. Volunteers use their own recipes and shop for the ingredients.
Nippert and “Forever Friends” Sustain the Club It is difficult to explain to those who have not belonged to The Cincinnati Woman’s Club the love that we have for our beautiful clubhouse, for the companionship we find within its walls. When Louise Nippert spoke those words as Club president in 1964, the Club was facing uncertain times. Its clubhouse was in the path of a new expressway. But Nippert recalled the rich history and traditions, the strong programs and friendships, and rallied the members to move forward confidently. Louise Dieterle Nippert was a revered figure in Cincinnati, where she shaped civic life through her generous philanthropy.With her husband, Louis, an attorney and heir of a Procter & Gamble founder, she gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the symphony, ballet, opera, Greenacres Foundation, University of Cincinnati, and other organizations. But at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, she was Mrs. Nippert (only her closest friends would call her Louise or her nickname, Liesel)—elegant, organized, and inspirational. A classically trained singer, she sometimes sang at the Club. Louise Nippert died in 2012, leaving a bequest of 5 percent of the Nippert Trust—a value just over $10 million—that helped secure the future of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. The funds arrived at the Club sporadically from 2012 to 2017, but mostly
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during Leslie Mowry’s term as president (2012–2014), as the trust’s assets, including a partial ownership in the Cincinnati Reds, were sold. A portion was transferred to the Operating Endowment Fund, where a specific percentage calculated on the overall value of the investments is withdrawn each year to support the Club’s annual budget. Another portion went into the Philanthropic Endowment Fund, increasing the amount available for scholarships and gift research annually. Some of the bequest went into The Cincinnati Woman’s Club Foundation, which makes grants to organizations that serve needy women and children. A Nippert Fund was created to provide money for special projects, such as the kitchen renovation in 2017. And the bequest supports the annual Nippert series of two music and theater performances at the Club. The Nippert bequest was by far the largest gift in the Club’s history, but other members have also given generously. The Ramey Fund, from a bequest by Ada Mae Ramey, who was a Club president (1962–1964), provides income for expenses that aren’t part of the operating budget. The Taylor Hampton Fund, from Virginia Taylor Hampton, provides for capital expenses and maintenance. In all, in the summer of 2018 there were thirty-seven “Forever Friends” of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club as a result of specifying a bequest through a will, trust, or other planned gift. The contributions of twenty-five members who have made bequests in the past total more than $13.6 million. Twelve more “Forever Friends” have indicated their support for the future of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club through bequests still to come.
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Janet McDaniel, Sally Stirsman, and Mary Alice Manley sort children’s sweaters knitted by members. More than one hundred sweaters are distributed annually to local childcare agencies.
CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE continued from page 46
to become a face behind those statistics. She’s a single mother who lost a well-paying full-time job and found herself with no place to go. “ Who wants to be a mom and you can’t, essentially, take care of your kid? You can’t even look at yourself in the mirror and feel as if you have value,” she says. Bethany House took in Monique and her four-year-old son and gave her support as she found another job and
Mary Gregory, Tree chairman, and Joni Welsh, the 125th Anniversary Steering Committee co-chairman, admire the Princeton Elm that was planted for the 125th celebration year, a tradition for milestone anniversaries.
gained a new foothold on life. Each Club president chooses a fundraising project to promote civic improvement, and Mary Ellen Betz, a retired nursing professor, selected Bethany House Services, which provides shelter and services to half of Cincinnati’s homeless families. “Their mission is to break the cycle of homelessness,” she says. Betz’s President’s Project funded computers and educational software, as well as new clothes and underwear so that children can be appropriately dressed for school. A parallel component of the President’s Project benefits the Club; Betz focused hers on the upcoming anniversary and supported this commemorative book. Led by chairman Cindy Huber, Betz’s President’s Project raised more than $109,000 during three months of lively activity. President’s Projects are imbedded in Club history and tradition, but they actually evolved from major philanthropic events. From 1921 to 1923, an annual bazaar and luncheon raised a total of $12,000 for city playgrounds—the equivalent of about $175,000 today. In a Fellowship Fete in 1931, the Club even borrowed a caged monkey
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
from the zoo to amuse the children—and raised $6,000 for the city’s During her term of office, Leslie Mowry, president (2012–2014), oversaw the investment of the $10 million Nippert bequest and helped establish the Receptions at Lafayette LLC for private events.
Welfare Department. The October Carnival of 1947 became a turning point. It was an elaborate eight-hour fete, with booths and shops filling every part of the clubhouse and spilling out into the grounds. Booths sold baked goods and homemade jellies, Christmas decorations and flowers, toys, and books. A balloon lady and fortune teller roamed among the crowd. The event raised more than $5,000 for subsidized lunches for malnourished children in the public schools. From then on, such events to support a good cause became a regular part of the calendar, and by 1963, they were designated President’s Projects—to be chosen by the president and organized every other year in her honor. Each supported a major charitable organization in Cincinnati. “It is natural that in fifty-three years, the focal points of our interest should change somewhat, as well as our method of approach,” said president Frieda Barrett in 1947. “ From personal concern over the abuse of children in sweatshops and the need for playgrounds, we have turned to the support of organized welfare agencies and of higher education for worthy girls.” Today, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club works to magnify the good work of the agencies through donations and volunteering.
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Shannon Carter and Francie Morrison discuss with Pat Humphrey the Connecting Women in the Future of Our Community luncheon scheduled for March 26, 2019, the 125th anniversary of the Club’s founding.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Six years after the financial shock of the recession of 2008, budgets were still tight at Cincinnati Public Schools. Most inner-city students couldn’t afford to pay for private, after-school sports or arts programs, and their schools didn’t have the money to fill the gap. Club president Leslie Mowry (2012–2014) always felt that activities were essential, not just “extracurricular.” She saw how playing varsity sports helped her daughter hone skills and develop values that extended beyond the game. “ I’m convinced that athletics were a big part of what led her to have the strength of character, the stamina, the teamwork that allow her to be a surgeon today,” she says. So when Mowry heard about Activities Beyond the Classroom (ABC), she knew it was a program that The Cincinnati Woman’s Club would want to support. Founded in 2004, Activities Beyond the Classroom works with the Cincinnati Public Schools to provide after-school athletics and arts. Mowry’s President’s Project raised $27,000 to launch an after-school soccer program for fourth- through sixth-grade girls at half of the city’s fifty elementary schools. The money funded equipment, uniforms, and referees. Additional funds raised for Mowry’s President’s Project supported the purchase of new carpeting and other much needed upgrades for the Tea Room. For some girls, that after-school sports program could become the first step toward high school athletics and an eventual college scholarship, says ABC executive director Brian Leshner. Even in elementary school, the girls The desk in the Library belonged to Clara Chipman Newton, and displays a silhouette and a portrait of her. Every time a member signs out a book, she is reminded of the strength and resolve of the Club’s founders.
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gain status as the first team their classmates can cheer for. (Because The Cincinnati Woman’s Club launched the after-school soccer program for girls, ABC requires schools to have a girls’ team before they can add one for boys.)
CHAPTER TWO A HIGHER CONSCIENCE
CWC Knits a Path to a Better Future On a Thursday morning, the clubhouse is mostly empty and the Tea Room is quiet, except for the soft cadence of voices at one table. The Clara Gates Irving Memorial Knitters are at work, continuing a tradition of philanthropy and creativity that dates back more than a century. In the early years of the Club, members founded a chapter of the Cincinnati branch of the Needlework Guild of America to make and collect new clothing for needy families. In 1915, a related Sewing Committee helped with those tasks, providing clothes for victims of natural disasters. For example, they sewed for families devastated by the 1917 Hyde Park tornado, which destroyed 110 homes, and created Bundles for Britain to support the nation’s ally in 1940 and 1941 before the United States entered World War II. Clara Gates Irving was a longtime leader of the needlework group, and after her death in 1957, the group members became the Clara Gates Irving Memorial Knitters. Today, the knitters meet on the third Thursday of every month and produce more than one hundred children’s sweaters a year— some of them with matching hats and mittens. They are distributed in December to the Salvation Army, the YMCA Christ Child Day Nursery, Our Daily Bread after-school program, and Santa Maria Community Services. Mary Alice Manley promotes the Clara Gates Irving Knitters at the autumn Showcase, which provides members with information on all educational and philanthropic activities for the coming year.
Like many new members, when Janet McDaniel joined the Club in 2009, she was looking for a way to become involved and wanted to contribute to the community. She hadn’t knitted in many years, but the expert knitters offered patience and guidance—even if it meant untangling mistakes. She eventually became chairman of the group, which meets year-round and sometimes gathers informally. “It was an opportunity to know people, an opportunity to be with lovely women who care a lot about doing things for others,” says McDaniel, a retired educator.
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Gary Copes (left) and Sue Showers sport their aprons to promote the 2016 President’s Project events to the membership. In 2017–2019, Showers serves as co-chairman of the 125th Anniversary Steering Committee. Copes is the Hospitality Committee co-chairman.
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“There’s no question, there would not be this program without The Cincinnati Woman’s Club,” L eshner says. That pronouncement echoes in different ways for agencies that were able to expand their services because of a President’s Project. President Marianne Beard (2010–2012) had worked as a volunteer tutor for the primarily Appalachian students at the Oyler Community Learning Center, so when she learned a new vision center there needed more funds to move from a dream to reality, she chose it as the recipient of her President’s Project, and it became the first self-sustaining school-based vision center in the United States. When president Mary Lou Motl (2014–2016) chose Cincinnati COOKS! as her project, she saw not just a philanthropic parallel to the Club’s kitchen renovation but a way to give long-lasting help to undernourished children—much as the Club did when it funded penny lunches in 1911 and a milk drive for schoolchildren in 1932. Cincinnati COOKS! is part of the Freestore Foodbank, one of Ohio’s largest food banks. In addition to providing free culinary skills training to people who are jobless or underemployed, Cincinnati COOKS! makes and delivers more than twenty-five hundred hot meals weekly to children in after-school programs in Hamilton County, Ohio, and Kenton County, Kentucky. It also provides Power Pack snack boxes for children to have over the weekend. “We were having a challenge getting the food to Kids Café sites in a timely fashion,” s ays Freestore Foodbank president and CEO Kurt Reiber. The Club raised enough money to purchase and retrofit a second van, which enabled the program to expand to serve more schools and more children. “It’s a lifesaver for the kids,” s ays Reiber. “ It allows parents to know their children are
At the Freestore Foodbank, Noel Julnes-Dehner pauses while sorting and packing food items donated for families in the community.
going to be fed when they’re in school.” For The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, it is just one more way to “help the life of the future.”
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Chef Vic Silberberg, owner of Zula Bistro and Wine Bar, demonstrates preparation of the delicious meal later served to members.
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“Petty self-interests are forgotten in absorbing programs, the success of which depends upon teamwork.” — Susan Galbraith, president, 1925–1927
A Center of Thought and Action F
rench-born engineer Gerald Checco, a dapper man with a goatee and a penchant for bow ties, stands at the podium to address a topic that sounds rather dry: “ What’s the green solution for MSD (Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati)?” n Still, the women gathering in the Lecture Room for the Lunch-n-Learn have reason for high expectations. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has a reputation for bringing in dynamic speakers. With about thirty interest groups—generating more than four hundred events throughout
the year—the Club offers a wide range of lectures, performances, and creative outlets. n Behind the staid title of Checco’s talk are some raw facts. He knows that people rarely think about what happens after they flush—and he is about to enlighten them. n He explains that Cincinnati was one of the first cities in the nation to construct underground pipes to carry storm water off the roads and highways to the Ohio River. By the 1850s, they drained off sewage as well. Life became even better a century later when treatment plants cleaned the water before it was dumped into the river.
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But then Checco moves to current times and the challenges of “hundred-year” storms—flooding rains that are only supposed to happen once every hundred years. They are now occurring multiple times a year, overwhelming the current system. New pipes to cope with the surge would cost about $30 billion, he says. Which brings him to Cincinnati’s “green” solution: Smart technology using sensors as virtual traffic cops for the water, diverting it to pipes that have more capacity. The sewer district also is adding new detention ponds and restoring creek beds. Kacey Schmitt brought a friend and prospective member to the Club to hear Checco’s talk, although she admits she wasn’t sure at first about the topic. She left feeling amazed. “Who would know that Cincinnati has one of the top sewer systems
“To create an organized center of thought and action among women for the promotion of social, education, literary and artistic growth, and whatever relates to the
in the world?” Schmitt says. At the Club, “You usually learn something fascinating that really expands your brain.” Feeling “amazed,” whether at the Lunch-n-Learns or a multitude of other programs, is standard operating procedure at the Club. Being inspired to better yourself and your community is the purpose of The
best interests of the city . . .”
Cincinnati Woman’s Club, as inscribed in the incorporation documents
The Cincinnati Woman’s Club Incorporation Documents of 1897
of 1897: “To create an organized center of thought and action among women for the promotion of social, education, literary and artistic
growth, and whatever relates to the best interests of the city . . .” Updated in 2018 to reflect more contemporary language, the current mission statement describes the Club as “A center for women organized to enrich lives through philanthropic action and educational opportunities.” Over the years, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has invited leading thinkers, writers, performers, and artists to share their wisdom. In 1967, Arthur C. Clarke came to tell the Club his predictions of the future, just as he and Stanley Kubrick were at work on the screenplay for 2001: A Space
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At a weekly Painting Class, Susan Hochbein, Carol Euskirchen, and Carolyn Scheve listen to detailed instructions provided by Steve Jenkins.
Nancy Hancher, longtime volunteer Club librarian, trains her successor Ruth Hubbard-Barnes as they conduct the Library inventory.
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Odyssey—although he famously said, “ Trying to predict the future is a discouraging, hazardous occupation.”
Initially, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club urged members to join a department, which sponsored lectures and discussions on a topic
Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian explorer who was the first to travel
area: education, social science and philanthropy, literature, art, music,
to both the North and South Poles, told stories of his exploits. Years
home and domestic economy, current topics, and public interests. For
later, astronaut Neil Armstrong, an Ohio native who taught aerospace
example, in 1913, author and orator Edward Howard Griggs gave a six-
engineering at the University of Cincinnati, shared reflections about
lecture course on “Human Progress: A Study of Modern Civilization.”
his trip to the moon, and Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the famed Jacques Cousteau and founder of the Ocean Futures Society, mesmerized members with tales of the deep ocean. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club is not a place for partisan debate, but it has welcomed political commentary with notable journalists such as David Brinkley, Brit Hume, and Bettina Gregory and public figures such as William Buckley and Ted Turner. In 1906 at her second inauguration, Club president Grace Goodman (1905–1907) offered thoughts on the varied Club programs that are just as relevant today: “You will be surprised to see how many other ways there are of looking at things you have viewed from one side only, and you will be even more surprised to find some of these viewpoints better and truer than those you have clung to all your life.”
Janet Self and John McHugh engage in conversation with Jill and Paul Staubitz in the Presidents’ Gallery.
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THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Members often led discussions in special-interest groups known as “circles.” I n the Greek Circle, they presented papers on plays by Euripides, and in the Browning Circle on poems by Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Today, programs and classes still reflect the Club’s intellectual roots—but they add a modern spin. Technology, one of the newest additions, helps members navigate smartphone apps and boost their cybersecurity, while Greek programs include talks about archaeology and Greek influences in Cincinnati. Women’s Health and Wellness provides important insights into personal and community health issues, while Civics considers such issues as “Eliminating Poverty in Cincinnati.” In the Bible program, members are exposed to a broad range of religious topics. They have seen a Torah up close and toured a museum with Jewish cultural artifacts. They learned about Quaker traditions and heard stories of personal spiritual journeys. The Biblical Literature Class, Choral Class performs at the 2018 Inauguration, a cherished tradition.
in contrast, delves deeply into yearly themes, meets monthly, and includes discussion. As in earlier days, members—with their vast and varied network of connections— shape the Club’s educational offerings. “ It’s the most well-educated and experienced group of women that I’ve crossed paths with anywhere,” says Sarah Warrington, chairman of the Education Coordination Committee (2018–2019).
The creature clinging to a tree looks like a child’s toy, with the furry head and black ears of a Teddy bear and the snout of a 64
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A Haven in the Clubhouse, the Library Feeds the Soul Ask a random member about her favorite room in the clubhouse, and you’re likely to hear a common refrain: The Library is a special place. Walls of blue brocaded silk and floorto-ceiling shelves envelop the room. Sofas and Chinese Chippendale chairs encircle a thick Oriental rug. The mahogany fireplace mantle shimmers in the light of bronze sconces and an antique chandelier. Stained-glass panels hang in the windows. From a small carved mahogany desk at the entrance, a silhouette of founder Clara Chipman Newton keeps watch. Some members come just to soak up the ambience, which is comforting and cozy but also elegant in a Downton Abbey way. Yet the Library feeds the soul in a more literal sense. The librarian buys eight to ten new books a month. She looks for titles by acclaimed writers and books she thinks members would like. On one shelf, you can find books that date back to the studies of the Greek
Circle—Euripides and Aeschylus. On another, authoritative texts chronicle the history of Cincinnati. But the Library contains more modern fiction than nonfiction and includes page-turners and best-sellers. The ladies of the Club are intellectual and well-read, but they also turn to their books for relaxation, according to longtime librarian Nancy Hancher (2008–2018), former co-owner of an independent bookstore in Cincinnati. “We receive way more compliments than criticisms,” she says. “People love the books we choose.” While the book inventory changes, the Library consistently contains about eighteen hundred volumes; new hardbacks are put out on a table on the first Monday of every month. The Library system is low-key. Members sign and date a journal on the desk near the door, and they write the page of the journal entry on a slip in the book. Books are due back in two weeks, a policy that is somewhat loose; the only fines are on the honor system. A committee called Library Friends helps with ongoing tasks, such as covering and logging the new books, and runs the annual book sale in November. In the back of the room, members leave paperbacks to share. Those are free for the taking.
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Jane Clarke, a clubhouse guide, shows Kacey Schmitt one of the treasures displayed in the corner cabinet in the Presidents’ Gallery.
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small dog. Except for the eyes. Piercing orbs of an unnatural orange, punctuated by small black dots, stare warily at the camera—and, by extension, directly at the women in the Lecture Room. “Today we’re going to Madagascar,” photographer Brian Jorg says cheerfully. “They’re ruled by lemurs.” In the next hour, Jorg, the manager of the native plant program at
Julian F. Bechtold, of Fort Thomas, Kentucky, designed this wall fountain for the Oak Street garden in 1935. Later, it was reinstalled on the Terrace at the Lafayette clubhouse.
the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, the second-oldest zoo in the United States, transports his audience to a faraway place. His images are vivid, and his descriptions are evocative. Chickens hanging in an open market in 102-degree heat, with flies buzzing around. Fish drying on a parking lot. Mud baking in brick kilns along the river where women are washing clothes. And, of course, lemurs—exotic creatures of various sizes and markings, glaring at the camera as if at an intruder. “It makes you feel you experienced what he did,”says member Jackie Sidley, adding, “I’m not brave enough to go to Madagascar.” Amazingly, Jorg’s presentation is a close substitute. Yet this isn’t a travelogue; it’s one of the six Photography Classes presented each year. Jorg offers members some advice about which camera lenses are worth the investment and which are most important to bring on such an exotic trip. And he suggests some locales for wildlife photography closer to home. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club encourages members to express their talents and discover new ones. Each educational program presents speakers at least three times a year; typically the talks begin
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at 11:00 a.m. and are open to the membership and their guests, followed by a luncheon in the Tea Room. Classes meet more frequently and may require an instruction or supply fee. Every Tuesday morning, Choral singers harmonize as they prepare for concerts in December and May. The Players, a lively amateur theatrical group, rehearse for their annual production, which is often an original script—in keeping with a long-held tradition of member-inspired theater. Creative Writers share their work aloud with each other once a month, cognizant of their motto, “What happens in the Taylor-Hampton Room STAYS in the TaylorHampton Room.” Comradery develops as the classes socialize together over lunch in the Tea Room. “ You can sit next to someone you know nothing about and find out they have an interesting professional life or family life,” says Charlotte Goering, who has been a member since 1991. “There’s a story in every person who belongs here.”
Painters gather for their own conclave in the lower-level Studio, where they can enter through the lower entrance and share an informal lunch after morning instruction. Tuesday painters began meeting Mary Corley and Pat Krumm relive the Golden Age of Radio in the 2018 Players’ production.
weekly in 1948, when they hired artist and teacher Arthur Helwig, who was known for his murals as well as modernist watercolors, oils, continued on page 73
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During a tour of the Skirball Museum, members pause and reflect on a Torah scroll that was rescued from a Bohemian synagogue during Nazi occupation. Located at Hebrew Union College, this museum is the oldest repository of Jewish artifacts in America. Left to right: Carol Pearce, museum guide, Mary Ellen Betz, Linnea Nadel, and Sarita Naegel.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Living Large (and Small) in the Summertime On a summer day, Kaye Browning welcomes fellow Club members to her Lilliputian world. She shows them the favorite spots from her childhood in Maysville, Kentucky: the drugstore with its soda fountain, shelves of cotton swabs and alcohol, newspapers and sundries, the downtown church and Moorish-style theater. Everything looks just as it did years ago—but as a replica one-twelfth the size.
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Whether it is Spencer House, Princess Diana’s ancestral home, or George Washington’s office, everything in Browning’s collection is authentically reproduced. Tiny clocks tell time. Tiny chandeliers give off light. The tiny gilded harp and other instruments play music. “I created an ambience in them that really makes you want to live there. It’s sort of my artist’s palette,” says Browning. Browning’s extensive collection of miniatures, housed at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center in Maysville, has been featured in magazines and television specials, such as the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum. It has also been a highlight of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club summer program.
Betty Tonne, Carolyn Finkelmeier, and Janet McDaniel at Doscher’s Candies in Newtown; Dawn Bruestle and Mary Ann Jordan lead a “Good Old Summertime” sing-a-long; Cathy Roberto and her mother Rosalie Ireland-Eick create teacup nosegays.
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Every year, summer programs lend a lighthearted flair to the Club’s educational offerings. Members have tasted bourbons, toured the Wright Brothers’ home, and visited the Rookwood Pottery Company and the nearby Toyota plant. The summer of 2018 included a tour and afternoon tea at Doscher’s Candy Company, co-owned by a former Club member, who provided behind-the-scenes insights. A Cincinnati favorite that was founded in 1871, Doscher’s still crafts candy canes and French Chews by hand. The CEO and son of the founder of LaRosa’s came to the Club to tell the story of the longtime Cincinnati pizzeria. The program was followed by a LaRosa’sinspired lunch created by the Club’s chef.
Summer programs offer golf lessons and hands-on learning: how to cook for just one or two, how to dance, how to make jewelry, and how to play mah jongg. Programs still have greeters, but the atmosphere is relaxed and the lunch might be buffet-style. “We have a great time and we keep members busy learning and doing,” says Sarita Naegel, co-chairman of the 2018 Summer Program with Peg Roudebush. Some regular Club classes continue to meet through June and July. But then the fun pauses. In August, the clubhouse closes to allow for any necessary repairs—and for members and staff to take a break until the activity starts back up in September.
Dave and Fran Kohl cheer for the Cincinnati Reds; Linda Young designs her teacup nosegay; Maryanne McGowan and guest attend BBQ & Bluegrass. 71
Young entertainers from the Cincinnati School for Creative & Performing Arts bring vibrant energy and talent to the Auditorium stage at the 2017 Holiday Gala.
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and prints. Demand for painting classes grew; the weekly instruction from top local artists continues to draw new members to the Club. A second class now meets on Thursdays. On one fall morning, a dozen women sit in a semicircle watching as professional artist Gilda Horn dabs blobs of oil paint onto a white palette and turns it toward the class. “I’m going from dark, saturated colors to white,” she says, as she mixes a bit of the white into raw umber. “That is such a nice shadow color.” After her demonstration, Horn will move from table to table, offering encouragement and advice. This is what Sherry Deskins Goodson, Painting co-chairman, looks forward to every week. A former special education teacher, she began painting in 2000 and joined the Club in 2013. “ I love having a place to come and be enriched,” she says. Every month, a member’s painting hangs in the clubhouse elevator. Each year in April, the painters display their work in a show in the lower gallery. “Everyone is on a different trajectory,” Horn says of the painters. “We all have different styles and approaches. It all involves expressing yourself on a two-dimensional surface.“ The Club offers other ways to create: drawing, needlework, arts and crafts, even planning a garden. The clubhouse itself is a gallery of works by well-known artists—a testament to the love of art that inspired the founders, including ceramicists Clara Chipman Newton and Katherine Bartlett Yergason.
Sharon Denight and Ruth Kinder are greeted by the UC Bearcat before the program featuring Neville Pinto, president of the University of Cincinnati.
continued on page 76
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Flower Committee Evokes Beauty, Elegance—and Friendship Anita Hulefeld walks into the Tea Room and surveys the floral arrangements—yellow roses, yellow carnations, poms, and greenery in square glass vases. Larger displays adorn the speaker’s table. “The centerpieces are perfect,” she declares. That is high praise from Hulefeld, who was one of Cincinnati’s leading florists and created displays for the Cincinnati Flower Show. Hulefeld still works on the Flower Committee, although she stepped down from being in charge of special events in 2017.
Hulefeld has the knack of looking at a vase and knowing exactly how many flowers will fit. That helps avoid waste, as the Flower Committee keeps to a tight budget. They create new arrangements each month for the General Meeting and replace them mid-month. Special events, such as the Fashion Show or Inauguration Day, receive their own designs, often tailored for the theme. Flowers add a timeless elegance to the clubhouse, with bouquets on the registration table and in the president’s office
Paula Steiner and Susan Fischer transport arrangements; Jolene Struebbe with white baskets used for Inauguration flowers. 74
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and centerpieces continually refreshed in the Tea Room. Chairmen of the day once were responsible for providing flowers for their events, but too often those bouquets were needlessly thrown away while they were still fresh. Now, once the arrangements are placed around the clubhouse, a monthly Flower Committee chairman makes sure they stay watered and fresh for weeks. Today, flowers are a labor of love. Almost fifty members serve on the Flower Committee, which was first led by Mare Hagner as chairman, and later by Deborah Campbell and Jane
Hlad as co-chairmen. Hampton Court bustles with activity on the twice-monthly flower days as members work at long tables with buckets of flowers, Oasis foam, and floral scissors. Periodically, the Flower Committee brings in a florist to teach floral design. Members pay for their supplies and bring home an arrangement. Flower arranging is an art form, but that’s not the only attraction of the Flower Committee. “It’s wonderful to come here and enjoy the friendship we have here with the ladies,” says Hulefeld.
Genia Lepley and Paula Steiner work on Inauguration; Jolene Struebbe and Francie Morrison; Anita Hulefeld was a longtime leader of the Flower Committee. 75
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 73
Near the time of the fifth anniversary, members contributed funds toward a special gift. Several women who were traveling to Paris purchased and brought back a painting by Elizabeth Nourse to commemorate the occasion. Nourse, who was only the second American woman to be elected to the acclaimed Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, was a native of the Cincinnati suburb of Mount Healthy and had studied art at the University of Cincinnati before moving to Paris. That appreciation of fine art is part of the essential fabric of the Club. Noted wildlife artist John Ruthven spoke at an Art program in 2018 about his beloved “muse”—his late wife, Judy, who was a Club member. Ricki Ruthven, his daughter and second-generation Club member, served as chairman of the day.
“Holy cow! Thank you for having us! This is such an honor. I have goose bumps from my toes right on up to the top. How lucky we are to be in this room with so many brilliant women.” As soon as Kelly Trush begins talking, a surge of energy infuses the Lecture Room, where every seat is filled. The ladies came for a Gourmet Class cooking demonstration, but they are about to receive much more: inspiration, entertainment, maybe even some enlightenment. This beloved painting was created by Carolyn A. Lord, a well-known artist and Cincinnati Art Academy instructor.
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Nearby, Kelly’s sister, Caitlin Steininger, wearing a polka-dotted dress rather than the emblematic white chef’s jacket, looks like she
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could be a member’s daughter. She stands at a butcher-block table with a tilted overhead mirror so that the audience can see the burner
Mary Lou Motl and Marvin Good toast the UC Bearcat.
and the simple ingredients: a bowl of arugula, boneless chicken breasts, kosher salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon. This doesn’t look mysterious or complicated, which usually is the unstated assumption underlying a recipe labeled “gourmet.” But that is the point. These young women who literally are neighbors of some members of the Club create food that can belong on a family dinner table as well as in their restaurant. The “Cooking with Caitlin” brand reaches beyond brick-and-mortar to share recipes and ideas via online cooking videos, a newspaper column, radio shows, and Foodies Night In on Twitter. Within minutes, olive oil is sizzling in the pan while Steininger is dredging sliced chicken breasts in flour, egg, and panko, with a liberal side serving of advice: “One of my favorite things is to add hot sauce to the buttermilk and fresh herbs to the panko. . . . Don’t forget the wet hand and the dry hand—the right hand is for the dry, the left is for the wet.” After the demonstration, the ladies move to the Tea Room for lunch, where the Club’s chef has used the Cooking with Caitlin recipe to prepare fried chicken topped with arugula salad. The popular Gourmet Classes occur at least three times a year, featuring well-known chefs presenting a favorite recipe. This is not just a recent phenomenon. In the early 1900s, chef François Nothelfer became Cincinnati’s first celebrity chef, famous for serving wild game
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At a Lecture & Enrichment program, Tom Humes (past chairman of the UC Board of Trustees), Marty Humes, Mary Ellen Betz, Neville Pinto (UC’s thirtieth president), Jennifer Pinto, Buffie Rixey, Donna Perzigian, and Tony Perzigian (UC Provost Emeritus) join the UC Bearcat.
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at the St. Nicholas and Sinton Hotels, and for his outspoken views on meat, sauces, and kitchen equipment. He gave a “chafing dish address” at The Cincinnati Woman’s
Sarah Warrington, Amelia Crutcher, and Cynthia Cole—then first-year board members—serve as hostesses for the UC Lecture & Enrichment evening.
Club, demonstrating crab flakes marguerite; chicken, woman’s club style; and mignon of filet of beef, with green pepper, tomatoes, and cèpes or fresh mushrooms. His topic: “Culinary Art as a Feature of Education.” Cooking demonstrations remain one of the most popular Educational programs, often drawing more than one hundred members to observe chef presentations in the Auditorium. At today’s class, some women already had chicken breasts waiting at home while they learned about the recipe. “She made something we all can do,” says Fran Kohl, Education Coordination chairman (2016–2018). “Yet their personalities and enthusiasm showed through. It was just so fun.” Whatever the topic, education at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club has serious underpinnings. Founders sought to give women a place to exercise their intellectual abilities and hear from leading thinkers of the day at a time when they had few such outlets. The Literary Club of Cincinnati, which counted U.S. presidents Rutherford B. Hayes and William Howard Taft as members and hosted the likes of Mark Twain and Ralph Waldo Emerson, does not admit women to this day. continued on page 82
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“Ever Changing, Always Learning”— The Art Collection and Clubhouse Guides By Jane Clarke “I love how many beautiful things the Club has. I love learning about them and their connections to Cincinnati’s artists and history. And I especially LOVE being able to share what I’ve learned about our treasures with other Club members.” These words by Blanche Sullivan, current chairman of the CWC Clubhouse Guides, beautifully express the sentiments of any clubhouse guide. Formed in the summer of 2011 by a group of enthusiastic members, under the leadership of Sue Wilson and Ruth Rubendunst, the guides’ intention was to share accurate information about The Cincinnati Woman’s Club art collection and furnishings via scheduled tours for members only. The CWC collection is outstanding and includes paintings, pieces from Rookwood Pottery, silver, antique furniture, oriental rugs, and pianos. Many pieces were donated by Club members and their families.
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Selected guides represent a variety of interests and expertise. Their goal is to share their knowledge and to learn from each other as well. Following a template that includes accurate artistic and historic information about a chosen objet d’art, each guide prepares a five- to ten-minute presentation for themed tours. They also develop tours designed for small groups to allow for discussion. The trained guides provide accurate information in their own styles and the tours are offered for NEMO classes, closed meetings, and summer programs. Past tours include “The Berne Collection,” which explored the art collection of Albert Berne Sr., an artist and collector who was married to CWC member Lucille Kroger, heir to the Kroger fortune. At his death, Albert’s sons donated his art collection to the CWC. “Starring the Ladies” featured works by local female artists
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including Elizabeth Nourse, Carolyn Lord, Dixie Selden, and Emma Mendenhall. “CWC in Bloom” highlighted the painting Dogwood Flowers as well as a plate and punch bowl that were decorated by founding CWC member Clara Chipman Newton. With “Rookwood All Day: The Complete Story,” members were invited to tour the Rookwood Pottery, have lunch in the Tea Room, and learn a b o u t t h e C l u b ’ s Rookwood pieces. “Life Is Golden on Lafayette” was a nod to the Golden Anniversary of the Lafayette clubhouse, during which guides offered a monthly treasure hunt of special aspects of the Club with clues supplied in CWC Connects. Ever changing, always learning, the guides continue to provide opportunities for members to rediscover and enjoy the beauty and depth of the Club’s beloved treasures. Jane Clarke has been a member of CWC since 2005 and served on the executive board of the Club from 2011 to 2013.
At left, Elizabeth Nourse’s study for The First Communion. Above, her painting Across the Meadows. On the far left is the inside of an antique “Elite” Limoges hand-painted punch bowl, atop the corner cabinet in the Presidents’ Gallery. 81
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE continued from page 79
Pastry chef Rebecca Bryant made cookie decorating lots of fun for members who attended this Pop-Up Class before the holidays. Members love Bryant’s beautiful and delicious breads and desserts.
Jane Cunningham Croly started the national woman’s club movement in 1868 when the all-male New York Press Club denied her a ticket to a talk by Charles Dickens. She later said the woman’s club became “a light-giving and seed-sowing center of purely altruistic and democratic activity. It has been in every sense an awakening to the full glory and meaning of life.” The founders of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club felt that same spark in 1894, in the midst of the Progressive Era when women’s clubs formed in towns across the country. Women pressed for suffrage and temperance, founded kindergartens, and opposed child labor. Even women’s education was a cause. In 1904, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club hosted a talk on “ The Higher Education of American Women” by Dr. Alice Luce, dean of the Women’s Department at Oberlin College, the first coeducational college in the United States. Nationally, women’s clubs have seen decades of decline, as women gained political rights and career opportunities. The General Federation of Women’s Clubs peaked at a combined club membership of 1.7 million women in 1914; today, the Federation clubs have just eighty thousand members. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, while not as large as its maximum membership limit of one thousand, has continued to thrive by remaining relevant to new generations.
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Members and guests sample a Lunch-n-Learn buffet in the Main Gallery before the program begins in the Tea Room.
Nancy Kane and Jane Koppenhoefer are all smiles at the informal cookie-decorating event in Hampton Court.
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Today’s Club members are movers and shakers themselves, but they still appreciate having an intellectual home. As much as any aspect of the Club, educational programs evolve to address the interests and needs of contemporary women. For example, while most educational programs and classes are set on the calendar a year in advance, Pop-Up Classes can be scheduled in a matter of weeks. When the Cincinnati streetcar opened in 2016, members took a ride, ate lunch in Over-theRhine, and then rode back. In another Pop-Up Class, members received a special tour of the Proton Therapy Center of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and UC Health, which uses a new technology to target cancerous tumors with incredible precision. Club programs also accommodate working women and busy volunteers. Some Can Dos and other events are scheduled in the evening. Lunch-n-Learn and Food for Thought programs begin at 11:45 a.m. with a lunch buffet and speaker, offering a time-efficient way to enjoy the Club. When Pat Humphrey joined the Club in 2014, she was a senior executive at a global firm that provides management consulting and professional services. She enjoyed the Lunch-n-Learns and looked forward to becoming even more involved when she retired. “Wanting to go explore things, learn, be out and about in the community—this Club meets all those needs for me,” she says. Educational programs open the door to new insights and fresh perspectives. “I never become tired of learning something new,” says Evi McCord, chairman of the Art program (2017–2018). “To learn something new every day is a wonderful thing. I
Decked out in stylish red and black, Suzann Parker Leist attends UC president Neville Pinto’s enthusiastic presentation outlining the major goals for university partnerships and growth as its bicentennial year approaches in 2019.
felt that the minute I walked into the Woman’s Club, that this was a place not only of friendship and comradery but also of learning.”
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“Let us have ideals that are broad; let us look forward, not backward, and let us not be content with what we have accomplished. We must keep in touch with the important questions of the times, lending our help to further all good works.” — Helen Handy Mitchell, president, Inaugural Address, 1911
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itch-perfect voices rise and fall in a cascade of carols. In the Drawing Room, couples and friends pose in front of the towering fir, aglow with hundreds of shimmering white lights and adorned with stuffed bears, mini-Santas, snowmen, candy canes, tiny presents, and colored balls. Another miniature Santa commandeers a train on the mantle of the fireplace where two smiling elves stand guard, and
nearby two elvish toy soldiers man the front door. n Santa has his own “workshop” in a corner by the Auditorium, flanked by a smaller but just as festive tree and a bookshelf stacked with stuffed animals, wrapped presents, and other toys. More trains, sleighs, and elves ride along the white mesh snowscape of the centerpieces in the Tea Room, and stuffed elves frolic just outside. n The holiday decorations are simultaneously over the top and delightful—a Toyland that transports the clubhouse into another realm. In the dimmer light of the evening, the scene takes on a magical hue.
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The holiday season is truly special at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. From the Jingle Mingle just after Thanksgiving to the Christmas Crème Tea, Gala, and two holiday luncheons, the clubhouse becomes a polestar for the season. Some members recall coming as children with their mothers or aunts. Others had their first glimpse of the Club in the festive season as a guest of a friend. Louise Cottrell remembers being a guest of a relative and bringing her two young sons, dressed in their suits and ties, to experience the
“Today, when being casual is the norm, the Club reinforces the importance of good manners and traditions.” Louise Cottrell
Club’s unique ambience during the holidays. She loves the charm and elegance. “Today, when being casual is the norm, the Club reinforces the importance of good manners and traditions,” she says. Underlying this splendor is a deeper expression of the Club’s core values: a time to give, with holiday meals for homeless veterans and knitted socks, sweaters, hats, and mittens to provide winter warmth for people in need; a time for creativity, with decorations crafted by the members and souvenir photographs snapped by longtime member Judy
McKinney; a time for friendships, for gathering in this lovely place to share good tidings. Everything unfolds seamlessly each December, so it is easy to overlook the choreography required to make it happen. The Club is and has always been run by its members. Even with a professional staff of twenty-two, who manage the kitchen and Tea Room, care for the clubhouse and grounds, and oversee the operations, the Club runs on the dynamic energy and passion of its members. Eighteen women sit on the board with the president, each taking responsibility for a major function, including education coordination, communications, philanthropy, hospitality, membership, finance, Tea Room, house and grounds, and lecture and enrichment. Eighteen standing committees led by chairmen and vice chairmen—and often subcommittees with their own leadership—require the hands-on help of hundreds of members. Special programs call for hostesses, greeters, registrars, pourers, and chairmen of the day. President’s Projects and other fundraisers depend on committees and creative chairmen to plan events or solicit
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Scott Lawson, banquet captain, directs the dynamic activity of Tea Room servers for all events. With his encyclopedic knowledge of members’ preferences, he makes every dining experience at the Club delightful.
Posed in front of the 2017 tree in the Drawing Room, the staff kick off the season with Santa and Mrs. Claus. Left to right: Donna Frey, Jennifer Chaney, Scott Lawson, Jasmine Ford, Eloise Kulikowski, Judy Statton, Rob Himmler, and Bryan Duquin.
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donations to provide for the Club’s good works and to ensure its financial security. Members cherish the past and shape the future of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club—literally, as they vote on policies that respect tradition and embrace change. They are the essential recruiters of new members. They create its programs. “I’m just amazed by the commitment of the board,” says general manager Bryan Duquin, who managed men’s clubs before coming to The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. “Some of them are here almost as many hours as I am.” And once their terms are completed, it is common to find former presidents and board members actively involved in programming, events, and committees. They are still eager to participate in initiatives and projects, lending continuity and support as the Club’s future is created.
All is dark and quiet when custodian Terry Jones unlocks the back door at 7:45 a.m., but he isn’t alone for long. While Jones turns up the heat or air conditioning and begins arranging chairs and tables for the day’s classes and programs, housekeeper Bev Thiery checks the restrooms and laundress Gena Bradley starts a load of table linens and hand towels. Comptroller Rob Himmler is already in his office
General manager Bryan Duquin joins the receiving line to congratulate Ellen Zemke on her election in March 2018 as the Club’s sixty-seventh president.
working on budgets, billing, benefits, or any other matter under his
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financial responsibility. Receptionist Jennifer Chaney checks messages and prints the registration list for the day. Julie Hotchkiss, communications coordinator, sets to work on a long list of projects relating Left to right: Newly elected President Ellen Zemke, vice presidents Sandy Harte and Pat Krumm, and members of the board class of 2021 Mary Ivers, Marj Davies, Joyce Mueller, and Cathy McCarthy, following the March 2018 General Meeting. (Not pictured are Kacey Schmitt and Betty Tonne.)
to the website, monthly CALENDAR, and Yearbook. Member services coordinator Mary Douglas tests and troubleshoots the equipment for that day’s programming and sets up the yellow sign-in sheets to track attendance. In the kitchen, pastry chef Rebecca Bryant gets the yeast dough started for the Club’s signature sticky rolls while executive chef Amy Carter and her sous chef Marcus Johnson decide on the day’s drop-in menu. Kitchen workers are cutting vegetables, and servers are making coffee. Banquet captain Scott Lawson bustles through the Tea Room making sure all seating arrangements are correct. The daily rhythm begins with a cascade of activity that is largely invisible to members as they arrive for morning classes, which begin as early as 9:30 a.m. Twenty-two employees provide a stable foundation so that Club members can focus on their main objectives of philanthropy and education. But it wasn’t always so structured. Club leaders wanted the women to be solely in charge of their own destiny, so members controlled the finances and supervised building projects. In 1904, Club founder Clara Chipman Newton became the first custodian, or business manager. She worked six days a week to “supervise all rooms and services, and be responsible for all Club
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Finding NEMO: The Welcome Mat Is Out
“When ladies join the Club, they are hoping to easily connect with other new members,” says Michelle Nagle, a previous NEMO chairman who remains an adviser. She still enjoys sitting at the “Sparkle” table in the Tea Room with new members. “This is a way they can meet a group of ladies they otherwise might not meet, who all joined at about the same time.” Nine new members sit around the table in the Private Dining Ruth Rubendunst created a formal orientation program in 1987, Room off of the Tea Room, large binders open in front of them when new members joined as a “class” in December or May. NEMO as they prepare for NEMO—New Member Orientation. This book began in 2004. It offers three sessions, held throughout the year, as tells them everything they need to know to enjoy The Cincinnati well as opportunities for new members to Woman’s Club: how to make a luncheon attend regular programs together. reservation, the difference between a Can Those bonds grow through the years. Do and a Pop-Up, and why members sign Special membership luncheons offer a in before the start of each program. (The chance for members to sit with others who paperwork is important for the Club’s joined at about the same time. Noon with nonprofit tax status.) Neighbors seats members by zip code so that “We may have the exact same questions they can meet people who live near them. you have and we’re still learning about “The clubhouse is a beautifully decorated it. If we do not know the answers, we will space, but the warmth comes from the find out,” says NEMO co-chairman Nancy people who are here,” says Ackermann. VandenBerg, who is a recent new member “There is always a feeling of being welcome. herself, as is her co-chair, Susie Ackermann. That’s what we’re hoping to internalize at NEMO offers a comfortable introNEMO.” duction as new members join together to That feeling is what matters to Marilyn learn about the philanthropic funds and Duke, a city councilwoman from Glendale, activities, the educational programs, rules, who joined in 2017. “If you’re a busy woman, traditions, and finances. Most importantly, you can come here and relax, and I love they gain an automatic group of new friends. Betsy Bazell, Joan Dornette, and Janet Castellini, former board members, continue to be actively engaged. that,” she says.
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Mary Douglas, member services coordinator, checks the sound system in the Lecture Room as one of her many responsibilities. This room is used frequently and provides a comfortable smaller gathering space for many types of educational programming.
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possessions, do clerical work as decreed by the executive board, schedule all meetings and appointments and welcome all visitors.” Her title changed to business secretary and then executive secretary, but she kept focused on her all-encompassing duties until her retirement in 1929. Mary Helen Lathrop Nelson, a former Club president (1922–1924), then took over. At the Club’s seventy-fifth anniversary in 1969, the Club history book paid tribute to her thirty-six years as executive secretary, “knowing each member and helping each one find a place in the life of the Club.” In 1970, a management consultant recommended a new structure. A Club manager was employed to oversee day-to-day activities and special events, and a business manager worked with the treasurer (an officer of the board) on financial matters. The Personnel Committee hired and supervised the
Mary Florez visits with Ruthann and Jim Sammarco in the Main Gallery before dinner.
managers and employees. The House and Grounds Committee oversaw maintenance, and a Garden Committee met every Tuesday to pull weeds and tend to the plants. “It wasn’t just member owned. It was member owned and managed,” marvels Duquin. Hiring Duquin as the Club’s first professional general manager in 2011 was a milestone. Previously general manager of the Hamilton Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Duquin was selected with the help of an executive search firm. With Duquin overseeing operations, staff hiring, and the facility, “It frees up the board and president to decide on the Club’s direction and long-term issues,” says former president Marianne Beard (2010–2012).
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of women and their husbands gather in the hallway, some sipping jazz-inspired bourbon cocktails—Manhattans and old-fashioneds— in a nod to the evening’s entertainment. A concert by the Cincinnati Pops Poptet (piano, drums, guitar, and bass) will feature music of James Brown and Leonard Bernstein, an adaptation of Gabriel Fauré, and an old-timey classic by Stephen Foster. But first comes social time, then a dinner of filet of beef and herb-crusted halibut. Every detail has been carefully thought out, from the printed programs to the long-stem yellow roses splayed elegantly in a glass vase on a table at the entrance to the Auditorium. Yellow roses were favorites of Louise Dieterle Nippert; in March and October, the Club hosts performances in her memory as part of the Nippert Concert Series. This musical occasion is just the sort of event members expect from their Club: dressy but not too formal, engaging but not too long, well-attended but not too crowded. Everything runs with a pleasant orderliness and an expectation of excellence. Nothing is left to chance. In fact, planning for this evening began the year before, when co-chairmen Jane Gavin and Ellen Zemke began reaching out to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. John Morris Russell, beloved conductor of the Cincinnati Pops and a friend of Gavin’s, offered Choral Class director Jane Gavin also shares her love of everything musical with the membership as a talented pianist.
to emcee the event. With that coup accomplished, they enlisted a hostess and host and invited those to be seated at the speaker’s table. continued on page 101
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Members and guests in elegant evening attire seated at the 2017 Holiday Gala speaker’s table.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB THE LIFE OF THE FUTURE
Honoring the Past, Guiding the Future— The Memorial Service and Inauguration Ceremonies By Mary Gregory “Tradition” may connote CWC. “Change” does not. Yet, the two most traditional events of the year celebrate change. Yes, twice each year change at CWC is marked with traditions that honor our past and guide the future. Both are in spring, the season of change when one Club year becomes but a report in the Yearbook and the next unfurls in the monthly CALENDAR. Each May, members gather in the intimate comfort of the Drawing Room for the Memorial Service. Longtime friendships changed from lively
Rev. Terri J. Thornton at the 2018 Memorial Service.
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conversations of shared interests to fond recollections of hours enjoyed together are remembered. The Memorial Service is a time of poignant sincerity, graced with reverence. The ambience is endowed with white bouquets, soft classical music, and individual candles of remembrance. Mourned equally are the past year’s deaths of our dearest friends and mere acquaintances. The clergywoman’s message, although spiced with wit, still assures us that while these women are no longer seated beside us, they are vividly remembered with gratitude for how they enriched
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our lives and CWC. We welcome their families, enfolding them in our tradition, and warmly sharing reminiscences over tea. Two things signal the importance of the annual Inauguration, CWC’s other spring event—standing members and a receiving line. Inauguration begins with one and ends with the other. On June’s first Monday in 2018, the pastel tableau forms on stage as members stand in respect for the procession of CWC’s elected leaders—women continuing our tradition of leadership through service. In her familiar and gentle voice, outgoing president Mary Ellen Betz convenes her final meeting, expressing gratitude for the diligence of each director and the support of members and staff during her tenure. Then the set agenda pivots to the future as the traditional oaths of office are sworn and the historic ivory gavel passes to Ellen Zemke. On the members’ behalf, Jane Gavin welcomes the
freshly minted “Madam President.” Jane touchingly articulates that friends are, indeed, family, and Ellen’s fellow choristers serenade her with music from a “White Glove Review” with clever lyrics about philanthropy and education written by Ellen’s mother, Jane Boling, who was also a member of The Cincinnati Woman’s Club. And so, CWC’s triple pillars of friendship, philanthropy, and education are highlighted even before Ellen shares her vision for the Club’s progress. Her mother would surely have been proud. The recessional sounds retreat to the receiving line where we thank the women we entrusted with CWC’s governance and future. And so, with traditional flourish, CWC again accomplishes its constitutionally prescribed change. Mary Gregory joined CWC in 2000. She served on the executive board from 2005 to 2008 and was chairman of the Kitchen Renovation Committee. Gregory also serves on the House and Grounds Committee and is responsible for the Club’s many trees.
Inauguration 2018, with Ruth Rubendunst at the piano.
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Cheryl Sieve and Linda Holthaus demonstrate the volunteer nature of the Club by cheerfully serving as registrars for the autumn Showcase. 100
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Special events occur once or twice a month, and members arrange many of the important details. It all comes down to what
This stained-glass panel hangs in the Tea Room, a memento from a home that was originally on the Lafayette property.
member Rev. Shirley Cadle calls “the gracious yes.” In her Address of Welcome on Inauguration Day 2014, she crystallized what makes the Club thrive: “The Cincinnati Woman’s Club can only function with a community of women who are willing to say yes. Saying yes, as [the Club president] and the members of the board have done, and as we at times have done, is to make a commitment. We are saying, ‘You can count on my doing what I’ve said I will do, for three years, two years, or a day.’” Every year, hundreds of members say the gracious yes and help arrange a program or serve on a committee or play a role in welcoming new members. Kay Eby is one of those women, a former executive board member who continues to chair and serve on committees. In August 2017, about a month before the annual Fashion Show, Eby learned that the store she had chosen had changed its policies and would no longer participate in fashion shows. She scrambled and managed to arrange for Dillard’s to be the retail partner. “ You just have to go with it,” she says of coping with the sudden change. Meanwhile, Stephanie Amlung and Charlotte Goering, who were just starting a custom bakery business, baked four hundred decorated cookies in the shape of purses, high heels, and dresses as favors. The Flower Committee designed contemporary, innovative
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Julie Hotchkiss, communications coordinator, interacts with members and staff to create publications, displays, web pages, and Connects, the Club’s email.
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arrangements, and the Fashion Show Committee created other decorations. They recruited ten members to model clothes, six to dress them, and six greeters and registrars.
Kay Eby at the 2018 President’s Tea, a by-invitation elegant tradition that allows the president to thank her guests for their contributions to Club activities and governance during her term.
The Fashion Show was a sellout, as usual, with the luncheon overflowing the Tea Room into the Lecture Room downstairs. Mo Dunne, a new member attending her first Fashion Show, was impressed with the practicality of the styles, suitable for older and younger women, short and tall, the working world, and an evening at the opera. “I went to Dillard’s the next day and bought a business dress, black with white cuffs and a white collar, with a gold tie bar,” she says. “It’s perfect for business functions.” She wasn’t the only one. Everyone attending the Fashion Show received special discount coupons for weekend shopping. Their enthusiasm carried many of them into Dillard’s from Friday afternoon through Monday, where they took advantage of the discount to purchase lots of clothes and accessories.
After nine years as superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools, Mary Ronan could have been forgiven for retiring in seclusion to a tropical paradise. But she had something different in mind for her retirement, which began in August 2017. Ronan’s friends at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club had already invited her to join. Within a month of her last day of a stressful career, she completed her portion of the nomination form.
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Ronan attended two Greet the Candidate events with her sponsors, where she was introduced to the executive board and the president, and became a new member in time to attend the Holiday Gala in mid-December. She had been attracted to the beautiful clubhouse and long history of civic involvement, but Ronan also was looking for a chance to enrich her postcareer life. “I thought this would be the perfect place, after I retired, to spend time and enjoy colleagues—and actually learn some new skills,” she says. “There are fabulous activities, and you make fabulous friends A happy Joyce Mueller at Inauguration 2018. Looking on is Cathy McCarthy. Also attending the ceremony was Mueller’s mother, Mary Lou Mueller, who also served on the board.
at the Woman’s Club.” Until recent years, becoming a member could take much longer. Because of the deadlines that were built into the process and the fact that members were only admitted in December and May, it could take a year or even more for a candidate to complete all the steps, meeting each executive board member in time for one of two annual votes on new members. It has been more than forty years since Ruth Rubendunst sought membership in The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, but she still remembers her feelings of frustration. “ If you missed those two chances, you had to start from scratch,” says Rubendunst, who later became a member of the executive board and pushed to make the procedures easier and more welcoming. Now new members can join the Club anytime during the year, which reduces the elapsed time to two or three months, not six to twelve. A further change encouraged new members to endorse their friends for membership, allowing fresh enthusiasm to further nurture the Club.
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Handpicking the Future of the Club Without members, there would be no Cincinnati Woman’s Club. That may seem obvious, but when Mary Lou Motl became president in 2014, she underscored the duty to invite new members. A 1963 newspaper article about the Club said, “The 1,000 members are hand-picked,” Motl noted in her Inauguration Address. She then challenged the Club to add one hundred new members in a single year. “We all know women who would be outstanding members, if only they were handpicked and asked to join,” she said. Motl knew it would take more than one speech to spur action. She brought a clipboard to an executive board meeting and asked the board members to sign a pledge to bring in at least one member. Remarkably, all eighteen board members signed it and each one successfully recruited a new member that year. She brought clipboards with the pledge to a General Meeting. She talked about membership whenever she could. The Club’s Constitution sets a maximum of one thousand members, and through the 1950s and 1960s, it reached that pinnacle. But gradually, as local newspapers stopped publishing “women’s pages,” Club news receded from the headlines. Cincinnati women had greater opportunities in work and civic life and membership declined. Rosemary Schlachter and Setsuko LeCroix in the Tea Room before the 2017 Holiday Gala dinner.
In 2016, Motl happily announced that eighty-one women joined and one reinstated her membership that year, setting the Club on a vibrant trajectory. “It’s all about momentum,” says Motl. “When you have enthusiastic new members, it revitalizes the Club.” About twenty times a year, the Drawing Room is packed with prospective candidates, the friends who nominated them, and board members in a Greet the Candidates event. “We do everything we can to help educate the candidates about all the many wonderful things the Club has to offer,” says Susan Noelcke, Membership chairman. Membership has been steadily climbing in recent years; in the spring of 2018, the Club had 782 members. “It is not a hard sell,” says Amelia Crutcher. “Women want to expand their friendships. They would like to give back in some way. They don’t want to stop being challenged.” All they need is to be handpicked by an enthusiastic member and offered a warm invitation to become part of the dynamic future of the Club.
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Executive chef Amy Carter at work in the newly renovated kitchen. Together with the sous and pastry chefs and kitchen staff Liz Tilson and Justin Cavanaugh, she produces delicious, creative meals.
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The Club’s leadership also realized the benefits of a more inclusive membership. When a friend asked Kay Smith-Yount if she would like to join, she was surprised that it was even an option. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club had never had an African American member. But this wasn’t the first time she would choose to be a trailblazer. The granddaughter of a slave and daughter of a sharecropper, Smith-Yount had overcome hardships in her journey from the rural heartland of Mississippi to management and leadership posts in Cincinnati. She retired as executive director of the Community Land Cooperative of Cincinnati, which helps low-income people enter home ownership. So when Smith-Yount’s friend invited her to join the Club, she recalls, “I knew I could do it and I thought it needed to be done. It was time.” Most members welcomed her warmly, while a few were chilly. But in just a few years, Smith-Yount was elected to the Club’s executive board and bonded with her fellow board members. Now she finds herself in the embrace of friends. “ When I walk in the Club, the atmosphere gives you a feeling of joy,” she says. From the founders to Smith-Yount and beyond, Club rosters are filled with women who defined themselves by bold action and civic commitment. Each Yearbook tells stories of how members shaped the Club and dedicated themselves to “the life of the future.” T hey responded to needs in their community and sought to uplift the
Michele Marill, author of this volume, with Mary Ellen Betz and Kay Smith-Yount at Homecoming 2017.
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disadvantaged, veterans, women, and children. They set a high bar for intellectual study—and still enjoy lighthearted diversions. At its 125th year, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club continues to honor its past by preserving tradition. At Inauguration Day, for example, the outgoing and incoming presidents and executive board members walk into the Auditorium to the stately tones of “Pomp and Circumstance.” T hey dress in solid pastels, with white gloves and white shoes, and pearls. The ceremony ends with the singing of “America the Beautiful,” and as a flutist and pianist play the “Coronation March,” t he officers and board exit to form a receiving line in the Drawing Room. The abundant flowers in the Tea Room and Auditorium are white. The traditional luncheon menu is cold chicken salad with lemon custard nestled in crisp meringue for dessert. The past is a firm foundation upon which to gaze optimistically into the future. Members can reflect on challenges (an expressway through the clubhouse, for example) as well as triumphs. At Inauguration Day 2006, president Mare Hagner (2006–2008) transformed that delicate balance into a rallying cry: “Take the best of the past and build it into the new century.” Modernity was already overtaking “the way things were.” The daytime dress code changed in 2005 to allow “tailored trousers Rob Himmler joined the staff in 2015 to fill the newly created position of comptroller. He handles operational and investment finances, as well as human resources. Members appreciate his friendly guidance and the up-to-date numbers that help projects and committees succeed.
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with coordinating jackets” and has been further updated since then. In 2006, a Club website went online. As of 2007, wine could be served at designated events.
Former board member Susan Bierer is thrilled to have Nancy Geiler, who joined in 1968, and Caryl Fullman, who joined in 1977, attend the 2018 Class Connection luncheon.
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“I always looked at the Woman’s Club as a family,” says Marty Humes, who was president (2004–2006) when the dress code changed after a survey of the membership. “Families have traditions, and you don’t want to lose those things that bind you together. But at the same time, you have to move forward.” Not everyone agrees with the changes. Perhaps some longtime members worry that the Club will lose not just its formality but its sense of culture and refinement. The Cincinnati Woman’s Club is a rare place in modern times, where women still receive a kind handwritten thank-you or condolence note rather than an email, where cell phone use is frowned upon, where being a hostess The solemn lighting of individual candles recognizes the lives of deceased members at the 2018 Memorial Service.
is a serious duty. But it turns out that new members are drawn to the Club in part because it offers graciousness and manners in a sometimes boorish world. “ We take a little extra care before we show up and we’re all the better for it,” s ays Margy Richards, who joined in 2014. In the outside world, “Alexa,” t he smart speaker, takes orders for music or turns on the television, cars park themselves, and smartphones summon rides. But at The Cincinnati Woman’s Club, there will always be greeters at the door, flowers on the tables in the Tea Room, cloth hand towels in the restroom, and real connections between women. At the same time, the philanthropic work of the Club adapts to the problems of the times, and educational programs adjust to modern interests. Amid this harmony between tradition and transformation, The Cincinnati Woman’s Club moves forward. It carries the spirit of optimism that Annie Laws and Clara Chipman Newton felt as they wrote the Club’s first history in 1919. A century later, their words still ring true: “The past of the Club is secure, and strong in heart, high in purpose, it cries to the Future.”
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Marianne Beard, president (2010–2012), is a warm and welcoming hostess at the reception following the 2018 Memorial Service.
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB DONORS TO THE BOOK PROJECT
Thank you. Your generosity made this one-of-a-kind publication a reality. Ardath Abel Susie Ackermann Sharry Addison Jayne Aglamesis Carolyn Alley Nancy Anderson Susan Anthony Renee Arken Diane Babcock Susan Bacevich Kathy Barber Barbara Bardes Dee Ellen Bardes Betsy Bazell Marianne Beard Nancy Becker Carol Beddie Jane Bennett Mary Ellen Betz Susan Bierer Mary Lynne Birck Diane Bishop Carolyn Bloomfield Eleanor Botts Nancy Bove Ann Bowers Mary Bramlage Susan Brewer Susan Brokaw Kaye Browning Wendy Bruestle Patricia Bryan
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Sally Budig Jane Burke Yvonne Butera Janet Byrnes Deborah Campbell Beth Canarie Angela Carl Nancy Carley Vivienne Carlson Diane Carney Barb Carrelli Shannon Carter Barbara Cartolano Janet Castellini Anne Castleberry Nancy Cavanaugh Fran Christensen Nancy Clagett Jane Clarke Carolyn Clodfelter Cynthia Cole Gary Copes Mary Corley Louise Cottrell Jean Crawford Beverly Croskery Jodelle Crosset Amelia Crutcher Sally Cuni Bonnie Curtis Marj Davies Nancy DeCastro Marilyn Demmler Sharon Denight Judy Denton Susan Deye
Gretchen Dinerman Carol DiPilla Lisa Dir Lucinda Dohan Joan Dornette Connie Dreyfoos Mo Dunne Susan Dunning Saralou Durham Anne Durket Kay Eby Jeane Elliott Jean Engelhart Carol Euskirchen Susan Fischer Mary Florez Jackie Francis Lola Gabel Nancy Gaffney Nancy Gall Jackie Gardiner Janis Gaskill Jane Gavin Nancy Geiler Laura Getz Sue Gilkey Charlotte Goering Sherry Goodson Ellen Gottschlich Karen Grass Susan Grayson Cynthia Greenwald Sandra Greenwald Mary Gregory Marcia Grimmer Barbara Groh
Peg Grosser JoLynn Gustin Louise Haas Elizabeth Hackman Priscilla Haffner Randol Haffner Jill Haft Mare Hagner Fran Hall Nancy Hamant Nancy Hancher Betty Lou Harden Patricia Hart Sandy Harte Emma Louise Hartkemeier Barbara Hauck Sally Heckscher Betsy Hendy Mary Hensel Judy Herd Barbara Hild Karlee Hilliard Nancy Hilton Jane Hlad Susan Hochbein Karen Hoeb Cathy Hogan Linda Holthaus Missy Holzman Ruth Hubbard-Barnes Cindy Huber Cathy Huenefeld Milly Huffman Anita Hulefeld Marty Humes Pat Humphrey
Judy Huston Ruth Insko Rosalie Ireland-Eick Mary Ivers Jane Janzen Barbara Jaymont Mary Ann Jervis Doreen Johnson Noel Julnes-Dehner Nancy Kane Elizabeth Kearney Cathy Kearns Ruth Kinder Marjorie Kinney Diane Kinsella Kathe Kissel Jane Knudson Fran Kohl Nancy Kollin Jane Koppenhoefer Helen Kovach Judy Kress Libby Krone Pat Krumm Ruth Kuchenbuch Susan Laffoon Suzanne Lakamp Peggy Landes Karen Larsen Trish Larsen Lynn Larson Virginia Lawrence Setsuko LeCroix Marian Leibold Suzann Parker Leist Sue Lewis
THE CINCINNATI WOMAN’S CLUB DONORS TO THE BOOK PROJECT
Christina Lindgren Carolyn Ludwig Linda Lunceford Kathy Luttmer Alice Lytle Cindy Mairose Mary Alice Manley Susan Margraf Paula Maxwell Cathy McCarthy Jenni McCauley Eleanor McCombe Evi McCord Gretchen McCormick Barbara McCracken Janet McDaniel Maryanne McGowan Judy McKinney Phyllis McSwain Sally Melcher Patricia Mezinskis Audrey Miller Martha Millett Pam Mischell Teresa Moffitt Sally Monroe Cathy Moore Jane Moore Jenny Moore Mary Lou Motl Leslie Mowry Mt. Auburn Literary Society Joyce Mueller Mary Lou Mueller Sarah Mueller
Kathryn Murray Linda Myers Linnea Nadel Sarita Naegel Michelle Nagle Marvy Nankovitch Nancy Natorp Ginny Neave Jackie Neumann Mary Newman Suzanne Nielsen Susan Noelcke Vikki Nutter Cora Ogle Beverely Oliver Elizabeth Olson Jamie Palmer Carol Parsons Joanne Pauls Sara Paxton Carol Pearce Alice Penrod Donna Perzigian Janice Plummer Sylvia Jo Plyler Betty Pogue Virginia Poll Penny Prass Betty Lou Prince Juliana Prince Carolyn Rand Carole Rauf Ann Regan Ellen Rember Clarissa Rentz
Margy Richards Deborah Richardson Lynne Riesenberg Buffie Rixey Barbara Robb Alice Robbins Cathy Roberto Mary Ellen Roberts Terry Robinson Mary Ronan Meredith Roos Peg Roudebush Ruth Rubendunst Ricki Ruthven Diane Sakmyster Ann Saluke Ellen Schaengold Barbara Schanzle Mary Dean Schaumloffel Susan Schertzer Rosemary Schlachter Kathryn Schmid Diana Schmidt Kacey Schmitt Pam Schneider Theresa Schumacher Mary Schwaderer Janet Self Kathleen Setzer Ellen Sewell Grace Sferra Libby Sharrock Melanie Sheridan Sue Showers Jackie Sidley
Sally Sieger Deborah Sims Laura Skidmore Sarah Skidmore Mary Ellen Slauson Linda J. Smith Kay Smith-Yount Eunice Snyder Ellen Sole Gwyneth Spindel Cherry Staab Pat Stanford Jill Staubitz Martha Steier Paula Steiner Nancy Steman Judy Stiens Sally Stirsman Marion Stites Amy Straus Kim Strubbe Jolene Struebbe Rebecca Suder Blanche Sullivan Mary Beth Sundermann Millie Swaine Carol Tabone Molly Talbot Norma Tassian Beverly Taylor Sally Tieke Emily Todd Janet Todd Betty Tonne Dorothy Topper
Jane Tuten Priscilla Ungers Nancy VandenBerg Nancy Virgulak Brenda Walker Janet Walsh Nancy Lu Walters Sarella Walton Jo Ann Ward Ginger Warner Sarah Warrington Patty Wasmer Bettie Watts Darlene Webb Karen Weed Marney Weis Donna Welsch Joni Welsh Joan Wengler George Ann Wesner Barbara Weyand Ann Wiethe Carol Wiggers Nancy Williams Sue Wilson Marcia Winborne Nan Witten Anne Woolsey Susan Workman Deborah Wyght Linda Young Ellen Zemke Suzanne Zesch
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I Numbers in italics indicate photographs. # 125 Artifacts Committee, 43 125th Anniversary Steering Committee, 41, 51, 56 2001: A Space Odyssey, 60, 63 A Ackermann, Susie, 93 Across the Meadows, 81 Activities Beyond the Classroom (ABC), 54 Address of Welcome, 101 Aeschylus, 65 Afghanistan, 41 Alabama, 36 Alexa, 110 “America the Beautiful,” 108 Amlung, Stephanie, 101 Amundsen, Roald, 63 Anna Louise Inn, 31 Archives, 29, 44–45, 44–45 Archives Committee, 38, 43, 45 Archives Room, 45 Armstrong, Neil, 63 Art program, 76, 85 Asheville, North Carolina, 15 Auditorium, 1, 7, 10, 17, 18, 21, 72, 79, 87, 96, 108 B Bardes, Barbara, 13 Barnhorn, Clement, 12 Barrett, Frieda, 52 Bazell, Betsy, 93 BBQ & Bluegrass, 71 Bearcat, UC, 73, 77, 78, 85 Beard, Marianne, 3, 57, 95, 111 Bechtold, Julian F., 67 “The Berne Collection,” 80 Berne Sr., Albert, 80 Bernstein, Leonard, 96 Bethany House Services, 11, 51 Betz, Mary Ellen, ix, 3, 11, 21, 22, 23, 29, 46, 47, 51, 69, 78, 99, 107
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Bible program, 64 Biblical Literature Class, 64 Bierer, Susan, 109 Biltmore Estate, 15 Bishop, Diane, 12, 47 Board of Trustees, UC, 78 Boling, Jane, 13, 99 Boone, Daniel, 9 Bouguereau, William-Adolphe, 19 Bradley, Gena, 91 Brinkley, David, 63 Brown, James, 96 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 64 Browning, Kaye, 70 Browning, Robert, 64 Browning Circle, 64 Bruestle, Dawn, 70 Bryant, Rebecca, 82, 92 Buckley, William, 63 Bundles for Britain, 55 Burnham, Daniel, 4 C Cadle, Rev. Shirley, 28, 101 Cairo, Egypt, 9 CALENDAR, 92, 98 California, 5 Campbell, Deborah, 75 Can Do, 30, 32, 40–43, 48, 85, 93 Carrelli, Barb, 47 Carter, Amy, 92, 106 Carter, Shannon, 21, 53 Castellini, Janet, 93 Cavanaugh, Justin, 106 Center for Respite Care, 41 Chaney, Jennifer, 90, 92 Checco, Gerald, 59–60 Chewning, Shirley, 15 Chicago, Illinois, 4, 4, 6, 9 China, 35 Choral Class, 64, 96 Christ Child Day School, 55 Christmas, 52, 88 Cincinnati, Ohio, 4–6, 9, 19, 21, 24, 29, 46, 48, 51–52, 55, 59–60, 64–65, 71, 74, 76–77, 80, 85, 95, 105, 107
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Cincinnati Art Academy, 76 Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 85 Cincinnati COOKS!, 22–23, 57 Cincinnati Flower Show, 74 Cincinnati Music Hall, 6, 17–18, 24 Cincinnati Pops, 96 Cincinnati Pops Poptet, 96 Cincinnati Pottery Club, 5 Cincinnati Public Schools, 54, 103 Cincinnati Reds, 49, 71 Cincinnati Room, 4, 6, 9 Cincinnati School for Creative & Performing Arts, 72 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, 96 Cincinnati Training School for Nurses, 4 Cincinnati VA Medical Center, 46 Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, 67 City Hall, 38 Civics program, 64 Civics Department, 36, 38 Clagett, Nancy, 15 Clara Gates Irving Memorial Knitters, 55 Clarke, Arthur C., 60 Clarke, Jane, 47, 66 Class Connection, 109 Clifton, Ohio, 17 Club House Company, 12 Clubhouse Guides, 80 Cole, Cynthia, 7, 79 Committee on Literature, 5 Committee on Location, 5 Community Land Cooperative of Cincinnati, 107 Connecting Women, 53 Connects, 81, 102 Constitution, CWC, 44, 105 Cooking with Caitlin, 77 Coombs, Colbey, 35, 35 Copes, Gary, 7, 56 Corley, Mary, 68 “Coronation March,” 108 Cottrell, Louise, 88
Court of Appeals, 14 Cousteau, Jacques, 63 Cousteau, Jean-Michel, 63 Crawford, Jean, 7, 34 Crème Tea, ix, 88 Croly, Jane Cunningham, 82 Crutcher, Amelia, 7, 79, 105 “Culinary Art as a Feature of Education,” 79 “CWC in Bloom,” 81 D Davies, Marj, 92 DeCastro, Nancy, 7 Denight, Sharon, 18, 73 Diana, Princess, 70 Dickens, Charles, 82 Dillard’s, 101, 103 Dir, Lisa, 42 Dogwood Flowers, 81 Dornette, Joan, 30, 93 Doscher’s Candy Company, 70, 71 Douglas, Mary, 22, 92, 94 Downton Abbey, 65 Drawing Room, 34, 87, 90, 98, 105, 108 Dublin, Ireland, 35 Duke, Marilyn, 93 Duke Energy, 23 Dunne, Mo, 103 Duquin, Bryan, 22–23, 22, 28, 90, 91, 91, 95 Duveneck, Frank, 19 E Eby, Kay, 40, 43, 101, 103 Education Coordination Committee, 22, 29, 64, 79 Egypt, 9 “Eliminating Poverty in Cincinnati,” 64 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 79 Euripides, 64–65 Euskirchen, Carol, 61 Executive Board, 95
F Fashion Show, 74, 101, 103 Fashion Show Committee, 103 Fauré, Gabriel, 96 Fellowship Fete, 51 Finkelmeier, Carolyn, 70 The First Communion, 81 Fischer, Susan, 74 Fisher House, 43 Florez, Mary, 95 Flower Committee, 74–75, 101 Food for Thought, 85 Foodies Night In, 77 Ford, Jasmine, 90 Forever Friends, 48–49 Fort Thomas, Kentucky, 67 Foster, Stephen, 96 Foundation, CWC, 49 France, 6, 76 Freestore Foodbank, 23, 30, 33, 57, 57 Frey, Donna, 90 Fullman, Caryl, 109 Future of Our Community, 53 G Galbraith, Susan, 59, 59 Gallagher, Mary, 12 Garden Committee, 95 Garrison family, 13 Gatch, Madame President, 45 gates, Club, x–xi Gavin, Jane, 96, 96, 99 Geiler, Nancy, 109 General Federation of Women’s Clubs, 82 General Meeting, 22, 36, 74, 92, 105 Germany, 35 Gest, Susannah Bailey, 5, 9, 9, 24 Gift Research, 36, 41, 46 Gift Sleigh, 41 GLAD House, 22 Glendale, Ohio, 93 Goering, Charlotte, 68, 101 Golden Age of Radio, 68
I Golden Anniversary, Lafayette location, 81 Good, Marvin, 77 Goodman, Grace, 63 Goodson, SherryDeskins, 73 Gottschlich, Ellen, 47 Gourmet Class, 76–77 Greek Circle, 10, 64–65 Greenacres Foundation, 48 Greet the Candidates, 104–105 Gregory, Bettina, 63 Gregory, Mary, 22, 29, 51 Griggs, Edward Howard, 63 H Haft, Jill, 47 Hagner, Mare, 3, 26, 75, 108 Hamilton Club, 95 Hamilton County, Ohio, 46, 57 Hampton Court, 17, 75, 84 Hancher, Nancy, 62, 65 Harte, Sandy, 7, 22, 92 Hayes, Rutherford B., 79 Hebrew Union College, 69 Helwig, Arthur, 68 “The Higher Education of American Women,” 82 Hild, Barbara, 39 Hill, Marian, 13 Himmler, Rob, 23, 90, 91, 108 Hlad, Jane, 10, 75 Hochbein, Susan, 61 Holiday Gala, 72, 88, 97, 104–105 Holmes, Joyce, 15 Holthaus, Linda, 100 home of our own, 1–30 Homecoming, xii, 1–2, 3, 25, 27, 107 Hook, Alice, 45 Horn, Gilda, 73 Hosea, Lucy Carter, 12 Hospitality Committee, ix, 56 Hotchkiss, Julie, 92, 102 Hotel Alms, 45 House and Grounds Committee, 95 House Committee, 14
House Project Committee, 17 Hubbard-Barnes, Ruth, 62 Huber, Cindy, 47, 51 Hulefeld, Anita, 74–75, 75 “Human Progress: A Study of Modern Civilization,” 63 Hume, Brit, 63 Humes, Marty, xii, 2, 3, 78, 110 Humes, Tom, 78 Humphrey, Pat, 30, 53, 85 Hyde Park, 55 I Ida Street bridge, 38 Illinois, 4, 4, 6, 9 Inauguration, 64, 74–75, 99, 99, 101, 104, 108 Inauguration Address, 105 Insko, Ruth, 3 Interior Décor Committee, 18 Interstate 71, 14 Iraq, 41 Ireland, 35 Ireland-Eick, Rosalie, 70 Irving, Clara Gates, 55 Ivers, Mary, 92 J Jenkins, Steve, 61 Jingle Mingle, 88 Johnson, Marcus, 92 Jones, Terry, 17, 91 Jordan, Mary Ann, 70 Jorg, Brian, 67 Joseph House, 39, 41, 46 Judaism, 64, 69 Julnes-Dehner, Rev. Noel, 41, 57 K Kane, Nancy, 84 Kenton County, Kentucky, 57 Kentucky, 57, 67, 70 Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, 70 Kids Café, 57 Kinder, Ruth, 73
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Kitchen Renovation Committee, 23, 29 Kitchen Reveal, 23, 28 Kohl, Dave, 71 Kohl, Fran, 22, 71, 79 Koppenhoefer, Jane, 84 Kroger, Lucille, 80 Krumm, Pat, 7, 32, 36, 68, 92 Kubrick, Stanley, 60 Kulikowski, Eloise, 90 L Labor Day, 22 Lafayette Avenue location, x–xi, 14, 17, 17–18, 22, 43, 45, 67, 81, 101 Lafayette Leaders, 15 Lakamp, Suzanne, 23, 23 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 95 LaRosa’s, 71 Laureate Leaders, 15 Laws, Annie, 4, 5, 9, 31, 110 Lawson, Scott, 89, 90, 92 LeCroix, Setsuko, 105 Lecture & Enrichment Committee, 27 Lecture & Enrichment program, 78, 79 Lecture Room, 10, 59, 67, 76, 94, 103 Legacy Leaders, 15 Leist, Suzann Parker, 85 Lepley, Genia, 75 Leshner, Brian, 54, 57 Library, 10, 16, 17, 36, 54, 62, 65 Library Friends, 65 “Life Is Golden on Lafayette,” 81 Literary Club of Cincinnati, 79 Long-Range Capital Planning Committee, 22 Lord, Carolyn A., 76, 80 Losekamp, Suzanne, 3 Loyd, Melissa, 36 Luce, Alice, 82 Lunch-n-Learn, 59–60, 83, 85
M Madagascar, 67 Main Entrance, 20 Main Gallery, 47, 83, 95 Mallon, Sophie Beadle, 5, 9 Manley, Mary Alice, 50, 55 Marill, Michele, 107 Maysville, Kentucky, 70 McCarthy, Cathy, 92, 104 McCauley, Jenni, 47 McCord, Evi, 85 McDaniel, Janet, 50, 55, 70 McGowan, Maryanne, 71 McHugh, John, 63 McKinney, Judy, 38, 88 Membership Committee, 105 Memorial Service, 98, 98, 110, 111 Mendenhall, Emma, 80–81 Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSD), 59 Miami Meadows Park, 41 Mirlisena, Becky, 15, 43, 46 Mississippi, 107 Mississippi River, 15 Mitchell, Helen Handy, 87, 87 Moffitt, Teresa, 1 Moore, Jenny, 47 Morehead, Margaret Monfort, 5, 9, 12 Morrison, Francie, 53, 75 Motl, Mary Lou, ix, 3, 18, 22, 23, 57, 77, 105 Mount Adams, Ohio, 38 Mount Auburn, Ohio, 31 Mount Healthy, Ohio, 76 Mowry, Leslie, 3, 22, 49, 52, 54 MSD (Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati), 59 Mueller, Joyce, 92, 104 Mueller, Mary Lou, 24, 104 Myers, Linda, 15 Mysteries at the Museum, 70
N Nadel, Linnea, 69 Naegel, Sarita, 69, 71 Nagle, Michelle, 7, 93 Nazis, 69 Neave, Ginny, 27 Needlework Guild of America, 55 Nelson, Mary Helen Lathrop, 95 NEMO (New Member Orientation), 27, 80, 93 New Mexico, 15 New Woman, 9 New York, 5, 15 New York, New York, 5, 15 New York Press Club, 82 Newman, Mary, 39 Newton, Clara Chipman, 4–5, 5, 9–10, 14, 31, 31, 36, 44, 54, 54, 65, 73, 81, 92, 110 Newtown, Ohio, 70 Nieman, Jeanette, 15 Nippert, Louis, 48 Nippert, Louise Dieterle, 1, 1,15, 17, 24, 35, 48, 52, 96 Nippert Concert Series, 96 Nippert Fund, 49 Nippert Scholarship, 35 Nippert Trust, 48 Noelcke, Susan, 7, 48, 105 Noon with Neighbors, 93 North Carolina, 15 North Pole, 63 Northeast Expressway, 14 Nothelfer, François, 77 Nourse, Elizabeth, 76, 80–81 Nutter, Vicki, 47 O Oak Street location, 5, 8, 14, 16–18, 44–45, 67 Oberlin College, 82 Ocean Futures Society, 63 October Carnival, 52 OEF (Operating Endowment Fund), 2, 12, 15, 49
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I OEF 25th Anniversary Committee, 15 OEF Committee, 15 Off The Streets, 31–32, 36 Ohio, 4–6, 9, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 29, 31, 38, 46, 48, 51–52, 55, 57, 59–60, 63–65, 70–71, 74, 76–77, 80, 85, 93, 95, 105, 107 Ohio River, 6, 59 One Way Farm Children’s Home, 22 Operating Endowment Fund (OEF), 2, 12, 15, 49 Organizations Room, 9 Our Daily Bread, 55 Over-the-Rhine, Ohio, 6, 85 Oyler Community Learning Center, 57 P Painting Class, 61, 73 Paris, France, 6, 76 Park Commission, 38 Parsons, Carol, 13, 38, 43 Pearce, Carol, 69 Pearl Street, 10 Pennsylvania, 95 Personnel Committee, 22, 95 Perzigian, Donna, 78 Perzigian, Tony, 78 Phantom of the Opera, 21 Philanthropic Endowment Fund, 49 Photography Class, 67 Pinto, Jennifer, 78 Pinto, Neville, 73, 78, 85 The Players, 68, 68 Pogue, Betty, 10 “Pomp and Circumstance,” 108 Pop-Up Class, 82, 85, 93 “The Possibility of a Woman’s Club in Cincinnati,” 4 Power Pack, 57 Presidents’ Gallery, 18, 63, 66, 81 President’s Project, 11, 22–23, 51–52, 54, 56–57, 88
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President’s Project Committee, 23, 47 President’s Tea, 103 Private Dining Room, 13, 93 Procter & Gamble, 48 Progressive Era, 82 Project Care, 43 Project Healing Waters, 40, 42–43, 46 Proton Therapy Center, 85 Q Quakerism, 64 R Ramey, Ada Mae, 49 Ramey Fund, 49 Receptions at Lafayette LLC, 52 Reiber, Kurt, 23, 57 Rentz, Clarissa, 47 Richards, Margy, 110 River City Correctional Center, 32 Rixey, Buffie, 78 Roberto, Cathy, 47, 70 Ronan, Mary, 103–104 “Rookwood All Day: The Complete Story,” 81 Rookwood fountain, 10, 18, 18, 23 Rookwood Pottery Company, 71, 80–81 Roudebush, Peg, 71 Rubendunst, Ruth, 80, 93, 99, 104 Russell, John Morris, 96 Ruthven, John, 76 Ruthven, Judy, 76 Ruthven, Ricki, 76 S Salvation Army, 41, 55 Sammarco, Jim, 95 Sammarco, Ruthann, 95 Santa Fe, New Mexico, 15 Santa Maria Community Services, 55 Schanzle, Barbara, 12 Scheve, Carolyn, 61 Schlachter, Rosemary, 105
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Schmitt, Kacey, 60, 66, 92 Scholars Program, 34–35 Scholars Tea, 34 Scholarship Committee, 34 Scholarship Fund, 35 Scholarship Luncheon, 34 Schweller, Suzanne, 36 Selden, Dixie, 19, 80 Self, Janet, 63 Sewing Committee, 55 Showcase, 55, 100 Showers, Sue, 56 Sidley, Jackie, 67 Sieve, Cheryl, 100 Silberberg, Vic, 58 Sinton Hotel, 79 Site Committee, 17 Skidmore, Laura, 15, 15 Skirball Museum, 69 Smith, Mary Prudence Wells, 5, 9 Smith-Yount, Kay, 107, 107 Société Nationale des Beaux Arts, 76 Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, 21 Sohngen, Jamie, 34–35 South Pole, 63 South Sea Island Village, 9 Spain, 35 Spanish-American War, 43 “Sparkle” table, 93 Spencer House, 70 Spring Grove Cemetery, 9 Srofe, Carolyn, 34–35, 34 St. Nicholas Hotel, 79 “Starring the Ladies,” 80 Statton, Judy, 90 Staubitz, Jill, 63 Staubitz, Paul, 63 Steiner, Paula, 74, 75 Steininger, Caitlin, 76–77 Stirsman, Sally, 50 Struebbe, Jolene, 74, 75 Studio, 68 Sullivan, Blanche, 43, 80 Summe-Haas, Teresa, 47 Summer Camp Reading, 41
Summer Program, 22, 30, 71 T Taft, William Howard, 79 Taylor Hampton Fund, 49 Taylor Hampton, Virginia, 49 Taylor-Hampton Room, 68 Tea Room, 2, 8, 10, 14, 17–18, 29, 36, 43, 54–55, 68, 74–75, 77, 81, 83, 87–89, 92–93, 101, 103, 105, 108, 110 Terrace, x–xi, 3, 37, 67 Thanksgiving, 88 Thiery, Bev, 91 Thornton, Rev. Terri J., 98 Tilson, Liz, 106 Todd, Emily, 3, 24, 24, 27 Todd, Ruth, 24 Todd family, 13 Tonne, Betty, 34, 70, 92 Torah, 64, 69 Toyland, 87 Toyota, 71 Travel Channel, 70 Tree Committee, 51 Trush, Kelly, 76 Turner, Ted, 63 Tuskegee Institute, 36 Tuten, Jane, 3, 25 Twain, Mark, 79 Twitter, 77 U UC Health, 85 University of Cincinnati (UC), 34–35, 48, 63, 73, 76–79, 85 V Vacation Schools, 10 VandenBerg, Nancy, 24, 24, 27, 93 Veterans Day, 43 Vietnam, 41 W Waldo, Terry, 15 Walnut Hills High School, 35 Walnut Hills, Ohio, 14
Walton, Sarella, 30 Warrington, Sarah, 7, 27, 29, 64, 79 Washburn, Carolyn, 11 Washington, Booker T., 36 Washington, George, 70 Wasmer, Patty, 3 Ways and Means Committee, 17 Welcome Address, 27 Welfare Department, 52 Welsh, Joni, 41, 51 White City, 9 Wiethe, Ann, 3 Williams, Carole, 11 Williams, Megan, 34 Wilson, Lisa, 35, 35 Wilson, Sue, 80 Woman’s Building, 4, 6, 9 Woman’s Columbian Exhibition Association, 5 Women’s Department, 82 Women’s Health and Wellness program, 64 World War II, 43, 55 World’s Columbian Exposition, 4, 4, 6, 9, 45 Wright Brothers, 71 Wyght, Deborah, 7, 13, 13 Y Yearbook, 15, 44, 92, 98, 107 Yergason, Katherine Bartlett, 5, 9, 73 Yisreal, Nahamani, 11 YMCA, 55 Young, Linda, 71 Z Zemke, Ellen, 13, 23, 29, 91, 92, 96, 99 Zoroaster, 36 Zula Bistro and Wine Bar, 58
1894–2019: 125 Years of Philanthropy & Education