Good People
5perspectives Story and photo by David Moore
M
amma, you might say, is celebrating her 100th anniversary. Her daughter is celebrating her 50th. And Cullman’s the better for both. The Coterie is mamma; Share Club the daughter. A group of forward-thinking, caring women who loved Cullman formed The Coterie in January 1922. First called Eclectic Study Club, they met at the home of Mrs. M.H. Killingsworth. They were forward-thinking in that if men had civic clubs, then women could, too; but it would be 2002 before the forwardthinkers quit using their husbands’ first names and initials and used their own. The first president, Mrs. Louis Vogle, and Mrs. Killingsworth were charter members along with Mrs. S.O. Kimbrough, Mrs. Fred Armstrong, Mrs. C.W. Alley, Mrs. W.W. Person, Mrs. H.G. Dowling, Mrs. Ed Gunn, Mrs. Baxter Nash, Mrs. J.A. Dunlap, Mrs. Forney Fuller and Mrs. L.D. Edwards. In 1926, they joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (formed in 1890, it had thrown its national weight behind women’s suffrage in 1914) and its Alabama chapter. The group also changed its name to The Coterie, defined by the old Living Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary as “… an association of villagers, cote. A set or circle of friends who meet for social, literary intercourse.” They adopted an Alexander Pope quote as their motto: There is no study or project that is not capable of delighting us after a little application. In 2002, under the presidency of Peggy Harris, the group officially quit referring to members by their husbands’ name. But in their records, they retain the courtesy title of “Mrs.”
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oterie members rotated the responsibility of monthly programs 14
FEBRUARY | MARCH | APRIL 2022
Coterie & Share
Clubs mark 100th and 50th milestone anniversaries of helping meet needs under one of six general GFWC topics: arts, conservation, education, home life, international outreach and public issues. Though no records or money raised and donated are readily available, Coterie initiated and supported scores of projects over the years, ranging from educational contests and sponsoring scholarships since 1955, to helping meet the needs of veterans, Victims Services, the Ronald McDonald House and Weiss Cottage. Perhaps their biggest projects, Peggy says, were establishing the county library in 1928; raising money to build the replica of Col. John Cullmann’s house in 1972 as a venue for the Cullman County Museum; and, about the same time, their Light the Night project helped fund the first street lights on US 31, coming south down the hill into town. During Coterie’s 50th anniversary, it sponsored the formation of the Share Junior Women’s Club. Susan Powell was its first president and other charter members were Connie Hardiman, Bonnie Heatherly, Johanna Johnson, Deborah McAfee and Linda Price. Like Coterie, and as a part of the GFWC, the junior women’s club was “dedicated to strengthening their community and enhancing the lives of others through volunteer service.” Member Laura Ray jokingly but correctly says the club’s purpose was to make money to give away. And that they did – records show the club has raised and donated more than $311,000 since 1972. It has “shared” with scores of groups and programs over the years, with more recent recipients including Hospice of Cullman County, Cullman Caring For Kids and Good Samaritan Clinic. While it still holds to federation standards, the club dropped out of the GFWCs in 1989 to keep more of its money at home (three years ago, Coterie did likewise). It also underwent another transformation in ‘89. “We changed our name to Share
Women’s Club because we were no longer ‘juniors,’ and as we increased in wisdom, eventually shortened our name to Share Club,” Ray says. Despite recent Covid cancellations, today Share Club remains best known for its annual and highly successful Christmas Tour of Homes. Here are five perspectives on this 50-year-old club and its 100-year-old “mother.”
1.
Peggy Harris has been in The Coterie since 1980. Retired from the Cooperative Alabama Extension Service office in Cullman, she’s the grandmother of five, mother of a son and a stepson and wife of the late Clarence Harris. I joined Coterie at the invitation of a friend and co-worker, Joyce Rowe. At that time, we met in each other’s homes, limiting membership to 12-15 women so we could fit in most living rooms. Each member signed up for a month to host the meetings, which worked out to be about once every two years. Most members were teachers, so we met after school and our club year followed the school year, September through May. Later, after most of us retired and weren’t so interested in entertaining, we moved our meetings to a restaurant for brunch, which continues today. This also allows space for additional members. We sent in annual reports on our activities to the Alabama Chapter of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, and won awards every year for outstanding programs and activities. One of my favorite programs was “Rosie the Riveter.” In 2008, Fran Carter – an 86-year-old, real-life Rosie from Homewood – spoke to us. She portrayed the icon of the working American women of World War II. She knew and played the part by heart because she was there. Another fun program was a twoact play written by Edna Earle Arnold.
