The League of Women Voters

In the quest for historical reference, the best source is an actual participant of the moment. So, it’s easy to understand why my personal encyclopedia, Ruth born in 1917, can deliver some amazing insight to an event or historical sequence. This morning we discuss The League of Women Voters which she belonged to in the 1950s-1960s in Glen Ellyn, IL. She attended a convention, she recalls, in which some of the “guests” were actual Suffragettes. She and friend, Polly Hayes, literally shoved some women out of the way to get closer to these American heroines. Then she tells me she was a poll watcher in the Mayor Daley days of the Kennedy-Nixon election. Apparently they stayed up all night counting votes in 1962.

I instructed her to write some notes on her decades of participation. [This was pre-South, where we relocated in the mid 60s. She spurned the League of Women Voters in Fort Smith, AR after we moved there. Went instead to work for the American Cancer Society, a fledgling organization at the time.] She is having trouble staying on course with her memories because stories of little children and their incredibly amusing stuffed animal theatrical productions keep worming their way into her recollections. Then she starts laughing and I laugh with her and at some point, the grandballoons show up and entertain us with a whole new generation of fun.

I will print out some Wikipedia entries to jump start her thoughts. My mind rambles more than hers and as mentioned previously, both of us are subject to instantaneous toddler time with two thoroughly delightful grandballoons and their sleep-deprived mother.

This whole dialog stems from the ACORN discussion. Mom remembers ACORN but I know her thought process and know to get to that point, starting with the League of Women Voters will lead me to more details. She also worked with the Mental Health Society in the 1950s back when psychiatry was a scary topic and everyone needed lobotomies. Ruth is a background person, the busy worker bee who kept organizations on track but who never jumped into the limelight. She was the secretary to the event, so to speak.