Three-Ten learns of First Ladies Bush, Roosevelt and Harrison

The home of Helen Zaunbrecher was the setting of the February meeting of Three-Ten.
Mary Beth Geesey and Alice Whiting served as co-hostesses.
President Suzanne Gray called the meeting to order, then led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance and the club collect. Gretchen Ohlenforst served as secretary for the evening, calling roll and reading the minutes from the January meeting.
Bobbie delaHoussaye, club treasurer, informed the membership regarding several financial items. A donation was made to Audrey Spencer’s Empowering the Community for Excellence Program, as voted upon at the club’s last meeting. Muff Bier, Geesey, Catherine Hodges and Zaunbrecher visited the facility together to make the presentation.
The nominating committee, led by Gretchen Ohlenforst, announced that all seated officers have agreed to serve again for next year’s term. They include Suzanne Gray, president; Flo Faulk, vice president; Sissy Gall, secretary; delaHoussaye, treasurer. The slate was accepted by acclamation.
With business dispensed with, Zaunbrecher took the floor to begin the program for the evening - “Activists: Eleanor Roosevelt, Caroline Harrison, Barbara Pierce Bush.”
Beginning with Bush, Zaunbrecher informed the group that the first lady was not only the wife of President George H.W. Bush, but was also the mother of President George W. Bush. Though not a college graduate, she was educated and managed 29 moves, in the United States and abroad, during the 44 years of her marriage. Though consumed with supporting her husband’s career, Barbara Bush stayed mostly quiet about more controversial issues and chose her own cause — literacy — to focus on. She is still considered to be one of the most popular first ladies due to her warm personality, her keen wit and her devotion to family.
Geesey presented the next portions of the program, which were on Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison.
Roosevelt was a champion humanitarian. Among her causes were political, racial and social justice; civil rights for minorities and women; child welfare; and volunteerism. Though at first seemingly reluctant to become a first lady to her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she wisely used her education and her passion to further the causes of not only the political issues of her husband’s career, but also of the disadvantaged. She did not rest after the death of her husband, spending the remaining 17 years of her life actively fighting for human rights on national and international levels.
The wife of Benjamin Harrison, Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison was a pioneer in the relatively new cause of women’s rights in the 1890’s. Though not a marching, flag-waving suffragette, she used her name and prestige to bring about change for women with patience, tact and elegant influence. She was supportive of her husband’s career, but balanced family life and social life deftly.
Harrison was an early proponent of using only American-made goods. Additionally, she is credited with turning the then-crude White House into an executive mansion worthy of a United States president. She made it her mission to enlarge, renovate and modernize the structure with electricity and plumbing. Under her careful attention, many items from previous residents were actually rescued, restored and catalogued as historical artifacts of the White House.
At the conclusion of the program, discussion ensued before the meeting was adjourned.