Organized May 15, 1919, With Mrs. T. H. Cooper As First President – Outstanding Projects Put Through In Nineteen Years
From the 1938 centennial edition of The Times-Register
On the 15th of May, 1919, one of the outstanding organizations of Salem at the present time was formed, when a group of civic-minded ladies of the community met and the Salem Woman’s Club resulted.
Mrs. T. H. Cooper was elected first president of the club and Mrs. O. L. Stearnes, secretary. Mrs. Stearnes has in her possession the original signatures of the charter club members as recorded at the first two meetings.
Charter Members
These are Mrs. J. B. Armstead, Miss Lucy Burwell, Mrs. Fannie L. Berkley, Miss Jennie Barnitz, Mrs. E. S. Barnitz, Mrs. J. E. Bradley, Mrs. W. W. Ballard, Jr., Mrs. W. Lee Brand, Mrs. B. S. Barnett, Mrs. J. C. Darden, Mrs. C. W. Cook, Mrs. R. E. Cook, Mrs. W. D. Crawford, Mrs. W. R. Cross, Mrs. T. H. Cooper, Mrs. C. L. Corbitt, Mrs. J. H. Cochran, Mrs. R. H. Carper, Mrs. Pauline Camper, Miss Anna Davis.
Miss Grace Goodwin, Miss Fannie Goff, Mrs. H. R. Garden, Mrs. W. N. Hale, Mrs. W. W. Harveycutter, Miss Annie Houseman, Mrs. Charles Hammit, Miss Lucy T. Jones, Miss Wiley Jones, Mrs. Maurice Jeter, Miss Maud Kelly, Mrs. George Kelly, Mrs. O. Kizer, Mrs. G. E. Koontz, Mrs. L. W. Langhorne, Mrs. J. J. Lewis, Mrs. O. G. Lewis, Mrs. Edith R. McClung.
Miss Berta Perfater, Mrs. S. H. Payne, Mrs. E. M. Price, Mrs. J. S. Persinger, Mrs. W. B. Persinger, Mrs. F. V. N. Painter, Miss Alice Quigley, Mrs. J. M. Rice, Miss Blanche Roche, Mrs. J. Horace Smith, Mrs. H. D. Shank, Mrs. W. S. Shank, Mrs. O. L. Stearnes, Miss Constance Stearnes, Mrs. J. P. Saul, Mrs. J. P. Saul, Jr., Mrs. W. M. Smiley, Miss Frances Self, Miss Janie Shipman, Mrs. J. A. Thompson, Mrs. C. D. Denit, Mrs. Robert Durham, Mrs. W. B. Dillard, Miss Roxie Dillard, Miss Mary Duncan, Mrs. O. H. Dooley.
Mrs. W. M. Early, Miss Janet Ferguson, Mrs. W. A. Francis, Mrs. M. G. McClung, Miss Annie McConkey, Mrs. C. H. Magee, Mrs. S. H. McVitty, Mrs. J. F. Morton, Mrs. Nettie R. Martin, Mrs. W. F. Morehead, Mrs. W. P. Norris, Mrs. O. D. Oakey, Mrs. Walter Oakey, Mrs. W. O. Talbert, Mrs. W. A. Vest, Mrs. D. B. Welsh, Mrs. B. B. Wiseman, Mrs. R. M. Wiley, Mrs. F. C. Wiley, Mrs. W. T. Younger, Mrs. J. R. Woods, Miss Beatrice Woods.
Federated In 1920
Salem’s Woman’s Club was officially federated in May of 1920 and a charter was granted in September 1926. The sixteen original charter directors include Anna C. Oakey, Elizabeth Starkey, Mary B. Scruggs, Nell B. Fisher, Katherine Morehead, Rosalynd Roberts Evans, Mae B. Cooper, Bettie B. Denit, Grace W. Hall, Dorthea J. Downing, May Jo Snapp, Lily Strouse Rice, Mary Ann Brown, Kate C. Dillard, Annie L. Wiley, Reba Browning Koontz
During its nineteen years of existence twelve presidents have guided the local Woman’s Club. The presidents and the years in which they sere are as follows:
Mrs. T. H. Cooper – 1919-21.
Mrs. G. E. Koontz – 1921-22.
Mrs. Wythe Morehead – 1922-23.
Mrs. Wiley Jones – 1923-24.
Mrs. A. P. Wagener – 1924-26.
Mrs. Henry Oakey – 1926-28.
Mrs. Howard Starkey – 1928-29.
Mrs. W. E. Mann – 1929-31
Mrs. Donald Gates – 1931-33.
Mrs. Russell Johnston – 1933-35.
Mrs. A. D. Carson – 1935-38.
Mrs. H. U. Butts – 1938-
Numerous and varied are the outstanding civic projects sponsored by the Salem Woman’s club in the past years. The effects of the advances have been far-reaching in Salem and surrounding territory.
Music Club Organized
In January 1927, the Salem Music Club was organized under the guidance of the Woman’s Club with Mrs. A. M. Bruce as the first president. Since that time the Music Club has grown in numbers and influence until it is a force in the cultural development of Salem.
A lot was purchased on East Main Street by the club in 1925, and two years after one of the most important steps ever taken by the senior club was culminated when the Junior Woman’s Club was formed, on February 15, 1927, with Miss Virginia Little as president.
In 1932, under the presidency of Mrs. Donald Gates, the cooperation of the Salem Town Council was secured and the Salem Woman’s Clubhouse on the Boulevard was secured. Since that time the Clubhouse has been a center of social and cultural activity in the town.
Another important contribution of the Woman’s Club through the years has been the public health work, carried on under the chairmanship of Mrs. W. B. Dillard, which formed the Salem Community Nursing Association in 1918, and then combined it into a department of the Woman’s Club in 1927.
Mrs. Dillard, whose humanitarian work in Roanoke County has been one of the outstanding contributions of the past decade, was forced to resign her post in 1938, due to ill health, and Mrs. T. T. Smith was appointed in her place. Mrs. Dillard, however, continues as a member of the Board of Directors of the association.
A dream of many years was realized in February of 1937, when the Salem Woman’s Club finally secured the founding of a public library in Salem, through the help of the Town Council, who donated the building in Younger Park for this purpose.
Mrs. C. S. Phinney is the organizer and director of the library which now has three thousand volumes and twelve hundred fifty-six registered borrowers. A branch library was recently opened for the colored residents of Salem, with three hundred volumes.
Looking to the future with the confidence that the splendid work of the women of the community will continue to progress as it has in the past two decades the following new officers were recently elected to serve the club for 1938-39:
President, Mrs. H. U. Butts; 1st vice-president, Mrs. W. R. Crouch; 2nd vice-president, Mrs. William Paxton; recording secretary, Mrs. Henry Halder; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Julius Prufer; treasurer, Miss Nell Fisher.
– Prepared by Lingjie Gu
