Ethel J. McCoy, Alpha Chi Omega, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Ethel J. McCoy grew up in Sanford, Florida. She graduated from Duvall High School in Jacksonville. She enrolled at Syracuse University where she became a member of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. Syracuse winters must have been foreign to her coming from sunny Florida!

McCoy served as her chapter’s editor, sending reports to The Lyre of Alpha Chi Omega. In an issue she was described as a “thoroughly wideawake, dependable young woman who goes into whatever interests her with enthusiasm.” As a senior, McCoy was chairman of the YWCA Missionary Committee, “a position of the gravest responsibility.” Her research topic was “The Spanish Colonies in America” and the it focused on her home state. In 1911, she graduated from Syracuse and headed back south.

When the Tau Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta was established at Brenau College (now University) in Gainesville, Georgia, she assisted with the chapter’s installation.

From 1913 to 1916, she was the vice-president of Sunday School work for the Southern Methodist Church in Florida. She founded Camp Junaluska for Girls at Lake Junaluska on a lakefront hilltop in North Carolina. Ads state the establishment date as 1915. She retired from the camp in 1961.

1916

During the academic year, she taught at Virginia Intermont College (an institution which closed in 2014). During her 30-year tenure there, she taught history and was, for a time, the chair of the history department. It was said of McCoy, “Her ability as a teacher and her sympathetic understanding as a friend, have left a lasting influence on all who have known her.”

Parlaying on her love of history and travel, she organized and directed a Junaluska Travel Club. It provided educational adventures abroad for older campers.

1927

McCoy divided her retirement time between Lake Junaluska and Jacksonville, Florida. She died on September 14, 1970.

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Faye Safer Silverman, Delta Phi Epsilon, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

On March 17, 1917, Minna Goldsmith (Mahler), Eva Effron (Robin), Ida Bienstock (Landau), Sylvia Steierman (Cohn) and Dorothy Cohen (Schwartzman), students at New York University Law School, founded Delta Phi Epsilon. Five years later, the organization was formally incorporated in the State of New York. Delta Phi Epsilon became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference in 1951. Happy Founders’ Day, Delta Phi Epsilon!

Faye Safer Silverman, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born on June 29, 1912, in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from Andrew Jackson High School and enrolled at Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University). The first woman in her family to attend college, she was also the first to join a sorority. She became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon.

After graduating in 1930 with a two-year teaching degree, she taught music at the Fishweir School in Jacksonville. On November 29, 1933, she eloped with Joseph Silverman, her high school sweetheart. They set up housekeeping in Gainesville where her husband was working at Brownstein’s Department Store. Unable to find a teaching position in Gainesville, she became the manager of the Fashion Shop.

Her parents loaned the couple $1,500 to start their own business. They called it the Collegiate Men’s Shop and it opened in 1935. According to one of the couple’s daughters, her parents “were true partners in this business.” The family grew to three daughters and a son.

The business relied heavily on the students at the University of Florida, then an all-male institution. The store sold tailor made suits and it extended credit to its customers, a rare commodity in those days. The couple hired students to work and they also chaperoned fraternity events.

Faye Silverman said in a 2001 interview:

I had brothers who went to school at the University of Florida. We had a big fraternity row, but the girls hadn’t come yet. I used to go to all of their parties. They used to have me chaperone when they had to have one. That’s how I got started going. In those days, we had all the name bands that would come to Florida. They would all stop off at the University, and we would have big affairs at the gym. We had big social affairs. We had the Military Ball. We went to everything. Every well-known band you could think of came to Gainesville.

During World War II, Jewish soldiers who were stationed at Camp Blanding in Stark often spent their weekends in Gainesville. Silverman helped organize a hospitality program for them. She was involved with the B’nai Israel Congregation and the Daughters of Israel. She served Hadassah as a lifetime member and past president and was also involved with the Girl Scouts, Gainesville Women’s Club and the Women’s Business Association.

In 1946, the store’s name and location changed. It became Silverman’s – the Man’s Store and moved to the north side of University Avenue, across from the Florida Theatre. Another move took place in 1960, when the store moved across the street to 225 W. University Avenue and featured women’s clothing, too. Silverman’s was one of the oldest clothing stores in Gainesville when it closed 1989. A newspaper headline read, “End of an Era: Silverman’s is Closing.”

Silverman served on Delta Phi Epsilon’s national board and was instrumental in establishing the chapter at the University of Florida in 1955, after it became a coeducational institution. In 1965, she helped establish the chapter at the University of Tampa. In a 2001 interview, Silverman recalled, “I used to travel for our sorority. I had five states that I used to have to travel to. I went to all the places we had sororities.”

Southern Jewish Weekly, October 22, 1954

Silverman died on March 2, 2003, at the age of 90.

 

 

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Evelyn Hawkins Hood, Sigma Gamma Rho, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Evelyn Hawkins Hood was 99 when she died on April 6, 2023. Hood was born in Bibb County, Georgia, graduated from Macon High School and studied at Paine College, where she earned an undergraduate degree, and Atlanta University where she received a master’s degree. On June 22, 1946, she married LoVette Hood.

The Macon News, June 30, 1946

She became a member of the Eta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, in 1950. She had been invited as a guest to a ball in Atlanta and decided the sorority aligned with her goals. Hood held many offices on the local, regional and international levels. She served as the 14th International Grand Basileus from 1976-1980. During her term she  was a successful fundraiser. Some of the funds she raised went to fund scholarships for high school students.

The 1980 Boule took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and members of the Eta Sigma Chapter, traveled by chartered bus to see Hood preside.

She taught English at Ballard High School and second grade teacher at C.W. Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Her teaching career spanned more than four decades.  She was active in her church, West Mitchell Street Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1969, she was named Bronze Woman of the Year. An article in the Macon News noted that Hood, “worked with voter registration, the cancer drive, and spends many hours providing enrichment activities that help disadvantaged boys and girls. She is a member of the George Washington Carver Boys Club, YWCA, GTEA, NEA, Classroom Teachers of Georgia and West Mitchell CME Church.”

According to Hood’s obituary, Keisha Simmons, a past president of the Iota Zeta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, said, “She was the epitome of class.” Simmons added that Hood was very approachable and she “took an interest in younger members, she would guide them into leadership.

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Marjory and Ruth Cowan, Delta Gamma, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

March 15 is the date upon which Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day. Read about the founding of Delta Gamma and its connection to Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity whose Founders’ Day is also celebrated on March 15.

MARJORY COWAN

Marjory Cowan

Marjory Cowan was born on November 5, 1889. She grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. She was a charter member of the Delta Gamma chapter at the University of Oregon. Her younger sister, Ruth, followed in her footsteps and was also a member of the Delta Gamma chapter.

In 1912, she was one of the members of the University of Oregon Women’s Debate Team. In a competition with the University of Washington team, she had to debate the negative – Resolved. That the various states should adopt woman’s suffrage – even though she was a suffragist. She also acted with the university’s first dramatic interpretation group.

After graduation, she became a field representative for the Ellison White Chautauqua System, which was newly organized and was the first Chautauqua with contracts in 14 western states. After that, she turned her attention to organizing Chautauqua performances in Canada, then Australia and New Zealand.

In 1923, she headed to Seattle, Washington, where she became a field representative for the Cornish School. In the summer of 1924, she took her first real vacation and toured England and Europe. She also booked and handled artists for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau.

Seattle Union Record, November 24, 1924

An article about her in the January, 1926, issue of The Zontian, the official organ of the Confederation of Zonta Clubs of America, stated:

In the past two years, she has handled very successfully the Artists’ Course booked by the Men’s Club of Plymouth Church, which included such artists as Albert Spalding, Reinald Werrenrath, Olga Samaroff, Ernst Von Dohnanyi, Maria Ivogun, London String Quartet. Sha has handles as independent attractions such nationally known artists as Margaret Matzenauer, Edward Johnson, Mischa Elman, Moritz Rosenthal, and Roland Hayes.

A 1927 Anchora identified her as an impresario, the “manager of a musical, theatrical or operatic company.” At some point, she moved to San Francisco, California, and became concert manager and a radio entertainer for the National Broadcasting Company.

She died on October 24, 1932 in an automobile accident. She was 42. She and three others were in a car driven by a Naval Lieutenant. They were on their way to a performance in Modesto. The car plunged over an embankment when the curve was taken too fast. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

RUTH COWAN

Ruth Cowan was born on July 17, 1898. She studied for two years at the University of Oregon. Her interests were music and art. When the opportunity to manage a concert bureau in Portland became available, she took on the challenge.

Ruth Cowan

A 1927 Anchora called her a “successful Los Angeles Impresario.” In addition to being the associate manager of the George Leslie Smith Auditorium Artist Series, she was manager of the southern California Territory for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau. It was:

one of the oldest and best known musical bureaus in the United States. She has been responsible for all western tours of the great artists under the management of the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau and it is due to her efforts that many new artists have been introduced in the West in the past three years. The Artist Series of which Ruth is associate manager has become one of the  popular institutions in the City of LA. This year three artists who have never been west before are being introduced on this series, Mary Lewis, this year’s sensation of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Florence Austral, dramatic Soprano and Alexander Brailowsky, phenomenal pianist.

In 1929, she was in a car accident as the passenger in a car driven by a friend. She was cut on the lips by flying glass.

In 1951, she became director of the Music Academy of the West. She retired from that position in 1966. She died on May 21, 1979.

Musical West, May 1928

 

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Marcia Malone Slavin, Alpha Xi Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

t hitMarcia Malone Slaven was born in Grafton, West Virginia on July 17, 1932. In 1950, she enrolled at West Virginia University after graduating from Grafton High School. She was a student at WVU’s School of Pharmacy. In 1950, pharmacy was not a usual major for women. She became a member of the Iota Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. According to her obituary, she “made lifelong friendships with her sorority sisters.”

In a way, she was following in the footsteps of her older sister Emily Malone Glaser, also an Alpha Xi at WVU and the 2000th registered pharmacist in West Virginia. The fact that their father, Paul E. Malone, was also a pharmacist, might have entered their choice of career.

After graduation, she returned to Grafton to work at Malone’s Drug and Chemical Company, which was started by her father. When her father died on June 23, 1953, at the age of 55, she assumed many of his responsibilities.

On November 29, 1958, at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC, she married Maynard D. Slaven. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and a 1958 graduate of WVU’s School of Pharmacy. They had two sons.

Malone’s Drug Store was a fixture in Grafton and it served the community. It hit the one millionth prescription filled mark in the 1960s. The Slaven’s kept the store open for as long as they could and although it survived for more than 50 years, it closed in the early 1980s. The Slavens also owned Medical Arts Pharmacy in Morgantown.

According to her obituary:

Following the store’s closure, Marcia was the longest-serving pharmacist in charge at Grafton City Hospital, a multiple-decades long record that is unlikely to be equaled. She wrote, along with Maynard, the drug formulary for the institution, a massive undertaking that gave instructions for drugs approved for patients. During her decades of service to the hospital, she also served as a clinical instructor for the WVU College of Pharmacy and guided many future professionals through the processes of checking for medication errors, preparing hyperalimentation (artificial nutrition) treatments, and handling toxic chemotherapy preparations. She was, by all accounts, a consummate teacher and a detail-oriented but sympathetic instructor.

Marcia Slaven was an active member of the Grafton community and served many civic, business and professional organizations. She died on Dec. 19, 2022 at the age of 90.

 

 

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Janet Greig Post, Delta Delta Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Janet Greig Post was born on November 21, 1871, in Fonda, in upstate New York. She grew up in Oneida, Illinois, and entered Knox College. There she became a member of the Epsilon Chapter of Delta Delta Delta. Although she was not a delegate to the first Tri Delta Convention held in 1893, she most likely attended the legislative sessions. She was indeed at the Panhellenic reception held at Armory Hall where she wore a yellow silk dress with lilies of the valley.

A graduate of the class of 1894, she spent two years studying in France and Germany. Much of her work was done at the Sorbonne in France. She also spent some time doing post-graduate work at the University of Chicago.

She returned to her alma mater where she served as an instructor in French and German before becoming the Dean of Women in 1898. She held that job until 1902, when she married Probate Judge Philip Post, who, at that time, was the youngest man on the Illinois bench. Years later in a Trident article, the wedding was “still remembered as a college and Delta Delta Delta affair with Delta bridesmaid and silver, gold and blur decorations, and the ceremony read by President McClelland of Knox.” Her husband was also a Knox alumnus and a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

During World War I, she worked with the Women’s Overseas Section of the National War Work Council, an affiliate branch of the YWCA. She also served the American Red Cross. The Knox Alumnus described her war work in the April 1918 issue.  She had completed a course on what was being done in the Canadian military hospitals training as to the re-education of disabled soldiers.

The Posts moved to Winnetka, Illinois, when her husband joined the International Harvester Company. She was active in many Chicago clubs and was known as an “active clubwoman.” When Philip Post died in 1920, Janet Greig Post assumed her husband’s position on the Knox College Board of Trustees. She was the first woman to serve on the Knox Board of Trustees.

She remained a staunch supporter of both the college and her sorority chapter. There are accounts of her attending chapter and alumnae alliance events.

Her greatest contribution was leading the fundraising effort to celebrate Knox College’s 100th anniversary in 1937. She charged forward in a poor economic climate to raise funds to renovate Old Main. She wrote thousands of letters to alumni and supporters. Had she not done that it is quite possible that Old Main might not be around today. It is currently the only remaining site of a Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Post remained a member of the Board of Trustees until her death on January 24, 1964, at the age of 94. She and her husband are buried in Hope Cemetery in Galesburg, Illinois.

Knox College’s Janet Greig Post Leadership Society recognizes donors who give $10,000 or more annually to the college.

 

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Jenn Winslow Coltrane, Kappa Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Jenn Winslow Coltrane was initiated into the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College chapter of Kappa Delta on October 27, 1903. The chapter was founded earlier that year on January 28. Although she was born in Marshall, Missouri, and she died in Bellevue Hospital in New York City, she spent most of her life in Concord, North Carolina.

Jenn Winslow Coltrane

Jenn Winslow Coltrane

She served as her chapter’s president. After graduation in 1906, Coltrane was Kappa Delta’s first Inspector. She spent five years as National Treasurer before becoming National President in 1912. That year she was present at the meeting when Kappa Delta joined what is today the National Panhellenic Conference. Coltrane served as Kappa Delta’s National President until 1915. She was also the Business Manager of and a contributor to The Angelos of Kappa Delta.

Coltrane was on the state board of the Federated Women’s Club. From 1920-1923, she was Historian General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She qualified for membership by descent from her great-great-grandfather, Colonel Beverly Winslow of Virginia.

During World War I, she worked in the War Risk Insurance Bureau and helped organize a Red Cross chapter in her county. In 1930, she founded the Junior Charity League in Concord. Its original focus was to provide soup, crackers, and milk to hungry schoolchildren. The Junior Charity League continues to this day.

The December 4, 1932 edition of The Tuscaloosa News reported, “Miss Jenn Coltrane, former national president of Kappa Delta Sorority, has returned to her home in Concord, North Carolina, after a short visit at the Kappa Delta House in Colonial Place.” She died on September 4, 1934, at the age of 47.

She was remembered at the 1935 Kappa Delta Convention held at the Huntington Hotel in California. In 1997, she was inducted posthumously into the Kappa Delta Hall of Fame.

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Nell Morgan Austin Enlows, Ph.D., M.D., Sigma Kappa, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Nell Morgan Austin Enlows grew up in West Virginia where her father was a doctor. She married Harold Franklin Enlows on September 7, 1910.

She earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction from George Washington University in 1915. The Enlows were involved in fraternity life; she was a Sigma Kappa and he was a Sigma Nu. She immediately began working on a master’s degree in bacteriology at GWU and her husband began his career as a lawyer.

1915

1916

An active Sigma Kappa alumna, she wrote the 1917-1918 report from the DC alumnae chapter. That year, according to a report in The Triangle, “Nell Enlows and Mary Newcomb, accompanied by Nell’s mother and three friends (all girls) drove Ally Enlows – Nell’s Dodge – to Atlantic City, returning by way of Philadelphia.”

Another report written during that time includes this information:

Our last alumnae meeting was held jointly with the active chapter on January 2. Red Cross contributions, TRIANGLE subscriptions, and Panhellenic rules regarding rushing were the engrossing topics of the evening. We find here at Zeta that joint meetings are very helpful on both sides. After the meeting in January several of the active girls came to me and said how very much they had enjoyed hearing the alumnae tell them of the difficulties and joys of Panhellenic rushing rules of the past. The long rushing season of this year has been to say the least very unpleasant. The greater part of every business meeting is taken up by a discussion of rushing. And practically all the free hours the girls have about college are claimed by the business of rushing.

She helped install Sigma Kappa’s Rho chapter at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College on June 2, 1917, and the Omega chapter at Florida State College for Women on May 29, 1920.

Enlows worked for several years in the field for the United States Public Health Service while doing doctoral work.

Triangle, December 1921

New Castle Herald, June 18, 1921

Enlows earned a Ph.D. from George Washington in 1923. With her husband’s encouragement, she enrolled in medical school at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated in 1929 at the age of 40. She was the only woman in her class who passed the qualifying exams.

Enlows practiced otolaryngology (ENT – ears, nose and throat) in DC. She was the first female doctor to join the staff of Washington’s Episcopal Hospital. She later recounted that because there were no facilities for women doctors to change their clothes, she was forced to change in the telephone booth. The female nurses then invited her to use their facilities.

In 1942, she and her husband each received the Alumni Achievement Award from GWU.

The Enlows moved to Florida in 1945. She practiced part time until 1956, when her husband died. She then retired and spent her time volunteering. She taught first aid and life saving and served as medical officer at the Aquatic Schools founded by her husband. Enlows also volunteered with the Florence Crittenton Home. She was instrumental in organizing Florida Medical Women.

Fort Lauderdale News, April 15, 1948

She remained active in Sigma Kappa alumnae chapters and was a member of the alumnae Panhellenic association. She was also active in AAUW and medical organizations. Enlows was honored by the American Medical Women’s Association, at a mid-year meeting in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1959.

Enlows died on June 25, 1973, at the age of 83.

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Cheryl Ruth Selby Kielczewski, Alpha Sigma Tau, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Cheryl Ruth Selby Kielczewski, who was known as Ruth, was born on October 8, 1958, in Macon, Missouri. She attended high school in Atlanta, Missouri, and was valedictorian of its high school’s class of 1977.

She enrolled at Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State University). There she became a member of Alpha Sigma Tau and during her senior year, she was named Outstanding Greek Woman. She was also active in the Cardinal Key honor society and was Assistant Editor of the student newspaper. She graduated summa cum laude.

In the 1980s, she served as an Alpha Sigma Tau District President. On October 22, 1983, she wed Richard Z. Kielczewski. The couple had two sons.

Kielczewski worked as an advertising and marketing executive. The clients she served include Dell, AT&T, and Taco Bell. In her linkedin profile, she described herself thusly:

I’m a seasoned pro with an expansive knowledge base – high-tech advertising, direct marketing and bank/financial advertising – although I’ve also served clients in many business-to-business and consumer fields. I’m not afraid to tackle in-depth subject matter and have written for numerous media including collateral, print advertising, direct mail, newsletters, promotions, radio, and interactive mediums. I can present ideas, deliver sharp strategic insight and direct creative projects from start to finish.

She was also described by one of her former employees,

It’s simple and clear: Ruth is the best boss I’ve ever had. There are many possible reasons for this. Maybe it’s because she’s a fellow writer – a superb wordsmith, if you want to know the truth – and knows how writers think. Maybe it’s because she leads by example and always had my back. Maybe it’s because she has such clear vision and cuts to the strategic, targeted chase. Or maybe it’s all of the above and more. Ruth is an inspiration to me. She gets it. That intangible it. Not everybody does. I can say without reservation that her leadership, mentorship and teaching ability made me a better writer. She always challenged me to do more, and the work was always better for it. The best work of my career can be traced directly back to her. She knew when to push. She knew when to set me loose. And she did all of it in a way that made it feel like it was for my benefit. And it was, but only if it benefited the work as well. And that’s part of her genius. Nobody ever led me – or my team – with a surer hand. I have complete trust in Ruth as a creative director, and believe me, that is nothing anyone should ever take for granted. So to say that I recommend her is dangerously underplaying the reality of the situation: I can’t recommend her enough. You simply can’t do better talent wise, character wise or just plain wise. She made me better. She’ll make you and your company better, too.

Kielczewski died on March 13, 2018, after a six-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She was 59 years old.

 

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Florence M. Rohr, Alpha Delta Pi, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Florence Myers Rohr was born on February 27, 1878, in Lynchburg, Virginia. She studied at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College and Brenau College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. While a student at Brenau, she founded Phi Beta Sigma in 1905; it was an honorary literary society whose criteria were high scholarship, leadership and character.

Rohr worked as an instructor at Brenau from 1906-1913. She became a member of the Lambda chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at Brenau College when it was chartered on April 18, 1910.

She also installed the Phi chapter at Hanover College in 1913, initiating the seven charter members. According to an account, Rohr:

was to have been here on Friday, May thirtieth, the date of our annual Pan-Hellenic dance given by the men’s fraternities. We had planned to have a college reception at the home of Eloise Mills, daughter of the president. A telegram came from Miss Rohr about the middle of the week telling us she must go to Chicago May thirty-first to attend a fraternity convention. Our plans were completely upset. Miss Rohr arrived in Hanover Sunday morning. We had our installation Monday evening in our sorority hall after which we returned to the dormitory for a spread. Miss Rohr remained with us until Wednesday morning when she took the boat for Louisville.

She coordinated the Brenau European Party, and took a group including seven Alpha Delta Pi members to Europe. One visitor, Pearl Napier O’Daniel, an Adelphean, whom the others called “Mother Dannie” described the trip, “I had the good fortune to be a member of Miss Florence Rohr’s delightful European party last summer, and our boat, the Canopic, weighed anchor one bright June day off the coast of the Madeira Islands.” She noted, “I would occasionally forget and speak of the Adelphean Society instead of the Alpha Delta Pi Sorority.” Her Adelphean badge was “quite an object of curiosity to some of the girls, and they would beg to wear it. Once we held an impromptu meeting in my room in Dublin, and as we sat on the bed school girl fashion, I felt like a college girl again.”

When Rohr studied at Columbia University in 1917, she taught part time at the Horace Mann School. She and her sister took an apartment and invited five other women to join in a cooperative living arrangement. Rohr later said:

Each girl brought and prepared the dinner and breakfast for the following morning one day a week and I began to realize how much one could get by pooling resources with others. After a few months, an elderly couple living in another apartment asked me to take over their apartment, letting them retain a few rooms. Not long after another couple, breaking up, asked me to take over their lease and their furniture for anything I would pay and pay when pleased.

By saving what she could from this arrangement, Rohr was able to purchase a house at 100 Morningside Drive. The Morningside Residence Club of New York City was born.

In 1920, as a lecturer for the U.S. Department of Justice, she spoke throughout the eastern states. Publicity about the tour appeared in June 1920 newspapers;

As a part of the battle against the high cost of existence the housewives of the country are being organized into State chapters all over the country by the women’s activities branch of the Department of Justice, in its campaign against high prices. Twenty states have been organized; it was announced. Encouraged by the progress of work, three additional women organizers have started from Washington to take up the organization work. They are Misses Mary Stewart, Helen Grimes and Florence Rohr, all good speakers, whose mission it will be to tell women’s clubs all over the country and weld them into effective units in the campaign to lower prices. The speakers will preach judicious buying, educate housewives in marketing principles and teach the wisdom of buying only essential things.

Ithaca Journal, July 9, 1920

Juanita Brooks’ 1980 account of talking about going to Columbia University for a masters in 1928 mentioned the club:

Early September found me on the eastbound ‘Flyer’ scheduled to go to its final terminal, New York City. Here I would enroll in Columbia University. I arrived in NYC in the later afternoon with on one to meet me. By sunset I was established on the 7th floor of The Morningside Residence Club, a home for women only.

A 1930 newspaper article state that Rohr felt she was “blazing a trail toward a new type of community living inside a city.” It was her aim, the newspaper reported:

to provide the members of her club all the elements that go to make up a wholesome and normal life. To this end, there is an afternoon tea every Sunday from 4 to 6 in the long reception room, to which any member can invite a friend. There is the Wednesday night bridge club. One can join a class for French or Italian conversation or take bridge lessons at small expense. The member who wants to keep in touch with the latest plays or attend the opera once a week has an opportunity to get tickets at club rates. Several season seats for the opera are bought every year and club members get these at the original cost.

In February 1931, she won first prize in the Class B division of the City Gardens’ Club’s annual exhibition for her photograph of the roof garden she had designed.

The Morningside Residence Club moved to  600 W. 113th Street in 1937. Rohr was also a member of the  NYC Altrusa Club.

In January of 1941, she spoke in Florida as a country-wide lecturer for the British War Relief Society.

She died  in Lynchburg, Virginia, on December 2, 1959, at 81 years of age.

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