Kathryn Bossuyt – the Librarian
By Linda Stockbauer and Kathryn Bossuyt Kathryn Bossuyt (nee Knobloch) was born on December 25, 1919, in Davenport, Iowa. Her family settled in East Moline, Illinois, and eventually included three brothers. Kathryn’s mother introduced her to her first library in the basement of a building known as the firehouse, the result of the fire truck’s also being in the basement. Loving that small library, Kathryn announced that she was going to be a librarian someday. The nuns at St. Theresa College in Winona, Minnesota, awarded her a full college scholarship. Kathryn had many behind-the-scenes experiences in the library there and received a BA in Language Arts in 1941. Since this degree did not allow her to become a librarian, she went on to Catholic University in Washington DC, to study library science. She received her BA in Library Science in 1946. World War II was over, and Kathryn decided she would look for work in the Midwest. She became librarian in the Moline library, working there for a number of years. City girl Kathryn moved with her husband Maurice to rural Casa Grande, a bit of a shock, where they lived for 17 years and their two children were born. At first Kathryn worked at available jobs in the Valley Bank and The Casa Grande Dispatch, from which she was fired because she was pregnant. When the high school librarian retired, Kathryn was hired. Once graduates of Casa Grande High School shared their difficulty doing research when they went to college, she set up a course on library research techniques for college-bound students. Kathryn was proud to be chosen by the National Department of Education as one of two librarians from southern Arizona to attend the NDEA Institute for Librarians held in San Antonio, Texas. It centered on dealing with the socio-economic background of students and especially migrants. Also instrumental in the establishment of a public library in Casa Grande, she served as the first president of that library board. Maurice was transferred to Tucson, however, so the family left Casa Grande for their new home. Kathryn felt very lucky, though, because a friend from the Library Association recommended her for the vacant position of Supervisor of Elementary Libraries in the Amphitheater School District. Offered that position, she held it until 1987 when she retired. During her time in that district she persuaded the principals to allow her, rather than them, to hire the aides because she knew what kind of person was needed to work in each of the elementary school libraries. She hired people who understood libraries and had experience with children. She also monitored and supported their work. While in that position she opened three new elementary libraries. After retirement, Kathryn and Maurice decided to travel and spent many years exploring the world. She found Eastern Europe and Russia most interesting and before his passing in 2016. Kathryn became a member of Alpha Zetta in 1968, when she was in Casa Grande and transferred to XI Chapter when she moved to Tucson. Very active in the chapter, she held both the office of President and Treasurer as well as served on committees over the years. When on the legislative committee, she joined with other groups in the state to get the Arizona Pension guaranteed in the Constitution. Kathryn took part in many state and international activities. She presented at a state convention and co-chaired a convention with Betty Frye. She attended a number of International and Regional Conventions. She was also chairman of the Louis Snyder fund to support teachers. She met many wonderful women from across the state and the United States. At almost 100 years of age Kathryn is still active in several of her most important organizations: Xi Chapter, the Library Association, Retired Teachers, and The Christ Child Society. Kathryn feels that life has offered her jobs and opportunities when they were needed, but members of Xi are proud to know her as a person of outstanding values willing to fight for what she believes. She is the ultimate librarian.
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One of my other big duties still as part of the Texas State League of Women Voters is to educate and encourage all citizens to VOTE. I've written an article for our Chandler DAR chapter and thought that the DKGs might like a read as well on the 130 year struggle for Women Suffrage. The League, as you probably know, is non partisan. We neither support candidate nor parties. But, we try to educate all voters about the importance of being educated about whom they vote. Many today say they are "independent." But the primaries are run only by the Democratic and Republican Parties. Most of the elections are actually decided in the Primaries so it is important that all citizens decide in which primary they'd like to participate. The primaries are actually much more critical than the General Election in November. Best to you. In DKG Sisterhood Peg Hill The year 2020 is the 100th year celebration of the 19th Amendment
Votes for Women! When John Adams left his New England home and wife, Abigail, to complete the Constitution of the United States and its passage in 1789, Abigail deplored him to “not forget the petticoats.” But he told her he just wanted to get it approved and then they would consider women voting. It didn’t happen in his lifetime! Not for 130 more years! Women could not own property—in fact, they were the property of their husband, son or father. They could make no contracts under their names nor could they vote! Women had no rights under the United States Constitution. After the Revolutionary War when the westward movement began settling the United States from coast to coast, women assumed tremendous duties, but still had no legal rights. However, by 1848 the abolitionist movement in the north and the women suffrage movements became aligned often organized by Quakers. In Seneca Falls, New York, five very strong, brave women organized the first meeting to address universal suffrage. They were hoping that the suffrage and abolition movements would succeed together. Those women were as follows: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Mary M’Clintock, Martha Coffin Wright and Jane Hunt. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leading women’s rights advocate who was a driving organizer of the Seneca Falls Convention. Stanton first became invested in women’s rights after talking to her father, a law professor, and his students. She studied at Troy Female Seminary and worked on women’s property rights reform in the early 1840s. Lucretia Mott, a Quaker preacher from Philadelphia, who was known for her anti- slavery, women’s rights and religious reform activism. Mary M’Clintock, the daughter of Quaker anti-slavery, temperance and women’s rights activists. In 1833, M’Clintock and Mott organized the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. At the Seneca Falls Convention, M’Clintock was appointed secretary. Martha Coffin Wright, Lucretia Mott’s sister. In addition being a lifelong proponent of women’s rights, she was an abolitionist who ran a station on the Underground Railroad from her Auburn, New York, home. Jane Hunt, another Quaker activist, was a member of M’Clintock’s extended family through marriage. A wide range of grievances were articulated at the Seneca Falls Convention, though the right to vote was highlighted as the most radical of all demands. In fact, Stanton proposed the right to vote against the advice of others and that carried only with the help of Frederick Douglass’s endorsement who was also in attendance. As Douglass pointed out, the vote was the most fundamental right, the guarantor of all other rights. Abolition and voting rights went hand in hand during the 1850s. But the Civil War provided only for abolition with the 14th and 15th amendments. The 14th amendment defined voter and citizen as “male.” Women still did not have the right to vote. Susan B. Anthony became the first president and founder of the National Women’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She worked with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Parker Pillsbury with the slogan, “Men, their rights and nothing more, women their rights and nothing less.” The women’s rights movement became a women’s suffrage movement, and by 1877, it had made some only a little progress. Women won the right to vote for the first time in two jurisdictions, Wyoming Territory in 1869 and Utah Territory in 1870. However, with the “New Departure” decision of 1875, the Supreme Court rejected women’s fundamental right to vote. In 1878 a women suffrage amendment was proposed in the U.S. Congress. The first vote taken in 1887 failed. By 1890 the National American Women’s Suffrage Association merged several other women’s rights groups and Wyoming entered the Union granting women the right to vote at local and state levels. This was the beginning of the western states who were becoming states. They allowed women voting rights because they wanted every adult to count in order to achieve statehood. By 1892 Olympia Brown founded the Federal Suffrage Association. In 1896 Utah joined the union with full suffrage rights to women. The movement in the West gained strength and under the leadership of Emma Smith Devoe, women in the western states achieved voting at the state and local levels in western territories and once they became states like Washington, Oregon and Arizona. Carrie Chapman Catt became president of the National Association of Women Suffrage and Alice Paul lead the more militant Congressional Union and the National Women’s Party. Great progress was made in the early 20th century until World War I. President Wilson could not be persuaded to support the Suffrage movement because the Great War consumed his energies. But, once the War was over, women were aligned to begin their strong campaign again. The states most supportive of Women Suffrage were in the East, Central and Western USA. The South still angry about losing the Civil War did not support Women Suffrage until the very end. The women of the West used techniques that discouraged militancy because they believed men opposed militant women. The Eastern movement, more militant in technique learned to moderate the suffrage advocacy from their western sisters. After a stirring appeal made by President Wilson, on December 2, 1918 the Susan B. Anthony Bill which had been introduced in every congress from 1878 was passed by the House of Representatives on January 10, 1918 and by the Senate on June 4, 1919. With the Congressional passage women began to canvass the states for ratification. Tennessee was the last state to vote for ratification which was declared part of the Constitution as the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. Six months before the ratification Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters as a way to educate all voters about political matters in a nonpartisan manner. Thus, the year 2020 marks the 100 th anniversary of Votes for Women and the 100th year anniversary of the League of Women Voters United States! |
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