Women’s Causes to Celebrate : Clubs: The Friday Morning Club looks back on 100 years of work for social and political change.

The grande dame of Los Angeles women’s clubs, the Friday Morning Club, celebrates its centennial this month--wise and feisty, but frail. Several days ago, at the Wilshire Country Club, 225 joyously met at a luncheon.

Los Angeles was a village of 50,000 the year Caroline M. Severance and 87 charter members organized their club in the parlor of the Hollenbeck Hotel, at 2nd Street and Broadway. Among its interests were intellectual and literary pursuits.

From its inception, however, the club found itself involved in political issues--women’s rights, the movements that resulted in the establishment of Los Angeles Juvenile Court and a city library, and the preservation of landmarks.

The club started the movement that put women on the board of education. It campaigned for harbor development at San Pedro. It fought to preserve the redwoods and the California missions. It sponsored food and drug legislation.

The first club president, Madame Severance (as she is called in virtually all writings on the club), was well known nationwide for her concern for women’s rights. She was the first woman to vote in Los Angeles, on Oct. 11, 1911. She died shortly thereafter, in her 90s. Mme. Severance’s bell, pen and portrait are on loan to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution for its exhibit titled “From Parlor to Politics: Women and Reform in America, 1890-1925.”

At its peak, the club boasted 3,800 members. It now has about 90 resident and 25 non-resident members. Said Second Vice President Virginia De Zell, “Last year we lost eight or nine and we took in only two. People aren’t joining clubs today. I don’t know why. We do have great programs.” Then she chides, “Women just aren’t joining clubs today unless it enhances their husbands’ careers. It makes me so disgusted.

“We’ll probably be out of money in five years. We’ve dipped into our reserves for the last four or five years. . . . Eventually we’ll just disband. The membership will dwindle. And we will give our assets, probably, to a charity. We’ve talked about it. I opt for the libraries--everyone can go to libraries and enjoy books.”

Today, she says, “the youngest girls are in their 60s--maybe one member in her 50s. And our oldest member is 100 and one month--Regina Bell. Yes, she comes to all the meetings.”

The club has always thought of itself as a cultural and literary club. In the first decade, author Henry James spoke on “Lessons of Balzac.” Club records show bills for a carriage and flowers for him. Eleanor Roosevelt was also a speaker.

For its centennial, the club presented the city library with $25,000, in honor of the late Mary Foy, the first female librarian in Los Angeles and a former club member.

For the centennial celebration, president Millie (Mrs. Richard W.) Callaway arranged for her son-in-law David Holt, a singer from Nashville, Tenn., to entertain guests with Appalachian music. He played music on bones, paper bags, the banjo and the guitar.

In 1940, the Friday Morning Club, preparing for its Golden Jubilee, was described as “an oak from an acorn that was planted just short of 50 years ago by Mme. Caroline M. Severance.”

Everyone knows that oaks must be preserved. Especially those 100 years old.