Not the only League member to achieve Hollywood stardom, Hamilton shared the limelight with Shirley Temple Black and Katharine Hepburn.
The Junior League of Atlanta funded the Atlanta Speech School to serve children and adults with speech, hearing, language, and learning disabilities. The school, which still thrives today, is a sterling example of the many hospitals and clinics that Leagues have either started or supported generously over the decades.
President Roosevelt appointed Mary Harriman to chair the Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), the first government consumer rights group. She served in this position with distinction until her death on December 18, 1934.
One of the original members of the Junior League of the City of New York, Eleanor Roosevelt became the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, holding the post from 1933 to 1945 during her husband’s four terms in office. Her impact on public policy would last for nearly two more decades, until her death in 1962.
Isabella Selmes Greenway, a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and former New York League member, became the first woman.
The League created a Welfare Bureau and, a year later, formulated a five-point emergency welfare policy in response to “unprecedented economic and social problems.”
One of the Junior League of Tampa’s first community projects after becoming a League in 1928 was to partially fund a tuberculosis clinic and treatment center. By 1931, as the Depression deepened, JLT had assumed total support for the center, including building an addition. In 1933-34, members logged over 8,000 service hours at the center, helping to care for nearly…
Leagues in Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke, and Lynchburg banded together to evaluate the state of child welfare in Virginia. This first statewide action by Leagues is the predecessor to today’s SPACs (State Public Affairs Committees), which operate in California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio.
One hundred and fourteen independent Leagues assembled for the 1930 Annual Conference in New York City. A key focus was developing and implementing League initiatives to address the economic uncertainty in their communities.
