When the Sixth Ward Democratic Women’s Club first started, Ohio native Warren G. Harding was president and women had been permitted to vote for only two years.
The East Akron club survived 15 presidents and generations of women who worked to get Democratic candidates elected and raised money for scholarships and local charities.
Now, as the women’s group is about to celebrate its 90th anniversary, the club is struggling, with a dwindling membership and an average age of active members somewhere in the 80s. The group is thought to be the oldest — or among the oldest — political club in Akron.
The stalwart leaders of the group hope an open house to celebrate the group’s anniversary will help to rejuvenate interest and attract new members to carry on the tradition. The event will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ellet Community Center, 2449 Wedgewood Drive.
“We hope so,” Wilma Williams, 83, the group’s president, said at a recent meeting that was attended by seven women and two Akron council members. “We’re hoping to keep it going.”
Group’s history
The late Vivian Conner started the club in 1922 with other female activists to support the Democratic Party and the Sixth Ward community, according to a history of the group written in honor of its 45th anniversary.
For the first 39 years, the members met in each others’ homes, taking turns serving as host. The group began meeting in the Junior Order Hall on Brittain Road in the early 1960s, moved to the fire station on East Market Street in the 1980s, and settled into the Ellet Community Center in the 1990s.
The club had seven presidents for the first 28 years of its existence, but no records for this time exist. The University of Akron has a box of records for the club that start in the 1950s.
The documents include notebooks of hand-written minutes, hand-made directories with the group’s constitution and a list of members, and scrapbooks filled with yellowed Beacon Journal announcements of the club’s meetings. There also are articles on Democratic candidates and officeholders.
The minutes include short notations about the business of the meetings like “thank hostess,” “need place mats,” “remember coffee pot,” and “Do we want a punch bowl?”
The minutes also show the heavier topics the group grappled with. A notation from a March 1980 meeting says, “The club discussed the enormous cost of the recent special election and it was decided to send a letter ... recommending an amendment be made to the city charter to let open seats remain vacant until the next scheduled election.”
Elected officials and candidates have regularly spoken to the group over the years. Don Plusquellic, then Akron’s new mayor, addressed the group in March 1987. “He said we must look ahead for new projects and we have an A1 school system,” the minutes say.
Helping candidates
Both former and current elected officials say the club was always a big help to them.
Bob Otterman, who was involved in public service for 41 years, including serving as an Akron councilman and state representative, said 20 to 25 women from the club would show up at a time to address envelopes and stuff campaign literature into them, often handling thousands of pieces.
“When I first started — before electricity — I would go to the board and pay to get a copy of registered voters and get envelopes,” Otterman said, chuckling. “It was a lot more involved than it is now.”
The women also cooked and baked dishes for Otterman’s fundraisers.
The club assisted Summit County Executive Russ Pry when he first became active in the county Democratic Party in the late 1980s, first as secretary, treasurer and then chairman.
“It has been one of those foundation groups that have just always been out there working for Democratic candidates,” Pry said. “A small but mighty group.”
Jeff Fusco, an at-large councilman doing his second tour on the City Council, said the club aided him both times he served on the council. When Fusco was an at-large candidate in 2009, opponents sent out a negative mailer about him 24 hours before the election. He said members of the club helped him to quickly put together and distribute a response.
“I couldn’t have done it without the Sixth Ward Democratic Women’s Club,” said Fusco, who is involved with the group and regularly attends meetings. “They talk the talk and they walk the walk.”
Charitable work
The group’s goal isn’t just supporting politicians — it also tries to help the community.
Since the 1990s, the group has given a scholarship to a female graduate of Ellet High School each year. The amount of the scholarship has varied, depending on how much the club was able to raise at its card parties, teas, bake sales and other fundraisers, ranging from $300 to $2,000 in recent years. Applicants are asked to write essays about “what my country means to me.”
The charities the group has given to include the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society and the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The club also has helped with Akron’s Night Out Against Crime and supported Harvest for Hunger and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank. (Canned-food donations will be accepted at the upcoming open house.)
Future outlook
At a recent meeting of the club, the group followed essentially the same agenda that members before them have for nine decades.
The seven women and Akron council members Fusco and Bob Hoch said the Pledge of Allegiance. Nancy Legazza, a longtime member and past president, read the Military Prayer, most that she recited from memory.
Linda Hugg gave the secretary and the treasurer’s report. She said the scholarship dinner was a success — they ate and had a good time — though this year’s winner was unable to attend. Williams’ granddaughter helped with decorations because Williams was in the hospital. The group has a balance of about $756 and $5 in petty cash. With no old business, the members moved on to new business, which focused on the open house.
Fusco will get a big cake for the event, but each member was asked to bake and bring a small cake.
Jean Leggett encouraged members to get friends and relatives to help with the event.
“We don’t want to do the whole thing with six people,” advised Leggett, who has been with the group since the 1970s.
Leggett informed the group that she would bring a picture of Eleanor Roosevelt, whom the group has adopted as its new role model to help give the club inspiration and guidance. Leggett thinks they need to ask themselves, “What would Eleanor do?” (“Eleanor” may make an appearance at the open house.)
Hugg said she will supply a poem written by the late first lady.
“She wasn’t in our group,” observed Joan Kosir.
“We need her,” Leggett said.
“She was a good, strong, Democratic woman,” Hugg added.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournalcom. Follow on Twitter: @swarsmith.