A LOOK BACK:

This week we’ll continue our look at the Huntington Beach Woman’s Club as they plan for their centennial celebration Feb. 12 inside their clubhouse on 10th Street.

Last week we began looking at some of the events and activities the club held in 1944, and this week we’ll continue and begin with the month of April and the election of Minnie (Johnnie) Belshe as president of the club.

As the members entered the clubhouse they were met at the entrance with a beautiful arrangement of large bowls of orchid iris, carnations and white calla lilies that were the creation of Louise Jenkins, Nancy Pann and Hazel Hudson.

Filing into the clubhouse the ladies were seated around tables decorated with small bowls of sweet peas, interspersed with streamers of maiden hair fern and at the head table a globe of the world with many small flags attached to it of different countries of our allies to continue the line of “And crown our good with brotherhood” from the club’s theme “America the Beautiful.”

Ina Blossom, president of the Woman’s Club, welcomed the members and introduced the rest of the officers for 1944-45.

Besides Belshe, other members of the board included Volena Jones, first vice president; Ethel Wheat, second vice president; Mona Nevins, recording secretary; Mary McBride, treasurer; and Blossom as trustee.

Margaret Elliott introduced the guest speaker, Mrs. Jesse Wolfe, who spoke on China and its people. Wolfe brought along several examples of Chinese arts, tapestries, handmade Mandarin arts and tiny shoes worn by women of China’s high caste system.

The club sponsored an abalone dinner April 27 at Memorial Hall and along with this dinner came a program of music and a play, “They Also Serve” especially written for the club by Ethel Wheat and performed by members of the Ebell Club of Santa Ana.

Members of the club’s literary division met April 18 at the home of Mrs. W.H. Jones on Eighth Street where Cora McGuire and Lylyan Mossinger gave a review of the third best-selling book, “So Little Time,” written by John Phillip Marquand.

Marquand may best be remembered as the author of the Mr. Moto detective series that were made into several successful motion pictures.

The members assembled inside the clubhouse May 9 for the last meeting of the club year and to close out their “America the Beautiful” theme with the last line of “From sea to shinning sea.”

Valeta Farwell arranged the table decorations and the boat collection came from Mildred Bergman.

Outgoing President Blossom introduced three new members: Martha Pickering, Ethel Wells and Lorna Tayloe.

The highlight of the meeting was the burning of the mortgage on the clubhouse by Blossom, followed by a poem written by Zaida Clegg and dedicated to Blossom and read by Elliott.

Blossom was presented with a golden gavel and a nosegay surrounded with one-dollar bills.

Wheat spoke during the meeting on “Hoarded Laughter” and Ruth Harlow and members of her high school girls’ chorus from Huntington High furnished the music part of the program.

The members hosted the Orange County Federation of Women’s Clubs on the morning of June 9 at the Methodist church on Orange Avenue at 11th Street.

The meeting opened with the singing of “Onward Christian Soldiers,” followed with a patriotic meditation and the Pledge of Allegiance led by Wheat.

The Federation’s Mrs. D. Jerry Young of Anaheim presented the club with their art award of the year.

They also awarded Huntington Beach with their radio award for having the most listeners to the Federation’s broadcast over radio station KVOE.

Wheat and the members of the Santa Ana Ebell Club’s drama group received the Federation’s drama award for the presentation of “They Also Serve.”

At 12:30 p.m. the meeting was adjourned to the Woman’s Clubhouse for lunch and to honor past presidents of the Federation.

The speaker that afternoon was Mrs. J. A. Henle of Santa Ana who spoke on the subject of “Hollywood’s Post War Educational Plan.”

The June meeting ended with the club expressing gratitude to the Federation for the generous hospitality extended to the members of the Huntington Beach Woman’s Club.

The club took off for a summer vacation during the month of July and next week we’ll continue our year look of activities and programs put on by our Woman’s Club as they continue through the war year of 1944.

JERRY PERSON is the city’s historian and a longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.