Montgomery, Alabama • Sat, Oct 11, 1919 Page 1
In 1918 and 1919 thirty-seven young women, friends and neighbors of my grandmother Fannie Mae Turner were members of the Edelweiss Club in Montgomery, Alabama. These are snapshots from their lives, place and times. Click on any image to enlarge.
Besides working as a notary public and then as secretary/bookkeeper for the family Loveless Undertaking Business, Bertha Loveless also kept up a busy social schedule, both entertaining and singing at programs and weddings and with the Harmony Quartette. I wish I had a recording of them singing, but I did find a copy of an old 78 record with Geraldine Farrar singing one of the songs.
They were very active during 1918 and 1919 and after that, I can find no mention of them in the newspapers. At any rate they were once very popular and here are a few more clippings from that time. Perhaps it’s like what happened in the early 1970 when the radical groups faded away as people burned out, or started families and went in other directions.
Bertha’s father was one of the founders of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and a deacon before his death. Rev Martin Luther King JR. was pastor at Dexter Avenue in the 1950s. I noticed a few names that I recognized in the program above. Lowndes Adams was a good friend of my grandfather. Janie Adams was his sister. Lucile Caffey and Lorine Farris were Edelweiss members.
That musical piece is very challenging — quite a vocal range required. Bertha Loveless’s active social schedule illustrates the type of creative activity that was possible before television and other media were so widely available. Makes me want to unplug and see where that leads creatively. Quite an inspiring post!
They all seemed to keep busy. I wish the recording was better, but I was happy to find one of the songs recorded.
Don’t give up. Perhaps a recording will appear one day in the future.
So true. I’ll check again in the future.
These ladies were quite busy for their time!
Ronel visiting for H: My Languishing TBR: H
Minotaur
Maybe it seems that way because they were single and working outside the home in jobs that weren’t menial. My other grandmother was quite busy, although she didn’t work outside the home and married in her late 20s also.
What fun to be able to hear the song, even if by a different singer. I think it’s funny that they were a “quartette,” I assume because they were young ladies.
That couldn’t have been it because there were two women and two men. Plus a woman as musical director and accompanist.
Life has a way to dismember all kind of groups. It’s sad, but true.
Yes. I’ve seen church congregations dismembered by disagreements. Friends and family be separated by even a move across town.