F-58
F-58
OUR COLORFUL FOUNDERS
(Color Associations)
Each January, P.E.O.'s everywhere traditionally pause to pay tribute to the
memory of the seven founders of our sisterhood. On this anniversary of
P.E.O., we again marvel that seven girls so young and inexperienced could have given us
something so enduring and worthwhile. They have enriched our lives in many ways, but
tonight we wish to salute them for the color and light they have brought to our lives.
Light, life, and color are essentially one and express the energy and unity of
creation. Color is to life as a ray of light is to sunshine. It was in 1670 that Sir Isaac
Newton proved that color evolves from light when he allowed a ray of sunlight to enter
and pass through a glass prism, producing the band of rainbow colors which is called the
solar spectrum.
He designed a color chart for which he chose seven colors: red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, violet, and purple correlating the number of the colors with the seven tones
of the diatonic scale. Seven has been a mystic number, and we can add the seven
theological pillars of Christianity: Love and Hope as the two main supports; Faith as the
central beam connecting them to the four corner posts of Prudence, Justice, Temperance,
and Fortitude. We have then the choice of the founders in their guiding principles
innately evidenced in our Objects and Aims.
We have chosen to use the seven colors of the solar spectrum diffused with the
white of all color to express the personalities of our seven founders.
(Use a seven-branch candelabra with the candles in each of the seven colors to be
lighted as each founder is named.)
ALICE BIRD BABB
Red for Alice! Red for power and fire. She was cheerful and bright, exciting and
stimulating with vitality and action.
Alice had real community fervor. She was key speaker on Decoration Day and
the Fourth of July. Her outstanding presentation of the Gettysburg Address and Preamble
to the Constitution, her inspiring talks at conventions and meetings, made her in great
demand. She also trained young orators and speakers.
Alice was a writer on many subjects and a great reader. It was said that she read a
new book before the ink was dry. She prepared our sisterhood's first constitution. She
was elected president that first day, and held office for three years.
She said later "for such giddy girls they showed wonderful maturity in the P.E.O.
conception." When P.E.O. became a real force in the country, she said, "In the order of
the universe the time was ripe for such an organization."
SUELA PEARSON PENFIELD
For gay, warm, and sunny Suela we choose Orange. She was the youngest,
prettiest, and sunniest of the seven. She had the finest clothes, the most beaus, and the
most of this world's goods. With all her advantages, she did not recognize class or
circumstance, but admired and exemplified true character.
Suela was a famous hostess and a lady with intuitive nobility. She gave
generously of her talents in music and dramatics. Her marriage took her to Ohio and
afterwards she was rarely seen by her sisters of the original group.
HATTIE BRIGGS BOUSQUET
We've chosen Yellow for Hattie. She was happy and smiling with a sunshiny quality.
Hattie suggested the society to her friend. She was a sweet and understanding
woman but lived less than a decade after graduation. Her life was full and happy with her
husband and two small sons.
The founders spoke affectionately of Hattie's sunny disposition and radiant spirit.
ALICE VIRGINIA COFFIN
For Alice we selected Green … for Spring, hope, rejuvenating joy, happy
tranquility, and music.
Alice was a devoted teacher and counselor. She loved beauty and rhythm. She
could be the "jolliest of the jolly." She loved the poetry of motion, and (quote) "her
Methodist foot was in grave danger under the spell of rhythmic motion and general
merriment." Because she enjoyed dancing, she left the Methodist Church to affiliate with
the Episcopalians where she was an active participant in church activities.
It was Alice who suggested the star as our emblem.
MARY ALLEN STAFFORD
Mary Allen's Blue symbolizes Heaven, constancy, truth, peace, spirituality, and
tranquility. Mary was the first to wear the star in public. She married a minister who
later became the president of Iowa Wesleyan, the birthplace of P.E.O. As the first lady
on campus, Mary was in her element serving as a leader of girls. She remained in Iowa
and served P.E.O. until the end of a long life. She was with us longer than any other
Founder.
Mary had a deep religious convection and great strength of character. It was she
who said, "P.E.O. is love in action."
ELLA STEWART
Although Ella Stewart chose the colors for the new society, we have chosen for
her own color the lovely Violet which symbolizes love, dignity, patience, and sacrifice.
Ella did not marry, but she lived with her windowed mother, cheerfully caring for
her until her death. The State Industrial School for Boys in the mid '70's and '80's was
not a pretty place, but Ella taught there for years, reclaiming many boys for worthwhile
citizenship. Such schools were the forerunners of our present juvenile court system.
Ella's philosophy was the unselfish one of service to others. She was a truly lovely, great,
and dedicated woman.
FRANC ROADS ELLIOT
For Franc we chose the Purple of the Law. Franc had the mind of a statesman and
was progressive to the end of a long and useful life. She worked intimately with such
great workers for women's rights as Julia Ward Howe, Susan B. Anthony, and Frances E.
Willard. She was a close friend of John Greenleaf Whittier.
Franc had a keen sense of justice and a vision of a better womanhood. Her
advanced ideas in women's forward movements helped many causes, and through her
work women were admitted to General Conference of the Methodist Church.
Franc was lovely, smart and talented, calm, courageous, and self-controlled. She
did beautiful artwork and was art supervisor for the Aurora, Illinois Public Schools. At
67 she attended several courses at the University of California in Berkeley.
As the rainbow of candles symbolizes the varied and colorful personality of our
founders, so does the glow of the candles represent the light they have brought to us.
How appropriate that they chose the star for our emblem, for it radiates light to all our
lives. It takes many, many candles to light a star.
Candles are a very special magic, for they put stars in the eyes of young lovers
and wishes on the lips of little children. They soften the lines of life-hardened faces and
warm tired old hearts with nostalgic dreams.
Candles are like people because both are loveliest when giving of themselves.
Candles can light rooms, which have lost the power of electricity and hearts, which have
lost the power of love. It is good to light candles of wax to brighten a room, but it is
better to light candles of love to brighten a world.
The P.E.O. star has lighted many candles. It has built a candle of learning at
Nevada, Missouri, which grows taller as it burns. Our star has reached across oceans to
light International Peace Scholarship candles, which bring the light of American
friendship to foreign shores. Through the Educational Fund, our star has caused many
candles to burn, which might otherwise have missed the chance to give their light. Our
homes for senior P.E.O.'s are candles, which burn with a soft, warm glow that says we care.
A candle can be many different things, but most of all, a candle is a light. There
are five candles, which light the heart with a special glow. These are the candles of faith,
love, purity, justice, and truth.
FAITH is the candle of the soul. It is the candle, which lights our way on the path of life
and keeps us from stumbling on rocks of temptation. It is the light in the window, which
beckons us on when we are tired and lonely and discouraged. Faith is the glimmer of light,
which peeks through the crack in the black door that slams when a loved one dies. Though
winds of doubt may sometimes cause the candle of faith to flicker, it is the one candle that
can never be completely extinguished because it is the light of God, glowing within us.
LOVE is the warmest candle. It is the candle, which lights other candles, and receives
light from them in return. The light from love's candle is bright enough to show, the
beauty, and dim enough to hide the faults of those it shines upon. Love is the most
delicate candle of all. It requires constant attention because it can be burned out by
neglect, or broken by bitter words, or melted away by the heat of resentment, or blown
out by thoughtlessness, or smothered by being clutched too tightly. Love is a magic
candle. If you try to hold it too close and keep it all to yourself, you find that it has
slipped through your fingers and disappeared. The only way you can keep it is by giving
it away, and then it comes back to you, shinning brighter than before.
PURITY is a clean, white candle. It is a scented candle, which freshens the air we
breathe and cleanses our thoughts and words, translating them into right action. The
candle of purity has a smoothing light, which lets one sleep, untormented by feelings of
guilt and regret. Carrying the candle of purity allows a woman to walk tall with her head
held high and to look other people straight in the eye.
JUSTICE is a straight, tall candle with a steady light that shines equally to the left and to
the right and before and behind. It is a candle made of very hard wax that can never be
bent or twisted by prejudice or ill will or jealousy. Once in a while, the candle of justice
has to burn fingers, but only when the hands that touch it are unclean. Most of the time,
the candle of justice is busy bringing light into the dark room of misunderstanding. This
candle shines that the other four candles may glow, free from the threat of being
extinguished.
The candle of TRUTH is much more than merely a light, which refuses to tell lies. The
candle of truth is the light, which burns within man, keeping him eternally in search of
answers to the unanswerable. The candle of truth is always just out of reach and can
never be fully perceived in this lifetime. Many people accept this fact as a verdict and
stop searching, but the candle of truth can be followed, and its beauty lies in the pursuit.
It is the candle, which is constantly casting new patterns of light and shadow on old ideas
and dogmas. It is the candle of discovery, and great adventures of learning await those
who refuse to turn away from its searching light. Though we may sometimes lose sight
of this candle, it continues to burn, changeless and eternal.
Faith, love, purity, justice, and truth. These are the best candles; these burn the
brightest. All other virtues proceed from these.
Together they can make a guiding light, a star that burns forever bright.
It all started so simply…….a sisterhood to perpetuate friendship. Many changes
have taken place in our sisterhood since its founding, but the fundamental ideal and
spiritual values, which have made P.E.O. what it is today, remain the same. Each
member bears the responsibility of upholding these standards today as will those who
will follow in all the tomorrows…….Each of us is different, as was each of our seven
founders, but so are there many shades of color. When we use our own individual talents
to the best of our ability, we are blending our own special color into the rainbow and
adding one more glowing candle to light our star.
7