Businesswomen keep cherishing friendships, fundraisers

Catholic Business Women’s Club marks 80 years of service in central Arkansas

Published: June 27, 2016

By Aprille Hanson
Associate Editor

Aprille Hanson

Rose Anne Smith (left), president of Catholic Business Women’s Club, invites those that have been in the club 25 years or more to receive a boutonniere during the club’s 80th anniversary celebration June 13. Pictured are Mary Ann Rose (center), Betty Jo Lock and Leslie Shaw (right).

Aprille Hanson

As members of the Catholic Business Women’s Club trickled into the St. Vincent de Paul room at CHI St. Vincent hospital June 13 where they meet each month, there were greetings, hugs and laughter in this sisterhood that’s lasted 80 years under the banner of Catholic education for young women.

Since 1992, the club has donated almost $75,000 to Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock.

In 1936, Bishop John B. Morris highly encouraged parents to send their children to Catholic schools to make sure they stayed committed to their faith. That became the jumping-off point for the club, which has donated to Mount St. Mary since its inception.

“As I remember it, there was this little nucleus of women who were business women and professional women who saw the great need for Catholic girls to go to a Catholic high school for an education,” said Evalyn Oswald Wren, 93, the longest-serving member who joined in 1943.

Celebrating women

The organization started with 15 members and grew to average about 60 a year, Wren said. Today, the organization has 25 active members, 10 honorary members and gives at least $1,500 or more a year to MSM. They also host fundraisers for Helping Hand of Greater Little Rock and Birthright of Little Rock. Dues are $70, which provide the meals for the meetings, which will occasionally host a guest speaker, said President Rose Anne Smith.

“I like that I belong to something that’s Catholic-oriented,” she said. “We all have that bond because we’re Catholic women.”

At the 80th anniversary celebration, members brought monetary donations or baby supplies to benefit Birthright, which aids pregnant mothers in need. The night also honored Deacon Larry Jegley, who was stepping down after serving as the group’s spiritual moderator for 18 years. Deacon Ron Stager will be the new moderator.

The key to the club’s longevity has been camaraderie. Of the 25 members, 18 were recognized at the meeting and those present were given a corsage for being involved 25 years or more.

Looking back

Wren was a secretary and bookkeeper for the women’s division at a USO operated by National Catholic Community Service when she joined the group, but had known about it as a 1940 graduate of MSM.

“The Depression was still with us. There were a lot of families who couldn’t afford $6 a month,” which was tuition for non-boarding students at MSM when Wren attended.

Revolutionary for its time, Catholic Business Women saw the “black era in our history,” Wren said, in which some women did not realize their full potential outside of the home.

“I developed a love for seeing that women could be educated and not like some foreign countries where women aren’t recognized even as humans,” Wren said, adding that getting a good education allowed “women to rise up and be able to care for a family if they had to.”

Betty Jo Lock, a parishioner of Our Lady of Good Counsel, has been a member “at least before 1966,” when she served as president. She oversaw several fundraisers, including Christmas parties at the now former St. Joseph Orphanage.

Continuing the legacy

Wren said because of dwindling membership there were discussions to shut the group down, but no one wanted to abandon their friends or the club’s cause.

“The women serving now are the champions, not us oldies,” Wren said.

Smith said the club needs younger working women.

“Times are changing and we need to change with the times, but we’re old and we don’t know what the changes are,” she laughed, adding the time commitment is minimal. “We need different enthusiasm coming in and fuel the fire to what our goal is, which is Mount St. Mary’s.”

Annette Rogers-Gary, a 1978 graduate of the Mount and current project coordinator at the Clinton School of Public Service, said she hopes that other alumni from MSM will carry the club into the future.

“I would hope a younger crowd would come in and realize how important it is for other young ladies to get an education like they did,” she said.

Those interested in joining can contact Smith at .