n2021-4_b020_f01_x02_08

FFWC History....continued

When she passed away in June, 1960, she bequeathed $1,000 to the Endowment
Fund of the FFWC.

The second wartime President was Mrs. Ralph Austin Smith, Woman's Club of
Sanford, 1942-1944. By this time the FFWC was a highly organized group with
eight departments and 29 divisions , and clubwomen designed their programs to
fit war needs. Clubs were organized for wives of servicemen, active cam-
paigns were conducted to enlist women in Women's Army Corps, Waves, Spars
and Marines. Mrs. Smith serbved on a number of state wartime boards, among
them the committee to sponsor erection of the memorial at Madison, Florida
to Captain Colin Kelly who lost his life the day war was declared on Japan.
She presented a war stamp book, already started with a stamp, to each club to
stimulate purchase of war stamps and bonds. Through her efforts a young
woman accepted the Nursing Scholarship voted by the FFWC early in her ad-
ministration.

This was a time of trial for clubs when gasoline rationing made travel to
meetings difficult. Nevertheless, all Districts held meetins and the Fed-
eration grew to 162 Senior clubs and 48 Junior clubs and 22 County Feder-
ations. Many clubs took the lead in organizing their communities for war
work, and the common problems of women in other countries aroused a deep
interest in international relations. There were now 1,085 Juniors actively
participating in Federation work.

Women were deeply involved in war work and the pinch of rationing in food,
clothing and gasoline made their problems greater in 1944-1946 when Mrs.
Joseph L. Gray, Woman's Club of Lakeland, served as Federation President.
Hardships seemed to spur the organization members to new efforts to meet the
challenges. Mrs. Gray traveled 40,000 miles by bus, train, automobile and
plane to meet with state district and club groups. Following her objective
to draw the Juniors into closer cooperation, they were invited to join the
President's Conference and later held one of their own.

The Federation now totaled 25,899 of which 1,764 were Juniors, a gain of
almost 4,000 members. The war had drawn the women into closer cooperation
than ever before, and their unity of service was to earmark their future
activities. Clubwomen had sold over four million dollars' worth of bonds
in the Sixth War Loan, and more than five million dollars in Victory Bond
Sales. The Juniors of the state had purchased an iron lung for use in
Florida.

The need for a State Headquarters was evident, and a business office was set
up in the Seminole Hotel in Jacksonville. Mrs. Gran, as state Chairman of
Youth Conservation for GFWC, set up an All-State Sponsoring Committee of
non-Federation peoples, both men and women, and also a State Clearing House
Committee made up of state Presidents of each main youth serving organization.
Although the state did not adopt the GFWC Youth Conservation program, indi-
vidual clubs were activated into greater community service.

The transfer from wartime activities to peacetime efforts occupied the clubs
during 1946-1948 when Mrs. L. J. McCaffery, North Miami Woman's Club, was
President. International Relations Department work became paramount with
forums and discussions on world affairs and the administration concluded with