Louise Kearns, State Extension Homemaker President, 1975

Photo: Mrs. Carl (Louise)

“Meet Your 1975 President” from the Spring 1975 issue of Tar Heel Homemakers

Mrs. Carl (Louise) Kearns, a resident of the Farmer community for the past 20 years, since her marriage to Carl Kearns, got started in the local Homemakers Extension Club “because someone invited me.”

As a newly wed, recently moved to the community from Asheboro where she had served as secretary for Mr. Croom at what is now Scott’s Book Store, she had much to learn.

“I had to learn to cook and everything out here in the country,” she says. “I didn’t know anyone and the club was a way to meet people and learn something. It was partly social and partly informative,” she recalls.

“Over the years I’ve done all of our canning and, recently, freezing. We have a big garden. And I make all my own clothes and some of Carl’s,” she says.

For 18 ½ of the last 20 years, Louise has lived in the old home of her husband’s family. The only water coming into the house was at the kitchen sink and she and her husband heated water to bathe in a metal tub. And she cooked on a wood-burning stove, to boot.

But a year and a half ago, she and her husband moved into the new new “dream house” that they had built right next door to the old house. She finds that she can really appreciate closet space and the oter conveniences of a modern home.

Louise has many special interests. Arts and crafts head the list and new information she gains, she shares with others in workshops and with non-club members.

She has worked with the entire county membership to plan and carry out Christmas in Randolph, an event that occurs every two years where several thousand persons enjoy old and new ideas for their Christmas pleasure. She has helped plan and set up exhibits at local fairs as a special way to further educate and inform the public of Extension helps available. She has served as Home Economics Committee Chairman of the Day Care Program of the Northern Piedmont Area Development Association. She is a member of the Denton Chapter 216 of the Eastern Star, and serves on the Girls Haven Board of Directors.

When asked how she became state president, Louse says, “You have to walk up. First you have to be a club president, then county council president, then district president. After all of this, you’re eligible to become the state second vice president—to continue on to first V-P, and then president. I never really thought that I’d be the state president. But I was urged to fill out the application, so I did—and here I am.”