Friday, March 25, 2022

Elizabeth Bain, "The Lady with the Smile" To Address Rotary Club, March 25, 1922

Miss Bain Unusual Speaker

Miss Elizabeth Bain, who will give talks in Hickory in April under the auspices of the Rotary club is said to be the first woman who has ever been asked to address Rotary clubs on social hygiene. The rotary clubs of Charlotte and Hickory are among the first organizations in the south to hear her. Miss Bain has been in Texas lately helping the government’s work with soldiers and the nickname given her by our soldiers in France has been revived in Texas. Soldiers call her “The Lady with the Smile” and in the letter file of the American Social Hygiene Association, to whose lecture staff Miss Bain belongs, there is a letter from an ex-soldier, which explains why the soldiers gave her the title. In writing to ask for a booklet, Miss Bain had advised him to get and read, the ex-soldier says:

“Miss Bain didn’t scowl at us nor iower(glower?) at us, nor chunner at us, nor look at us like we were worms. She talked to us friendly and smiled. I reckon she’s got more friends in the army than anybody else and it’s all because of the way she has. She’s got a regular honest to goodness home folks smile.”

From the Hickory Daily Record, March 25, 1922. To chunner someone is to talk tiresomely or at length; to chatter on. I wish I could have found a photo of Miss Bain smiling.

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