02/27/14 Sally Beals and James Briggs

03/06/14 Judy Budi and Tom Broadwell

03/13/14 John Callander and Gerry Eastabrooks

03/20/14 Deb Delaney and Erich Eggers

If you cannot greet on the day assigned, contact Kitty and she will schedule a replacement

 

 

Feb.20, 2014, Centerville Rotary at The Clubhouse at Yankee Trace

Centerville Rotary Club president Judy Budi was absent on business so president-elect Vas Appalaneni opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Sivaji Subramaniam gave the prayer and Ann Blackburn led the singing of God Bless America.

 

The guests at the meeting included Irene Ullmer, mother of member Kitty Ullmer, and Dave Botkin, a Springboro Rotarian, and Rotarian Ned Dull and his daughter Cindy. Our speaker, Deb Dockins, of the Centerville-Washington Public Library, was also a guest.

 

President-elect Vas Appalaneni announced that the District Conference will be April 4 and 5. Anyone interested in attending should contact the club president.

Member John Callander passed around a sign-up sheet for anyone wishing to volunteer to help out one day this Spring at The House of Bread...It would involve standing and working for at least three-to-four hours. The new date is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 21, he said.

 

Member John Beals said the club has two applicants selected for the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program at Camp Kern April 12-14. They are: Maria Gardner and Ross Allen Bales, both of Centerville High School. Maria plans to go into the neuroscience field and Ross plans to become a physician. Among other things, Maria was captain of club soccer, and Ross likes sail planes and was in the state competition for speech.

 

Ann Blackburn stood in for Erich Eggers, the club's Sgt.-at-arms, collecting Happy Bucks for the Eagle Scout project at The Castle.

 

Debe Dockins, Community Outreach and Development Coordinator for the Washington-Centerville Public Library, speaking on Mary Todd Lincoln.

 

 
Debe Dockins holds a B.S. in Journalism with an emphasis in Public Relations from Murray State University in Kentucky. She is currently the Community Outreach and Development Coordinator at the library and is responsible for running the Dottie Yeck Good Life Award Writing Contest, the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition, the Speakers Bureau, leading two book discussion groups, and assisting with adult programming. 
 

Note: (Bulletin resent, as Debe is the spelling used on Ms. Dockins LinkedIn listing and also Kim's spelling of the name, though I thought she signed in as Deb).

 

Dockins said Mary Todd Lincoln was one of the most vilified presidential wives. Lincoln's secretaries called her a Hellcat, but Lincoln considered her his helpmate for the most part.

She was born Dec. 13, 1818 to wealthy Kentuckians, but her mother died when she was only six years old and her stepmother Betsy "had no love for headstrong Mary," Dockins said.

Mary attended Shelby Female Academy, where she excelled in French and hoped to gain her father's affection with her knowledge. She moved to live with her sister in Springfield, Ill., at age 19, where she met Abe Lincoln. She was vivacious at 5-foot-2, while he was awkward and gangly at 6-foot-4, Dockins said.

He met her at a dance, where he reportedly told her he wished to dance with her in the worst way, and after the dance, she reportedly told him, it was in the worst way.

They married in November of 1842 and had a handful of children. After Lincoln's election, she was snubbed by society leaders though she tried to dress the part of leading lady and exceeded the budget of $20,000 by half that she had gotten from Congress, being an extravagant shopper and buying the latest fashions.

She made East Room renovations in the White House, and also helped with the Contraband Relief Organization to help the freed blacks.

She suffered from migraine headaches, and some have suggested she might have been bi-polar, as she could change from a sunny to rainy disposition as quickly as Dayton weather. She never got over her son Willy's death and many judge her from those days of great sadness. She was committed to Bellvue Sanitarium,  in Batavia, Ill., after Lincoln's death, but petitioned for her own release.

Lincoln died without a will, when he was shot at Ford's Theater. Mary tried to raise money by selling some of her clothes, but that became scandalous gossip of the day. Her old friend Elizabeth Keckly helped her in her later years. She moved to Chicago after Lincoln's death, though they were both burried in Oakridge Cemetery in Springfield, Ill. Mary was 62 when she died.

There are no living relatives of the Lincolns, Dockins said.

 

 

Did you know you don't even have to be on Facebook to see what's posted on the Centerville Rotary Facebook page? You can get to it easily by clicking on the FB link on the home page of the club's website.

 

Each week in the eBulletin, we'll make it even easier for you to connect through social media, by including links to our Facebook, website, and LinkedIn.