'Sure and steady' for 75 years: Republican women an integral part of local GOP effort

The year 1938 was a monumental time for Republican Women in the Flathead Valley as well as on the national political stage.

That year saw the founding of the National Federation of Republican Women as well as the Montana Federation and Flathead County Republican women. All those groups are marking their 75 anniversary.

History books show, though, that women have been involved in the Republican Party since it was formed in 1854. Republicans pioneered the right of women to vote and according to the National Federation, the Grand Old Party was the first major party to advocate equal rights for women and the principle of equal pay for equal work.

Republican women’s clubs started around the country decades before women won the right to vote. In Montana, the GOP was at a low point in 1936 and party leaders saw the need for a new approach to revitalize the group.

“Montana turned to Republican women at the precinct level,” said Caroline Solomon, current president of Flathead Republican Women. “We came to save the day, basically.”

There was a concerted effort statewide to start women’s clubs.

Today the Montana Federation is divided into eight regions and has 20 clubs.

Sylvia Murphy of Kalispell, at 97, is the oldest member of Flathead Republican Women. She has been involved with the organization since 1949.

“I was born and raised in a Republican family,” Murphy said.

When her husband, James, returned from military service after World War II, they moved to Kalispell — Sylvia’s hometown — and he started a law firm here.

She had an elderly friend, Nell MacDonald, who asked her to come along to a Republican Women’s meeting. At that time meetings were held in a tiny room in the basement of the Kalispell Hotel. Meetings later moved to the Himsl-Wohlwend car dealership.

“All of the members were very elderly,” Murphy recalled. “They were thrilled to see a 30-year-old woman.”

MacDonald was elected club president the year Murphy joined and they nabbed Murphy as vice president. As fate would have it, the MacDonalds soon moved away, leaving Murphy to oversee the club.

Annual dues were 25 cents a year in that era and there wasn’t much fundraising, Murphy said. Many members were activists with the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.

The women campaigned for the GOP and encouraged an informed electorate.

“I always felt we were the lifeblood of the Republican Party,” Murphy said.

Jane Lopp brought more “young blood” to the Republican Women when she became involved in the late 1960s. By that time fundraising was running full steam ahead and events such as the annual home tours and bridge marathons brought in money for the club to further its mission and help support Republican candidates.

“Over the years Republican women were sure and steady, always there,” Lopp said. “We were more diverse than the Central Committee, and we’ve been very stable and steady through the years.”

It’s important not to become embroiled in the minutiae of politics or lose focus on the club’s objectives, Solomon stressed. Those objectives center on fostering loyalty to the Republican Party and supporting candidates once the primary elections have sealed the slate of nominees.

Today the Flathead Republican Women have 149 members. There are associate members, too, and men can join as associate members.

Solomon likes to remind her husband, Harry (one of about a dozen men involved with the women’s club), that “it takes a real man to be a Republican woman.”

Fundraising is still an important part of club life.

The annual Chocolate Extravaganza gave the organization some very good exposure when it launched in 1984. It remains the club’s biggest fundraiser; its proceeds help the group contribute to a variety of scholarships and local charities.

Lois Himsl, an active Republican woman for decades until her death in 2010 at age 94, is credited with bringing the Chocolate Extravaganza to life. Her daughter in Portland told her about a similar successful fundraiser, so Himsl teamed up with fellow Republican woman Rosalie Heinecke to start the event that showcases all kinds of chocolate to a sell-out crowd of 500 each December.

“I’ll never forget the first extravaganza,” Lopp said. “I walked into the ballroom at the Outlaw Inn and it almost took my breath away.”

Himsl and Heinecke created a large-as-life sculpted angel that became the centerpiece of the event for years to come, and decorations were over the top.

The goals of today’s Republican Women are no different than those of the women who met in Chicago in 1938 to form the National Federation, namely to encourage women’s participating in governing America, to elect Republicans to office at all levels and to promote public awareness of the issues shaping the nation.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.