The lady in the photo is Frances E. Willard. Today is Frances E. Willard Day. Any questions?
I’m sure a big question you may have is just who is Frances E. Willard and why does she have her own day? From what quick research I was able to find on the Internet, Willard was most associated with the temperance movement. Also from what I gather, Frances E. Willard Day is supposed to be about personal temperance. It’s certainly something to which I will toast.
Willard was an early president of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which was in the forefront of the movement to rid the U.S. of those liquid evil spirits. It took awhile, but the efforts of people like Willard and the old hatchet-wielding, bar-wrecking bat Carrie Nation, eventually prevailed upon ratification of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919 which ushered in prohibition. The 21st Amendment was passed 14 years later, repealing prohibition, after Americans tired of drinking hair tonic and kerosene in their cocktails.
Prohibition was a noble experiment — in crime, corruption and being generally overzealous. So I shall hoist a glass later this evening to thee, old Frances E. Willard, you were one of the people who made Americans realize just how much they like to drink their alkie-hol.