Rosalynde, the New York Relief Society at the time I’m studying the LDS colony there (1900-1916) was a little unusual in that they didn’t do the typical RS activities. Well, they did do compassionate service, but they didn’t do the usual lessons and fund raising and social activities. They were more a “missionary support” society. They mothered the missionaries, and were shills for street meetings and provided a warm and well-fed setting for cottage meetings for the missionaries to introduce their investigators to members. They met only once a month for most of this period.

By the time you get to the 20s and 30s, RS everywhere tended to be the same — on a smaller scale — as it was anywhere in Utah. Even in a mission field like Tahiti you had the mission president’s wife stamping pillow cases and teaching native sisters how to embroider, because that’s the model of RS the women had: work meetings, and arts appreciation, and health, and spiritual lessons, and genealogy. I think the Magazine played a role in correlating church-wide RS before there was such a thing as big-C Correlation.

I love looking at the old RS magazines, and my favorite parts are the lengthy descriptions (sometimes with pictures) of what those extra-UT RSs did: bazaars, quilts, meals, work groups, etc., etc. If you can get your hands on any of them, RW, they are fun stuff.

I know that in England, at least, actresses retained a flavor of the illicit and faintly unsavory well through the 19th century—any hint that the same was true in America, Ardis? That is, would her conversion have signalled a dramatic change in lifestyle, like Paul’s?

Also, what did pre-Correlation but extra-Utah Relief Societies look like and do?

Laura, Ardis can correct me, but it sounded like she retired from the theater before the missionaries found her.

Kevin, this calling had never occurred to me before the bishop called me into his office. From his sparse description, thought that this was one of those invented “let’s give everybody a job� callings. Doesn’t matter in the end; it was inspired because it was exactly what I needed. I take it seriously and put as much effort into it as I do into any professional work.

(Getting error messages here, too – more apologies if this appears more than once.)

Kevin, I didn’t know about this assignment until the bishop called me in. From his sketchy description, I got the idea that not only had it come from my RS president, but also that it might have been one of those invented “let’s give everybody a job” callings. Even if it was, it turns out to have been inspired; at least it’s exactly what I needed. I’ve taken it seriously and put as much effort into it as anything I do professionally. Once I got going, I discovered how hungry I was for connections to women. The current lesson materials for RS and SS are good and valuable, but women never appear unless as the wife of the man who is the real subject of discussion.

Personally, I was dissappointed that she did not manage to balance her theatrical career with being LDS. I work in theatre and often struggle to reconcile the two, and while many things have changed since the late 1800′s it would have been nice to another story of someone who lived both lives.