Day 87 of 110: Farewell Address - Constitution Day to the End...or is it?

I've spent the past couple of blogs sharing with you the Farewell Address given by our former chapter member Mrs. W. O. Spencer at the 1922 State Conference. The first of these blogs shared Mrs. Spencer's observations when invited to attend the Disarmament Conference in Washington, D.C. which was actually being held at DAR's Memorial Continental Hall. The second captured her activities following the January Disarmament Conference until Flag Day in June of the same year. Now we continue to reminisce on the year with Mrs. Spencer, picking up in September 1922.

On Constitution Day, September 17th, your Regent and the Winston-Salem Chapter were the guests of the Civitan Club, in a happy celebration of that occasion.

On October 15th, found me again in Washington for the meetings of the State Regents and the National Board. Much business of interest was transacted, some of which will be presented later. Probably the episode of greatest interest to you being the fact that it was my pleasure to present to your Board on that day, your check for $1,500.00 in full payment of a room in the new building - a room which shall ever be your very own. Mrs. Guernsey, the chairman of the Building Committee, stated to the Board that North Carolina was the first state to pay in full, her quota. Remember this - add today, another first to the long history of North Carolina is justly proud.

The purchase of the room for North Carolina, was presented to the state at the District meetings and met with instant and enthusiastic approval, without so far a I have heard, a dissenting voice. It was my desire that every individual Daughter in our loved state might have a definite part in the acquisition of this room, this peculiar inglenook in our beautiful D.A.R. home, that we could call our own; that we might everlastingly feel we have a part in the building and keeping of this house, sacred not only to the memory of the men who have made possible for us the America of today, but also to those practical women, who conceived the idea of building a memorial from which shall emanate the very best ideals and thought of all the centuries to come. The room today is yours, Daughters of North Carolina - in the years to come may you each enjoy it, may it bind you ever closer to the great national thought in our organization as the years go by, and incidentally, I would crave of you, who know how I have dreamed of this for you, that in the years to come, that you will let the memory of one who put forth her utmost effort to bring to fruition her ideals for you, hover over this, her last and greatest work for you. I wish to thank you for your response to my plea for this room, for making it possible for this one more of my dreams for you to come true!

On October 24th the heavy routine of work was broke by a response to an invitation to spend a delightful day in Durham. The "Perfect Day" was divided between Durham and Chapel Hill, and your Regent spoke twice to appreciative audiences upon our state and national work.

I have enumerated the joyous occasions for you, and I am equally as happy to report the routine work. The past year - as you can readily imagine - brought many duties. Every year bringing its own peculiar kind, the busy days have hardly been long to accomplish all that I was most happy to crowd within them.

During the year I have affixed my signature to more than 12,000 letters, more than three thousand being personal letters, written to every state in the Union and several foreign countries; and I have traveled more than 4,000 miles in the interest of the work of our organization.

The $300.00 furnished me for Regent's expenses, you will readily see, could only cover a portion of my actual expenses, but it has ever given me an independent feeling of security while I was about your business.

The District meetings, as the reports will show, have been an unmitigated success - the one at Kings Mountain on June 16th being the last I was able to attend. The wonderful day there will long linger in my memory. Your state officers have been faithful an most efficient, as their reports show. Your splendid Treasurer has for you again a clean sheet for the year. Your Registrar has perfected for her state the splendid new registration of members; no more far-reaching, nor wiser thing has ever been accomplished in our state. Your Historian has left no stone unturned to accomplish her full duty, and I am most happy to report this, for it became my duty to appoint to office your present splendid Historian, upon the resignation of your duly elected member, last fall.

Your Secretaries, Librarian and Chaplain have answered, and answered well, ever call; so today, I feel that I can present to you, a nosegay of rare sweet service, that will, without doubt, make your heart glad.

I wish indeed to congratulate you upon the splendid attendance at the Congress in Washington in April. Our state meeting was held in the Kentucky room; next spring I hope to greet you for the first - and last time, as your Regent - in our own North Carolina room. There were nearly fifty North Carolina women present at his meeting and I was indeed proud of both the number and the personnel of the body.

I desire greatly that you shall know how much the co-operation and loyalty of your splendid Vice-President General has meant to me, for her fine spirit of strength and faithfulness both to the organization and o North Carolina, has been most helpful.

As I near the end of the year's report, I feel I cannot close until I pay a tribute to that women of North Carolina who stands today, first in triumph, first in sacrifice, and always first, in the heart of every Daughter of the American Revolution of North Carolina - that splendid soul who, with victory in sight, was called upon to make the supreme sacrifice - such a sacrifice, the like of which no American woman has ever been called upon to make - that woman whom North Carolina in love and admiration had presented to the National organization for the greatest honor which it could confer, and who was compelled to lay it all aside, that she might regain her accustomed health; and who with the same sweet spirit of faithfulness to duty, that she manifested when called upon to accept the honor, has put aside her own ambition and bowed to the inevitable, broken hearted only, that she had to disappoint her friends - North Carolina's own Mrs. William N. Reynolds! In the name of the D.A.R. of North Carolina, Mrs. Reynolds, I pray God's tenderest blessings rest upon you today, and each day of your life. it is said that upon the heart of some King of old was engraved in death the one word "Calais." Today, we only ask through the long years of your life, you carry engraved upon your heart the love and devotion of every D.A.R. of North Carolina.

Mrs. Spencer's Farewell Address continues to link to the present. The observance of Constitution Day remains as an important event every year for DAR Chapters. Our own chapter recently won the Gertrude Carraway Silver Bowl for our 2013 Constitution Day and Constitution Week activities. As a matter of fact, we displayed it for our Daughters when we last meet at the Manor House at Tanglewood. Mrs. Spencer also speaks eloquently about the North Carolina Room which is a source of pride for our N.C. Daughters today. I've enjoyed being a hostess in the room for the past couple of summers during the Open House at Continental Congress, and telling Daughters from other states about our beautiful room. It's especially special knowing that another Daughter of our chapter and a past Historian General for the NSDAR (the late Rolfe Teague) was very passionate about the North Carolina Room and sought to ensure that it was a beautiful and authentic room representing an 1820s dining room. Finally, Mrs. Spencer pays tribute to fellow General Joseph Winston Daughter and a founding chapter member, Mrs. Kate Bitting Reynolds, pictured above wearing her sash as the State Regent. Later records indicate that she was in-fact later successfully elected to the office of Vice President General. Her reasons for withdrawing in 1922 appear to be evident to all according to the conference notes and minutes; there is no explicit explanation given.

And - believe it or not - Mrs. Spencer wasn't quite done with her Farewell Address. There's more yet to come!