Mrs. Matzke, Miss Olson, and Miss Nelson present yellow carnations to initiates Luverne Sorenson, Deborah Hanson, Eloise Espe, and Clara Kelly at an initiation meeting for new BPWC members, 1966.
Pictured are (left to right): Bernice Ranz (Crookston BPWC president); Marie Bishop (chair of Minnesota District #1); are Dorothy Chadwick (Minnesota state recording secretary), October 14, 1963.
Ten past BPWC presidents pose for a group photograph, 1961. From left to right: Gudvieg Norseth, Clara Berg, Belva Saugstad, Helen Espe, Clara Caouette, Frances Engebretson, Mae Rideout, Ruth Christenson, Ida Twedten, and Betty Ohman.
BPWC’s original charter members at the club’s fortieth anniversary celebration, 1961. Pictured (left to right) are Anna Brustad, Pauline Lohn, Mae Rideout, Ida Twedten, Sue Monroe, and Dr. Blanche Sharp.
Crookston’s Business and Professional Women’s club (BPWC), started in 1921, was more politically active in the 1960s and 1970s than in its early years. BPWC members made sure to cast their votes for causes important to women, including equal pay for equal work and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).