Public Awareness
OPDV Bulletin:
Heléne’s Story: 100 Years in America
William M. Schaefer, Jr. is the Coordinator of the Probation Policy and Training Project at the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. He and Charlotte Watson, Executive Director, recently spent some time with Bill’s great-aunt, Heléne Hollis Schaefer.
On a bright and crisp November afternoon, Heléne Hollis Schaefer reflected:
“I have lived a very active life. I’ve never been idle.”
This is certainly an understatement from a woman whose experiences have bridged three centuries. “The power of the individual to make a difference” is a theme that easily describes Heléne’s life so far. On August 17, 1999, she celebrated her 100th birthday by throwing herself a party with 400 friends and family members. This mother of four, grandmother of fifteen, and great-grandmother of fourteen, continues to experience “firsts.” Two days before our visit, Heléne was introduced to Japanese cuisine for the first time in her life by way of a five-course dinner while out with friends.
In 1911, shortly after her mother was killed in a car accident, Heléne moved into a New York City apartment on 93rd Street to live with Winifred Hollis Judge, her suffragist aunt. She recalled:
“I got into the suffrage thing.”
Although Heléne was only 12 years old, her aunt took her to all the local branch meetings to hear women speak to groups of other women. They were held in several locations throughout the city, including her home and the Waldorf. She remembers marching almost thirty blocks down Central Park West with her dog, Lady Fiji, in the 1912 Votes For Women Parade.
“Even though I was only a child, I did everything that I had to do to push it...women were anxious to have the privilege of voting...they were really working towards it because they wanted women to understand that they had to do something if they wanted [the vote].”
Heléne recalled that around that same time, her local women’s suffrage group rented a store in the West 30's and established a daycare program for the children of working women. She says this was done to encourage women to become active in business:
“It was very interesting. You realize, we were supposed to be nothing but housewives...but there is nothing a woman can’t do...women are more flexible than men.”
Support from men for these activities fluctuated:
“Things started to take hold [for us] to finally get the vote. Some men were for it and others weren’t, of course. They didn’t want to lose their priority, and I don’t blame them.”
A few years later, Winifred Judge passed away and Heléne moved back to take care of her father and brother. Heléne voted for the first time at the age of 21 and has only missed one vote since. She married in 1923, and in 1929 moved to Larchmont where she raised her family. During World War II, she ran the Visiting Nurses Association. She is one of the founding members of a local book club that started in the 1950's. She immersed herself in other works of charity over the years. Her children grew up and eventually moved out of the house. Heléne’s husband passed away in 1976. Five years later, her odyssey took another remarkable turn.
Heléne enrolled in a Constitutional Law course at the College of New Rochelle (CNR) at the age of 82 because, as she stated, “I was curious about what the children were learning.” She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985. She continued on at Manhattanville College and subsequently received her Master of Arts degree in 1991. On May 30, 1999, Heléne received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from CNR. It is interesting to note that CNR held its first commencement exercises nine years after Heléne was born.
When we asked Heléne what advice she would give today to that young girl at the 1912 Votes for Women Parade – and indeed to a young girl today – she replied, “I would tell her to have as much interest in what is going on as she possibly can, because it can be her future whether things break the way that are good for her or not...you can’t just sit by the wayside...your vote is just as important as a male vote.”
