Both Welcome Wagon hostesses and mandatory hattedness for women have passed into history, but when this photograph was taken on May 21, 1962, in Des Moines, the former still roamed the land and the latter remained in force.
Welcome Wagon International was a business, founded in 1928 and headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. It recruited women in cities across America as hostesses and these women in turn organized local business people to provide the "wagon" --- generally a late-model automobile from a dealer --- and big basketfuls of gifts and coupons that were delivered to newcomers in their hometowns.
Johanna Holmberg (1902-1986) was Chariton's Welcome Wagon hostess during the late 1950s and early 1960s. She also worked as a free-lance journalist, or stringer, for newspapers, including The Ottumwa Courier and the Des Moines dailies. Which is probably why she ended up with this eight-by-ten image taken at a meeting of central Iowa Welcome Wagon hostesses during early summer, 1962, and now in the Lucas County Historical Society collection.
The women are identified as (front row from left), Anita Nicodemus of Des Moines, Jeanne Wagner of Dallas Center, Gertrude Mullin of Creston, area supervisor Orpha Stilwell, executive supervisor Mildred Elmore, supervisor Virginia Roebken of Des Moines, Marjorie McGlynn of Des Moines and Johanna Holmberg of Chariton.
Second row from left, Deleina Gordon, Fort Dodge, Marcella Yochum, Newton, Pauline Larsen, Mason City, Virginia McKinney, Des Moines, Dorothy Smith, Des Moines, Jean Peters, Webster City, Helen Sutherland, Knoxville, Dorothy Tam, Des Moines, Audrey Golden, Des Moines, Helen Tapscott, des Moines, Mary Doolittle, Des Moines, Carine Houser, Newton, Ottie Jean Munson, Creston, and Agnes McCann, Creston.
Welcome Wagon International still exists after passing through a number of hands, now headquartered in Florida. But the last hostesses were laid off in 1998 because, it was said, they had too much trouble finding women at home to welcome.
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