Aug 01, 1980

Household column banner — Household Department logo circa 1925

Household banner circa 1930 — Household Department logo circa 1930

From 1925 to 1965, my grandmother wrote a syndicated newspaper column called Hope at the Helm. She went to college (the University of Illinois) before women were even allowed to vote, let alone encouraged to get higher education, and got a job as a newspaper columnist in 1925 when few women held professional jobs.

She wrote for the Corn Belt Farm Dailies, which included The Chicago Drovers Journal, The Chicago Daily Drovers Telegram of Kansas City, The Daily Journal-Stockman of Omaha, and the Daily Live Stock Reporter of East St. Louis.

Her column provided advice to housewives, and it ranged from cleaning and cooking tips to stories about her family and and those of her readers. Her excerpts paint a picture of ordinary families dealing with both good times and bad, through the Great Depression and World War II and the post-war 1950's.

Following are some excerpts from her columns. You can see them listed below.

The original clippings, organized into a book by my father and his brothers, are also attached as pdf files below. The oldest of the clippings are almost 100 years old now, and I'm realizing the need to preserve them. So I'm slowing scanning and saving them for other members of the family.

The background of this collection of clippings is best explained in a letter from my father Ernie to my cousins Carol, Dick, and Mark, written in 1990 when the collection was gathered into a booklet and distributed to family members.

August 23, 1990
Dear Carol, Dick, and Mark,
Perhaps you remember that your Grandmother Lucile Stevenson edited a daily household column for nearly forty years, under the pen name of Hope Needham.
In 1965, in recognition of her retirement, your Uncle Joe assembled and presented to her a booklet containing several of her early columns. A limited number of these booklets were made. I can't remember whether we sent you a copy or not.
After seeing this booklet, Wilbert, Joe, and I decided that we should compile a more complete selection of her writings and publish it in book form. Hope had clipped and saved all of her columns (more than 10,000 of them). At that time we thought that some of her loyal readers (as well as the family) might be interested in such a book. We divided among us the scrapbooks filled with clippings and began the enjoyable but laborious task of reading all of the columns and selecting the ones to be used. We did not have a well defined criteria for selection, so each of us used somewhat different judgements as to what to keep and what to discard. The job was much more time consuming than we had anticipated, and after a year or so the project bogged down and lay dormant for many years.
A couple of years ago we decided we either should complete the project or abandon it. By that time it was obvious that any interest in the book would essentially be limited to family members. Most of the columns we had selected were family-related rather than of general interest. And by this time, most of Hope's most loyal readers who were her contemporaries had died.
At long last we have a book of sorts. It is not fancy because the print quality is no better than could be captured by photostat and photocopy of ancient newspaper clippings. But it brings back many memories to us. The book is titled "Hope at the Helm" and is dedicated to Hope. Enough copies were made for her children and grandchildren.
We felt that you would like to have a copy of the book, because you knew her well in your younger days. Also your mother Ruth is prominent both as a subject of Hope's comments and as a contributor to the column. This is not a book to read in one sitting. But you can open it almost at random (particularly in the early years) and in a few pages get a feeling of Hope's personality and philosophies. Two of my favorite items are on pages 129 and 125.
You will notice that prior to WWII there are numerous columns included for each year. After WWII, however, there are gaps of months and years, and fewer references to children and grandchildren. There appear to be three reasons for this. First, we are told that one of her readers about that time wrote a very critical letter about her frequent references to family. Hope was an extremely sensitive person, and immediately reacted by almost eliminating family reports. It is evident from later letters that most readers did not share this view, and in fact urged her to resume her family updates. Second, during the period that our book project lay dormant, some of the clippings got lost. And third, as the years passed Hope did less of her own writing and more editing and compiling of the voluminous contributions from readers. We hope you will enjoy "Hope at the Helm".
Best regards to all!
Ernie Stevenson

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Hope at the Helm

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