Aa history Lovers 2004 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page

At St. Louis I made talks upon each of those subjects which

largely concerned themselves about what A.A. had done about

these things but here we are in a much wider field and I think

that the sky is the limit. I think that I can say without any

reservation that what this Committee has done with the aid of

it's great friends who are now legion as anyone here can see. I

think that this Committee has been responsible for making more

friends for Alcoholics Anonymous and of doing a wider service in

educating the world on the gravity of this malady and what can

be done about it than any other single agency.

I'm awfully partial and maybe I'm a little biased because here

sits the dean of all our ladies, my close, dear and beloved

friend. So speaking out of turn as a founder, I want to convey

to her in the presence of all of you the best I can say of my

great love and affection is thanks.

At the close of things in St. Louis, I remember that I likened

A.A. to a cathedral style edifice whose corners now rested

across the earth. I remember saying that we can see on its great

floor the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and there

assembled maybe 150,000 sufferers and their

families. We have seen side walls go up, buttressed with the

A.A. Tradition and at St. Louis, when the elected Conference

took over from our Board of Trustees, the spire of service was

put into effect and its beacon light, the beacon light of A.A.

shone there beckoning to all the world.

I realized as I sat here today that that was not a big enough

concept, for on the floor of the cathedral of the spirit there

should always be written the formula from whatever source for

release from alcoholism, whether it be a drug, whether it be the

psychiatric art, whether it be the ministrations of this

Committee.

In other words, we who deal with this problem are all in the

same boat, all standing upon the same floor. So let's bring to

this floor the total resources that can be brought to bear upon

this problem and let us not think of unity just in terms of the

A.A.Tradition. Let us think of unity among all those who work in

the field as the kind of unity that befits brotherhood and

sisterhood and a kinship in the common suffering. Let us stand

together in the spirit of service. If we do these things, only

then can we declare ourselves really come of age. And only then,

and I think this is a time not far off, I think we can say that

the future, our future, the future of this Committee, of A.A.

and of the things that people of good will are trying to do in

this field will be completely assured.

Thank you.

_________

An excerpt from "On The Alcoholism Front," written by Bill

Wilson for The Grapevine, March 1958:

"Then along came Marty. As an early AA she knew public attitudes

had to be changed, that people had to know that alcoholism was a

disease and alcoholics could be helped. She developed a plan for

an organization to conduct a

vigorous program of public education and to organize citizens'

committees all over the country. She bought her plan to me. I

was enthusiastic but felt scientific backing was essential, so

the plan was sent to Bunky [Dr. E.M. Jellinek], and he came down

to meet with us. He said the plan was sound, the time was ripe,

and he agreed with me that Marty was the one to do the job.

"Originally financed by the tireless Dr. Haggard and his

friends, Marty started her big task. I cannot detail in this

space the great accomplishments of Marty and her associates in

the present-day National Council on Alcoholism. But I can speak

my conviction that no other single agency has done more to

educate the public, to open up hospitalization, and to set in

motion all manner of constructive projects than this one.

Growing pains there have been aplenty, but today the NCA results

speak for

themselves. ..."

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Previious Posts

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From an article by Bill Wilson in

THE GRAPEVINE, October 1944

We are again citizens of the world.... As individuals, we have a

responsibility, maybe a double responsibility. It may be that we have a date

with destiny.

An example: Not long ago Dr. E. M. Jellinek, of Yale University, came to us.

He said, "Yale, as you know, is sponsoring a program of public education on

alcoholism, entirely noncontroversial in character.

So, when the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism [now the National

Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence] was formed, an AA member was made

its executive director: Marty M., one of our oldest and finest. As a member of

AA, she is just as much interested in us as before - AA is still her

avocation. But as an officer of the Yale-sponsored National Committee, she is

also interested in educating the general public on alcoholism. Her AA training

has wonderfully fitted her for this post in a different field.

Public education on alcoholism is to be her vocation.

Could an AA do such a job? At first, Marty herself wondered. She asked her AA

friends, "Will I be regarded as a professional?" Her friends replied:

"Had you come to us, Marty, proposing to be a therapist, to sell straight AA

to alcoholics at so much a customer, we should certainly have branded that as

professionalism. So would everybody else.

"But the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism is quite another

matter. You will be taking your natural abilities and AA experience into a

very different field. We don't see how that can affect your amateur status

with us. Suppose you were to become a social worker, a personnel officer,

the manager of a state farm for alcoholics, or even a minister of the gospel?

Who could possibly say those activities would make you a professional AA? No

one, of course."

They went on: "Yet we do hope that AA as a whole will never deviate from its

sole purpose of helping other alcoholics. As an organization, we should

express no opinions save on the recovery of problem drinkers. That very sound

national policy has kept us out of much useless trouble already, and will

surely forestall untold complications in the future.

"Though AA as a whole," they continued, "should have one objective, we believe

just as strongly that for the individual there should be no limitations

whatever, except his own conscience. He should have the complete right to

choose his own opinions and outside activities. If these are good, AAs

everywhere will approve. Just so, Marty, do we think it will be in your case.

While Yale is your actual sponsor, we feel sure that you are going to have the

warm personal support of thousands of AAs wherever you go. We shall all be

thinking how much better a break this new generation of potential alcoholic

kids will have because of your work, how much it might have meant to us had

our own mothers and fathers really understood alcoholism."

Personally, I feel that Marty's friends have advised her wisely; that they

have clearly distinguished between the limited scope of AA as a whole and the

broad horizon.

__________

Excerpt from Marty Mann's New Primer on Alcoholism, 1981 (First Owl Book

Edition), pp. 83-86.

The Test

Even an extremely heavy drinker should have no trouble in passing it, whereas

an alcoholic, if able to complete it at all, could do so only under such heavy

pressure that his life would be more miserable than he thinks it would be if

he stopped drinking altogether. The chances are a hundred to one, how ever,

against a true alcoholic's being either willing or able to undertake the test.

The Test: Select any time at all for instituting it. Now is the best time. For

the next six months at least decide that you will stick to a certain number of

drinks a day, that number to be not less than one and not more than three. If

you are not a daily drinker, then the test should be the stated number of

drinks from one to three, on those days when you do drink. Some heavy drinkers

confine their drinking to weekends, but still worry about the amount they

consume then. Whatever number you choose must not be exceeded under any

circumstances whatever, and this includes weddings, births, funerals,

occasions of sudden death and disaster, unexpected or long-awaited

inheritance, promotion, or other happy events, reunions or meetings with old

friends or good customers, or just sheer boredom. There must also be no

special occasions on which you feel justified in adding to your quota of the

stated number of drinks, such as a severe emotional upset, or the appointment

to close the biggest deal of your career, or the audition you've been waiting

for all your life, or the meeting with someone who is crucial to your future

and of whom you are terrified. Absolutely no exceptions, or the test has been

failed.

This is not an easy test, but it has been passed handily by any number of

they were not compulsive drinkers. If by any chance they failed the test,

showing that they were alcoholics, they showed themselves, too, that they

were, whether they were then ready to admit it openly or not. At least it

prepared them for such an admission, and for the constructive action which

normally follows that admission.

It is important to add that observers of such tests should not use them to try

to force a flunkee to premature action. This may well backfire and produce a

stubborn determination on the part of the one who has been unable to pass the

test, to prove that it is not alcoholism that caused the failure. He can and

does do this in several ways: by stopping drinking altogether for a

self-specified time (when this is over he usually breaks out in even worse

form than before, and with an added resentment toward those who "drove" him to

it); by instituting a rigid control over his own drinking, which produces a

constant irritability that makes him impossible to be with, coupled with

periodic outbreaks of devastating nature; or by giving himself a very large

quota and insisting that he has remained within it, even when he has obviously

been too drunk to remember how many drinks he had. In extreme cases, he may

even give himself a quota of so many drinks, and take them straight from the

bottle, calling each bottle "the" drink. The backfiring from too great outside

pressure may also cause a complete collapse: knowing and admitting that he

cannot pass the test and is therefore an alcoholic, he will resist efforts to

force him to take action by saying in effect, "So I'm an alcoholic, so I can't

control my drinking, so I'll drink as I must," and go all out for perdition.

This last, despite the expressed concern of some people (who believe that

admitting alcoholism to be a disease, and alcoholic drinking to be

uncontrollable drinking, is simply to give alcoholics a good excuse to

continue), very rarely happens. Nevertheless the possibility must be taken

into account by those who are trying to help an alcoholic to recognize his

trouble and take constructive action on it. If he is left alone after failing

such a self-taken test, the failure will begin to work on him-it has planted a

seed of knowledge which may well grow into action.

The "occasional drunk" usually comes from the ranks of heavy drinkers,

sometimes social drinkers. Rarely is he an abstainer between his bouts, as is

generally the case with periodic alcoholics. Sometimes called "spree

drinkers," these are the ones who every now and then deliberately indulge in

short periods of drinking to drunkenness, usually at sporadic intervals. They

talk of the "good" it does them to have a "purge" once in a while, or to "let

down their hair" or to "kick over the traces" and have "all-out fun."

Unfortunately for them they sometimes get into trouble during these sprees,

and their drinking habits are thus brought to public attention. But they can

and do stop such indulgences if they find it is costing them too much, for

their sprees are their idea of fun, and not a necessity. "Occasional drunks"

are most often found among youthful drinkers, whose ideas of "fun," for one

reason or another, have come to center around drinking and the uninhibited

behavior which excessive drinking allows.

__________

The following was excerpted from a biography-in-progress of Marty Mann, by

Sally and David Brown. It has since been published by Hazelden:

Marty Mann is scarcely a household word today, yet she is arguably one of the

most influential people of the 20th century. Marty's life was like a blazing

fire, but was nearly extinguished by personal tragedy and degradation. She

rose to a triumphant recovery that powered a historic, unparalleled change in

our society. Through her vision and leadership, the attitude of America toward

alcoholism was changed from a moral issue to one of public health. This was a

tremendous shift, especially considering America's long temperance history

which culminated in the Prohibition Amendment of 1920.

Marty was able to accomplish these things despite numerous, very difficult

setbacks along the way, any one of which might have overcome a lesser person.

She would be the first to claim that her sobriety, found through Alcoholics

Anonymous (AA) in its very earliest days, was the most important factor in her

success. ...

Marty was born into a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago in the early

1900s. Her family sent her to the best private schools. She was blessed with

beauty, brains, a powerful will and drive, phenomenal energy and stunning

charisma. She traveled extensively. She debuted, then married into a wealthy

New Orleans family. Her future seemed ordained to continue on the same

patrician track except for one serious setback on the way. When Marty was 14,

she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). In those days, drugs for treatment

were not yet available. However, her family could afford to send her to an

expensive private sanitarium in California for a year, and then provide her

with a private-duty nurse at home for another year or two. She had one

recurrence of the disease several years later, and for the rest of her long

life she knew that she was always in remission from this ancient scourge.

Marty was no sooner past this hurdle when another disease began to assert

itself. When Marty was 17 she could drink as an adult. Moving at a fast pace

in an elite social group, she had a "hollow leg." A party girl from the onset,

she could outdrink anyone and be the only person left standing to get

everybody else home. Later, she was to learn that her unusual capacity was an

important early sign of alcoholism.

Suddenly her father lost all his wealth, and she had to go to work. Untrained

for any specific career, she was nevertheless favored with important moneyed

and social connections in this country and abroad. Her natural talents led her

into the world of public relations.

Marty's drinking was an occupational hazard in her line of work. Within 10

years she went from a bright, assured future to a hideous existence of

round-the-clock drinking. She lost one job after another. She became

destitute, living off the goodwill of friends, convinced that she was

hopelessly insane. Two suicide attempts nearly killed her, and desperate

drinking threatened to finish the job.

At this point, friends intervened. She was accepted as a charity patient at

Bellevue Hospital in New York City, then transferred to Blythewood, an

exclusive private psychiatric inpatient center in Connecticut as a charity

patient. There were a few patients who were alcoholics, like Marty, whose

behavior had become bizarre or unmanageable.

It is difficult these days to imagine a world where the term "alcoholism" was

virtually unknown and there was no treatment except "drying out." Alcoholics

Anonymous didn't exist. The medical profession was as much in the dark as the

alcoholics and their baffled families. The concept of alcoholism as a disease

-- and a major, treatable one at that -- was scarcely known.

Then in 1935, two alcoholics, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, happened to come

together to help each other stay sober. Alcoholics Anonymous, probably the

most famous grassroots, self-help health movement of all time, was launched on

its shaky way.

Within four years, Bill and Dr. Bob and a handful of other pioneers had

attracted two small groups of men who managed to achieve sobriety; one in

Akron, Ohio (Dr. Bob's home), and the other in New York City (Bill W's home).

They decided to write down their experiences in the belief and hope that they

could thereby broaden their outreach to other suffering alcoholics. The book

"Alcoholics Anonymous" was born, and at the heart of it was the famous "12

Steps," which have been adopted and adapted by literally hundreds of other

kinds of self-help groups. The year was 1939.

The year of 1939 was also a fateful year for Marty. She had been a patient at

Blythewood for months, still unable to remain completely sober. Her

enlightened psychiatrist, Dr. Harry Tiebout, gave her a manuscript of

"Alcoholics Anonymous" to read, convinced that it would help her in a way he

could not. This opened the door to her recovery.

Eventually she was persuaded by Dr. Tiebout to attend her first AA meeting,

held in the home of Bill Wilson and his wife, Lois. This was still during the

time that there were only two AA meetings in the whole country. Each little

group met just once a week. Many members literally drove over a hundred miles

each way to attend the fellowship. Contrast that scene with the thousands and

thousands of AA meetings available across America today, the majority a short

distance from home.

Furthermore, all of the AA members were men. A few women had drifted in and

out, but the stigma against women alcoholics was as strong as ever. Women

rarely had the courage to seek help, even if they acknowledged they might have

a problem.

Marty loved and appreciated AA from the beginning. She was immensely relieved

to learn she was not incurably insane, but instead had a disease which

manifested itself as "an allergy of the body coupled with an obsession of the

mind." Scientific research describes this condition as a biochemical

abnormality affecting the body and the brain in ways which increasingly limit

the predisposed person's ability to function or to stop, despite dire

consequences.

Marty had three relapses during her first 18 months in AA. Slips, or relapses,

while distressing and sometimes tragically fatal, are not uncommon with many

of those who come into AA. Later, Marty settled down, and the real healing

began as she started to apply the 12 Steps to her life.

Five years after she found AA, Marty had a dream. Her vision was to educate

the whole country about alcoholism. She was obsessed with eliminating the

historic stigma attached to chronic inebriation. She joined forces with the

Yale School of Alcohol Studies (now at Rutgers), where early significant

scientific research into alcoholism was underway. Eventually her nationwide

educational efforts led to the creation of a separate organization, the

National Council on Alcoholism (now the National Council on Alcoholism and

Drug Dependence or NCADD). NCADD has been this country's most important

educational, referral resource for alcoholics, their families and communities

all across the country.

Marty was the right person at the right place and time. She was extremely

fortunate to find a wealthy donor, Brinkley Smithers, who was committed to her

goals and generously supported her organization. Marty was intensely focused

on her mission. More than one person said she was like a train coming down the

track -- jump on or get out of the way. Her elegant appearance, captivating

charm, intellect and breathtaking charisma swept people off their feet.

By all accounts, she was one of the most spellbinding speakers this land has

ever seen. Even audiences initially skeptical of her message, that an

alcoholic is a sick person who can be helped, ended up enthusiastically

supporting her. For most of her 24 years as director of NCA, she maintained a

speaking schedule of over 200 talks annually. The purpose of Marty's talks was

to establish local volunteer groups in every major city. These affiliates of

NCA would carry out NCA's mission to provide education, information and

referral for their respective communities. Government financial support was

minimal to nonexistent. Most of the funding for the affiliates came from

local, private donations.

By now, one would think Marty had it all. Restored health, sobriety, the

realization of her dream. Then, once more, she was felled by a disease beyond

her control -- this time it was cancer. Several surgeries were required, and

eventually she recovered from the cancer. Doctors were amazed by her medical

history: recovery from three major diseases, recurrences of severe chronic

depression, plus the physical consequences of her early suicide attempts.

When she was 65, Marty retired with some reluctance from active management of

NCA. It was not easy for her to relinquish control of her creation and the

central focus of her passion for over two decades. As NCA's promoter without

peer, she continued a punishing speaking schedule on the organization's behalf

for many years, but gave up her personal involvement in day-to-day affairs.

In the early 1950s, Edward R. Murrow, distinguished journalist, selected Marty

as one of the 10 greatest living Americans. During her lifetime, Marty was

extremely well-known in the local, regional and national press. Her

appearances before state legislatures and Congress were unforgettable for

those present and produced results. She was made an honorary member of

prestigious professional groups here and abroad.

Marty's last talk was before AA's international convention in New Orleans in

1980. Two weeks later she suffered a stroke at home and died very shortly

thereafter. She was 75.

The organization and history of NCA after Marty has been mixed. There were

some rocky periods, which are to be expected following the retirement and

demise of a long-term, extremely dynamic and charismatic leader. The

affiliates across the country also experienced some ups and downs. However,

the organization persisted, stabilized and continues to be an effective public

voice on behalf of alcoholics.

Marty's legacy is sparingly reported in the histories of Alcoholics Anonymous,

probably because NCA was not an arm of AA. However, AA grew enormously in the

decades that Marty was active. Wherever she spoke, she generated extensive

publicity, and new AA members appeared in droves. Her appearances were

especially important in attracting women alcoholics. They figured that if a

person as impressive and inspiring as Marty could admit that she was an

alcoholic, they could too. Women like Betty Ford are direct inheritors of

Marty's example.

_____________

The following is from the 1980 Nov-Dec. Issue of ALCOHOLISM, "Pioneer,

Persuader, Inexhaustible Advocate, Marty Mann."

Included in the article is a tribute by Susan B. Anthony:

(Dr. Susan B. Anthony, author, lecturer, theologian, and counselor, is another

long-time friend and colleague of Marty's. The great niece and namesake of the

famous suffrage leader, she is currently lecturing on women and alcoholism,

and has authored seven books and many articles.)

Putting on paper my tributes to Marty helps alleviate the frustration I felt

when I could not get up north for her Memorial Services to share with old

friends of hers and mine.

What I did do when NCA called me to let me know of her death was to put my

emotion into prayer, for her and for us. Prayer was a gift that came some

years after sobering up in Marty's office on August 22, 1946.

I last spoke with Marty just a few weeks before her death, on July 3 when I

was visiting my sister. When I called her, she said in her rich, resonant

voice, "You just caught me. I am going out the door for the New Orleans AA

convention!"

She sounded buoyant and happy, her voice as young as the day I first met her

34 years ago. When I told her I had been one of the 500 nominated as public

members for the National Commission on Alcoholism and other Alcohol Related

Problems, she laughed "It's not 500, my dear, it's 700 or 800 nominees."

In July it seemed so natural that she was taking off for a talk. Just three

weeks before her death (even as my own great-aunt Susan B.) she was setting

forth for one last stint on the road. As her obituary in THE NEW YORK TIMES

said on July 24, Marty had averaged 200 lectures, all out of town, of course.

I was part of one of those flights, in 1977, en route to Des Moines, Iowa, to

keynote a conference commemorating the Council she and local friends had

started there. I had just spoken at another NCA conference celebrating her

birthday in Pennsylvania, flown home to Florida and was now flying to Des

Moines, getting off to be greeted by the program chairman when I saw Marty

ahead of me.

"Were you on that plane?" she asked. "I was in first class," she said

apologetically. "I sometimes splurge on that -- I get so tired."

She looked frail and I recalled the millions of miles she had journeyed for

alcoholism education, for alcoholics, miles that were marked by broken hips,

and illnesses. And that she felt she must apologize for the greater comfort of

first class, though she had passed three score years and ten!

When I couldn't get to her Memorial Service I wrote her family:

"My gratitude to Marty since sobering up in her office in 1946 surpasses even

my sympathy for you since we and the world know her work for alcoholics is

deathless."

I often wonder whether I would be alive and sober today if Marty had not

provided a quiet, private office uptown (at the old Academy of Medicine

Building, New York City) where a prima donna radio commentator, a woman at

that, could seek help for alcoholism. I was not ready at that point for the

old clubhouse downtown. Though Marty was not in the office that day of August

22, 1947, her aura dominated the pleasant serene office, and her volunteer AA

secretary carried the message to me, as Marty later did by her being as well

as by her sharing.

Marty provided not only a place in which I could sober up that day, but

equally important and seldom mentioned today when even wives of ex-presidents

come out of the closet as alcoholics, Marty provided a witness. She was the

first and a continual sign, a witness, that an upper middle class lady can

also become a low class drunk, and then climb back up from that bottom to new

heights.

I grew up thinking of my suffragist great aunt Susan B. as "The Mother of Us

All," the title Gertrude Stein gave to her opera about Aunt Susan. She was a

"mother" to us in the sense of her concern for our rights and our work. Marty,

I believe is "The mother of the woman alcoholic" not only the first to stay

sober in AA, but the first to carry the message to the outside, non-alcoholic

world, women and men, the message that alcoholism is a disease and that it is

treatable.

As Bill Wilson's (co-founder of AA) biographer, Robert Thomsen says: "Marty

was to become one of the pioneers in the field of alcoholism education, but at

this point she was primarily one of AA's spectacular recoveries." That was

when Marty, an "Attractive intelligent young woman with tremendous charm"

attended an early A meeting at Brooklyn. She instantly caught the message and

returned to Blythwood Sanitarium in Connecticut to spread the message among

other alcoholic patients of Dr. Harry Tiebout, one of the first medical

champions of AA.

Marty will go down in history as the founder and director in 1944 of the first

public health organization on alcoholism in history, the National Council on

Alcoholism. Her work finally lifted the nation's consciousness about

alcoholism so that the American Medical Association accepted that it is a

disease and that it is treatable. She went on to mold public opinion, laying

the ground work for the passage of the Hughes Act of 1970, the Comprehensive

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, treatment and Rehabilitation Act

under which the vast expansion of facilities for treatment has taken place,

providing networks of out-and inpatient clinics, detoxification and

rehabilitation programs.

A years before she died, Marty's 75th birthday was celebrated in advance by

our great friend and colleague, Felicia M. who put on a memorable party. It

was also her birthday, plus my 33rd anniversary sober. Among the three we

totaled 104 years of sobriety!

I spent much of my time with Marty that night trying to persuade her to

dictate her own autobiography now that she was less on the road. She dodged

and demurred. I realized that she had reached that stage I have observed

over the years of interviewing some leading men and women. Self as subject

bored her. She had become increasingly "unsettled" in her later years. She

didn't want to spend the time that was left writing about herself, so that

task remains for someone else to do, someone who knew her, or even some

younger woman.

Marty is a model for the young women of today, not only the model of an

"unselfed" sober woman. She is what I hoped to be when I was young, a

liberated woman. She became a crusader, reformer, educator, organizer,

agitator, lobbyist, a truly great speaker, a lucid writer, a great 12th

stepper. She addressed U.S. Congressional committees and joint sessions of

state legislatures. She received honorary degrees. She was liberated not only

from the disease of alcoholism but liberated from restrictions upon her as a

woman back in the 1940s when I was broadcasting on New York radio against

those restrictions. Marty transcended the double stigma of being a woman and

an alcoholic.

In so doing she incurred snubs, distastes and dislike, and controversy. Even

her best friends, her A.A. buddies, were critical of her. When I worked for

NCA back in Boston in 1949, doing the first radio program that ever broadcast

interviews with live alcoholics, I sensed that hostility of local AA's toward

Marty's program of educating the public on the disease of alcoholism. NCA was

only five years old then, my sobriety was only three years old. Even these

friends thought NCA was competitive with AA, that when Marty crusaded for

public education and prevention she somehow was detracting from AA. She didn't

need enemies among her own, but in those early days she had them. Happily she

outlived those misunderstandings.

When the history of alcoholism is written, this century will carry three names

ahead of the others, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, co-founders of A.A. and

Marty Mann, pioneer woman AA member and pioneer alcoholism educator.

Marty lived to see her concern for women alcoholics begin to show results in

1976 when Jan du Plain launched NCA's office on women. In rapid succession

occurred the first national Congress of Task Forces on women and alcoholism,

then came a gathering of the alcohol establishment hosted by NCA and the U.S.

Senate subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, a reception in the Senate

Caucus room honoring my 30th anniversary sober. Growing out of this the next

month, September 1978, the first ever Congressional hearing on Women and

alcoholism was held.

At lunch a few weeks later, Marty rejoiced at all this headway and said, "Do

you realize, Susan, that a the age of sixty you have begun an entirely new

career?"

coverage of the Senate activities. It would in the next four years carry me

35,000 miles in 75 cities, 46 states and to Africa and Alaska speaking on

women and alcoholism.

Some of those talks were before the great main line women's organizations,

ranging from the National Federation of Business and Professional Women to

the Junior League. Marty herself had dreamed when first forming NCA that these

women's groups would grasp the importance of educating on the disease concept

of alcoholism, especially for girls and women. But in the 1940s they were

uninterested. Perhaps had they begun their efforts then, they might have

helped avert the epidemic of alcoholism among girls and women in the 1980s,

what I call the "age of anesthesia" that blankets us.

With their women's focus they might have seen as we do today that alcoholism

among women is different and distinct, and requires differences in prevention

and treatment. Women have problems that men do not have such as stigma,

discrimination, child care problems that bar women from residential treatment,

and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

In November 1979, I added another career, private practice in alcoholism

counseling here in South Florida. Marty wrote me in her own hand her

encouragement and recommendation for my certification. It is a letter I shall

literally have framed. She wrote:

"Susan dear --

"Your activities exhaust me, just reading about them! and yet they too -- like

Jan's -- are a replica of my own pattern, so I understand and applaud you

--"Alcoholism needs people like us: 'dedicated idiots' Selden Bacon

once call Yev (Gardner) and me and we lifted it as our banner and proclaimed

it good, which wasn't what he had meant!

"Anyway - again you are in the pattern by turning to counseling, which is what

I do, plus a once weekly lecture at Silver Hill and Yev also, at Freeport

Hospital. So we've all come full circle, back to AA's one-on-one. It's good

and I love it. So will you."

I pray I will continue to be a "dedicated idiot" and as she said "a replica"

of her pattern, carrying the message as she did, until the day I die."

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++++Message 1697. . . . . . . . . . . . Texas Oldtimer, Clinton Ferrell, Dead

at 93

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A friend forwarded this to me. I don't know what paper it appeared in.

Nancy

KERMIT â€" Clinton Ferrell, a longtime resident of Kermit, Texas, passed away

Saturday, March 6, 2004, at the age of 93. He was born on August 3, 1910, in

Oklahoma. He married Sally Jones from Como, Texas, on June 17, 1938, in Pecos.

They moved to Kermit in 1938 and lived there continuously until Sally’s

death on Sept. 25, 1991. Clinton continued to live in Kermit and would

consider no other place as home.

Clinton is survived by his two sons, Freddie of Tucumcari, N.M., and Robert

“Buddy” of Austin, Texas.

Clinton touched the lives of many, many people throughout the years with his

kindness and generosity. He was well known for his fast cars, gun collections

and desire to live life to the fullest, but always with consideration for his

fellow man. One of Clinton’s greatest accomplishments was to recognize that

he was an alcoholic and to join AA on June 30, 1947, and to be a member for

the next 56 years. He would regularly attend the meeting of AA in Kermit three

times a week plus several other meeting each week in Monahans, Andrews,

Odessa, Midland and other places in the Permian Basin. Clinton had the

second-longest number of years of sobriety of anyone living in Texas, and he

was rightfully proud of that fact.

Clinton worked in the oil fields with his father in the 1930s, ’40s and

’50s. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, he worked in the car business, and in the

‘80s he served as constable of Winkler County until he retired (but didn’t

slow down). He had many friends in law enforcement and in particular the Texas

Rangers. To acknowledge all of the hundreds of friends of Clinton would take

the pages of an entire book, but special mention must go to Don and Debbie

Turner and their two kids, Derrick and Dessie Lou.

In lieu of recounting all the wonderful things Clinton did and the principles

for which he stood, it is hoped that everyone that knew him will take a moment

to reflect upon some experience they had with him and feel so very fortunate

to have known such a great man.

Funeral services will be held in Kermit at Cooper Funeral Chapel, Wednesday,

March 10, 2004, at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to your

local AA group, for that is the way Clinton would have wanted it to be.

Services entrusted to Cooper Funeral Chapel.

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++++Message 1698. . . . . . . . . . . . Bert Taylor - Compiled From Old Posts

From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/11/2004 3:05:00 AM

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I am continuing to combine old posts, which are then deleted, in

order to make it easier for researchers to search the archives.

The following is excerpted from old posts by Charles K. and Rick

T.

Charles wrote that Bert Taylor was an early AA member who

prohibitionist. "The loan was to help buy some time from the

printer until the Liberty Magazine article came out. Once that

article came out we sold some books were able to settle with the

printer and get the remaining Big Books out of hock, so to

speak. He also allowed meetings to be held in the loft in his

shop.

"Now whether the debt was not repaid on time or Bert just fell

shop, but was able to keep his business and he died sober. He

also was one of the first Trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation."

Rick responded to Charles' message:

"Much of this additional history was gleaned in on-site research

through minutes and correspondence at the GSO Archives....

"His $1,000 would have brought him 400 shares in Works

Publishing, and I'm sure he was able to cash in the shares, when

and if any of the loan was needed to be paid. There are scant

records on file of whose and how many shares were eventually

traded in to the

Alcoholic Foundation. The AF Trustees' ledgers remained pretty

thin for many years into the mid-1940s, and only a few shares

were probably ever recorded as 'bought back' by the Board of

Trustees. Bill wrote in 'AA Comes of Age'

about a few buy-backs, which turned out to be traded only at

face value."

Rick said he did not think Bert was a Trustee, but Charles

responded:

"I still believe Bert was a member of the Alcoholic Foundation,

only from what I have read.

"In the August 1947 Grapevine article 'Last Seven Years Have

Made AA self-supporting' Bill writes:

"'Two of the alcoholic members of our Foundation traveled out

among the AA groups to explain the need. They presented their

listeners with these ideas: that support of our Central Office

was a definite responsibility of the AA groups; that answering

written inquiries was a necessary assistance to our Twelfth Step

work; that we AAs ought to pay these office expenses ourselves

and rely no further upon outside charity or insufficient book

sales. The two trustees also suggested that the Alcoholic

Foundation be made a regular depository for group funds; that

the Foundation would earmark all group monies for Central Office

expenses only; that each month the Central Office would bill the

Foundation for the straight AA expenses of the place; that all

group contributions ought to be entirely voluntary; that every

AA group would receive equal service from the New York office,

whether it contributed or not. It was estimated that if each

group sent the Foundation a sum equal to $1 per member per year,

this might eventually carry our office, without other

assistance. Under this arrangement the office would ask the

groups twice yearly for funds and render, at the same time, a

statement of its expenses for the previous period.

'"Our two trustees, Horace C. and Bert T., did not come back

empty handed. Now clearly understanding the situation, most

groups began contributing to the Alcoholic Foundation for

Central Office expenses, and have continued to do so ever since.

In this practice the AA Tradition of self-support had a firm

beginning. Thus we handled the Saturday Evening Post article for

which thousands of AAs are today so grateful.' (Reprint of this

article can be found in 'Language of The Heart' see pages 64-65)

"Also from 'AA Comes Of Age'

"Page 186.........

"'At about this time our trusteeship began to be enlarged. Mr.

Robert Shaw, a lawyer and friend of Uncle Dick's, was elected to

the Board. Two New Yorkers, my friends Howard and Bert, were

also named. As time passed, these were joined by Tom B. and Dick

S. Dick had been one of the original Akronites and was now

living in New York. There was also Tom K., a hard-working and

conservative Jerseyman. Somewhat later more nonalcoholic,

notably Bernard Smith and Leonard Harrison, took up their long

season of service with us.'

"(FYI: This was around the time of the Rockefeller Dinner Feb.

1940, this also shows the alcoholic members of the Foundation

made up of more than just Bill & Dr. Bob. I have a copy of the

minutes of the Alcoholic Foundation in July 25, 1949. Dick S.,

Tom B, and Bernard Smith were already trustees of the Foundation

in 1949.)

"Page 192:

"'We also realized that these increased demands upon the office

could not be met out of book income. So for the first time we

asked the A.A. groups to help. Following the Post piece.

Trustees Howard and Bert went on the road, one to Philadelphia

and Washington, the other to Akron and Cleveland. They asked

that all A.A. groups contribute to a special fund in the