Features suffrage wagon at the Long Island Museum
ALERT: APRIL 8, 2015. A SPECIAL PROGRAM OF SUFFRAGE WAGON CAFE: SECOND SEASON OF “TURN: WASHINGTON’S SPIES” LURES STORIES OF TORIES OUT OF THE CLOSET The A&E television series, “TURN: Washington’s Spies,” opens its second season on April 13, 2015. The series in its first season introduced an awareness of the nation’s first spy ring to a…
Continue ReadingI suspect that Grandmother Edna Kearns is behind some of our family activity these days. Though I never knew my grandmother because she died in 1934, she influenced my life profoundly. And it’s not just me. Edna has another granddaughter, Winifred Culp, who’s a mover and shaker, and the spirit is spreading. See Safe Fabric…
Continue ReadingRain, snow, sleet, or blisters couldn’t stop a Votes for Women march from New York City to Albany during the first week of January in 1914. I like to call it a story about a stubborn streak of spirit. When woman’s suffrage hike leader Rosalie Jones ordered, “Forward, March,” my grandmother Edna Kearns, grandfather Wilmer…
Continue ReadingGrandmother Edna had a hard time saying “no” when it came to campaigning for Votes for Women. And she was a particularly soft touch when suffrage activist Rosalie Jones asked for volunteers to march to Albany. It’s quite a boat ride from New York City to Albany, not to mention the journey by train. But…
Continue ReadingEdna knew that the women of New York were making history. And when a pageant was held at the Armory in New York City involving 500 performers and broad, vast and innovative subject matter, she made sure the news was spread through her writing. Both Edna Buckman Kearns and daughter Serena Kearns were featured in…
Continue ReadingPicture a torchlight meeting, an automobile parade, and open-air meeting. Huntington, New York piled on the welcome when my grandmother Edna Kearns and the “Spirit of 1776” wagon hit town. Long Island activist Rosalie Jones drove her yellow suffrage campaign wagon in the parade as well. Horse-drawn wagons may seem quaint to us today, but…
Continue ReadingTo me, she was Aunt Serena. To the many people who knew my grandmother Edna, Serena was the poster child for the suffrage movement in New York City and Long Island. Edna Kearns was the suffrage editor for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle which meant Serena went everywhere with her mother. She rode in the suffrage…
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