Pearl Farmer Richardson

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This article is about the Kansas lecturer born in 1891; for the New Jersey educator of similar name, see Pearl Grigsby Richardson.
Pearl Farmer Richardson
A young white woman with dark hair parted on the side and dressed into an updo, wearing a high lace collar
Pearl Farmer Richardson, from a 1918 newspaper
Born
Ellen Pearl Farmer

(1891-07-25)July 25, 1891
Pratt, Kansas, U.S.
DiedMay 9, 1980(1980-05-09) (aged 88)
Pratt, Kansas, U.S.
Occupations
  • Clubwoman
  • pacifist
Spouse
Howard Moses Richardson
​
​
(m. 1912; died 1944)​
Children1

Ellen Pearl Farmer Richardson (July 25, 1891 – May 9, 1980) was an American clubwoman and pacifist. She worked on the Speakers Research Committee of the United Nations, and represented the General Federation of Women's Clubs as an observer at the United Nations.

Early life and education[edit]

Pearl Farmer was from Pratt, Kansas,[1] the daughter of James Wilson Farmer and Sarah Elizabeth Jackson Farmer. Her mother was active in church work and was "chairman of the knitting department of the local Red Cross" during World War I.[2]

Career[edit]

Richardson began women's clubwork in the 1910s, as president of the Pratt Council of Clubs in Kansas.[3][4] In the 1920s she started the 75ers Dinner, an annual dinner for Pratt County residents aged 75 or over; this tradition continued for at least 76 years.[5] In 1939 she attended the meeting of the Committee on the Cause and Cure for War in Washington, D.C. and was one of the International Building's hostesses at the New York World's Fair.[6] In 1944, she was war service chair for the Kansas Federation of Women's Clubs.[7]

Beginning in 1945, when she witnessed the signing of the UN charter in San Francisco,[8] Richardson represented the General Federation of Women's Clubs as an observer at the United Nations,[9][10] and served on the Speakers Research Committee of the UN.[11] She spoke about the United Nations to community groups, especially church and women's groups,[12] and wrote about its goals and structures.[13][14] "It is not enough to hope that the United Nations succeeds," she said in a typical speech, in Kansas in 1954. "To make it work, people must do something about it."[15]

Richardson served on the publicity committee of the National Board of the YWCA, and was a consultant on world relations to the United Church Women of the National Council of Churches.[16][17] She was a member of the advisory committee to the White House Conference on Children and Youth.[18] She was also a member of the National Aeronautical Association and the National Federation of Press Women, among other affiliations.[19] She taught world affairs at a girls' camp in Elmdale, Kansas for three summers.[20]

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote one of her "My Day" newspaper columns about Richardson's pamphlet, Your Community United Nations, in 1957.[21] In 1958, she was named one of fifty prominent Kansas women by the Women's Kansas Day Club.[22]

Publications[edit]

  • "We The Peoples: Community Fact Finders" (1952)[23]
  • Your Community United Nations (1957)[24]

Personal life[edit]

Pearl Farmer married railroad engineer Howard Moses Richardson in 1912.[25] They had a daughter, Maxine. Her husband died in 1944, and she died in 1980, at the age of 88, in Pratt, Kansas.[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Allen, Ida Bailey (1954-05-20). "Let's Eat: A Kansas Special Dinner". Casper Star-Tribune. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Death of Mrs. J. W. Farmer". The Pratt Union. 1918-12-19. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "Heads Club Council Embracing 350 Women". The Topeka Daily Capital. 1918-02-10. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Pratt Woman Honored". Pratt Daily Tribune. 1918-04-04. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Faster, please". Pratt Tribune. May 8, 2009. Retrieved 2023-02-15.
  6. ^ "Guest Day for Sorosis; Mrs. Howard RIchardson Speaks on International Relations at Party Here Yesterday". The Iola Register. 1939-02-14. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Bond Drive Officials". The Parsons Sun. 1944-01-08. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Woman's Club Heard of U.N." The Ithaca Journal. 1954-11-02. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Pearl F. Richardson Speaks to County Women". The News Journal. 1951-10-12. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Lead in UNESCO Meet; Kansas Citians to Take Part in Missouri Council Programs". The Kansas City Star. 1954-06-11. p. 27. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Evening Group's Subject is U.N.; Mrs. Pearl F. Richardson to Speak Wednesday". The Montclair Times. 1953-03-05. p. 18. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "UPW Plans Luncheon March 24; to Hear Talk on United Nations". Verona-Cedar Grove Times. 1966-03-17. p. 23. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "U.N. Workshop to be Started" Manchester Evening Herald (March 5, 1951): 3.
  14. ^ "Annual Fellowship Tea Wednesday of Ladies Aid Unit". Naugatuck Daily News. 1957-03-29. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Speaker Says U. N. Goals Offer Guide to Community Life". The Wichita Eagle. 1954-02-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "The UN Today WIRC Topic". The Item of Millburn and Short Hills. 1962-02-22. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Pearl Richardson to Speak at World Community Service". The Montclair Times. 1965-10-28. p. 35. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Town Club, B. P. W. Will Hear Speech on United Nations". The Wichita Eagle. 1954-01-31. p. 34. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Mrs. Pearl F. Richardson to Give Talk for World Community Day". The Montclair Times. 1961-11-02. p. 29. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "Mrs. Howard M. Richardson to Be Guest Speaker at AAUW Luncheon". The Wichita Eagle. 1945-10-07. p. 33. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Eleanor Roosevelt, "My Day" (January 10, 1957).
  22. ^ "GB Residents Chosen Prominent Women of Past Quarter Century". Great Bend Tribune. 1958-02-06. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ^ Richardson, Pearl Farmer (1952). "We the Peoples--Community Fact Finders". The Journal of Educational Sociology. 26 (3): 121–124. doi:10.2307/2263554. ISSN 0885-3525. JSTOR 2263554.
  24. ^ "United Nations Speaker Booked". The Courier-News. 1958-02-10. p. 10. Retrieved 2023-02-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ^ "Richardson-Farmer". The Pratt Union. 1912-06-27. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-02-15 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Mrs. Howard Richardson". Hutchinson News. May 11, 1980. p. 298. Retrieved February 14, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
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