2025 Events

Tea for Susan B
February 15, 2025 – River Room

Sylvia Coffey sharing Susan B. Anthony stories.

Delights of Tea Time

Showcasing Women in History

Womens History Month
Library Display – Paul Sawyier Public Library
March 1-31, 2025

  • Women Showcased  
  • Greta Thunberg – Environmentalist 
  • Malala Yousafzai – Female education activist and Nobel Prize laureate 
  • Mary Barra, first female CEO off GM 
  • Opal Lee for work on Juneteenth 
  • Rosa Parks – Civil Rights Activist and Leader  
  • Dolly Parton – singer/actor/ philanthropist  
  • Fraces Perkins-first female Sec. of Labor 
  • Ruth Bader Ginsberg – Supreme Court Judge
  • Martha Layne Collins – Kentucky Governor (1983 – 1987)
  • Jaqueline Coleman – Kentucky Lt. Governor (current)
  • Katima Smith Willis – Frankfort KY City Commission

Committee Members: Judy Catlett, Joyce Albo, Shirley Elkin

Community Room
March 9, 2025 - Paul Sawyier Public Library

International Women’s Day Committee:  Terry Strickland (Chair), Julia Rome, Donna Jackson, and Sylvia Coffey 

Peg Harmon, KWHA President, welcoming speakers and attendees 

 Thank you to these women for sharing their time, their culture, and themselves. We are all richer for it.

Ms. Raymonde Jacques – better known as Ms. Mondy, is from Haiti. She came to the U.S. in 1987. She returned to Haiti on a mission trip in 1996 and from that evolved The Haitian Needy Children Foundation, supported by her Capital City Christian Church family. Improvements continue through this foundation to aid the Haitian children.

Reina Díaz-Dempsey – Reina came to the United States in 1989, earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in public administration.   Reina owns a restaurant in Frankfort, Mami Monchita’s, in honor of her late mother and as a celebration of her Honduran heritage.  Reina, her husband, and sister established a non-profit organization called Greenhouses of Love, the goal of helping children in El Paraiso, Honduras.

Fatou Saidykhan – from The Gambia West Africa, is nursing student at Kentucky State University.  Before coming to the U.S. she spent the past 12 years mentoring children and junior youth through a character development program inspired by the Bahá’í Faith.  She has also worked as a teacher and as a media personnel with Ya Kumba’s Nest, an organization dedicated to fighting gender-based violence against women and girls in The Gambia.  

Christine Richards – She was born in former East Germany and came to the United States as a miliary bride.  She has two sons and five grandchildren.  Christine serves as treasurer for the Frankfort UNA-USA and UNA-USA KY Chapters.  Her interests are international relations, reading, and compassion for every living thing. 

Hermalyn, speaker from last year, sharing music for the group 

19th Century Historic Fashion Show and Tea
March 22, 2025 – Paul Sawyier Public Library

We Began With Tea  

Peg Harmon, KWHA President, welcomed
guests and introduced program creator,
KWHA member Joan Howard

Through the years, mourning gowns did not change a great deal. They were floor length, long
sleeves, high neck, little trim, somber, and
a long black veil over the face. 

And many women, all ages, saw the red petticoat as a fashion statement.

Along with lots of petticoats, side hoops, round hoops, oval hoops, cage hoops, and back bustles, corsets, pantalets and privacy petticoats were worn.

The first documented ballet en pointe, La Sylphide, was presented in 1832 in Paris, France. When the curtain opened, Marie Taglioni had shortened her skirts up to her ankles so the audience could see her newly created shoes and steps. The audience was shocked.  

Ball gowns came in many different styles over the years using beautiful fabrics such as: silks, linens, woolens, cottons, velvets, brocades, moirés, and silk satins.  

The black/tan linen gown with the black zauve jacket and blue/ecru cotton gown with blue velvet tea bodice could be worn for afternoon events.

By 1920, most dresses had shortened all the way up to the ankles. It took about 85 years after the ballet costume was shortened for the average dress to be properly altered 

KWHA members: (left to right) Nancy Watkins, Judy Catlett,
Sylvia Coffey, Peg Harmon.

Potluck Supper at Peg and Randy Harmons for KWHA Members
April 8, 2025

An evening  to enjoy after a very busy six weeks. 

Women’s Equality Day Celebration
August 23, 2025

Thank you to Liberty Hall Historic for partnering with KWHA and making 2025 Equality Day Celebration welcoming for all. A special thank you to Director Sam Dunn and Elizabeth Bowling, Education Specialist 

August 23rd  began with a “sidewalk” march from Paul Sawyier Public Library to Liberty Hall Historic Site 

Signing in and enjoying the beautiful Liberty Hall gardens

Audrey Pollard – Event Greeter

The finishing touch

A program of  songs and  history by KWHA Centennial Chorus,  accompanist Don Coffey

“I’m honored to be a member of the Kentucky Women’s History Alliance, a nonpartisan group that celebrates the strength and resilience of women who fought to
earn—and keep—the right to vote. Together, we share songs and stories of the trailblazers who paved the way before us.”
Stella Pollard 

Come Join Us!

Ashland School Day
September 26, 2025

Sharing history with Henry Clay High School Freshmen 

Program for Senior Center in Versailles
October 13, 2025

Chorus members (L to R)  Joyce Albro, Lane Lewis, Judy Catlett, Susan McKaig, Peg Harmon, Donna Jackson, Stella Pollard, and Brenda Parker 

A special thank you to KWHA members Mark Strickland, Stella and Chris Pollard, and others who shared these pictures