Hella Maria Hochstadter Holman Memoir - University of Illinois ...

and Susan Schnepp who was the daughter of a Queen, although I do
remember the heartbreak of Niana Crane but whose daughter didn't
make it because Niana was unpopular among the board members.
That played a big roll. If you were unpopular, you didn't have a
chance. Although she was a Board member for awhile, but she sort
of breezed in, indifferent, but it was just her style. I was
very fond of her. She thought she didn't give a hoot until she
found that her daughter was bypassed. Then they moved away. She
couldn't take it. They moved to California. Ya, ya, ya, that's
too bad.
Q. After all those years here.
A. Ya. Well they had two sons in California. They decided that
maybe they wanted to be in California, but one of the compelling
reasons, just when the daughter would have been eligible, they
moved away. Now they asked for a contribution in her name. She
died of Alzeimers.
Q. Your involvement?
A. My involvement was not thinking of a Queen. As a matter of
fact Andrew preferred to go duck hunting when he was asked to be
a courtier. The other one was a courtier and hated every minute
of it. (chuckle) But I was involved as Exhibition Chairman and
Program Chairman and one time as Membership Chairman and at the
time when I was Membership Chairman there were twelve hundred
members but now they have a lot more and I started something
which was then written up in the Sunday Supplement of the
Newspaper. We get it every week. It was written up many years
ago when we did this. It was called Art in Springfield Homes.
That was my idea that people who had art would bring one
painting, one graphic piece or one water color to the Art
Association and it was somewhat risky but I think we took out
insurance and it was really the first art exhibit where everybody
came because everybody wanted to see the art of everybody else
and not only that, Mary Jane Masters and I started the receptions
in connection with the art openings. I had observed this in New
York when I worked for the Newspaper I was invited to quite a few
of the openings and of course I realize a lot of people come
because it's a social event and we had a wonderful opening and
two or three waiters at that time which made it look more elegant
and then when the men dish out the wine in the reception hall and
we had very nice appetizers. We didn't have a buffet table, we
just had them pass around appetizers and drinks. I think we had
wine but we didn't have any hard liquor but there was some
objection to it because the statute said that no alcohol could be
served on the premises but somehow the Board went along in waving
that statute, yes. It was really a true success and then from
then every opening has been in connection with a party. As a
matter of fact, they went so far to appoint some women to be
chairman that on Eastertime when they had a very interesting