By Joan Lawson, former LWVWA Board member, LWV Seattle-King County, First Hill Unit 

When LWVWA President Lunell Haught was in Seattle during the LWVUS National Convention, she took the opportunity to visit League members of the First Hill Unit at Horizon House. The distinguished women who are members of the First Hill Unit have a wide range of League experience that goes from the mid-20th century to the early 21st century.    

Dorothy Hopper’s interest in the League goes back to 1953, when she (unsuccessfully) attempted to start a League unit in Athol, Massachusetts, by inviting a League leader to come out from Boston. When her family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, she joined that League. Then, in 1981, she became a member of the LWV in Bellevue, Washington, and later became president. At Horizon House she joined the First Hill Unit and served as discussion leader. 

Lou Templeton served on the LWVWA Nominating Committee for several years. She was president of the LWV of Port Angeles from 2010 to 2012, and a member of the state Board from 2011 to 2012 (working on Voter Services and the Nominating Committee). At the First Hill Unit, she organized Get Out the Vote actions and wrote legislator letters to ban assault weapons. 

LWVWA President Lunell Haught at Horizon House in Seattle visiting members of the First Hill Unit. Bottom row, left to right, Dorothy Hopper, Lunell Haught, Lou Templeton, and Adele Reynolds; top row, left to right, Joan Lawson, Anne Anderson, and Mary Margaret Pruitt 

Adele Reynolds was a member of the League from 1963 until 1977, when she began to work full-time with children. She because active in the League again in the early 2000s and was unit leader of the First Hill Unit from 2015 to 2020. She has served on the Board of the LWV of Seattle-King County as Education Committee Chair and now serves as Program Chair on that Board. 

Joan Lawson Joined a local League in North Carolina in 1986 after its president invited her to tea. She was a fundraiser and then president. After moving to Horizon House in 2011, she became First Hill Unit leader, then served as Program Chair of the Seattle-King County Board. She has just completed a three-year term as Advocacy Portfolio Director on the LWVWA Board, working with the Lobby Team and Action Chairs of the state’s local Leagues.  

Mary Margaret Pruitt joined the West Seattle League Unit in 1976 after her husband was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives because she wanted to have good information about current and needed legislation. She became active in the League again after moving to Horizon House and joined the First Hill Unit in 1995 when that unit had only a half-dozen members. 

Anne Anderson joined the First Hill Unit about seven years ago. With 100 members in the unit, she coordinated meeting setup and now tracks membership and sends messages from the Steering Committee to unit members.