Page 11 - TFRW PNL Feb 2019

Inspire. Unite. Achieve.
(continued from previous page)

Horseshoe Bay in 1970, Dorothy began to organize a
Republican presence in her new home in Llano County.
She brought together a small group of Republican women Dorothy is the lady who dreamed
in 1975 to organize the Highland Lakes Republican Women’s up the idea that Republican
Club to serve Llano, Burnet, Kingsland, Deer Haven, and
Lampasas municipalities in the tri-county area. It took all women should all wear RED on
that large sweeping area just to find enough Republican TFRW’s Legislative Day.
women to form a club. The first meeting was held in
Kingsland. Dorothy wrote the bylaws, and they were voted
on and accepted.

Distance was an issue from the beginning because, even though the meetings were rotated among
Llano, Marble Falls, Kingsland, and Deer Haven, those from the other areas were not always inclined
to attend meetings thirty miles away. Even so, the club’s membership grew to nearly forty-five active
members by 1982 – with Dorothy playing a major role in recruiting and retaining members.

Dorothy had planted the seed in the Hill Country and additional clubs soon formed as offshoots. The
first was the Burnet Republican Women’s Club in 1977, which continues to be an active organization in
Burnet County, particularly in Burnet and Marble Falls.

In 1987, Dorothy helped a group of women in the south end of Llano County organize a second new
club – the South Llano County Republican Women’s Club. Dorothy served as the club’s president in 1996
and 1997, as well as chairman of various committees afterwards. The club’s name was changed in 2010
to STAR Republican Women and today has more than 150 active and associate members. STAR is among
the largest and most active Republican women’s group in the Hill Country.
Dorothy worked hard for the local clubs as well as the Texas Federation of Republican Women. She
served as a TFRW District Director for Region XI and Senate District 24. TFRW first honored Dorothy as
“10 Outstanding” Republican Woman in 1975 and many accolades followed for her continued service to
TFRW, local clubs, and communities.

In 1992 and 1993, Dorothy served as TFRW’s Vice President of Legislation. Dorothy is the lady who
dreamed up the idea that Republican women should all wear RED on TFRW’s Legislative Day at the
State Capitol to visually show the growing number of Republican women. That year, she made sure
invitations were sent to every TFRW federated club urging the attendees to wear red when they came
to Austin, and several hundred women did. It was an awesome site! It was reported that the Democrat
Governor Ann Richards, who by chance was wearing red that day, saw the large number of Republican
women in red, and she went back to the Governor’s Mansion to change her outfit!

Dorothy worked tirelessly for the Republican Party of Texas, as well. For more than forty years, she
was a delegate or alternate to the Texas GOP Convention. She also was elected as a Texas delegate to
the National Republican Convention several times. Dorothy’s enthusiastic Get Out The Vote efforts on
behalf of Republicans seeking key office have been instrumental in putting Republicans into key offices
across the state.

PRESIDENT’S NEWSLETTER | FEBRUARY 2019 11 TEXAS FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN