Valley View Women’s Club celebrates its heritage

Kids were chasing bubbles and each other on the green lawn at the Valley View Clubhouse on Saturday afternoon.

The clubhouse is celebrating its 100th birthday, and it has aged well. Club members decorated the old gal up in red, white and blue using balloons, ribbons, lights and Chinese lanterns. Even the raffle quilt and the door prize lap quilt were pieced from mostly red, white and blue fabrics. 

Michael Boucher, a young man with a great voice and good taste in music, was singing and playing his guitar in a corner of the big room. Probably 50 or 60 years ago, couples would have been dancing. 

A party at the Valley View Clubhouse wouldn't be complete without food, of course. White roasters of pulled pork and hot dogs, beans, dinner rolls, big bowls of coleslaw, and cookies tempted passers-by into another helping.

The club members serving food wore crisp white shirts and aprons with jeans and comfy shoes instead of dresses, pumps, and stockings with a fresh permanent wave in their hair as the ladies might have when the club was founded in 1924. 

Another bonus at every Valley View Clubhouse ‘do is a bunch of Bailey’s. 

Donna Bailey Benson said both sets of her grandparents were foundation members of the club. Lined up on the porch outside the clubhouse from oldest to youngest were Janice, Jackie, Jim, Donna, Walt, and Carolyn Bailey. Missing were Russ, Todd, and Randi. 

When Donna and some of her siblings were youngsters, everybody in Valley View had a little farm and their children attended the Valley View School, she said. Probably 30 families were members of the Valley View Club, and dues were $1 a year. Now they’re up to $5.  

Dora Forman was hostess at the first meeting of the Valley View Women’s Club held on Sept. 11, 1924, according to history from Kelly Bailey. W.C. Vincent deeded an acre of land to the club on the present site in Jan. of 1939. All the residents donated what they could, fundraisers were held, husbands arms were twisted and the Club’s doors opened on Nov. 4, 1939.  

As funds allowed, shingles blew off, or children were getting married, the VVWC went from a sink you had to pack water to, but which emptied the water out in the back via pipe. To fix that, they drilled a well. Walt Bailey was working for the well driller and got a special price, and suddenly the kitchen had a working sink, no longer had a wood stove, and the building had new windows and bathrooms.

A wheelchair ramp was installed. Weddings, potlucks, funerals, Holiday programs from Valley View School, the Bailey family Christmas party, maybe a dance or two or a birthday party. Kids have grown up, gotten married, had children and are now working on being empty nesters.

Take Donna and Jerry Benson, for instance. Jerry moved to Ronan from Eastern Montana, met Donna Bailey, and they married in 1972. Jerry worked for Marvin’s Mobil and then Beacon Tire for 47 years, doing auto repair and tire work.

Donna has been in the VVWC for 45 years, and she also worked as a bookkeeper. She brought her oldest son and daughter to meetings because meetings were in the afternoon. Other mothers did the same with their kids.

Their son Aaron married in 1996, and their daughter Shelley in 1998. Retired now, the couple live about three miles east of the clubhouse. 

Membership is down to five members, but the club hopes the  celebration and the party stir up some interest and coaxes people to join or at least come for the potlucks. 

The April rummage sale is always a crowd pleaser so come out to enjoy the treasures.

Whatever you decide, remember all the folks who’ve gone before, all the fun they had at the VVWC, and all the fine people still here.

    Valley View neighbors threw a housewarming party for Barb Patterson and her husband 45 years ago. She brought the card to the Valley View Clubhouse for its hundredth birthday. (Berk Tiskus/Leader)
  

    Bubbles and a sunny day make for a fun day in Valley View for youngsters. (Berl Tiskus/Leader)