The National Federation of Grandmothers Clubs of America Inc. was chartered in 1938 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising funds to support innovative research focused on the causes, treatment and cure of childhood diseases.
The ladies celebrated grandmothers along the way by advocating for National Grandmothers’ Day. In 1978, President Carter made Grandparents’ Day an official holiday, to be celebrated the first Sunday after Labor Day.
Corpus Christi got its first of three Grandmothers Clubs in 1948 — there was the Friendly Grandmothers Club, the Busy Grandmothers Club and the Corpus Christi Grandmothers Club.
As part of their fundraising, they supported the social interests of members. For decades, you could find newspaper announcements of meetings to be hosted in members’ homes. They pulled out all the stops as hostesses to welcome their group for luncheons, desserts or casseroles, and often played cards and dominoes afterward.
But it wasn’t all about the entertaining — they hosted bazaars to sell their homemade goods and gathered donations for their causes at their meetings. For one Christmas party hosted by Mrs. Irene McGregor (Doc McGregor’s wife), the ladies dressed and donated dolls to Goodwill Industries.
The Grandmothers Club movement grew nationwide, and ladies from Corpus Christi served on the national board and traveled states away to conferences, meeting modern, active women like themselves who also leaned into their role as grandmothers to support their communities (and have a little fun, too).
