Junior Daughters of the American Revolution records

The Daughters of the American Revolution is a patriotic organization much like a sorority, whose members are made up of women who are descended from veterans of the American Revolution. The DAR presides over a number of auxiliary groups, including the Junior DAR. One such chapter existed in Charlotte, North Carolina in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Charlotte Junior DAR chapter generated correspondence, chapter records, photographs, newsletters and other related material, in addition to receiving a certain amount of media coverage from the Charlotte Observer. The chapter made a point of clipping newspaper articles and pasting them in a scrapbook. DAR chapters fulfill a largely social function for like-minded members with a common background, and their meetings consisted in large part of social activities, often combined with fund-raising campaigns for charitable causes. For the Charlotte DAR chapter and its junior auxiliary, that cause was the Crossnore school and orphanage, located in the mountains of western North Carolina. Many of the newspaper clippings found in their scrapbook concern engagements or weddings of its members, or meetings and fundraising events. There were a few members whose names and pictures appeared often in the chapter records, and one of the more prominent members was Susan Deane Van Landingham Cordon. The Van Landinghams had lived in Charlotte since 1907, having moved there from Atlanta, Georgia. Ralph Van Landingham, who entered a cotton brokerage business with his father, purchased several adjoining lots in what is today east Charlotte, near The Plaza; and had a house built there in 1914. Ralph and his wife Susie Harwood Van Landingham, had a pair of twins—Ralph Junior and Deane Van Landingham, in 1902. Deane was a nationally known golfer on the women’s golf circuit. She later married famed opera singer Norman Cordon and settled in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They had one child, a daughter, named Susie Harwood Cordon. Deane was a Junior DAR member whose name and picture appeared frequently in that chapter’s scrapbook. She died in 1964.