The great American poet Henry Wadworth Longfellow died in 1882, spurring Bloomington-Normal residents to form a club in his honor.
The Longfellow Club enjoys a revered status as Bloomington-Normal’s oldest continuously running social club. They meet most months of the year for educational programs prepared by members, plus dessert, made by whomever is hosting that month.
Marilyn Townley is the longest-tenured living member of Bloomington-Normal’s oldest club. Just how long that tenure is, however, is a bit of a mystery.
“My husband and I joined the club, and I can’t remember when,” she said. “I would really like to know, but I think I was either in my late 50s or early 60s—and I’m 95 right now.”
Most of the Longfellow Club’s 32 spots are filled in pairs by married couples. For the last 20 years or so, since her husband died, Townley has attended solo.
“I’ve still enjoyed going,” she said. “I just enjoy the company. I like the people. So, it’s just been a good part of my life for a good time.”
Paul and Sandra Harmon joined the Longfellow Club in the late 1980s, nominated by Marilyn and Wayne Townley. The club is invitation only. Paul Harmon said by the time you get an invitation you’ve already been vetted and approved by the nominating committee and the membership.
“And then you get a chance to come and reject us if you want to,” he said.
A who’s who
The membership is a bit of a who’s who in Bloomington-Normal. In addition to raising four children, Townley was the area coordinator for American Field Services, an agency that facilitates study abroad opportunities in the United States. She and Carol Schrantz, another Longfellow clubber, brought the fair-trade movement to Bloomington in the late 1980s.
Townley, Schrantz and the Harmons live at Westminster Village. The former mayor of Normal and Sandra, who was a founding faculty member of Illinois State University’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality program, are still adjusting to having a Bloomington address.
Jeanne Morris and her late husband Charles were among the first Black faculty members at ISU and fought housing discrimination experienced by students and residents. Jeanne Morris also played a pivotal role in bringing Head Start to Bloomington-Normal.
Morris doesn’t remember when she joined the Longfellow Club, either. Ten years, maybe. Possibly 15. She and Charles was nominated by Schrantz and her husband.
“But I’m glad we are in,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure. We love the people there and we love the focus. We enjoy it.”
Schrantz got the nod from Frank and Gigi Miles.
“It was totally out of the blue,” she said. “I don’t even think we were aware that there was a Longfellow Club until they approached us. There were people in it that we had known over the years we really enjoyed the company of. And the programs are just really interesting every month.”
Topics for those programs can run the gamut. One member shared memories of her parents’ experience preparing to host President Richard Nixon for dinner at their family farm. Sandra Harmon recalled Schrantz’s recent talk about watching goslings hatch, grow and eventually fly from their nest outside her patio window during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was one of the most intriguing programs we’ve had,” she said.
Changing with the times—a little
When the Longfellow Club formed in 1882, Chester Arthur was the U.S. president. Thomas Edison opened the country’s first commercial electric power plant that year. The Chicago White Stockings joined baseball’s American Association—the so-called “beer and whiskey league,” playing an unauthorized post-season series against the reigning champions from Cincinnati.
In its 144 years, the Longfellow Club survived two world wars, two pandemics, a Great Depression, a Great Recession, the industrial revolution and the dot-com bubble burst.
“That’s sort of unreal, really,” Townley said. “I think that’s very surprising.”
And the Longfellow Club is, for the most part, remarkably unaffected by the winds of time. They used to meet twice a month for a pair of programs, 45 minutes each. Now it’s a half-hour, once a month, nine months a year.
The year-end program around Christmastime used to involve mandatory poems penned by members and attached to a White Elephant gift costing $3 or less.
“All of that’s gone,” said Paul Harmon.
Poems are optional now. Instead of gifts, they use that cash to make a charitable donation on behalf of the club.
“Oh, and we used to have program and then dessert. We now have dessert and then program,” he said.
Part of the longevity, say these members, is the club’s simplicity and that tightly held nomination and vetting process. Nominees aren’t their friends, necessarily, but those who will be active participants and stewards for the Longfellow Club’s ongoing survival through generations.
Carol Schrantz said the seemingly subtle ways Longfellow Club has changed over the years has made it more attractive for younger generations.
“We’re not still wearing the old clothes,” she said. “We’re not still doing the same thing in the same ways. I belong to a group that does, and they’re suffering for members,” she said.
Sandra Harmon was among the first Longfellow clubbers to wear pants to a meeting—she thinks it was some time in the 1990s. And there’s a concerted effort to recruit and retain members nearing retirement who will have time and interest to give to the Longfellow Club.
“Times have changed so much,” said Schrantz. “It seems like young people’s lives are so full of—I don’t know what. Social media and other kinds of things that didn’t exist when we were somewhat younger.”
