Lulu Colyar Reese

Lulu Colyar Reese was a socially prominent clubwoman who became active in Memphis education and politics as an advocate for free textbooks and child labor laws. In 1916, she was one of the first two women elected to the Memphis City Board of Education, where she championed these issues., Born in Franklin County, Tennessee, she became active in politics at age seventeen, when she joined other Nashville women in appearing before the Tennessee State Legislature to secure The Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's property, for the state. the effort proved successful and, as a result, the the women formed the Ladies Hermitage Association., Both aristocratic and flamboyant, she was known for the "Parisian salons," held in her home, where lively groups of people from various backgrounds met for conversation and interaction, and where Reese was known to smoke an occasional cigar. She hosted these gatherings with her husband, Isaac B. Reese, in Nashville and Memphis, as well as in Paducah, Kentucky. , In 1900, the Reese family moved to Memphis, where she became active in the Federation of Women's Clubs and served as president of the Nineteenth Century Club for four years. Her experience in such women's clubs led her, eventually, to become involved in the fight for woman suffrage. as a consequence she joined the National Woman's Party and became active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association. , During the hot summer of 1920, she was in Nashville and stayed at The Hermitage Hotel, where her room served as safe territory for suffragists wanting to sneak a quick cigarette. Lulu Colyar Reese died six years later and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Midtown Memphis.