First Girl Scout

by Ginger Wadsworth

  Miss Daisy became an enthusiastic camper there. Her old friend Dorris Hough recalled her "going with us on our hikes, cooking over our outdoor fires, swimming.... She brought her own special bathing suit ... which had very full, very long bloomers, and a very full, very long skirt adorned with row upon row of white braid."

  Miss Hough had been with the Girl Scouts since 1912. She helped Daisy establish Camp Juliette Low and became its director. According to her, Daisy loved to tell fortunes, and "she read the palm of every person in camp, including the boy who brought the milk." Daisy predicted great futures for everyone and shared ghost stories around the evening fires. Daisy also visited other Girl Scout camps around the United States.

  In 1922, an American, Anne Mills Archbold, gave the British Girl Guides sixty-five acres of forested land in England that was called Foxlease. There was a cottage on the property for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts to use. The cottage, which Daisy named the Link, is dedicated to her, and is so named to symbolize the bond between Great Britain and the United States. The International Council of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts decided that the first World Camp would be held at Foxlease in 1924.

  Daisy was thrilled that the 1922 annual meeting of the Girl Scouts was to be held in Savannah. Because it was in her hometown, she could house some of the visiting delegates, preside over receptions and teas, and generally provide southern hospitality to her guests. By then, the home that she had first shared with Billow had been remodeled, and electric lights had replaced the gas lamps. As usual, Daisy's parrot, Polly Poons, was in her cage on one of the porches, screeching at anyone who passed by. Delegates came from every Girl Scout council, and they stayed at nearby camping areas and in various local homes.

  The Savannah Morning News reported that on the first day of the meeting Daisy "dashed out ... in an automobile flying the Girl Scouts' colors, with her guard of honor standing on the running board."

  She opened the annual meeting and, relying on her handwritten notes, said, "I did not realize when the first patrol was enrolled here, that the movement would become part of our nation—one unusual thing about Scouting is that its success is due entirely to its members and not to any one man or woman putting it forward." She added, "A few years ago in my ignorance ... I said, 'as soon as I get 100,000 members, I will die.' ... We now number more than 113,000 & I am not prepared to die yet."

  To raise money for activities, more Girl Scouts and their mothers began to bake simple shortbread cookies at home. In the 1920s and the early 1930s, trefoil-shaped cookies were sealed in bags made of brown or wax paper and sold door-to-door for twenty-five to thirty cents per dozen. Starting in 1936, a nationwide program began, with a professional baker making the cookies, and the girls still sell them today.

  For a number of years, on October 31, Daisy wrote a birthday message to the Girl Scouts. Her 1923 message, which appeared in The American Girl, read, in part,

  My Dear Girl Scouts,

  Little did I dream, when I myself was young and tried these Halloween pranks, that I should live to see that day turned into a Girl Scout Founder's Day. So you will understand what a thrill of gratitude comes over me.

  One's birthday should be the day for good resolutions.

  Daisy suggested that each girl put herself in another's place to understand human relationships.

  To put yourself in another's place requires real imagination, but by so doing each Girl Scout will be able to live among others happily.

  Your friend,

  Juliette Low.

  By 1923, or possibly even earlier, Daisy learned that she had breast cancer. Since she didn't write about it or share the news with her siblings, we know few details about her condition. In those days, people usually didn't talk or write about chronic illnesses.

  According to her niece Peggy Leigh Graves, Daisy had an operation in January 1924. At that time, she wrote a letter to each of her brothers and sisters in case anything should happen to her.

  I look forward to seeing the parents, Willy Low, Alice ... and all the people I have loved and lost. I've always dreaded growing old and being a burden to my family. You and yours have always been so good to me that I can't thank you enough.

  Luckily, she survived the operation and the letters did not have to be sent.

  By June she was as active as ever, giving speeches on behalf of the Scouting movement. At Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, Daisy said that the Girl Scout badges "mean nothing in themselves ... but they mark a certain achievement." Daisy envisioned a much bigger picture for her girls and told her audience, "Scouting is the cradle of careers. It is where careers are born." She spoke of young Girl Scouts earning a Red Cross badge by learning how to bandage an injured person, which could lead them to careers in nursing. Or after learning the Morse code, girls might consider future jobs as telegraph operators.

  Legendary New York Yankees baseball player Babe Ruth publicizes the Girl Scouts' cookie sale by eating a cookie at the last game of the 1923 World Series. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB. Used by permission from Major League Baseball Properties.

  Daisy talks to the American delegation at the first World Camp, at Foxlease, England, in July 1924. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  That fall, Daisy approached Peggy, who at the time didn't know about her aunt's previous surgery, for advice. Peggy was a nurse, and she worked at a children's hospital in London. "Aunt Daisy confided to me—under a bond of secrecy—that she was worried about her health."

  Daisy wanted to know about British doctors and hospitals, but only if Peggy promised not to tell Mabel or anyone else in the Gordon family about her illness. Peggy recommended a doctor, who led Daisy to a famous surgeon, coincidentally named Dr. Low. He convinced Daisy that she needed another operation immediately.

  Daisy, with her unique style of spelling, wrote to Peggy on October 21, 1924, the day before she underwent surgery for the second time.

  Darling Peggie,

  Don't imagine that I am coragous, because I am really glad to go to that "Promised Land", and like Bro' Rabbit and the Briar Patch all I want is to be flung in the Briar Patch—for we must all die and when one is ready, its so more satisfactory to peg out while one is still beloved.

  I hope and pray, if I come through tomorrow, that I should live, to a green old age, I will still have the love which you have given me today—Thank you from the depths of my heart,

  Always your loving Aunt Daisy

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Camp Macy

  AFTER THE SURGERY, Daisy returned to her London home on Grosvenor Square. No one saw her at first, not even Peggy. Only Bella, Daisy's trusted maid, cared for her immediately following the operation.

  About ten days later, Peggy received a call from Aunt Daisy while she was at work. "Hullo Peggy, I'm home.... I want you to come right on over.... I will expect you in about twenty minutes. Take a taxi." She hung up before Peggy could even speak.

  So Peggy came, as did Daisy's doctor, Bruce Williamson. Daisy insisted they open a bottle of champagne. "Champagne is for parties and this is one," she said. Much later, Peggy would realize that her aunt insisted on the champagne party so her niece would think that the operation had cured her health issues.

  However, it had not. Peggy and Daisy later went to Liverpool together, without telling anyone why. Daisy wanted to try a new treatment Dr. Williamson had recommended. She stayed at a nursing home in Liverpool for ten days; Peggy stayed at a hotel but "spent each day with her, going with her when she had her treatment."

  Family members began to notice that Daisy did not look well, but everyone in the family knew better than to ask about it. In a letter to her brother Arthur, Daisy downplayed the situation, saying only that she had had a pea-size lump removed from her neck. But in reality, the surgery and treatments were not successful.

  Despite her poor health, Daisy plunged back into her hectic lifestyle, enjoying frequent luncheons and parties. To Mabel, she wrote, "Every place I visit brings more luck to me in scouting."
Mrs. Hoover took Daisy and several others to the White House, where they visited with the First Lady and "enrolled Mrs. Coolidge as a Girl Scout! She has promised to be honorary president," Daisy wrote.

  With Lou Henry Hoover looking on, Daisy pins the Tenderfoot Badge on First Lady Grace Coolidge, honorary president of the Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts of the USA-JGLB

  She fished with her nephew Arthur, wearing a floppy hat to protect her skin from the Savannah sun and layers of mosquito netting to keep the bugs away. And she continued to throw parties. Once, according to her nephew Rowland, Daisy invited him to one at her home. All the guests had arrived, but there was no sign of his aunt. He found her upstairs in her bed, going over her bills. Because of her hearing impairment, Daisy had not heard anyone arrive. Rowland reminded her that she was giving a dance party.

  "Why, so I am!" she said. "I'll be down in five minutes."

  Daisy also continued to journey back and forth between Europe and the United States. In England, she attended a meeting of the International Council of Girl Guides, where it was proposed that the fourth World Camp be held in Switzerland. Daisy didn't like the idea at all. She convinced the council that it was America's turn and promised that the Girl Scouts would pay the travel expenses for one delegate from every country. And then, in the spring of 1925, she sailed home to the United States.

  "I have a wonderful new plan!" Daisy told Jane Deeter Rippin, who was then the national director of Girl Scouts. "Just think, Jane, we are going to have the World Camp here in America next year! Everything is arranged."

  At the time, the Girl Scouts owned four hundred acres of undeveloped country property in New York State. The land was a recent gift from V. Everitt Macy to the Girl Scouts in honor of his late wife, Edith, who had been the chairwoman of the executive committee for many years. Girl Scout leaders intended to develop what would be called Camp Edith Macy by 1928. But Daisy thought it would only take a year to construct some simple buildings and a road and drill for water, so that Camp Macy could open in May 1926. Daisy convinced Jane Deeter Rippin and the rest of the executive board of the Girl Scouts to go forward and host the International Conference of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts there. Then she told the executive board to expect between three hundred and four hundred girls. She'd already started to invite them!

  On February 12, 1926, while the camp was being readied, the city of Savannah honored Daisy for her service. A large crowd made up of Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, city leaders, and friends gathered in Forsyth Park. Daisy received flowers, many congratulatory telegrams, and a proclamation from the city in appreciation of all her work with the Girl Scouts.

  Accompanied by Olave Baden-Powell, fifty-six delegates from twenty-nine countries arrived in New York on the SS Olympic on May 5. Waiting American Girl Scouts stood on the pier and waved handkerchiefs at them. Mary Lagercrantz, chief guide of Sweden, wrote that they drove up Fifth Avenue "without stopping once, the traffic being held up for [them], people staring. Was it not a thoroughly American welcome, thrilling and unusual?" The Manhattan Girl Scout Council held a luncheon in their honor, and a beaming Daisy gave a welcoming speech to her foreign guests. Over the next few days, they toured New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., where President and Mrs. Coolidge also received them for lunch. On May 11, a motorcade carrying Girl Guides from dozens of countries headed to Camp Macy.

  It was a glorious day in New York State. Daisy didn't want to miss a single detail of this opening day. Her driver steered up the steep dirt road leading to the entrance gate of Camp Edith Macy. Daisy leaned way out the window of her car to look behind her as the line of vehicles followed her up the hill.

  Recent rains had soaked the campground and the surrounding landscape, turning the soil velvet brown. Woods, mixed with rolling hills and deep ravines, stretched out in every direction. But now, under a blue canopy of sky lit by the afternoon sun, dogwood and apple trees bloomed. Fuzzy-looking new grass poked up through the wet ground.

  Ahead, Daisy saw the Great Hall, where they would all gather that night. She spotted cabins, and tents sporting clean white canvas tops. She pictured the rows of waiting cots and the carefully folded blankets inside each one.

  Just a few days earlier, well diggers on the property had finally struck water. Daisy didn't understand why her dear friends on the executive board had fussed so much about finding water and other details. Everything had turned out perfectly, just as she had known it would. She hadn't worried a bit!

  At the top of a rise, Daisy's car stopped. She stepped out quickly, ready to greet the visitors in the motorcade. Miss Daisy waved to a group of experienced American Girl Scouts lining the edge of the road. They too were waiting for the newcomers to arrive, eager to help them settle in.

  Standing in front of the Great Hall at Camp Macy in 1926, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hold flags representing their countries. Girl Scouts of the USA-NHPC

  Though she could not hear them, Daisy imagined the sounds of the flags snapping in the breeze, just as she imagined bees buzzing in the flowering trees. Her dear friends Robert and Olave Baden-Powell stood at her side with the members of the executive board. Together they welcomed each girl, starting with the fifty-six foreign delegates.

  Later, Olave recalled how B-P, Daisy, and Anne Hyde Choate "strolled along the sandy lane, the bushes swaying in the wind, and the country all ablaze with the glory of the spring. How happy [Daisy] was! Her wish had been fulfilled."

  That night, the official opening of Camp Macy was celebrated in the Great Hall. Construction had been completed just in the nick of time. Jane Deeter Rippin noted, "We bowed the plasterers out the back door while we welcomed our guests in at the front."

  Olave and Robert Baden-Powell, arm in arm, with Anne Hyde Choate to the left. Girl Scouts of the USA-NHPC

  The girls in attendance were especially eager to hear Miss Daisy's campfire stories. Fires crackled in five enormous stone fireplaces. Daisy began, her voice animated, as though she were talking for the very first time about her great-grandmother, Little Ship Under Full Sail, or about her haunted castle in Scotland. The girls leaned forward, listening eagerly, even though some had heard Miss Daisy share the same stories around other campfires. Daisy was surrounded by her ever-expanding family of Girl Scouts, and she loved them as if they were her own children.

  Everyone who later wrote about the World Camp remembered that Daisy radiated joy that entire week. She chatted with the campers and worked and planned future activities for "her girls." Those who watched her or received her warm embrace that first day or on the days that followed were caught up in her infectious excitement and enthusiasm. They expected her to be involved with Girl Scouts for years to come.

  But Daisy knew it wasn't to be. At night, she collapsed onto her bed in a little white farmhouse that belonged to the camp. Only a few close friends knew that every minute of every day, Daisy was in pain.

  As the week at Camp Macy drew to a close, the young attendees began to dread the inevitable separation from their new friends. How would a girl from Germany stay connected to her friend from Canada or from Denmark, or from South Africa or China, so far away?

  A French girl suggested a solution. During one of the final sessions, she proposed that one day of the year should be set aside for all Girl Guides and Girls Scouts to think of one another. That would make their parting much easier. Everyone, especially Daisy, loved the idea. February 22 became Thinking Day and was later renamed World Thinking Day.

  After the World Camp, Daisy headed to Savannah. Then, according to her brother Arthur, she traveled to Richmond, Virginia. Her brother-in-law, Dr. Stuart McGuire, was in charge of a medical clinic there, and she underwent some kind of treatment or perhaps a consultation.

  While at the clinic, she was expected to stay in bed and rest. Not Daisy! She had too much to do. One day, she dressed in her uniform and slipped out and into a waiting taxi to attend a Girl Scout conference. Informed of her escape, Dr. McGuire said, "Let her alone. If she wanted to go that
badly, it will do her no harm."

  Daisy gave a lively, informative talk to the girls at the conference before returning to the clinic and falling into bed. As she often said, "We mustn't lose sight of the girls."

  Daisy knew she had inoperable cancer, yet she was still hoping for a cure and continued her treatments. There were several things she wanted to accomplish in her remaining time. In England, she settled her business affairs. She finished sculpting and casting a bronze bust of her Grandfather Gordon, had it packed, and shipped it back to the United States.

  She also attended a musical performance of Charlot Revue, for which her nephew Rowland Leigh had written some of the songs. Daisy had front-row seats, and she arrived with ten deaf people. They all brought the latest in hearing machines and ear trumpets so they could enjoy the music, dances, and skits.

  By then, Daisy was sixty-six years old and her condition had worsened. She returned to the States and was eager to get back home to Savannah. But first, she visited her sister Nell in New Jersey and called Anne Hyde Choate and some other Girl Scout leaders. Once again, she announced, "I have a wonderful plan for Girl Scouts!" Daisy wanted to be sure that an idea of Mrs. Hoover's, to hold regional conferences in Mexico, Canada, and other neighboring countries in the Western Hemisphere, would actually come to fruition.

  That Christmas, Daisy wrote checks to her family and sent them with cheerful letters. Her brother Arthur somehow discovered the truth about her health and called everyone home to Savannah, saying, "Daisy has only six weeks to live." Mabel and her daughter Peggy sailed for America.