Cora Call Whitley was an American club woman and conservationist.
Background
Cora Call was born on May 7, 1862, in Rowlesburg, Virginia, United States; the daughter of Review L. N. and Mary (Guyon) Call. Her family moved to Pennsylvania when she was three years old, and to Iowa in 1867, when her father was sent there as a missionary by the Baptist church. As an adult, she recalled the perilous walk across the frozen, but thawing, Mississippi River with her mother and young siblings that took them to Iowa and their waiting father.
Cora spent her Iowa childhood "in pioneer conditions, but in a home where books and music were enjoyed and church and school prized".
Education
Cora reportedly began reading Longfellow at age five and attended public school in Hampton and in Webster City, where her father became minister of the Baptist church in 1876. Cora Call graduated from Cedar Valley Seminary in Osage, where she met her future husband.
Career
Cora taught school in Webster City until her marriage in 1883 to Francis E. Whitley, a physician, and graduate of Rush Medical College. They lived in Traer, Iowa, for five years before moving permanently to Webster City, where they raised their three children.
Cora Call Whitley was a member of church and women’s organizations at the local, state, and national levels, becoming more active after her three children were grown. She rose to the presidency of the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1915, serving until 1917. During World War I, she chaired the Iowa Division of the Woman’s Committee of the Council of National Defense, which organized Iowa women to sell Liberty Loans, produce and conserve food, promote patriotism in their communities, and otherwise aid the war effort. Registration forms distributed locally asked women to sign up for war work, but leaders were at a loss as to what to do with the many women who patriotically filled out the forms and sent them into their local organizations. Although Whitley’s leadership helped make Iowa one of the best-organized states in the nation, it was at times a frustrating experience for her as she had no way to place the hundreds of women who volunteered to work.
Whitley had a deep interest in conservation and nature. She viewed conservation as a means of promoting public health by offering recreation in a natural setting. During her presidency, she pushed the Iowa Federation of Women’s Clubs toward a more active role in conservation activities, establishing a subcommittee on the conservation of natural scenery and working closely with the Iowa Parks and Forestry Association. Her work and the efforts of the many Iowa clubwomen she enlisted to the cause helped shape the state park system. In 1925, as chair of the Forestry and Wildlife Refuges Committee of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, she coined the phrase "Outdoor Good Manners" and began a national educational campaign to teach children and their parents to treat parks and recreation areas as they would their homes: "To leave the woods and parks as beautiful as you find them. This is outdoor good manners. Protect the wildflowers and trees. Always leave a clean camp and a dead fire. Help to keep your country "America the Beautiful"."
Throughout her life Cora Call Whitley contributed articles and poetry to newspapers and magazines, ranging from the Iowa Homestead, the Chicago Herald, and the Standard, a Baptist magazine, to Nature Magazine and the Palimpsest. Although her public service work ranged widely, Whitley was most committed to conservation and child welfare work. She was also active in the campaign against tuberculosis, promoting Easter Seal sales as vice-president of the state tuberculosis association. Charming, eloquent, articulate, and witty, she was much sought after as a public speaker. After her death of heart failure on December 30, 1937, Whitley Forest was planted and named in her honor at Lake Ahquabi State Park south of Indianola.
Achievements
Cora Call Whitley has been listed as a noteworthy conservationist by Marquis Who's Who.
Religion
Christian faith rests not on our own feelings, but on the promises of a faithful God.
Membership
State Probation Committe
1932
Connections
In 1883 Cora married Francis Edmund Whitley. They had three children: Gladys, Grace Bingham, Guyon Call.
Father:
Review L. North. Call
Mother:
Mary (Guyon) Call
Spouse:
Francis Edmund Whitley
Daughter:
Gladys Call Whitley Crosley
Son:
Guyon Call Whitley
Daughter:
Grace Bingham Whitley Hemingway
Brother:
David Forrester Call
Sister:
Leona A. Call
Sister:
Myra Call
Sister:
Gracie Call
References
The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.
