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Welcome Loises from around the world!

 


HISTORICAL OVERVIEW:

"LOIS Link International" and "Lois Club" are cooperating organizations. Since the Minnesota Lois Club was the first to start bringing Loises together they are recognized as the initiators of this idea. The LOIS Link International's goal is to Link Loises throughout the WORLD. If you are a "Lois Club" member you automatically are welcome to also be a "LOIS Link Int'l" member (NO DUES). If you wish to know how to find other Loises near you, contact the LOIS Link Int'l It is hoped that every Lois we are able to be in contact with will fill out the above questionnaire and send to Lois Widly who is working to complete the WORLD WIDE LOIS LINK DIRECTORY which will include many interesting facts about the name Lois. (Perhaps you will find a long lost friend or a new one among the names.)

 

LOIS Link International

Here is a recap for those unfamiliar with the start of LOIS Link International. About 1987,  Lois Widly started collecting names and addresses of those named LOIS. She put them in her file, planning to contact them at a later date. Since then, she has decided to write a book about those named LOIS. When her daughter Elizabeth was young, Lois had bought her a book about famous persons with her namesake. Her daughter enjoyed the book very much and Lois thought there should be a similar writing about those named LOIS, famous and not so famous.

In August of 1995, Lois traveled to Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) Two days before she left the Island, she had completely read the entire P.E.I. phone book. Out of a population of about 125 thousand persons, she was delighted to find 19 named LOIS listed. Her first encounter was with Lois McClaine, from Summerside. She called her and said, " My name is Lois and I'm wanting to meet others named Lois, would you meet me for tea?" Since she was also curious about the name Lois, they shared two hours of tea-time. It was a great meeting. The second Lois she met on the Island was Lois Brown. They met over lunch and celebrated her 71st birthday together. Lois Widly says she was amazed to hear about Lois Brown's activities on the "Curling " team. Her next meeting was with Lois Campbell, who was full of enthusiasm. In fact, Lois Campbell set up a brunch the next day with other Prince Edward Islanders Lois: Stevens, Norton, and Perry. Together, they founded the first LOIS Link Canada .. At this meeting, the new LOIS group agreed to have a convention in 1996, and Lois Norton volunteered to have her business create an official LOIS pin for them.

When Lois Widly returned home to California, she wrote a letter and sent a photo of the group on P.E.I. to the editor of the Island newspaper "The Weekender." Jim Day from the Newspaper, interviewed Lois Campbell and several other Loises. Jim in his article first used the term "Lois Link." This was where Lois Widly got the inspiration for the official name. Jim's article was so great that it was picked up by other papers across Canada. Everyone appreciated Jim's contribution, Thank You Jim.

Lois Campbell became known throughout Canada, by way of T.V., Radio, and newspapers. From then on she was deluged with phone calls and letters from others named Lois. She graciously took on the task of responding to the many wonderful people who contacted her. She truly is the nurturer of the Canadian LOIS Link. In August,  1996, Lois Campbell and the P.E.I. Lois team mentioned above, orchestrated the First "LOIS Link International" Convention. Many of the other P.E.I. Loises very graciously hosted those coming from outside of P.E.I. It was a wonderful experience and enjoyed by all who attended, including a few husbands of Loises. A Lois even came from England for the event. Since then other LOIS Links have started up in other provinces of Canada.

In 1996 Lois Widly also went to Australia and New Zealand. She met and spoke to several named Lois including the well known Netball coach Lois Muir. Recently, a Lois Gailbrath from Bay of Plenty, North Island got word from a friend in Canada and she started a group. She then, contacted Lois Widly who has passed on to her the names of the Loises found during her trip in 1996. Perhaps Loises will be heading to New Zealand in a few years.
In Jan. 1997 Lois Widly who travels yearly to Ireland to see her daughter, started a search there for Loises. She was very curious, because many of those named Lois who had written to her stated that they had Irish background, but in the eight times she had visited the Emerald Isle she had never met or known anyone who knew another Lois.

She was on the "Jerry Ryan", national radio station and surprisingly had calls from those named Lois from the North and South of Ireland.

She corresponded with several of them and in November of 97 she returned to Ireland and met with several of them in Dublin and in the North. Four of those she met were children from 4 years to 13. The 13 year old would like a Lois pen pal her age.

In May of  98 several Loises from the US and Canada met in Dublin Ireland. The two groups toured Ireland and  included meeting some of the Loises from Dublin.  Interestingly enough there was a Countess Lois, who lived near Co. Cork , but  is now deceased .

Another note of interest: in November a group of the Loises from California were guests of the "price is Right" TV show. Lois Larson, age 93, who bowls in a national championship league was choosen to be a contestant. Everyone felt she was the star of the show that day and her Lois friends enjoyed cheering her on as she won a prize. She is a wonderful inspiration of vitality.

The group also enjoyed a stop at the sidewalk of stars in Hollywood where they viewed the names of their favorite stars including their own namesake LOIS WILSON who began her career in 1915.

 

"The Lois Club" 

Much to Lois Widly's surprise, soon after starting the LOIS Link International, someone sent her an article about another Lois group and she found that she wasn't the only one who was searching for others named LOIS!! She says that it was comforting to know that she was not the only one with this "strange" idea.

The other group is called The "Lois Club" . The history of this group has its origin in Minneapolis, MN. Lois Zezza, who produces the Twin Cities Chapter newsletter, sent Lois Widly information about their Club. Taken from a Lois Club-printed article distributed at the '97 San Diego Lois Club Convention entitled, "As remembered by Lois Tate" describes the history of the founding of the Lois Club .

In 1979 Lois Millner from the Minneapolis area bought life insurance from Lois Weston. When they went out to lunch to celebrate the occasion, they thought "that Lois and Lois at lunch was pretty special." They discovered that each of them had considered forming a group of just Lois' to go out for lunch, so they decided to collaborate on the idea." Lois Tate was invited and says that there were six named Lois at the first luncheon in May, 1979. The other three were Arnsdorff, Loftis, and London."

According to Lois Tate, originally the members were invited to the luncheons by telephone, but as the numbers grew, a local newsletter was started by Lois Zezza who still does a wonderful job. Lois Tate's closing thoughts: " We miss our founders - Weston moved to Nemo, South Dakota around 1980 and Milner died 2/2/95." Milner chose the slogan- "I NEVER MET A LOIS I DIDN'T LIKE!" Weston and Milner are affectionately called the "founding mothers. "

This first seed that was sown has grown to many other Lois Clubs that meet for lunch and enjoy each other's company. In researching for her book project, Lois Widly says it has been "intriguing to me to find so many named LOIS who live or have come from the North Central region of the U.S. and Canada. I am pursuing this phenomenon for the Lois book."

In addition to the Twin cities there is another large Lois Club called the Illinois, chapter founded in 1994 by Lois Schnizlein of Naperville, Illinois and like the other Lois Clubs chapters they meet on the months that have 5th Tuesdays. There are other groups in Wisconsin, New York State, Arizona, and the California Club where the" Lois Link" International started in 1995.

 

Lois Widly with the help of the other LOIS Link members is on a quest to reach out and find the LOISES of the world. If your name is Lois or you are a visitor to this page and know a Lois, please join us (no dues) or pass it on.

Contact LOIS Link International 

11155 Meads Ave. Orange CA 92869 or  FAX# 714-639-5065