Roseville Area League of Women Voters Celebrating 60th Anniversary

For nearly 50 years, Carolyn Cushing has been a member of the Roseville-area chapter of the League of Women Voters-Minnesota.

Cushing; 79, of Roseville; describes the League as a "good service organization,'' one that has kept her connected with the big issues in her town and the state.

"It (the League) has always been interesting," said Cushing, who joined the group at the invitation of a next-door neighbor and who was chapter president in the early 1970s.

This evening, Cushing will be among those people celebrating the 60th anniversary this year of the League's Roseville-Maplewood-Falcon Heights chapter.

Mindy Geiling, former Roseville state House representative and long-time League member, will be the keynote speaker at the group's program which starts at 7 p.m. today (Thursday) at the Roseville Radisson hotel. The program is free and open to the public. 

A social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. with a dinner (which required reservations) starting at 6:30 p.m. Music will be provided by the Accidental Trio, of Roseville, with musicians David Hopstock, accordion, Aija Ronis, viola, and Linda Owen, violin. 

Through the years, Cushing said her League chapter has held scores of candidate forums, a particularly valuable service back in the days when the state Legislature didn't have party designation for lawmakers. 

In Roseville, the League has helped inform residents about, among other things, developing city parks and adopting the city manager form of government, Cushing said. 

The local League chapter was founded in June 1953 and in its early years, the group had as many as 200 to 250 members. That was during an era when most women with small children stayed at home, Cushing said. The League gave the stay-at-home women a chance to have adult conversations and find out what was happening in their community, said Cushing, who raised five children.  

A highlight for Cushing came in 1970 when she attended the League of Women Voters national convention in Washington, D.C. The convention was the same week that President Richard Nixon ordered the bombings in Cambodia and the infamous Kent State shootings occurred, she recalled.

And one of the convention's student speakers: A young firebrand- Hillary Rodham ( who later married Bill Clinton).