U.S. Air Force Wives Form Club In Paris

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28258, 22 April 1957, Page 12

U.S. Air Force Wives Form Club In Paris

PARIS United States Air Forces Officers’ wives in Paris have formed a philanthropic and social club, with Mrs Lauris Norstad as honorary president, to assist members to overcome any feeling of loneliness in a foreign country. Through parties and cultural excursions, the club raises funds with which to help French charities. Every phase of Women’s Group activities is covered by this club, founded in 1950 and allied to the World Federation of Women. Any United States Air Force Officer’s wife in Paris is eligible for membership, which at present is about 200. Mrs Richard Mursit, the active president, claims that “there is a vital need to unite American women living abroad.” The club has the additional object of promoting better Franco-American relations through an exchange of social and welfare programmes with French organisations. Originally founded to help a needy French orphanage, this club has now adopted the Raymond Poincare Hospital for paralytic children at Garsh. Many young victims of poliomyelitis pass months at this hospital, far from their homes and families, and members of the Air Force Officers’ Wives club become-“second-mothers” to them. They keep a rotating staff at the hospital to provide occupational therapy and recreation. Many welfare agencies have received a helping hand as well as substanial financial assistance as a result of efforts made by the club. Last autumn, for example, 430 dollars were raised by means of card parties and teas for the Hungarian Fund of the International Rescue Committee. These women are as eager to make native American traditions known as they are to learn about and understand France. The meaning of Thanksgiving, for example, was explained to French guests between the courses of a turkey and cranberry sauce dinner last November.

By really getting to know their International neighbours at

SHAPE, the Headquarters .of the North Atlantic Treaty forces in Europe, through personal hospitality and social intercourse, new club members overcome a natural tendency to associate only with other Americans while living abroad. Language and cooking lessons are other ways of breaking through this barrier. Members of the club are at present taking a ten-week course in cookery at the famous Cordon Bleu Cookery school in Paris. Fashion, too, rates high on the social calendar. Pierre Balmain and Carven have already shown their spring collections to the club at Versailles, while on another day the group made a visit to the salons of Jacques Hein. Here, a French photographer took a picture of the wives of five Generals seated side by side in the front row making an animated appraisal of the new styles. Among monthly excursions planned for the earlier part of this year are trips to the Museum at the Louvre, > the Assembly, University City, a perfume factory, and last, but not least, Christian Dior’s Salon.