Molly Wertheimer Remembered

Founding FLARE board member was key in creating a First Ladies Studies network for scholars.

In 1998, Molly Meijer Wertheimer found herself among a scholarly group of like-minded women who believed United States first ladies had been understudied. Her remedy was to help bring scholars, researchers, biographers, journalists and others writing about first ladies together through a listserv she created. That vision ultimately brought together seven founding members of the nonprofit First Ladies Association for Research and Education (FLARE) established in 2021 for which she was among and served as secretary.

Wertheimer, 76, died in her Hazelton, Pennsylvania home on Aug. 1 after battling cancer.

She was remembered this week as a “prominent voice” in those early discussions about FLARE and also as a trailblazing professor of Communication Arts and Sciences and affiliate professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University at Hazelton where she retired after 39 years. Her scholarship centered on women’s rhetoric and political speech, particularly the vo…