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 voices of America’s first ladies. At one point, Wertheimer, an avid television and film viewer, developed ways to reach and teach her students by using pop culture in her lessons.
Friend, colleague and co-author Nichola D. Gutgold wrote on the FLARE website that the listerv was “one of the greatest contributions Wertheimer made” and that “many conference papers and published scholarship resulted from that [listserv].” In the few short years since FLARE’s establishment, Wertheimer had helped carry out its mission, which is to “be the primary association to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and outreach among scholars, institutions, First Ladies’ staff, biographers, archivists, journalists, and public historians interested in research and education about the lasting legacy of U.S. First Ladies.”
Wetherheimer edited Inventing a Voice: The Rhetoric of American First Ladies of the Twentieth Century and co-authored with Guthold Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart. At the time of her passing, she was working on a forthcoming book about first lady autobiographies.
In an interview with Pennsylvania State University at Hazelton, Wertheimer described the first lady autobiographies in her next book as rhetorical tools with political implications.
“It’s like an extended speech,” Wertheimer said at the time. “A first lady wants her audience to see things her way.”
Nancy Kegan Smith, president of FLARE, described Wertheimer to East Wing Magazine in a phone interview as “very enthusiastic, very involved in financing … [and] the bylaws,” of FLARE. Smith noted Wertheimer’s contributions to FLARE were “vital” and that she admired her friend and colleague’s passion for learning and teaching.
Wertheimer was also remembered as passionate, committed and the kind of person who wasn’t “shy” about advocating for her point of view.
“During the many years that I knew her as a colleague and as President of FLARE, we had numerous ‘spirited dialogues.’ Molly became a watchdog over FLARE finances and budgets always advising caution and restraint,” wrote Myra Gutin, former FLARE president, on the organization’s website. “Molly was one of the moving forces in the study of first ladies, and her work guaranteed that younger scholars and researchers would not have to face the question: ‘And why would you write about them?’”
Outside of her scholarly work, Wertheimer was an enthusiastic gardener who filled her home with numerous houseplants and grew her own herb gardens that she used in her cooking—her other passion, according to an obituary in the Standard Speaker.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Wertheimer can be made to FLARE here.
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