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The Junior League, formally known as the Association of Junior Leagues International, is a charitable women's non-profit organization focused on building strong communities and strong leaders. Founded in 1901 by Mary Harriman Rumsey, the Junior League has had hundreds of notable members who have helped shape the world through their commitment to voluntarism. Junior Leagues can be found throughout Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Junior League has been recognized at the highest levels for their work on reducing poverty, advocating for women's and children's rights, increase women's role in government, supporting veterans, combating hunger, and more.
Who Should Be Added?
Any woman who has been a member (Provisional, Active, or Sustainer) should be added to this project. Whenever possible, please list her local league(s) in her "About Me" description.
If a woman notable in history or today is added, please feel free to add them to the list below following the format provided.
Documentation of Membership
Whenever possible, adding documentation of membership to a Junior League member's profile is welcome. Possible sources for documentation include obituaries, CVs, biographies, and individual Junior League-affiliated websites.
Notable Members
- Judy Biggert -- current U.S. House of Representatives member
- Florence Bird -- former member of the Canadian Parliament
- Shirley Temple Black -- actor; delegate to the United Nations; U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, Czech Republic, and Slovak Republic
- Frances Payne Bolton -- former U.S. House of Representatives member
- Barbara Bush -- former U.S. First Lady; literacy activist
- Laura Bush -- former U.S. First Lady; literacy activist
- Margaret Chase Smith -- first woman elected to the U.S. Senate
- Julia Child --chef; television personality; author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking
- Sarah Palfrey Cook Danzig -- two-time Wimbledon champion
- Jennifer Dunn -- former U.S. House of Representatives member
- Anna Eshoo -- current U.S. House of Representatives member
- Mary E. Pruett Farrington -- former U.S. House of Representatives member
- Betty Ford -- former U.S. First Lady; substance abuse prevention and recovery activist
- Tillie Fowler -- former U.S. House of Representatives member
- Marion Hepburn Grant -- historian and philanthropist
- Isabella Selmes Greenway -- former U.S. House of Representatives member
- Kay Hagan -- current U.S. Senator
- Katharine Hepburn -- actor; women's issues activist
- Oveta Culp Hobby -- first Commander of U.S. Women's Army Corps; first U.S. Secretary of Health, Education & Welfare
- Margaret McTavish Konantz -- former member of the Canadian Parliament
- Carolyn Maloney -- current U.S. House of Representatives member
- Lynn Martin -- former U.S. House of Representatives member; former U.S. Secretary of Labor
- Doris Matsui -- current U.S. House of Representatives member
- Sandra Day O'Connor -- first female U.S. Supreme Court Justice
- Ruth Baker Sears Pratt -- first woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives from New York
- Nancy Reagan -- former U.S. First Lady; substance abuse prevention activist
- Eleanor Roosevelt -- former U.S. First Lady; social reformer; humanitarian; author; U.S. Delegate to the United Nations; chair of the U.N.'s Human Rights Commission
- Mary Harriman Rumsey -- founder of the Junior League; first Chair of the U.S. Consumers' Advisory Board of the National Resource Administration in President Franklin Roosevelt's Administration
- Bobbie Sparrow -- former member of the Canadian Parliament
- Kerri Strug -- famous American gymnast and Olympic gold medalist
- Eudora Welty -- Pulitizer Prize-winning author