82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 12,1985
Farm Women president
e long-time member
New
IS
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
GLEN ROCK - “They really
enjoyed it. It was time out for
themselves.”
That’s how Naomi Bupp
describes a group to which some of
her Jacobps friends and neighbors
belonged, other young mothers and
homemakers like herself. But the
group had a limited membership
and already other names were
ahead of hers on the waiting list.
Before too long, though, she and
her husband, Charles, moved from
the small town to a 6ft-acre farm
near Potosi, away from the group’s
immediate membership area.
So when dairy farm neighbor
Mary Carman called several rural
neighbor women together in Oc
tober 1950, Naomi was eager to
take part. At the second informal
meeting, she and the other young
farm wives attending became
charter members of Group #ll,
York County Society of Farm
Women.
“It was a chance for a few hours
away from milking, garden work,
canning. It was a few hours for
me,” she says, remembering the
the first step in the slipcovering part of Naomi Bupp's Sewing
For The Home business.
When she’s not traveling for the Farm Women, Naomi can most often be found
operating the machines of her freelance sewing business. Assistant Jane Klinefelter
helps with seamihg and cording for the home interiors designs.
enjoyment of becoming part of
Group #ll.
This week, nearly 35 years later,
Naomi will be installed as
president of Pennsylvania Society
of Farm Women. Her title becomes
official during the Society’s annual
business meeting, set for Tuesday
morning at the Farm Show office
complex.
“At first I got more out of the
organization than I could ever give
back. But it gave me a chance to
leam to be a public speaker,” she
says, crediting those early years
as a Farm Women member.
“Our group never excused
anyone from doing something on
the reasoning that ‘I can’t do
that’,” she explains. “Everyone
can do something and the com
mittee system always makes it so
that there is someone to help, not
just one person to do the job. And
there are not leaders and followers
in farm women. Everyone is in
volved.”
Because members had to take
charge in turn of the meetings,
they learned to contact speakers
and program representatives, to
set up programs and to organize.
York County Society of Farm Women president Arlene Miller, right, also a member of
Group #ll, presented a crystal dish from the local group to Naomi at an open house for
her newly-remodeled home.
Many of the members of Group #ll
had small children, and this
society soon earned a reputation as
one that incorporated fun into their
meetings.
One particular meeting that
Naomi remembers was held at
their farm, and guests were
members of the Dallastown Group
#9. Program for the afternoon was
a circus in the backyard, complete
with sawdust ring, and performing
animals, including such pets as
dogs, cats and baby pigk.
Other children-oriented events
saw hayrides, bam hobo parties,
scavenger hunts, summer picnics
and Christmas parties on the
schedule, while more serious
meetings often took the form of
educational sessions with ex
tension personnel on cooking and
sewing.
“Now, things have changed a
bit,” says the incoming state
president of her local group.
“Many of our members have
celebrated 50 years of marriage.
We don’t take hayrides any longer.
Our fund-raisers were once sand
wich and bake sales, but now they
Wtnes(ead
c K/cies
focus more on monthly ideas, like
small penalties of paying by inches
in your waistline or your shoe size.
We’re more content to sit and do
less physical things. ’ ’
In the early 1960’5, Naomi ac
cepted a position as head cook for a
local elementary school. The hours
of that job allowed her to remain
active in Farm Women, while
working basically the same hours
that her four children were in
school.
There was another small plus. In
the years when school had to close
for the inevitable Farm Show
snowy weather, Naomi would seize
the snow-day vacation as a chance
to attend the state Farm Women’s
conventions in Harrisburg.
Ten years later, the couple’s two
youngest were in college, and
Naomi again sought changes in her
work schedule that would allow
flexibility to meet their college
travel needs, while still freeing her
for her much-loved Farm Women
activities.
“I have always enjoyed sewing,”
she relates. “So I answered an ad
for a draperymaker.”
The job was with the Penney’s
stores, and the sewing instead was
mostly of slipcovers. Not initially
thrilled with the prospect of that
intricate and difficult work, Naomi
decided she would accept the
challenge and learn this new job.
Athough the store manager had
suggested she study slipcovering
techniques in Philadelphia, her
own children’s college schedules
prohibited any thought of her
returning to such studies.
In the past, she had ex
perimented at slip covering some
of the family’s own furniture, with
results so impressive that friends
had requested similar work for
their homes. With that little bit of
background, and plenty of
determination, Naomi began
ripping slipcovers apart, teaching
herself the techniques as she
constructed new ones, using the old
as patterns, and copying the
methods of construction.
, j
A year later, Penney’s moved
their interiors business to another
county, and Naomi accepted a
similar position with Sears. This
job, however, was for drapery
sewing only.
So, with her self-taught
techniques and plenty of
customers waiting for slip
covering, Naomi opened her own
free-lance decorative sewing
business. Her “Sewing For The
Home” specializes in slipcover and
drapery designs, as well as bed
spreads, pillows and other
decorative home accessories.
Along with her own business,
Naomi still does some drapery
work for Sears.
With the flexibility of her own
business schedule, she agreed in
1972 to serve as second vice
president of the York County
Society of Farm Women. Two
years later she moved to the first
vice-presidency, and in 1976
became head of the county group.
During her stint as a county
officer, a Farm Women’s bus trip
was organized to visit one of the
former state presidents. Melba
Dummer had left Pennsylvania
and moved to Las Cruces, NM, to
open a doll museum. Many of her
former friends wished to visit her,
and tour the unusual business.
The trip in 1975 was so successful
that a repeat visit was made in
1979. Now, Mrs. Dummer is
planning to sell her museum, and a
third trip by the Farm Women is
planned for April.
Under Naomi’s leadership,
York’s societies hosted a Farm
Women Spring Rally at the York
Fairground, with a deep-pit
barbecue dinner cooked and
served by the 4-H beef club.
But the highlight of her county
presidency was the organizing of
three new Farm Women societies.
Two are in York County, Group #34
of Freysville, and #35 at Seven
Valleys. The third society is in
Adams County, based in the East
Berlin area.
Retiring as county president
after 1977, Naomi took a break in
her Farm Women schedule for two
years. Then she was approached
with a request to consider a state
office, and in 1979 began a three
year term as second vice
president', moving up for a similar
period as first vice-president.
When her state president term
winds up in 1988, Naomi will have
spent 15 years in Farm Women
leadership activities as the county
and state levels.
One of her key goals as president
is to keep the membership of over
4,000 in 17 counties expanding. An
extra special thrill would be the
opportunity-to help Farm Women
organize in a new county.
As each new president assumes
office, she chooses a special area
in which to focus statewide project
activities. For Naomi, that focus
will be on promoting Pennsylvania
commodities through projects
geared to foods and recipes.
“We can always try to make
better use of the excellent, plen
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