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YWCA notable, pioneering social worker
Descending from pioneer stock—her great-grandmother and grandmother crossed the Oregon Trail in 1861—Elizabeth “Betty” Steel Genné was a pioneer in her own right in the fields of education, women’s rights, family life and sex education, civil rights, peace and justice.
Ms. Genné died on February 29, 2008 at the age of 96 at Pilgrim Place.
“[The world] has lost a great spirit, one who had, from early on, a breadth of interest in everybody, beyond any causes we’ve got now. All the causes the liberals have now, she had from the beginning, from early on in her life,” said Pilgrim Place resident Harry Brunger, who first met Ms. Genné in 1939.
Born on a farm outside Albany, Oregon on August 30, 1911, Ms. Genné achieved national prominence for her volunteer achievements with the National YWCA and her pioneering work that she conducted with her husband, William H. Genné, in the field of family life and sex education.
Around 1915, Ms. Genné moved with her parents, Charles and Winifred Steel, and younger sister, Gertrude, to Portland, Oregon. She graduated from Washington High School where she was Oregon President of the Older Girls Conference and a delegate to the Christian Youth Conference of North America in Toronto, Canada, where she met her future husband in 1930.
In 1935, Ms. Genné graduated from Oregon State University in 1935, becoming the 3rd generation of women in her family to receive a college degree. While at the university, she served as president of the Association of Women Students and was a member of Mortarboard Honor Society for Senior Women. In 1936, she received her master’s degree from Columbia University Teacher’s College in New York. Upon graduation, she returned to Portland to work with young women as a social worker with the National Youth Administration.
In 1937, she married Bill Genné, and they spent the next 18 years in student work, with Mr. Genné serving as chaplain at Michigan State University, Alfred University in New York and Pacific University in Oregon. During World War II, they demonstrated their lifelong commitment to pacifism by personally sponsoring 6 Japanese-American Nisei students interned in “relocation centers,” enabling them to complete their college education.
Upon Ms. Genné’s return to Oregon in the mid-40s, she participated in the Civil Rights Court Watch Program to ensure that minorities received fair treatment and equal justice.
Starting in the early 50s and continuing through the 80s, Ms. Genné and her husband pioneered work in the field of family life and sex education in Flint, Michigan with the Clara Elizabeth Fund for Maternal Health, and then based out of Montclair, New Jersey through the National Council of Churches. As one of only a few couples in the field, they made joint presentations focusing on family life, maternal health education and sex education. They also co-led family camps and workshops throughout the United States as well as Austria, Australia, Canada, Fiji, Holland, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Tanzania and Trinidad Tobago. In addition, they co-authored 8 books.
Originally joining the YWCA in Portland as a teenager, throughout her life Ms. Genné participated in her local YWCA and served as president of the Flint, Michigan and Montclair, New Jersey YWCAs. She also served on the National Board of the YWCA of the USA from 1958 to 1982, serving as vice president from 1970 to 1973 and president from 1973 to 1979, eventually gaining emeritus member status. She was also a member of the YWCA World Service Council until her death.
“Betty was a people person, and I would say that perhaps her greatest contribution was to make people feel enabled,” said 20-year Pilgrim Place resident Elizabeth Palmer, who has known Ms. Genné for more than 50 years through her own work with the YWCA. “She believed in young leadership and was a great supporter of the student movement in the YWCA. She encouraged and supported people. She was positive, a very positive person.”
In 1992, Ms. Genné was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the West End Inland Empire YWCA, who named the annual award in her honor.
Ms. Genné’s other volunteer involvements included 24 years of active participation in the PTA, chairing the Montclair Civil Rights Commission from 1960 to 1972 and serving as an active member of the American Association of University Women and League of Women Voters. In addition, she directed Christian Education for Watchung Church in Montclair, New Jersey from 1959 to 1969 and taught at Montclair State College, Farleigh Dickenson University and Drew Theological Seminary in the 60s and 70s. Following “retirement” in 1975, Ms. Genné and her husband worked as program directors for Geneva Point Center in New Hampshire for a decade.
In 1984, Ms. Genné and her husband moved from New Jersey to Pilgrim Place, continuing their pioneering ways by becoming the first couple to chair the Pilgrim Place Festival. Ms. Genné revitalized and chaired the silkscreen booth for the festival for 10 years.
“She had a creativity about her and an excitement and a gaiety and a sense of humor. These are the things I think of when I think of Betty,” Mr. Brunger commented. “And quietly, without saying it, it was always ‘how can I help you?’ She was always behind the scenes, but this was always there and you sensed it.”
Born before women had the right to vote, Ms. Genné always treasured her civic responsibility and voted in every election since she turned 21, a span of 75 years. In the California primary, which took place 6 weeks before her death, she cast her last vote. And, as would be expected, she voted for a woman.
After 60 years together, Mr. Genné died in January 1997. In 2000, at age 89, Ms. Genné married Stanley Conover, a Pilgrim Place resident. Mr. Conover died in 2006.
She is survived by her 4 children, Nancy Baker and her husband, Ron, of Laconia, New Hampshire; W. Thomas Genné and his wife, Priscilla, of Corvallis, Oregon; Margaret Genné and Susan Genné both of Portland Oregon; and by her 5 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Services for Ms. Genné will take place at 3:30 p.m. today, Saturday, March 15, 2008 in Decker Hall at Pilgrim Place.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial gifts be made to the VNA & Hospice of Southern California, 150 W. First St., Suite 270, Claremont, CA 91711; or to Pilgrim Place, 660 Avery Rd., Claremont, CA 91711.
