First ever cell phone made in 1973

Submitted by Lana Sue Jones              

The Twentieth Century Club met Monday, April 10 in the home of Jean Wernel hostess with Sherry Wiseman serving as co-hostess. The meeting was called to order by president Georgia Detwiler. The minutes were read and approved. There was no treasurer report.

Old business was a report on the year book. It will not be ready to give out in May.

New business was plans for our May meeting. We will have our meeting at the Museum and each member will provide a dish for a salad lunch.

The opinion was presented by Jean Wernel on cell phones. She gave us some back ground on its beginning. Martin Cooper built the first cell phone and made the first ever cell phone call in 1973 on a street in New York. His phone was the size of a brick. Cooper is known as the father of the cellular phone.

The group discussed the pro and cons of cell phones and cellular devices. The program was given by Sue Jones on the biography of actress/comedian and animal activate Betty White. She started out in radio with her own show and in 1952 she co-founded a television production so she could have complete control in front and behind the camera. Betty became popular on game shows and had the honor of being “ the first lady of game shows.” She met her husband Allen Ludden on the Password game show.

Her career progressed in television to talk shows with Jack Paar and Johnny Carson on the tonight show. She will be remembered with her role in the shows; The Carol Burnett Show, and Mama’s Family to name a few and her biggest hits were; The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Golden Girls and Hot In Cleveland.

Many awards were won for her various roles and work. She was a pet enthusiast and animal welfare advocate, belonging to a number of organizations to take care of animals and she made large monetary donations to the organizations.

She summed up her life by saying, I am the luckiest person alive; half my life is working in a profession I love, and the other half is working with animals”.      

Our May 8 meeting was our salad luncheon at the Museum. The new officers will take over in August. Kay Sewell will host our August meeting. Kay provided entertainment in which we had to guess the numbers of animal crackers in a jar. Georgia had the winning guess. Animal crackers were made in 1902. Kay also had a teaser of games in which we had to guess the year various games were made or produced.

Other entertainment was given by Sandi Eaves who passed out a Spring work search and Dorothy Foster who passed out a sheet to make words out of 5 letters. The lunch was delicious and the entertainment very enjoyable. See you in August.