Dora Alexander Talley, 73, our beloved National President, died Wednesday afternoon, February 25, 1953 in St. Francis Hospital, Miami Beach, Florida.  Her death was attributed to cerebral hemorrhage.
Mrs. Talley was a noted humanitarian.  The entire fraternal system has lost a great pioneer and dynamic leader.  The Woodmen Circle has lost a friend and its guide of the last 42 years.

CHILDHOOD
Dora Alexander was born November 14, 1879, near Russellville, Alabama, the daughter of James Douglas and Nancy Elizabeth Alexander.  Her father, of Scotch-Irish descent, was born on the Douglas plantation in Alabama, a portion of which was later included in the Muscle Shoals project.  The old Douglas home remains on its original site.  The family experienced the vicissitudes of the reconstruction period in the South, which followed the Civil War; and from these experiences of want and hardship, she no doubt developed the qualities of self-reliance, independence, and self-assurance, which have contributed to making her a national figure in the fraternal world.
In 1880 the Alexander family moved to Garland, Dallas Co., Texas, where this talented daughter grew into womanhood.  Her childhood days were happy, busy ones.  When out of school, she assisted her mother with household duties and the care of her young brothers and sister.  She received her education in the rural and normal schools of Texas; and at the age of sixteen, largely through the influence of her father, who himself had been a teacher, entered the teaching profession and taught for a number of years in the Garland High and other Dallas County schools.
In the later years of his life, Mr. Alexander became active and interested in the Woodmen of the World.  His belief in fraternalism and his loyal devotion to it greatly influenced his daughter, who had a profound respect for her father's opinions and ideals.

EARLY CAREER
Her activities, which began in the local Grove, soon attracted favorable attention among the members of the Woodmen Circle.  In 1909 and again in 1911 she was elected delegate from her local grove to the state convention.  At the state meeting in 1911 she was made delegate to the national convention, which met that year in Rochester, New York.  Here she was unanimously elected Supreme.....end of article missing

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