Illinois Centennial Award
When the King’s Daughters Organization (then known as The Carrie Post King’s Daughters Home for Women) received the July 16, 1999 letter of invitation to apply for the Illinois Centennial Award, it didn’t take KDO Historian Sharon Hohimer long to begin collecting the legal documentation to apply!
What made this award so unique was that KDO did not only qualify as a 100+ yr. active business (providing fine retirement living and a very special way of life for senior women in Illinois), we also qualified as the oldest active women’s organization in Springfield, IL, formed in 1888.
Three slides were shown during the presentation: The Home as it appeared in the 1980’s; the Home after the second wing was added and greatly as it appeared in 1999; and a photo of one of the Home’s residents and circle members enjoying a tea in celebration of our 100th anniversary as a corporation at the Governor’s Mansion on June 14, 1993.
The Fifteenth Anniversary Centennial Awards Program was hosted Friday, October 1, 1999 at the historic Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL and attended by Cindy Lash, KDO Executive President, Maryann Walker, Administrator of the King’s Daughter’s Home and Sharon Hohimer, KDO Historian.
Each business or organization accepted into the program received a recognition plaque signed by the Governor and ISHS President, one year membership in the Illinois State Historical Society, exclusive use of the Centennial Award Program logo, and 2 complimentary tickets to the reception and banquet.
KDO is now listed among some of the previous “Illinois Centennial Award” recipients such as Boardman Smith Funeral Chapel (1848); St. John’s Hospital (1875); Charles T. Bisch & Son, Inc. (1880); Franklin Life Insurance Company (1884); Maldaner’s Restaurant (1884); R. W. Troxell & Company (1887); Kirlin-Egan & Butler Funeral Home (1893); and Memorial Medical Center (1897).