Helen Moag has been a member of the League of Women Voters of Evanston for 75 years. Becky Simon, President of the Illinois League of Women Voters, recently discovered that Helen is the longest serving League member in the state. Earlier this month, President Simon and Evanston League Co-President Georgia Vlahos visited Helen in her cozy home in Evanston. Over tea and cookies, Helen discussed how she came to join the League and her experience as a League member.
Helen recalls that she had just moved to Evanston from Chicago when a neighbor, Jeannie Tolfore, suggested that Helen accompany her to an Evanston League meeting. Helen agreed to go and was intrigued by the high level of discussion, finding League members well-spoken and the discussions eye-opening. Not only did she join the League and become a member of the Housing Committee, but Helen also agreed to help produce and print our newsletter, the Intercom.
Producing the Intercom was far more difficult at that time than it is today. It entailed spreading out typed articles on her dining room table to create the layout, and producing copies using a bulky hand-driven mimeograph machine that thankfully fit into her large basement. She stapled the pages of each edition together, created address labels, and mailed the final product to League members. Helen said that despite the fact that she had a job and children to care for, she did not mind the work. Her friend and fellow League member Jeannie Tolfore helped. And production of the Intercom enabled her to meet other League members who dropped off articles so that, shortly after moving to Evanston, she came to have a large circle of friends. Helen also worked in the League office in the former Evanston Civic Center on Ridge Avenue, an old building that she recalls as uncomfortably hot in the summer and very cold during the winter.
Helen says that League meetings were different in the 1950s than they are today. Members met in each other’s homes because there were children to tend to. Those who wished to do so smoked, knitted, and crocheted during the meetings. They wore mostly dresses and sometimes nice pants, but never blue jeans. League members were white, although Helen recalls one woman who may have been Asian.
Women’s roles were more limited in those days. Although her husband did not do so, most husbands told their wives how to vote. Helen is grateful that this has changed and that men are listening to women and women are running for public office. Nevertheless, she doesn’t think that there will be a woman President during her lifetime, especially as she is 94 years old. She also thinks there needs to be greater awareness that the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be made part of the Constitution.
During the 1960s, the League was involved with housing and school issues that dominated civic discourse in Evanston. Pioneering School District 65 Superintendent Gregory Coffin championed a voluntary busing program to end school desegregation. Northwest Evanston created an advisory committee that supported busing to integrate schools and the elimination of racially motivated restrictive covenants that prohibited housing sales or rentals to certain groups. These were divisive issues. There were marches in the streets. The Evanston League of Women Voters supported these social changes.
The Evanston League has also become more prominent and more visible to the community through the years. In earlier days local papers did not report on League actions, positions, or events. And although League members observed the Evanston City Council and its subordinate commissions, Helen does not recall that the League had access to any observer reports.
As for current political crises, Helen says she has lived long enough to know these come and go. She understands that it is difficult to figure out what to do at times but hopes and prays that issues such as immigration and persistent homelessness are resolved. She also hopes that the League continues to be vibrant and relevant in the years ahead.
A version of this article appeared in the January 2026 edition of the League of Women Voters of Illinois Member Bulletin.