Luther College Woman's Club November 2026 meeting

Learn about 10 inspiring women who helped shape Decorah and its environs at the next meeting of the Luther College Woman’s Club, to be held Tuesday, November 17, at 1:30 pm at Shirley Baker Commons, Baker Village, Decorah. 

Joy Bahnemann will present “Women of Decorah”  during the meeting. Her presentation will celebrate the lives and accomplishments of 10 women who shaped the settlement of Decorah and the surrounding areas while promoting civility, history and culture, business, faith, literacy, health, domestic tranquility, and women’s suffrage: Elizabeth Thompson Day, Mary Ann Lamm Steyer Higgins, Maggie Pfister Falck, Bertha Christen Mott, Elizabeth Ness, Mary Louise Van Hoff Weiser, Antonia Homberger Bear, Grace Young Porter, Inga Martha Bredesen Norstog, and Lovina Blackmarr Benedict.

Bahnemann’s presentation will draw primarily on the 1981 and 1998 editions of the Monday Club’s history of early members and prominent women of Decorah. The original hand-bound publication, Women of Decorah 1849–1925, was compiled by club members and edited by Vera Harris, Phyllis Leseth, Audrey Erdman, Peg Wright, and others. The second edition, published in 1998, marked the Monday Club’s centennial (1897–1997). 

About the presenter

Joy Bahnemann graduated from Luther College in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in history and education. She spent her career in healthcare administration, leading large Medicare and Medicaid operations; quality improvement organizations; and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services contractor operations investigating fraud, waste, and abuse in government programs.

Now retired, Bahnemann remains actively involved with several local organizations, including the Monday Club, celebrating its 130th anniversary of supporting the Decorah Public Library this year, and the Luther College Woman’s Club, which she recently served as president.