Louise Pound’s birthday party was yesterday, as was the launch party for a new biography about her titled Louise Pound: Scholar, Athlete, Feminist Pioneer.

The University of Nebraska Press attended, and this party was notable for several reasons. Among them:

Hostess Paige Namuth actually met Louise Pound. Her parents were friends of Pound and her siblings,  Roscoe and Olivia,  and sometimes visited them at their Victorian home in downtown Lincoln (which, sadly, has been torn down). One visit, Louise Pound, who by then was in her 80s, took an interest in Paige, who was then about 10 years old. They spent the afternoon playing outside, and at the end of the visit, Louise gave the girl her ice skates, roller skates and golf clubs. Paige still has them, and they were on display at the party last night. (Paige also gave one golf club to a teenage girl – a promising athlete. She thought Louise would approve).

The party was held at the Antlers Center, a substance abuse recovery center that Namuth helps run, which is housed in an old mansion at the corner of South Street and Sheridan Boulevard. Lucky party attendees got a tour of home, which lore has it, was once owned by a man whose brother lived a block away, so they built an underground tunnel connecting the two homes.

Above is a photograph of Louise Pound’s golf clubs (more pics are on our Facebook page), and follow this link to a story in the Lincoln Journal Star about the event.