Editor’s Note: Today’s guest contributor offers a unique perspective on the lesser-known co-founder of Al-Anon Family Groups, Anne B. Claire R. provides us an on-location view of how Lois Wilson and Anne B. connected in Westchester County and worked together to start a Clearing House for Family Groups that became Al-Anon Family Groups, a world-wide Twelve Step fellowship for families and friends of people with drinking problems. In respect for the principle of anonymity, Claire uses last initials only. She refers to her sponsor, a person who guides a member of a Twelve Step fellowship through the Twelve Steps. 

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and a life-changing day in the founding of A.A. and Al-Anon. Join Joy Jones and me and Gail La Croix, archivist for Dr. Bob’s home, in a special no-cost Zoom presentation of Mother’s Day and the women who helped launch A.A. and Al-Anon. No registration required – for more info and Zoom link for Sunday, May 11 at 10 a.m. eastern, visit https://wilsonhouse.org/mothers-day.

I was fortunate that Ruth L., my second Sponsor, took me on a private and special Anne B. tour in the small village of Chappaqua, NY. Although there have been numerous changes to Chappaqua since Anne and Devoe B. lived there in the 1940s, I felt like I was getting a firsthand experience of walking in Anne B.’s shoes. In addition to my personal passion for Al-Anon history, my visit to Chappaqua enriched one of my past staff assignments as the Archivist of the Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., when it was located in the early to mid-1990s in NYC. 

It was fortuitous that Ruth L. knew Anne B. personally because they both lived in Chappaqua with their husbands and families. Ruth and Anne also attended the same Al-Anon meeting(s) with Lois.  

Our first stop was the house Anne B. and her husband Devoe lived in on Hardscrabble Road. The house in Anne and Devoe’s time was white. When I saw it, it was a reddish brown. Norman Rockwell would have easily been drawn to include it in one of his paintings. It was a small and attractive home with a picket fence on a winding country road. The peacefulness of the outside of the home was deceiving due to the difficulty and tumult caused by Devoe’s struggles to maintain sobriety, which he finally was able to sustain after ten years of A.A. membership, along with Bill W. (Lois’s husband and A.A.’s Cofounder) serving as his Sponsor.

Our next stop was what appeared to be the back of an L-shaped red brick strip mall. Ruth pointed out the location of Devoe’s automobile repair shop, gas station, and foreign car salesroom during World War II. Anne B. was the bookkeeper of the businesses and managed the household finances. She single-handedly drew income from the business to maintain their home and family life. Her husband’s drinking at age 30 rapidly progressed into alcoholism. Ruth knew about Devoe’s multiple relapses from Anne and that he was in A.A. for ten years before he could maintain continuous sobriety. 

Ruth shared with me that Anne’s isolation at the family businesses suited her shy and introverted nature. It was her office skills, especially with typing and bookkeeping, that made her a well-suited and ideal partner to help Lois W. with the formation and operation of the Clearing House. The Clearing House, which occupied the second floor of Lois and Bill’s home, Stepping Stones, served 87 family groups and overseas contacts in 1951 when it started. 

The next and final stop on my tour with Ruth was the Chappaqua train station. It was near Devoe’s businesses. Ruth told me that Lois would get on the train in Bedford Hills with a portable typewriter and Anne would meet her on the train two days each week with office supplies when she boarded the train in Chappaqua. The train let them off at Grand Central Station in New York City. Their first destination was the Old 24th Street A.A. Club House in 1952. 

 Lois and Anne felt that more volunteers were needed to handle the growing number of groups and the many requests for information they received. A pool of volunteers would more likely be available in New York City than in Westchester County. So, they moved the Clearing House from Lois and Bill’s home to the second floor of the A.A. Club House. Forty-plus years later, Ruth was still laughing at the nicknames for the Clearing House –“Lois’s Sweatshop” in the summer and “Lois’s Ice Box” in the winter. In 1957, the three-year-old Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc. moved again from 334 ½ 24th Street to its first real office at 125 East 23rd Street. It remained there until 1971 when a bigger office was needed to service the growing number of Al-Anon and Alateen groups and inquiries for information. 

It was a remarkable afternoon that I spent with my Sponsor. Although I had been to Stepping Stones and met Lois multiple times, I felt more connected to Anne B., Al-Anon’s lesser-known co-founder. I also had a deeper respect for Lois and Anne’s teamwork in Al-Anon’s formative years. How lucky I was to have Ruth L. as my Sponsor.