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Birdsall Otis Edey
Birdsall Otis Edey, an early organizer and president of the Girl Scouts of America, from 1930-35,was active in Girl Scouting from 1919, held many different positions & was the first editor of the Girl Scout Leader
Magazine. She was a talented poet & had several volumes of poetry published. She
summered in Bellport with her two sisters, her mother and her father, a state senator. Edey, affectionately nicknamed Bird, made up new lyrics that she and her buddies sang to the tunes of
Gilbert and Sullivan while sailing aboard a neighbor's boat they coined
"The Walloping Window-Blind". At 25, Edey wrote and produced an operetta entitled
"The Pirate of the Great South Bay" that she and her friends performed in the summer of 1897 in one of a half-dozen Bellport theaters called
The Nearthebay Playhouse.
Lines to a Golden Eaglet:
"I would wish you the range of the eaglet's eye
The strength of his wings that your spirit would fly
Over all of life's turmoil- your purpose held high.
I would wish you the courage to walk unafraid
Wearing proudly the symbol of your accolade."
by Birdsall Otis Edey
Builders:
Then let this be the aim of all our building-
A finer race of womanhood to come,
Straight -backed, wide -eyed, with better understanding
Of life and fair habiliments of home.
A broader sense of beauty, comprehending
The source of greening leaf and creamy foam
Of blossoms, in resplendent burgeoning,
The promise seen in each recurring Spring…
Birdsall Otis Edey
TO JULIETTE LOW
More than a score of years ago a torch was lit, A beacon whose glow shone for the joy of youth.
And you, sensing its brilliancy, beneath your roof kindled a kindred flame,
That girlhood in your land should live within its light, And with your hand you tended it and kept its whiteness pure;
Prayed that its bright promise might endure, And walked yourself uprightly in its gleam.
And we who have had faith in this your dream, Are come to give account of our brief stewardship.
Thousands of girls share your ideals today. Thousands of women walk with them your lighted way.
With lives enriched and broadened from its treasury And glad hearts consecrated to your memory.
Birdsall Otis Edey, 1933
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