Mary Lou Schaechter collection on Betsey Brodahl

The Mary Lou Schaechter collection on Betsey Brodahl consists of five folders of material.

Correspondence, 1984-2011 and undated, traces the friendship of Schaechter and Brodahl in the years immediately preceeding and decades following their retirement. They wrote to each other frequently about daily life, family matters, and travel. Schaechter was an avid genealogist and writer and wrote to Brodahl frequently about the family trees she compiled and the anecdotes she published. Brodahl's handwriting becomes noticeably harder to read and the lines of her letters extremely crooked following a 2003 stroke in which she lost the use of one hand. After Brodahl's stroke, the two women frequently commiserated about their declining health in their letters (Schaechter had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in the early 2000s), although they both kept a lighthearted and positive attitude about their illnesses. Many of the original letters in the collection have photocopies housed in a separate folder.

Clippings and ephemera, 1979-2012 and undated, includes newspaper clippings, programs, brochures, and other items related to Brodahl's life that were compiled by Schaechter and her husband, Charles. Among these items are applications and forms filled out by Brodahl for inclusion in various honorary publications, including Foremost Women of the Twentieth Century; genealogical material compiled by Schaechter at Brodahl's request; and extensive material on Brodahl's death and various memorial services.

Photographs, circa 1990s and 1998, include snapshots taken at a party at House on the Hill in 1998 and several unidentified snapshots, circa 1990s, of a statue, a harbor, and possibly Mary Lou Schaechter.

Also included is an audio recording of "A Brodahl Sampler," 7 November 2012. This event was organized in memory of Betsey Brodahl and featured introductory remarks by professor Ann Boaden, a house tour led by Kai Swanson, and poetry by Richard "Dick" Stahl.