The Lois Common Denominator
Sure, there are more than 600 members in the women’s club but memorizing the roster should be a snap. Let’s see. There’s Lois. Then, there’s Lois. And don’t forget Lois.
You get the picture.
They are a fun bunch who gather regularly for dining, short trips or longer excursions. One may be tempted to join the exclusive club, but if your name isn’t Lois, forget about it.
They don’t mean to discriminate, you understand. But the whole reason members of the Lois Link get together is the fact that they share a common moniker.
The group’s youngest member is 1; the oldest is 100. Interestingly, a large number of members are retired teachers and nurses.
Many of the local members live at Leisure World and most of the Loises lead active lives. For instance, Lois Larsen, 93, bowls competitively in a local league and recently won a stove as a contestant on “The Price is Right.” Lois Edds, 77, runs marathons.
Many of the women said they hated their name when they were kids because they didn’t know any other Loises.
Funny how things change. Today, most of them said they love their name. “It’s a beautiful name, don’t you think?” asked Lois Widly, founder of the group.
About 30 Loises, members of the Orange County group of Lois Link, gathered at a Laguna Hills restaurant last week for one of their regular lunches. Naturally, every time someone called out the name Lois, 30 heads turned.
Widly, 62, said a Minnesota group called the Lois Club was the first to bring together lots of Loises. Then, in 1995, while visiting Canada, Widly began thumbing through the 125,000-population phone book for Prince Edward Island. She eventually found 19 Loises listed, called up a few of them and invited them to tea.
That was the first informal meeting of the Lois Link.
Of course, there are some famous Loises, most notably the fictional Lois Lane. In addition, there is Lois Wyse, a columnist for Good Housekeeping magazine; Lois Wilson, a star of 1920s silent movies; Lois Nettleton, a movie star in the 1950s; another Lois Wilson, founder of the Al-Anon support group; and there’s a Lois mentioned in the Bible.
Yet another Lois Wilson may be joining the Lois Link soon. Wilson, 39, of Aliso Viejo, attended the group’s recent lunch meeting and talked about sharing a name with a famous Lois.
“I’ve been to see her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame because I had always gotten calls from people asking if I was her,” Wilson said. “I know that she died a few years ago, but I want to find out more about her since we shared the same name. I have a Lois scrapbook and I keep photos of her star.”
The Lois Link has members from England, Australia, Ireland and across the U.S., but members said it appears there is a larger concentration of Loises from Minnesota than in any other part of the country.
“From our research, there are more Loises in Minnesota than anywhere else we’ve come across,” Widly said. “That’s probably why the other group originally started in Minnesota.”
Widly, who wears a glittery pin that spells out her first name, said the name Lois means “goodness,” and from the Loises she knows, she said the description fits.
“So many of the women in our group have been caregivers and when they were young, they worked as teachers, nurses or in other similar fields,” she said. “They are kind, good, caring people. We think of ourselves as a sisterhood.
“When I was a kid, I thought my parents had made up the name Lois because I didn’t know any other Loises. Imagine my delight when I later found out there were other Loises out there. Each time I find one is just so much fun, and I plan to spend the rest of my life looking for Loises.”