Author Sue Ellen Cooper didn't realize she was starting a movement in 1997 when she gave a friend a present and wrote a book about ensuing events.
By STEPHANIE HAYES
Published April 25, 2004
CARROLLWOOD - If Moses parted the Red Sea, Sue Ellen Cooper brought it back together.
Cooper, "Exalted Queen Mother" and founder of the Red Hat Society social organization for women, drew throngs of loyal followers to her book signing Thursday at Barnes & Noble in Carrollwood.
Clad in crimson chapeaus and purple clothes, more than 150 red hatters waited in line for a chance to meet the woman behind the colorful craze.
"None of us would stand in line for the president, but we would for Sue Ellen," said Ann Carol Lemiszko of the Auburndale Red Hat Dixie Bells chapter of the Red Hat Society. Lemiszko, decked out in a sequined beret, iridescent purple suit and gold-studded red shoes, arrived at the bookstore early to present Cooper with a hat she had designed.
Cooper's book, The Red Hat Society: Fun and Friendship After Fifty, touches on marriage, children, careers, widowhood, body image, retirement, spirituality, clothes and friendship.
Betty Black of the Tampa Red Hat-titudes said the book has "philosophy as well as lightheartedness." Black, dressed in scrubs, dashed to the signing on a break from her home health care job. "It's uplifting," she said.
The book also explains the humble beginnings of the Red Hat Society.
In 1997, Cooper gave her friend Linda Murphy a 55th birthday gift: a vintage red fedora and a copy of the poem Warning by British writer Jenny Joseph.
The poem begins "When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple/With a red hat which doesn't go and doesn't suit me." Murphy was so pleased with the gift, Cooper decided to give it to several other friends. The group of women from Fullerton, Calif., ventured out to tea in their red and purple uniforms.
"We never thought that we were in the midst of the beginning of some kind of movement," said Murphy, who signed books alongside Cooper on Thursday.
Today, the Red Hat Society has more than 20,000 chapters in 20 countries. The Tampa area alone has 55 chapters of women who meet, eat and tour the city, all in the name of silliness and sisterhood.
Carmen Wood of the Tampa L.A.D.I.E.S., or lovely, ageless dames in excellent shape, said the camaraderie is the fun part.
"Sometimes when you turn this age, you feel like you're the only one who feels this way," she said.
While women 50 and older reserve the right to don the red hat, younger women are welcome to join, providing they keep their color combinations to pink and lavender.
"The little girl in us is playing dress-up," Black said. "(Cooper) gives us permission."
Cooper appeared exhausted but content after the last red hat trickled out of the bookstore.
"It's very gratifying," she said. "Makes me feel proud of all of us.
"Women over 50 do not want to be counted out. We're not dead. We're not done. We're not boring."
For information about forming or joining an existing chapter of the Red Hat Society, visit www.redhatsociety.com
