My great-great aunt Belle is my absolute favorite aunt. Over the years I have read many things about her in the local New Orleans newspapers, and from this I can say that she was not only one heck of a lady, but when the history of the suffrage movement was written for New Orleans and Louisiana, her role in the movement was way under documented.

That wrong is about to be correct during this year, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. I am determined that her story, all of it in New Orleans history will be told.

One story that has been passed down to me was that she and her sister Anne Gertrude both fell in love the same guy. Unfortunately, Belle lost the battle of love and Anna married Robert Lee Cooney (link to her grave on the parents memorials here at FindaGrave). According to my cousin, it broke Belle's heart and she never fell in love again.

But she was very active in New Orleans community affairs and she was a member and in some cases held numerous office in several New Orleans public orgranizations.

Below is just a tiny sliver of what I have uncovered.

• Member in 1892 of the New Orleans Portia Club (a woman's club supporting a US Government amendment giving women the right to vote. Forrunner of the ERA in 1896.

• Member (one of niine New Orleans women, co-founder of the club, 1st President and one of the last of the Presidents of the Era (Equal Rights for All) Club (an organization of women pledged to secure suffrage for women in Louisiana). She was not only a member during and after the fight for the 19th amendment, but held office in that club during the entire time.

• State Recording Secretary International Sunshine Society

• President of the Normal Alumnae Association in New Orleans

• Member of the Ladies Confederate Memorial Association

• President of the Orleans District of the Women's Christian Temperance Union

• Member, recording secretary, and corresponding secretary of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Stonewall Jackson Chapter No 1135

She opposed the concept of Daylight Savings Time during the time she was president of the Orleans District of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She confronted local politicians in the Mayor and Ward bosses on matters of public interest in New Orleans. she and her group helped start and orgranize the NOLA juvenile court system, public defender's office, and offered solutions to the New Orleans Seware, Water and Drainage system.

Belle Randolp Education/College Degrees:

• Jan 1881 Belle Randolph and Addie Blonde (her sister) on list of those who successfully passed the competitive examination for teachership in the New Orleans Public School system.

• 1898-1899 Tulane University in New Orleans (University Department for Teachers Certificate granted Botany and French)

• Department for Teachers Diplomas: English, Botany, Psychology. Her Thesis: "Technic of Tennyson, as Exemplified in the Tarn Scene, and in the Tournament Scene in the Poem of Elaine."

• Graduate Student in Art, English and Pedagogy (most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, refers to the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners.)

• Catalog listed her enrolled in the Teachers Course, address 1754 Prytania.

• Catalog also showed her enrolled in H. Sophie Newcomb College Graduate Art program. H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, or Newcomb College, was the coordinate women's college of Tulane University located in New Orleans, in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It was founded by Josephine Louise Newcomb in 1886 in memory of her daughter. Newcomb was the first women's coordinate college within a United States university.

• 1908 Graduated from Tulane -- University College with a Bachelor of Arts (one of the first two students to graduate from this unit).

• 1909-1910 Studied in the Graduate Department - English (Grad degree?)

• 1909-1910 Took Summer Art Class at Tulane

• 1910 Graduated Tulane University College with a Master of Arts

She was a school teacher in the New Orleans Public School System her entire life at the following schools:

1888-1889 McDonogh School No. 9
1890-1892 McDonogh School No. 13
1892-1893 McDonogh School No. 10 Baronne (SW coroner with First)
1894-1895 McDonogh School High School No. 3, 740 Esplanade Avenue (SE coroner with Bourbon)
1896 New Orleans Normal School
1897 Paulding School
1898-1901 New Orleans Normal School, 1142 Constance
1902-1905 McDonogh High School School No. 2, 636 Jackson Avenue
1906-1912 McDonogh School No. 3, 740 Esplanade Avenue
1913-1914 Esplanade Avenue High School, 2426 Esplanade Avenue
1916 Esplanade Avenus High School, Esplanade Avenue and North Rochelave
1917 Esplanade Avenue High School, 2400 Esplanade Avenue
Still trying to get the complete record from NOAl that covers 1917-1936
1936 First Assistant Teacher, McDonough School No. 18

Her obituary appeared in the New Orleans Times Picayune on March 18, 1946. It reads in part:-
Miss Belle R. Van Horn, 82 years old, 1228 Arabella St. retired public school teacher, died Sunday at 7 am.

Funeral services will be conducted today at 2:30 pm from the funeral home of Tharp-Sontheimer-Tharp, Inc 4117 South Claiborne Ave. Interment will be in Lafayette No. 1 cemetery.

Miss Van Horn was for many years a teacher at the John McDonogh High School, 2400 Esplanade Ave., and was active in educational organizations and in the United Daughters of the Confederacy. She retired from teaching 10 years ago. She is survived by her brother Oliver H. Van Horn.

Note: On the same page, but in the obits section, the following additional information was recorded: "daughter of the late Thaddeus D. Van Horn and Margaretta Law, sister of Oliver H. Van Horn.