Fort Worth club continues its longstanding tradition

Each year in the late spring, Fort Worth's debutante presentation organizations select young women to make their debuts with the club. The Assembly is the oldest of the city's five clubs with a history that stretches back to a day when Fort Worth was just emerging from the dust of a hard scrabble frontier town into the light of a burgeoning city of promise.

In 1912, an elite gathering of Cowtown matrons lamented that there was far too little entertainment for the young people and decided a grand holiday party would go a long way to fix the problem.

That year, the club honored Elizabeth Reynolds as Queen of the Horse Show at a grand winter gala. Elizabeth arrived in the hotel ballroom in a sleigh pulled by several young men. A band played. The generations mixed and mingled -- and the debutantes stayed until midnight!

The party was such a success, the ladies determined to make it an annual event. The next year, 12 young women made their social debuts with the club.

One of them was Kate Lehane, a woman with a social conscience who later traveled about the state recruiting young women for the Girls National Honor Guard. The organization was a support group for American soldiers who marched off to chase Poncho Villa across Mexico, and the girls believed they would go along as nurses and support personnel. They never got farther than a summer training camp at Lake Worth, but the organization survived for years.

Kate married J. Lee Johnson Jr., a banker, and became an important social figure in Fort Worth. Now, two of her great-granddaughters will make their debuts with The Assembly. Others in this year's debutante class are following the lead of their grandmothers and great grandmothers, too. That, it seems, is why this club is still vital.

History has eddied around the organization. Only wars interrupted the presentation balls. Disasters have changed the landscape. Commerce has altered the city's skyline. But generations of women have claimed The Assembly's presentation ball as a family tradition and embrace it as part of their legacy. For others, this presentation ball is the beginning of a tradition.

In November, The Assembly will present:

Sage Alden Bevan, daughter of Lauri McKay Bevan of Lipan.

Christina Ruth Johnson, daughter of Christina and Mark Lehane Johnson of Fort Worth.

Morgan Giles Johnson, daughter of Catherine "Kate" Lehane Johnson of Fort Worth.

Sarah Maverick Kleberg, daughter of Julie and Scott Masterson Kleberg of Fort Worth.

Hannah Claire Meadows, daughter of Patty and William Walker Meadows of Fort Worth.

Margaret Josephine Thompson, daughter of Melissa and George Thompson of Fort Worth.