Alice Birney

Early life and education

Alice Josephine McLellan was born in Marietta, Georgia, the daughter of Leander and Harriet Tatem McLellan. She finished high school at age 15. After briefly attending Mount Holyoke College, she worked as a schoolteacher, an advertiser, and a social worker.

Career

She and Phoebe Hearst founded the National Congress of Mothers, later known as the Parent-Teacher Association, with the first meeting held in Washington, D. C. in 1897. Birney served as the president of the PTA for its first five years. Birney also wrote widely on the topic of child-rearing, including the 1905 book Childhood, a compilation of her articles written for The Delineator and other publications.

Personal life and legacy

After her first husband, lawyer Alonzo J. White, Jr., died in 1880, she married Theodore Weld Birney (a grandson of James G. Birney) in 1892. She had three daughters, Alonsita Eliza White (b. 1881), Catherine Weld Birney (b. 1893), and Lillian Harriet Birney (b. 1895). She was again widowed in 1897. Birney died of cancer at Chevy Chase, Maryland, in 1907, age 49; her remains were buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Because of her efforts, a number of elementary schools throughout the United States have been named in her honor, including Alice M. Birney Elementary School in Long Beach, California, Alice M. Birney Elementary School in Pico Rivera, California, Alice Birney Elementary in San Diego, California and Alice M. Birney Middle School in Southfield, Michigan.