Belles and Books holds annual luncheon

The 2023 Belles and Books Luncheon was held at the Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery Dec. 2, entertaining two groups of 76 guests each.

The social group was formed in 1971 by a group of Holly Springs ladies in the living room of the General Walthall Home on East College Avenue where Bea Green and others met to discuss creating a new social club. The women wanted to improve their public speaking skills, Green, now treasurer of the group, said.

“We started it in my living room (the Walthall Home),” Green said. “We were going to form a new social club, primarily to get comfortable with speaking in public and to learn how to entertain socially.”

The club met monthly and held informational programs. “Every month we had a program and so everybody ended up doing a program,” she said.

“It helped me. Once you start speaking and you get comfortable doing it, that was the whole point,” Green said. Each of the 15 original members would be responsible for a monthly program and invite guests who had an interest in the arts and other topics of interest.”

The group took vacation tours together to places like Montgomery, Alabama, and in Tennessee. They went on shopping trips and site seeing trips together.

Others who traveled on the tours included the late sisters Mary Walker and Frances Gatewood.

Eventually the tiny nucleus was expanded to give more ladies an opportunity to participate.

A canvas of the group provided possible names for the club. The group settled on Belles and Books.

The membership eventually decided to hold fewer informational programs and focus its efforts on the production of a Christmas Luncheon to raise funds to support the Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery.

The late Anne Callicutt and Green were both members of the original 15. They also served as board members of the art gallery.

Now Belles and Books places its main energies toward raising funds to support the art gallery. The Christmas Luncheon,

held in December, helps raise money to support the art gallery. The club also sells cookbooks, with the favorite recipes of the best cooks in Holly Springs.

The money raised was first used to convert a small storage space in the back of the museum for use as a kitchen.

“It was very basic,” Green said. “A couple of years ago we decided to expand the art gallery for more space for Clark’s paintings.

Clark left her entire body of work to the city of Holly Springs and money to build a gallery to store and display her art.

“We sold enough cook books to pay off the $22,000 debt to add the kitchen,” Green said. “We paid it off in one and a half years. We now have a climate controlled area for all her paintings, as well.”

Today, Belles and Books has about 33 members. Reservations for 76 for each of the two separate luncheons are often made by people as far out as a year in advance.

“The first reservation I got, I was on vacation in South Carolina in May before the December luncheon,” Green recalled.

One of the recent additions to the gallery that Belles and Books helped establish is a catering kitchen that is fully stocked with sets of plates, glassware, and silverware.

The catering kitchen also makes it possible for the gallery to make income by renting the space for events.

Belles and Books holds a gala at the museum every four years. Anne and Edwin Callicutt were the first cochairs of the Gala.

Current officers of Belles and Books are Tammy Cupp, president, Lisa Shaw, vice-president, Regan Murphy Pritchard, secretary, and Green, treasurer.

“I don’t think we are any Belles now,” Green quipped. “Well, we have some new members that may be Belles.”