L-O-I-S gets no R-E-S-P-E-C-T and the name-bearers are tired of it.
How hard can it be to correctly pronounce Lois? Not Louis. Not Luis. Not Louise. Not Lowie. And not the nickname that has bedeviled more than one Lois: Lo-ass.
"My whole life people have mispronounced my name," lamented Lois Tomson of Kansas.
She is among 69 Loises in Tucson this weekend for the annual Lois Club convention. Yes. There really is a Lois Club with chapters in half the States and a handful of foreign countries.
Over a business lunch in 1979, Minnesotans Lois Weston and Lois Millner conceived the idea of getting together with other women named Lois. There were six Loises at the first luncheon May 1, 1979. The pioneering Twin Cities Loises sparked the interest of others of the same name and soon chapters were started in Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.
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The women get together at their hometown clubs for lunch, volunteer work, commiseration and camaraderie. Often the first few minutes of each meeting are spent talking about the latest incidents of name mangling.
"I grew up in a neighborhood with 11 boys and they all called me Lo-ass," said Lois Outcelt of Wisconsin.
Said Lois Sparkes of Nova Scotia, "I went through a whole year of school being called 'Louis.' "
Women often hear about the Lois Clubs from others who share their name.
Though it's their common name that brought them together, the bottom line is, "We're just out to have a good time," said Lois Schaffner of Illinois, who winters in Arizona.
Canadian Lois Lloyd has approached with humor the lifelong misspelling of her name. She tells people Lois stands for "Look out. I'm sexy!"
"It's a four-letter word. Get it right," said Lois Herson, who splits her time between Michigan and Arizona.
The moniker "Lois" celebrated its heyday in the 1920s and '30s, when it was one of the top 25 favored names for baby girls. Since then, however, its popularity has been in decline. These days it doesn't even rank in the top 1,000. That, combined with an aging membership has created a dearth of Loises to carry on the club slogan, "I never met a Lois I didn't like."
Those who fear the endangered Lois Club membership might be near extinction were heartened at the Tucson convention, though, by reports from one chapter that a 19-year-old Lois recently was spotted at its meeting.
Contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191.
