KENT KRIEGSHAUSER/The Register-Mail

Donna Gilbert, a member of the Cameron Cabooses Red Hat Society club, fans herself as she tries to locate a fellow red-hatter Wednesday at the Lake Storey Pavilion. Wednesday was National Red Hat Society day and approximately 200 members from around the midwest joined together in Galesburg.

Red Hatters celebrate shopping, food

Women's group gathers for its national day

Thursday, April 26, 2007

By JANE CARLSON

The Register-Mail

With every participant wearing a creative combination of red and purple from head to toe, it's also a bit like a fashion show.

Around 200 Red Hatters from Illinois and surrounding states descended on Lake Storey Pavilion on Wednesday to celebrate National Red Hat Day with a luncheon and "shopping emporium" organized by the local Haw Creek Hatters and Merry Hearts.

"Shopping is the national sport of the Red Hat Society. Shopping and food," said Peg Bivens, 53, of Knoxville, the "queen" of the Haw Creek Hatters.

Bivens wore a classic Red Hat Society outfit - a two-piece, deep purple dress and a bright red hat tastefully embellished with a few berry-like beads.

Others went for a more flamboyant look, accessorizing their get-ups with everything from red fishnet tights and knee-high purple sueded boots to beaded purple shawls, sequined pins and strands of long, shiny beads.

Women wore feathers and flowers tucked into red hats of all shapes and sizes. Betty Stutz, 58, sported a red cotton hat embellished with tiny, purple chiffon flowers.

"It was a gift from a friend," said Stutz, who, along with 12 other members of the Red Hat Grannies of Cahoka, Mo., made the three-hour drive to Galesburg on Wednesday morning to attend the festivities.

The group - whose oldest member, Madonna Perry, is 88 - wore matching red sweatshirts, but personalized their outfits with hats, scarves, jackets and jewelry.

"Some of us go to tag sales to find things," said Stutz.

At the "shopping emporium" set up inside the pavilion, a handful of local vendors hawked a variety of red and purple wares, including eyeglasses, scarves, serving dishes, potted plants and decorative pins.

"I just pulled everything red and purple in the shop I could find," said Ruth Link, owner of Always in Season in Knoxville.

The Red Hat Society, a national social organization founded by Sue Ellen Cooper, was originally intended for women in their 50s.

But as the popularity of the Red Hat Society has risen, so have the ages of some of the participants.

"The women 80 and up have really embraced it. They were just waiting to be let out to play," said Bivens.

Those under 50 are still welcome to join the fun, but should wear pink hats and lavender dresses.

Once they reach 50, they are "red-uated" to wearing the official garb of the society, Bivens said.

But Bivens also said one of the rules of the Red Hat Society is that there are truly no rules.

"You just do what you want," Bivens said.

In keeping with Red Hat tradition, the women had their dessert first on Wednesday, eating thick slices of Red Velvet cake before partaking in a luncheon catered by Becky Millizer of Monmouth.

The event, co-chaired by Haw Creek Hatters Pattie Johnson and Ronna Mastin, also featured a program on Civil War nurse Mother Bickerdyke by Pam Johnson.