Those who believed that Mrs. Leigh became too possessive of the Fort Worth Boys' Club might understand her attitude better if they compared her with other "founders." In Odessa, Texas, Marjorie Morris led the drive to raise funds for a Globe Theatre, a replica of William Shakespeare's original theater. Not only did she begin that effort in the 1940s, she later raised funds, planned activities, and nudged people to contribute until a replica of the cottage belonging to Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare's wife, stood on the grounds. It was designed to be used as a library. Mrs. Morris, a strong Baptist, handpicked people to serve on the board, dictated the policy that "God's name will not be taken in vain" in performances at the Globe, and generally dominated the project for fifty years. Only when she was in her late eighties and having health problems did she slow down. he too did not want to give up her "ands on" control to others. Like Hazel, she had no children of her own and outlived by many years a husband who was an alcoholic.

In a similar manner, the well-known Jane Addams, who started Hull House in Chicago, demonstrated traits quite like Hazel Leigh's. Hull House was "her" settlement house (it also had a boys' club). Hull House opened in 1889 to serve the immigrant poor in Chicago's factory and stockyards district. Jane Addams was "almost a genius at raising money." But she did not prepare for the day when the settlement house would have to operate without her. When she died in 1935, others carried on. When Hazel visited Hull House, she noted that the crafts and programs were similar to those at the FWBC.

Hazel can also be compared to Edward Joseph Flanagan, the "Father Flanagan" of Boys' Town, west of Omaha, Nebraska. His life work began in December 1917 when the juvenile court placed five boys in his care. Flanagan's at first had a home or shelter near the Omaha stockyards, just as Hull House and the FWBC were near the stockyards and meat-packing plants in their cities. Stockyards areas attracted immigrant families who earned low wages and whose children were often left unattended while both parents worked.

Even in Fort Worth, another woman saw her name and efforts attached to a charitable cause. In 1910 Edna Gladney became director of the Texas Children's Home and Aid Society, chartered six years earlier. In 1927 she was named superintendent. A 1941 movie, "Blossoms in the Dust," dramatized her work with unwed mothers. The adoption agency and home for unwed mothers which she directed for so many years was renamed the Edna Gladney Home in 1950.

One person identifying his or her life work with one project and being possessive about that project or cause is not unusual. A United Way volunteer, William Sarsgard, explained that agencies created and dominated by one person worry United Way because of the issue of permanence. The FWBC Board was not the only local example that concerned them. Many other organizations had no provisions for board rotation, attendance, or even regular monthly meetings. Boards needed to be organized in the manner United Way began to require for purposes of continuity. The function of United Way, according to Sarsgard, was to bring these agencies into the twentieth century in terms of board operation. A founder who also served as executive of an agency or was on the board was a red flag to United Way, he said. That, of course, was Hazel's role for forty years.

Hazel's friends, the frustrated ladies of the council, and even her critics, agreed that Hazel truly cared about the boys and was dedicated to them. Her positive points far outweighed the negative. There are men who as boys would have starved had it not been for the FWBC. Regardless of her dictatorial ways, "here benevolence overshadowed all. She saved many a young man."

Is there a villain in the story? Not really. The FWBC board members who became convinced the council representatives had to be replaced and the board enlarged were forced to take that stand by United Way. Jim Stratton of BCA called Paul Koeppe and Trey Shannon "fine men" and "real change agents." Some ladies who were close to Hazel and remain saddened and bitter about the way she was treated did not know about the pressure from United Way and the national club organization.

Despite her opposition to opening clubs to girls, Hazel was well respected in the national movement. "When she spoke, she knew what she was talking about," said Jim Caufield, a senior vice president with Boys' and Girls' Clubs of America.

What remains unique about FWBC is that volunteer community efforts worked so well for so long. Society women on the council and dedicated business leaders from Kiwanis took a hands-on approach. They knew many of the boys personally, and they appeared at regular intervals to host Easter egg hunts, watermelon parties, Halloween apple-dunkings, and the annual Christmas party. They saw the freckles of twelve-year-old Snooky Pressley, the wide-eyed excitement of seven-year-old Billy Burklow, the serious leadership of fifteen-year-old Otis Snow, and they heard the accordion music of Johnny Kohut.

Many people could write out a check today to the Boys' and Girls' Club of Greater Fort Worth or the United Way, but that would probably not bring the same satisfaction that came to the people who supported FWBC in the first half-century of its existence.

The boys club on the North Side and its permanent affiliation with the Boys' and Girls' Clubs of Greater Fort Worth remain testimony to the energetic endeavors of Hazel Vaughn Leigh.