Les Candides Garden Club Collection

In 2015, Dian McGuffee donated the Les Candides Garden Club Collection to the Montgomery County Archives. McGuffee, a long-time member of the Les Candides Garden Club, received a recognition certificate from the Tennessee Federation of Garden Club, Inc. in 1999 for twenty or more years of service. She served as club president for the 1976-1977 year. In December 2015, Dee Boaz, President of the Les Candides Garden Club, donated additional materials to the collection.

Barbara Veasey and Joan Jenkins, newcomers to Clarksville, initially proposed the idea of a women’s garden club to Edith Hudson. In October 1966, the first meeting was attended by a group of local women. The Les Candides Garden Club derived its name from the novel Candide because of its emphasis on cultivating our own gardens. The club’s chief purpose was “to encourage interest in the culture and arrangement of flowers and to promote better horticulture practices, civic beauty and conservation of our natural resources.” Members met monthly and submitted floral arrangements for themed exhibits. A biennial flower show allowed members to compete in different divisions for prize ribbons.

As a civic-minded organization, the Les Candides Garden Club completed a number of projects in the community. These club projects included providing floral decorating assistance for special events, sharing floral arrangements with the public library and Customs House Museum, offering therapy through flowers to nursing home patients, and planting/caring for flower at the entrance of the public library.