It is with a heavy heart that I want to let you know that FLARE founder and the Secretary of our Board, Molly Meijer Wertheimer, passed away peacefully at her home on August 1, 2025, after a courageous battle with cancer. Molly was seventy-six years old and lived in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. 

Molly was Professor Emerita of Communication Arts and Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University at the Hazleton Campus, from which she retired in 2022 after thirty-nine years of inspiring teaching. Molly had an early and important vision to create a Listserv housed at the Pennsylvania State University in 1998 which grew over the years to become a key networking tool for first lady scholars. Discussions coming out of the Listserv resulted in a meeting of the seven founders of FLARE: Molly, Diana Carlin, Myra Gutin, Anita McBride, Elizabeth Natalle, Katherine Sibley and Nancy Kegan Smith, ending with the establishment of FLARE in 2021. Molly continued to enthusiastically promote research and education on the importance of first ladies. 
 
Molly edited “Inventing a Voice: The Rhetoric of American First Ladies of the Twentieth Century, co-authored Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart (with Nichola D. Gutgold), and wrote other publications dealing with women’s rhetoric. At the time of her passing, she was working on a book about First Lady autobiographies. 
 
Personally, getting to know Molly and becoming her friend, as well as her colleague, was a wonderful experience. I admired Molly’s passion for learning and teaching, intelligence, and her excellent sense of humor. She always sent her emails with a favorite thought at the end that challenged you to think that day. Just three of those thoughts include "Truth lies in a well," Isaac Watts; “There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen; and “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.”Cornel West. Along with her professional activities, Molly led a very full life and was a beloved mother, devoted and active in her Jewish community, and an excellent cook with whom I enjoyed sharing recipes. 
 
I can only say that I am so grateful to have known Molly, and thankful for her vital role in FLARE. FLARE will continue to benefit from Molly's leadership in promoting the impact and legacies of first ladies and first ladies studies. With all of her accomplishments, I think one of her most important contributions was her example of living life to the fullest and improving all those she met.
 
Nancy Kegan Smith, President of FLARE

The following are remembrances of Molly Wertheimer by FLARE Founder and Board Member Myra Gutin and FLARE Board Member Nichola Gutgold both of whom knew Molly for many years and had varying perspectives on our friend and colleague.

Molly Wertheimer: An Appreciation.

Nikki met Molly early in her career. I met her later in my own career. I had written my doctoral dissertation on the communication styles of 11 first ladies, and had dealt with both male and female colleagues asking me, “Why would you write about them?” Despite the lack of support, I completed my dissertation and a few years later published my first book The President’s Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century.

      I cannot recall if Molly sought me out or if I wrote to her. I knew she was interested in the presidential spouse, and we began a professional association and friendship. She asked excellent, probing questions. She was constantly probing, trying to understand the significance of a certain action. She was unrelenting in her commitment to inquiry and research.

       Both of us were frustrated that we had problems having our research accepted at national and regional conferences. It was obvious that if we hoped to publish, we needed to find our own niche. Molly became an early force in putting together programs. It started with the Eastern Communication Association and a few years later, we were sharing our work at the National Communication Association. In 2004, Molly edited Inventing A Voice. The Rhetoric of American First Ladies of the Twentieth Century, a major contribution that featured the work of 20 established and emerging first lady scholars. Molly also established a listserv to share news of first lady scholarship. It helped us to find each other and set up working relationships.

       In 2021, a group of us met to establish FLARE and Molly was a prominent voice in our discussions. Passionate and committed, she was not shy about advocating for her point of view. During the many years that I knew her as a colleague and as President of FLARE, we had numerous “spirited dialogues.” Molly became a watchdog over FLARE finances and budgets always advising caution and restraint.

       Molly was one of the moving forces in the study of first ladies, and her work guaranteed that younger scholars and researchers would not have to face the question: “And why would you write about them?”

She will be sorely missed.