Bertha Knight Landes - Later Years

Later Years

Landes became the first woman to serve as Moderator of Washington's Conference of Congregational and Christian Churches and was also elected national president of the Soroptimists, a professional women's organization. She wrote many articles for national publications, often urging women to enter politics, their "natural sphere."

During the 1930s, Landes was chair of the Sewing Room Work for the Women's Division of the Mayor's Commission for Improved Employment. She oversaw 673 women who sewed garments for women and children to "help improve the unemployment situation."

From 1933 to 1936, Landes and her husband student groups, sponsored by the University of Washington, to the Far East. Following his death, she agreed to lead the tour alone for another summer. Then, in failing health, she curbed her public activities, but continued to live independently at the Wilsonian Hotel in Seattle's University District until 1941, when she moved to Pacific Palisades, California. She died at her son's home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on November 29, 1943, at the age of 75. She was interred at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park in Seattle. Today, the largest meeting room at Seattle City Hall is named in her honor.