In New Roles

Mrs. Christie of Maine Directs
Temperance Education in Church Schools


MRS. WALTER R. (AUGUSTA K.) CHRISTIE of Presque Isle, Maine, national director of Temperance Education in Church Schools, has long been active in WCTU activities. She served as Maine WCTU’s director of Social Morality, was assistant recording secretary, then vice president before becoming state president, an office she held for 20 years. Later she was appointed state director of Publicity.

In 1953 Mrs. Christie became a member of the Maine House of Representatives, where she served four terms, always as a member of the liquor control committee, of which she was house chairman during her last term there. Lobbying actively against liquor bills, her activities after becoming a member of the Legislature have been in support of good legislation in whatever area, she says, and against liquor, gambling, and bad labor legislation.

In 1961 she served her first term in the Maine Senate and was re-elected to serve in the 101st Legislature in 1963. As a Senator she was chairman one year of the liquor control committee and during both years was a member of the committee on state government. During both her Senate terms she was chairman of the Aroostook County delegation, consisting of 18 men and herself.

Late in -1963 she was appointed a member of the Maine Civil War Centennial Commission which is responsible for planning for suitable observances of the historic event.

Since 1961 she has been foreign missions speaker for the North Aroostock Baptist Women’s Missionary Society. She is a charter member of Bethany Baptist Church, has served two terms on its Prudential Committee, is church publicity chairman, and a member of the morning choir.

Other activities include membership on the legislative action committee of the Presque Isle Chamber of Commerce, membership in the Business and Professional Woman’s Club, the Pierian Club, and -the Presque Isle Garden Club. Gardening has always been her hobby. She was also a member of the Victoria Society of Maine Women and of the Aroostock chapter of the DAR.

Born in Ashland, Maine, Augusta Kalloch was graduated from Presque Isle high school, attended Aroostock State Normal School, taught for four years in the rural schools of the vicinity. Preferring a business career, she entered Beal School of Shorthand in Bangor and, on graduation, worked in offices of a Presque Isle potato dealer until her marriage to Walter R. Christie. The late Mr. Christie was a potato grower and dealer and shipper of seed potatoes. He had a son, a daughter, and three grandchildren. 

Mrs. Christie, bringing us up to date on her activities added, “On the whole, all I needed to make me fully occupied was this department of Temperance Education in Church Schools!” But everyone knows that invariably the busy people are the ones who truly get things done!

—L.L.

I don't know the source of this article.  The original article clipping is on page 1449 of the Kalloch historical notebooks, compiled by Kalloch family historian, Peter T. Richardson.