Juliette Gordon Low

Background

Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon Low, better known as “Daisy,” was born on October 31, 1860, in Savannah, Georgia. She was born into a powerful and wealthy family and raised in the traditional manner of a wealthy southern family. She went to boarding school at the Virginia Female Institute in Staunton, Virginia, Edge Hill School outside Charlottesville, Virginia, Miss Emmett’s School in Morristown, New Jersey, and ultimately Mesdemoiselles Charbonniers, a French finishing school in New York City, as a young adolescent. She was a huge lover of animals, especially exotic birds. She had always been athletic since she was a child. One of her favorite skills was standing on her head, which she would later perform at the Girl Scouts National Headquarters to demonstrate the new uniform shoes. She was also deafened as a result of neglect of chronic ear infections and an accident in 1886.

Low married William Mackay Low, a rich Englishman, on December 21, 1886, when she was 26 years old. They didn’t have children and spent a lot of time apart. Her husband left her for another woman in 1902. When he died suddenly in 1905, their divorce processes were still in progress. He bequeathed most of his fortune to his mistress, but Low successfully challenged the will and was awarded a significant settlement, which included his Georgia property. In the summer of 1911, Low’s life took another significant turn when Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the creator of the Boy Scouts, requested Low to help with the fledgling Girl Guides program in the United Kingdom. Low personally invited the local girls to weekly gatherings at her estate in Scotland. She founded more Girl Guide organizations in London before returning to Savannah in 1912 to launch the Girl Guides movement in America. The original 18 girls registered as the first group of American Girl Guides on March 12, 1912. The name ‘Girl Guides’ was formally changed to ‘Girl Scouts’ in 1915.

Low devoted the next 14 years of her life to the Girl Scout cause in the United States and around the world, giving her passion, enthusiasm, and wealth to the cause. She died at her Lafayette Square house in Savannah on January 17, 1927, after a long struggle with illness. The Girl Scout movement had grown from the initial 18 girls to 168,000 members by the time she died. Laurel Grove Cemetery is where Low was laid to rest. “You are not only the first Girl Scout but the best Girl Scout of them all,” read a telegram from the Girl Scouts U.S.A. national officials tucked inside her pocket.