Karoline Kjolhede, President of Danish Women's Mission Society
 Karoline Brandt Kjolhede (1868-1938),
shown here with her husband, came to America to marry the Rev. Peder
Kjolhede, one time president of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America, in 1903. She soon became a respected leader in the DELCA in
her own right, serving as president of Danske Kvinders Missionsfond
(Danish Women’s Mission Society) for twenty-nine years. In 1913 she was
the first female elected delegate to the DELCA national convention. Ms.
Kjolhede was an ardent convention speaker. One of her step-grandchildren
relates this particularly amusing incident:
“It was at a church convention in
Kimballton on a Saturday night. The Women’s Missionary Society had
their usual meeting. Moster Karoline spoke in her usual stirring,
emotional way. Bedstefar Kjolhede was very old then and when she had
finished he rose from his front seat and staggered out of the church.
I could imagine him muttering something about the ‘nonsense’ and ‘old
fool’ to himself as he went out. And yet when we went to his room
later to bid him a good night, he said to us, ‘Do you know who made
the best speech at this convention? Karoline did that! But don’t tell
her I said so!”
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