Cowie, Bessie Lee (1860–1950)
Cowie, Bessie Lee (1860–1950)
New Zealand temperance reformer, social reformer, lecturer, and writer. Name variations: Betsy Vickery, Bessie Lee. Born Betsy Vickery, June 10, 1860, at Daylesford, Victoria, Australia; died April 18, 1950, at Pasadena, California; dau. of Henry (butcher) and Susan Emma Maunder (Dungey) Vickery; m. Harrison Lee (railway worker), 1880 (died 1908); m. Andrew Cowie (farmer), 1908 (died 1928).
Joined Women's Christian Temperance Union of Australia (WCTU, 1887); appointed editor of WCTU page in Alliance Record, colonial superintendent of literature, and public speaker for WCTU; worked as lecturer, temperance organizer, and missionary, from 1896; toured New Zealand as lecturer (1899), and assisted with local campaigns (1902 and 1905); was one of a few women to become world missionary of WTCU (1911); also involved in prison reform and socialist issues; became foundation member of United Labor Party of New Zealand (1912); wrote several poems, articles, booklets, and tracts, including controversial Marriage and Heredity (1890), which advocated women's control of their own bodies; moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, and continued to write and lecture until World War II; relocated to California, where she was active in temperance work.
See also From Nine to Ninety (c. 1950); and Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Vol. 3).