Mrs. Charles G. Tachau, who pioneered in the cause of birth control and child welfare in Kentucky 50 years ago, died of cancer at 10:28 p.m. Monday at her home, 615 Cochran Hill Road in Louisville. She was 83. She and a small group of volunteers founded the Kentucky Birth Control League in 1933, when federal and state laws as well as the social outlook of the time inhibited even the distribution of information about contraceptives.
The league established a clinic in Louisville and was the forerunner of the Planned Parenthood movement. Mrs. Tachau retired in 1963 as the league’s executive director, by which time she had crusaded for and had won the cooperation of the medical profession- and the University of Louisville- in teaching birth control. She regarded the cause of Planned Parenthood as “worth the risk of being hauled into the courts,” and she lived to see rigid legal restrictions lifted.
“People in Planned Parenthood knew, going back 50 years, that over-population was not just a question of not enough food, it meant not enough of everything- sewers, parking lots, schools…,” Mrs. Tachau said in a 1973 interview. Mrs. Tachau was born Jean Brandeis, the daughter of Louisville grain merchant, Alfred Brandeis, who whose brother, Louis, became one of the most celebrated justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
She said she got into community volunteer service “in 1917, because so many of my generation started then.” She also had the example of her parents and her grandparents, the Taussigs of St. Louis, who worked actively for community betterment. Her husband, an insurance executive who died in 1955, was similarly concerned with community causes.
In the 1920s, Mrs. Tachau was a social worker with the old Children’s Protective Association. It was an experience that was valuable to her as a member of the advisory committee that helped draft the child-welfare laws passed in Kentucky in 1954. The laws were wiped out during the administration of Gov. A.B. Chandler. But Mrs. Tachau and others framed new legislation for child welfare and pursued it through two legislatures to a victory in the administration of Gov. Bert Combs. As a result, the Kentucky Department of Child Welfare was established in 1960.
In 1956, Mrs. Tachau became president of the newly formed Kentucky Citizens for Child Welfare, whose aim was to publicize child welfare conditions in the state. That same year she also was co-chairman of a committee that campaigned for the Mallon Plan, which would have merged 46 square miles of suburbia with the city of Louisville. (The plan was voted down by suburbanites.)
Because her two sons- an Episcopal priest and an insurance executive- were activists in the push for racial equality in the 1960s, Mrs. Tachau not only marched in civil rights demonstrations but on one occasion put up her home as collateral for the bail bonds of a group of blacks who had been arrested. In 1973 she was honored with Kentucky’s Helen B. Fraser Maternal and Child Health Award for her efforts on behalf of birth control, child health care and the protection of juveniles’ rights at law.
Mrs. Tachau had served as chairman of the Health and Welfare Council of Louisville’s Community Chest (now United Way), was president of the Family and Children’s Agency, was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Child Welfare, the Save the Children Foundation and its Kentucky committee, and was chairman of the Louisville Juvenile Court Advisory Committee. In 1966 the Kentucky Children’s Home at Lyndon gave her a certificate of appreciation for her “years and years of selfless devotion” to the cause of child welfare. The next year she received a similar award from the Western Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
For the most part, however, Mrs. Tachau, a small, soft-spoken woman, shunned the spotlight and stayed away from the public rostrum. She achieved her goals by persistence, patience, reasonable talk and personal example. In an interview, she once explained the reason for her interest in civil rights, child welfare and birth control: “I don’t think we thought really so much in terms of justice and rights, as we did in humanitarian ends… better living, health and employment standards.”
In addition to her two sons, the Rev. Charles B. Tachau and Eric Tachau, she is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Richard C. Haas, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Christ Church Cathedral, 421 S. Second St. It will be preceded by special music beginning at 1:40 p.m. The body will be cremated and burial will be private. Friends may call at Mrs. Tachau’s home from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to the Episcopal Church Home, 1201 London Lane, Louisville, 40222, or to other charitable organizations.
-Courier-Journal 7-5-1978
The league established a clinic in Louisville and was the forerunner of the Planned Parenthood movement. Mrs. Tachau retired in 1963 as the league’s executive director, by which time she had crusaded for and had won the cooperation of the medical profession- and the University of Louisville- in teaching birth control. She regarded the cause of Planned Parenthood as “worth the risk of being hauled into the courts,” and she lived to see rigid legal restrictions lifted.
“People in Planned Parenthood knew, going back 50 years, that over-population was not just a question of not enough food, it meant not enough of everything- sewers, parking lots, schools…,” Mrs. Tachau said in a 1973 interview. Mrs. Tachau was born Jean Brandeis, the daughter of Louisville grain merchant, Alfred Brandeis, who whose brother, Louis, became one of the most celebrated justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
She said she got into community volunteer service “in 1917, because so many of my generation started then.” She also had the example of her parents and her grandparents, the Taussigs of St. Louis, who worked actively for community betterment. Her husband, an insurance executive who died in 1955, was similarly concerned with community causes.
In the 1920s, Mrs. Tachau was a social worker with the old Children’s Protective Association. It was an experience that was valuable to her as a member of the advisory committee that helped draft the child-welfare laws passed in Kentucky in 1954. The laws were wiped out during the administration of Gov. A.B. Chandler. But Mrs. Tachau and others framed new legislation for child welfare and pursued it through two legislatures to a victory in the administration of Gov. Bert Combs. As a result, the Kentucky Department of Child Welfare was established in 1960.
In 1956, Mrs. Tachau became president of the newly formed Kentucky Citizens for Child Welfare, whose aim was to publicize child welfare conditions in the state. That same year she also was co-chairman of a committee that campaigned for the Mallon Plan, which would have merged 46 square miles of suburbia with the city of Louisville. (The plan was voted down by suburbanites.)
Because her two sons- an Episcopal priest and an insurance executive- were activists in the push for racial equality in the 1960s, Mrs. Tachau not only marched in civil rights demonstrations but on one occasion put up her home as collateral for the bail bonds of a group of blacks who had been arrested. In 1973 she was honored with Kentucky’s Helen B. Fraser Maternal and Child Health Award for her efforts on behalf of birth control, child health care and the protection of juveniles’ rights at law.
Mrs. Tachau had served as chairman of the Health and Welfare Council of Louisville’s Community Chest (now United Way), was president of the Family and Children’s Agency, was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Child Welfare, the Save the Children Foundation and its Kentucky committee, and was chairman of the Louisville Juvenile Court Advisory Committee. In 1966 the Kentucky Children’s Home at Lyndon gave her a certificate of appreciation for her “years and years of selfless devotion” to the cause of child welfare. The next year she received a similar award from the Western Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
For the most part, however, Mrs. Tachau, a small, soft-spoken woman, shunned the spotlight and stayed away from the public rostrum. She achieved her goals by persistence, patience, reasonable talk and personal example. In an interview, she once explained the reason for her interest in civil rights, child welfare and birth control: “I don’t think we thought really so much in terms of justice and rights, as we did in humanitarian ends… better living, health and employment standards.”
In addition to her two sons, the Rev. Charles B. Tachau and Eric Tachau, she is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Richard C. Haas, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Christ Church Cathedral, 421 S. Second St. It will be preceded by special music beginning at 1:40 p.m. The body will be cremated and burial will be private. Friends may call at Mrs. Tachau’s home from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to the Episcopal Church Home, 1201 London Lane, Louisville, 40222, or to other charitable organizations.
-Courier-Journal 7-5-1978
Mrs. Charles G. Tachau, who pioneered in the cause of birth control and child welfare in Kentucky 50 years ago, died of cancer at 10:28 p.m. Monday at her home, 615 Cochran Hill Road in Louisville. She was 83. She and a small group of volunteers founded the Kentucky Birth Control League in 1933, when federal and state laws as well as the social outlook of the time inhibited even the distribution of information about contraceptives.
The league established a clinic in Louisville and was the forerunner of the Planned Parenthood movement. Mrs. Tachau retired in 1963 as the league’s executive director, by which time she had crusaded for and had won the cooperation of the medical profession- and the University of Louisville- in teaching birth control. She regarded the cause of Planned Parenthood as “worth the risk of being hauled into the courts,” and she lived to see rigid legal restrictions lifted.
“People in Planned Parenthood knew, going back 50 years, that over-population was not just a question of not enough food, it meant not enough of everything- sewers, parking lots, schools…,” Mrs. Tachau said in a 1973 interview. Mrs. Tachau was born Jean Brandeis, the daughter of Louisville grain merchant, Alfred Brandeis, who whose brother, Louis, became one of the most celebrated justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
She said she got into community volunteer service “in 1917, because so many of my generation started then.” She also had the example of her parents and her grandparents, the Taussigs of St. Louis, who worked actively for community betterment. Her husband, an insurance executive who died in 1955, was similarly concerned with community causes.
In the 1920s, Mrs. Tachau was a social worker with the old Children’s Protective Association. It was an experience that was valuable to her as a member of the advisory committee that helped draft the child-welfare laws passed in Kentucky in 1954. The laws were wiped out during the administration of Gov. A.B. Chandler. But Mrs. Tachau and others framed new legislation for child welfare and pursued it through two legislatures to a victory in the administration of Gov. Bert Combs. As a result, the Kentucky Department of Child Welfare was established in 1960.
In 1956, Mrs. Tachau became president of the newly formed Kentucky Citizens for Child Welfare, whose aim was to publicize child welfare conditions in the state. That same year she also was co-chairman of a committee that campaigned for the Mallon Plan, which would have merged 46 square miles of suburbia with the city of Louisville. (The plan was voted down by suburbanites.)
Because her two sons- an Episcopal priest and an insurance executive- were activists in the push for racial equality in the 1960s, Mrs. Tachau not only marched in civil rights demonstrations but on one occasion put up her home as collateral for the bail bonds of a group of blacks who had been arrested. In 1973 she was honored with Kentucky’s Helen B. Fraser Maternal and Child Health Award for her efforts on behalf of birth control, child health care and the protection of juveniles’ rights at law.
Mrs. Tachau had served as chairman of the Health and Welfare Council of Louisville’s Community Chest (now United Way), was president of the Family and Children’s Agency, was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Child Welfare, the Save the Children Foundation and its Kentucky committee, and was chairman of the Louisville Juvenile Court Advisory Committee. In 1966 the Kentucky Children’s Home at Lyndon gave her a certificate of appreciation for her “years and years of selfless devotion” to the cause of child welfare. The next year she received a similar award from the Western Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
For the most part, however, Mrs. Tachau, a small, soft-spoken woman, shunned the spotlight and stayed away from the public rostrum. She achieved her goals by persistence, patience, reasonable talk and personal example. In an interview, she once explained the reason for her interest in civil rights, child welfare and birth control: “I don’t think we thought really so much in terms of justice and rights, as we did in humanitarian ends… better living, health and employment standards.”
In addition to her two sons, the Rev. Charles B. Tachau and Eric Tachau, she is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Richard C. Haas, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Christ Church Cathedral, 421 S. Second St. It will be preceded by special music beginning at 1:40 p.m. The body will be cremated and burial will be private. Friends may call at Mrs. Tachau’s home from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to the Episcopal Church Home, 1201 London Lane, Louisville, 40222, or to other charitable organizations.
-Courier-Journal 7-5-1978
The league established a clinic in Louisville and was the forerunner of the Planned Parenthood movement. Mrs. Tachau retired in 1963 as the league’s executive director, by which time she had crusaded for and had won the cooperation of the medical profession- and the University of Louisville- in teaching birth control. She regarded the cause of Planned Parenthood as “worth the risk of being hauled into the courts,” and she lived to see rigid legal restrictions lifted.
“People in Planned Parenthood knew, going back 50 years, that over-population was not just a question of not enough food, it meant not enough of everything- sewers, parking lots, schools…,” Mrs. Tachau said in a 1973 interview. Mrs. Tachau was born Jean Brandeis, the daughter of Louisville grain merchant, Alfred Brandeis, who whose brother, Louis, became one of the most celebrated justices in the history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
She said she got into community volunteer service “in 1917, because so many of my generation started then.” She also had the example of her parents and her grandparents, the Taussigs of St. Louis, who worked actively for community betterment. Her husband, an insurance executive who died in 1955, was similarly concerned with community causes.
In the 1920s, Mrs. Tachau was a social worker with the old Children’s Protective Association. It was an experience that was valuable to her as a member of the advisory committee that helped draft the child-welfare laws passed in Kentucky in 1954. The laws were wiped out during the administration of Gov. A.B. Chandler. But Mrs. Tachau and others framed new legislation for child welfare and pursued it through two legislatures to a victory in the administration of Gov. Bert Combs. As a result, the Kentucky Department of Child Welfare was established in 1960.
In 1956, Mrs. Tachau became president of the newly formed Kentucky Citizens for Child Welfare, whose aim was to publicize child welfare conditions in the state. That same year she also was co-chairman of a committee that campaigned for the Mallon Plan, which would have merged 46 square miles of suburbia with the city of Louisville. (The plan was voted down by suburbanites.)
Because her two sons- an Episcopal priest and an insurance executive- were activists in the push for racial equality in the 1960s, Mrs. Tachau not only marched in civil rights demonstrations but on one occasion put up her home as collateral for the bail bonds of a group of blacks who had been arrested. In 1973 she was honored with Kentucky’s Helen B. Fraser Maternal and Child Health Award for her efforts on behalf of birth control, child health care and the protection of juveniles’ rights at law.
Mrs. Tachau had served as chairman of the Health and Welfare Council of Louisville’s Community Chest (now United Way), was president of the Family and Children’s Agency, was a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Child Welfare, the Save the Children Foundation and its Kentucky committee, and was chairman of the Louisville Juvenile Court Advisory Committee. In 1966 the Kentucky Children’s Home at Lyndon gave her a certificate of appreciation for her “years and years of selfless devotion” to the cause of child welfare. The next year she received a similar award from the Western Kentucky chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
For the most part, however, Mrs. Tachau, a small, soft-spoken woman, shunned the spotlight and stayed away from the public rostrum. She achieved her goals by persistence, patience, reasonable talk and personal example. In an interview, she once explained the reason for her interest in civil rights, child welfare and birth control: “I don’t think we thought really so much in terms of justice and rights, as we did in humanitarian ends… better living, health and employment standards.”
In addition to her two sons, the Rev. Charles B. Tachau and Eric Tachau, she is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Richard C. Haas, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Christ Church Cathedral, 421 S. Second St. It will be preceded by special music beginning at 1:40 p.m. The body will be cremated and burial will be private. Friends may call at Mrs. Tachau’s home from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. The family requests that expressions of sympathy take the form of contributions to the Episcopal Church Home, 1201 London Lane, Louisville, 40222, or to other charitable organizations.
-Courier-Journal 7-5-1978
Family Members
Spouse
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
