Juliette Gordon Low

Juliette Gordon Low (née Gordon; October 31, 1860 – January 17, 1927) was the founder of Girl Scouts of the USA. Inspired by the work of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, she joined the Girl Guide movement in England, forming her own group of Girl Guides there in 1911.

In 1912, she returned to her native United States and established the country's first Girl Guide troop in Savannah, Georgia. In 1915, the United States' Girl Guides became known as the Girl Scouts, and Juliette Gordon Low was its first leader. She remained active until the time of her death.

Her birthday, October 31, is celebrated annually by the Girl Scouts as "Founder's Day".

Early life

Juliette Magill Kinzie Gordon was born October 31, 1860, at 10 East Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah, Georgia. She was named after her grandmother, Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie, and nicknamed Daisy, a common sobriquet at the time, by her uncle. She was the second of six children born to William Washington Gordon II, a cotton broker with the firm Tison & Gordon, which was later renamed W. W. Gordon & Company, and Eleanor "Nellie" Lytle Kinzie, a writer whose family played a role in the founding of Chicago. Her brother, William Washington Gordon III, was also major in the United States Army.

When she was six months old, Gordon's father joined the Confederate States Army to fight in the American Civil War. In 1864, due to the proximity of Union troops to Savannah, she moved with her mother and two sisters to nearby Thunderbolt. After the Union victory in Savannah the same year, her family received many visits from General William T. Sherman, who was a friend of her uncle. Sherman arranged an escort to take her family to Chicago in March 1865. Upon arriving in Chicago, Gordon became sick with brain fever, although she recovered without severe complications. A few months later, after President Andrew Johnson issued the amnesty proclamation, her father reunited with the family to move back to Savannah.