president of the Indiana War Mothers and was the first woman vice-chair of the Republican Committee. By 1923, both Barr and the Chair of the Republican Committee resigned when it became public that they were both active members of the Ku Klux Klan. Because of this admission, Barr also resigned from Indiana War Mothers. Ku Klux Klan Activities In 1923, D.C. Stephenson chose Barr to head a woman's order of the Klan. This group was called the Queens of the Golden Mask and would be composed of mothers, daughters, and wives of Klansmen. Barr became the Imperial Empress of this organization. Eventually, the Queens of the Golden Mask were absorbed into the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. At this time, the Klan was a very popular organization in Indiana; estimates place the number of members between 125,000 and 500,000 men in Indiana. The Klan was anti-liquor, anti-political corruption, anti-prostitution, and believed in nativism (they disliked immigrants and non-Protestants). In a speech, Daisy had mentioned "I am clothed in wisdom's mantle," she said. "Age and experience are mine," as a precursor to talking about preserving white supremacy. However, in 1924, another Klanswoman, Mary Benadum, filed a lawsuit claiming that Barr "had amassed a fortune off the dues of Klansmen." Moreover, she would use her notable name and Klan office to make money from it all. The profit came mainly from selling Klan women's robes and other paraphernalia. Some scholars have speculated that the charges resulted from Barr's and Benadum's intense competition for leadership of the WKKK in Muncie, Indiana. Two years later Daisy Barr was replaced in her leadership position in the WKKK by Lillian Sedwick who was a state official in the WCTU. Barr died on April 3, 1938 in Clark County, Indiana north of Jeffersonville after sustaining a broken neck in a head-on car collision on US Highway 31. See also Indiana Klan D.C. Stephenson References Sources Blee, Kathleen M., "Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s", University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1991 Hoover, Dwight W., Daisy Douglas Barr: From Quaker to Klan "Kluckeress." Indiana Magazine of History, Volume 87, Issue 2, June 1991. 1875 births 1938 deaths American Quakers American Ku Klux Klan members Road incident deaths in Indiana American temperance activists Indiana Republicans Activists from Indiana American suffragists