The club takes its name from Mrs. Dahlia Blackstone, founder and chief benefactress. Mrs. Blackstone, who died in 1930, gave the club her house at 302 Camellia Street, one block west and one block south of Darling’s courthouse square. Now renovated and used as the Dahlias’ clubhouse, the Blackstone house has a flower garden in the back and a large vegetable garden in the adjoining lot. The flowers brighten the lives of Darling shut-ins, and the vegetables help feed Darling’s needy.
Elizabeth Lacy, president. Garden columnist for the Darling Dispatch, author of a just-published novel and assistant in the law office of attorney Benton Moseley.
Ophelia Snow, vice president and secretary. Works for the Federal Writers’ Project. Wife of Darling’s mayor, Jed Snow, owner of Snow’s Farm Supply. Teenage children: Sam and Sarah.
Verna Tidwell, treasurer. Cypress County clerk and treasurer. A widow, Verna lives with her beloved Scotty, Clyde. She goes out with Alvin Duffy, the president of the Darling Savings and Trust. Her passion: reading mysteries.
Myra May Mosswell, communications secretary. Co-owner of the Darling Telephone Exchange and the Darling Diner with her partner, Violet Sims. Myra May and Violet live in the flat over the diner with their adopted daughter, Cupcake.
Earlynne Biddle, co-owner (with Mildred Kilgore) of The Flour Shop, a bakery on the Courthouse Square, and current president of the local Share Our Wealth Club. Married to Henry Biddle, the manager at the Coca-Cola bottling plant. One son, Benny, comanager of radio station WDAR.
Bessie Bloodworth, owner of Magnolia Manor, a boardinghouse for genteel elderly ladies. Bessie is Darling’s local historian and knows whose skeletons are hidden in whose closets.
Fannie Champaign, noted milliner and proprietor of Champaign’s Darling Chapeaux. Married to Charlie Dickens, editor, publisher, and owner of the Darling Dispatch. Fannie’s son Jason, a polio survivor, is in rehabilitation at Warm Springs, Georgia.
Zelda Clemens, new member. Head bread baker at The Flour Shop. Zelda is unmarried. She lives just down the street from Liz Lacy and grows berries in her backyard.
Voleen Johnson, widow of the late George E. Pickett Johnson, the former president of the Darling Savings and Trust Bank. Mrs. Johnson is very proud of her greenhouse, the only one in town.
Mildred Kilgore, co-owner (with Earlynne Biddle) of The Flour Shop, also an active member of the Share Our Wealth Club. Married to Roger Kilgore of Kilgore Motors. They live in a big house near the ninth green of the Cypress Country Club, where Mildred grows camellias.
Aunt Hetty Little, senior member of the Dahlias and Darling matriarch. Practitioner of traditional crafts and (occasionally) natural magic, Aunt Hetty is a good listener with friends in all corners of the community. She knows a great many Darling secrets.
Lucy Murphy supervises the kitchen at the CCC Camp outside of town and grows vegetables and fruit on a small market farm on the Jericho Road. Her husband (Ralph Murphy) works on the railroad and is gone much of the time, so she’s developed a strong independent spirit.
Raylene Riggs, Myra May Mosswell’s mother. Cooks at the Darling Diner, manages the garden behind it, and lives at the Marigold Motor Court. Her friends and family recognize and accept her as a clairvoyant.
Dorothy Rogers, Darling’s librarian. Miss Rogers knows the Latin names of all the plants in the Dahlias’ garden and insists that everyone else does, too. Longtime resident of Magnolia Manor.
Beulah Trivette, owner of Beulah’s Beauty Bower on Dauphin Street, where the Dahlias go to get beautiful. Artistically gifted, Beulah loves cabbage roses and other exuberant flowers.
Alice Ann Walker, secretary to Mr. Duffy at the Darling Savings and Trust Bank. Alice Ann, her disabled husband Arnold, and their three grandchildren have just moved into a new house with a bigger garden, where Arnold grows enough zucchini to supply all of Cypress County.