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"Hidden Heroines" Series: Eleanor Nash
Ad for "Eleanor Nash at Home," 1957.
Written by Elizabeth Srsic | September 18, 2026
SAVANNAH, GA - Fifty years ago in 1976, we celebrated the American Bicentennial. As a part of the festivities, Girl Scouts of the USA created a nation-wide program that highlighted the work and accomplishments of women across the country. Each council presented their "Hidden Heroines" through a series of local and national events and a bound publication which was gifted to Girl Guide alum, Queen Elizabeth II.
In honor of the sesquicentennial, we are sharing the stories of other founding members of the Girl Scout organization, our own "Hidden Heroines."
Eleanor Nash
Eleanor Arnett Nash (1892-1969) was a Southern socialite who reinvented herself as a successful author, fashion expert, newspaper columnist, lecturer, and television personality.
Born into a prominent family, Eleanor was the daughter of Edmund S. Nash, a naval stores executive, and Mattie Nash. She spent her childhood between New York and Savannah, Georgia, and later recalled being raised in both Savannah and the south of France. Census records show that she grew up in a wealthy household with several siblings, including her younger brother, the future poet Ogden Nash.
As a young woman, Eleanor was active in Savannah society. Newspapers frequently mentioned her attendance at horse shows, dances, charitable entertainments, and other social events. Contemporary accounts described her as beautiful, charming, well-traveled, and an accomplished horsewoman. In 1910, she was formally introduced to society at an elaborate debutante ball hosted by her parents at their Monterey Square home, known today as the Andrew Low House, which they rented from Juliette Gordon Low while she lived in England. Eleanor’s chosen theme for her debut into Savannah society was a pink, 18th century French masquerade. In society columns, Eleanor became known for her elegant taste and fashion.
Eleanor Nash's Debutante Ball Announcement, Augusta Daily Herald, 1910.
Shortly after her debut, a telegram arrived and Eleanor had “thirty-six hours’ notice to get to New York from Savannah” for a trip to Egypt with family friend Juliette Gordon Low and Eleanor’s older sister, Gwendolen. Eleanor chronicled her trip to Egypt in Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts (1928), including an eventful voyage, during which Juliette spent days sculpting a bust of Eleanor’s head before deciding it wasn’t good and throwing it into the sea, and arrival. Juliette was well-connected in Egypt and across the British Empire. A special envoy of the British-Egyptian Coastguard Service met their steamer in the harbor. Financier J.P. Morgan was also on board their ship and believed that the special envoy was for him until Juliette “swept down the gangway” in front of the entire ship. It is in this grand fashion that Eleanor and her sister spent their time in Egypt drinking “gallons” of Turkish coffee, embarking on excursions in the desert, climbing the Great Pyramids, visiting temples, and dining with royalty.
In New York City, on the precipice of their voyage, Eleanor wrote “I remember her standing in the hotel sitting room, looking at me as I came in. She crossed to me, put her hand on my arm, and looked up at me. ‘What fun we are going to have,’ she said. And with those eager words she became for me the personification of adventure and romance.” Perhaps it was with that same spirit that she approached Eleanor two years later when Juliette returned to the States with “something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world.” Several months after the first Girl Scout meeting in March 1912, Juliette asked Eleanor to work with a patrol of factory girls. Before Girl Scout troops were referred to by troop number, troops were named after flowers, and Eleanor’s troop selected the name “Poppy.”
On April 4, 1916, Eleanor married New York banker Culver Barcalon McWilliam. The couple made their home in New York and had three children. During the 1920s and 1930s they lived in Manhattan, where census records show a prosperous household. The marriage ended in divorce in 1937. According to her obituary in The Baltimore Sun, “The question was once asked of Mrs. Nash why she used her maiden name as a career woman. She was quoted as saying that ‘It seemed foolish when I started my career to take my maiden name, I asked Ogden if I might hang onto his coat-tails and hitch-hike on his wit. He said I might.’”
Following her divorce, Eleanor developed a successful professional career. By 1940, she was working as a fashion lecturer, a role that led to a long association with the luxury department store Bonwit Teller. She also became a novelist, publishing several romance novels, including Bachelors Are Made (1946), It Was Mary (1947), The Women in His Life (1950), and Lucky Miss Spaulding (1952).
In 1953, she published Beauty Is Not an Age, a guide to fashion, grooming, and personal style that reflected her growing reputation as a fashion authority. Two years later, she began writing the newspaper column "Modern Woman" for The Evening Sun in Baltimore. She expanded her journalism career with the advice columns "Youth Speaks" and "Parents Speak," answering readers' questions on personal, family, and social issues.
Eleanor Nash, 1916.
Eleanor also gained recognition as a television interviewer. Her award-winning WMAR-TV program, "Eleanor Nash Interviews," featured conversations with authors, educators, fashion designers, actors, and other notable figures. Her ability to connect with diverse audiences, especially young people, became one of her trademarks.
She died in Baltimore on October 4, 1969, at the age of 77. Obituaries remembered her as a columnist, author, lecturer, television personality, and fashion consultant. Today, Eleanor Nash's life illustrates a remarkable transition from Southern debutante and society figure to an influential media personality and writer whose career spanned publishing, journalism, fashion, and television.
Research Sources
Cordery, Stacy A. Juliette Gordon Low: The Remarkable Founder of the Girl Scouts. New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2012.
Eleanor Nash Biography File, Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace Museum, compiled 2026.
Nash, Eleanor. “Adventuring in Egypt with Daisy,” Juliette Low and the Girl Scouts. Edited by Anne Hyde Choate and Helen Ferris. New York, New York: Girl Scouts of the USA, 1928.
