Stella B. Irvine

Rev. Stella B. Irvine (, Blanchard; 1859–1926) was a pioneer in the American temperance and prohibition movements. She served as President of the Southern California Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), as well as National and World WCTU Director of the Sunday School Department. She wrote a great deal of literature on behalf of prohibition. Her writings and teachings were utilized for many years in Sunday schools and organizations for the education of young people throughout the U.S. She also organized the first Sunday school teachers' training class in the U.S.. Irvine was a Prohibition Party candidate for the California State Assembly (1914) and the United States House of Representatives (1918).

Early life and education Estella (nickname, "Stella") Blanchard was born at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, July 21, 1859. Always of a religious turn of mind, Irvine had from her childhood been devoted to Sunday school work. They made their home in Saint Paul, Minnesota where Mr. Irvine managed a feed and commission business.

In 1894, she was elected National Superintendent of the Sunday School Department of the National WCTU, and by 1926, promoted to National Director of the Department. Possessing literary ability, initiative, and persistence, she created and conducted a Bureau of Sunday School Temperance Literature, which handled more than 500 publications, reaching many of the Sunday schools of Europe as well as those of the U.S. In 1900, at the Convention of the World's WCTU, held at Edinburgh, Scotland, she was elected Associate World Superintendent of the Sunday School Department; and at the Convention held in London, England, in 1922, she was elected Superintendent of the same Department. Though she performed well in both elections, she won neither. Her object was to educate the people, and the outcome was the election of four women to the succeeding California State Legislature. She led the women of her State in three campaigns for State Prohibition and for the ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Irvine was officially connected with the International Association of Women Preachers.

Death After suffering from a heart ailment for five years, Stella B. Irvine died in Riverside, California, November 26, 1926. Supplemental temperance lessons, junior grade, 1903 Mortgaged life, 1910 Cigarette fortune-teller, 1911

Articles "A biographical sketch of Frances E. Willard", Onward, 1912

Songs Song of the temperance fairies; words and music by Stella B. Irvine, 1903