From collection Member List
Beta Epsilon Chapter member Ann-Eve Mansfeld Johnson (1908-1981) was a pioneering community leader and advocate in Tucson, Arizona.
Ann-Eve was born into a distinguished Tucson family. Her paternal grandfather, Jacob S. Mansfield, wrote Tucson’s first city charter and was the first president of the University of Arizona Board of Regents. Ann-Eve herself not only attended the University of Arizona, where she earned a B.A. in archeology, but also followed her grandfather’s example of leadership. She was secretary of the student body, a member of the honorary society Mortar Board, and president of Beta Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Phi. Later in life, she served as the president of the University of Arizona Alumni Association (1956-1957).
Ann-Eve was part of a legacy Alpha Phi family too. Her sister, Leonor Mansfeld Williamson, and daughter, Janna-Neen Johnson Cunningham, were also members of Beta Epsilon Chapter. Ann-Eve was active in the Tucson Alumnae Chapter for most of her life.
Many of Tucson’s social programs owe their existence to Ann-Eve. She was a founding member of the Junior League of Tucson and president of the Planned Parenthood Clinic of Tucson. She was also an early leader in Arizona’s preservation movement, chairing the first Historical Sites Committee of the Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society, which was directly responsible for saving some of Tucson’s historic buildings. As state chairman of the Arizona Legislature Council in the 1950s, Ann-Eve lobbied to establish the Arizona Children’s Colony (now Arizona Training Program) to care for children with disabilities.
Ann-Eve was also an active member of the Republican Party. She served as the Arizona National Republican Committee Chairwomen during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration (even getting to breakfast with the president) and headed the women’s division of the Goldwater for President national campaign.
Ann-Eve was recognized for her lifetime of community service with numerous awards. Among them are the Athena Award at the 1977 Panhellenic alumnae banquet in Tucson, Arizona, and Alpha Phi’s Ursa Major Award in 1980. In 1987, Ann-Eve Mansfeld Johnson was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.
