In the years after World War II, Johnson County was booming with young families and new homes – but had no county library.
Around 1950, if you wanted a book in Johnson County, you improvised. A small city library in Olathe existed, and many northeast families crossed into Missouri. For a community built on education and opportunity, the gap was hard to ignore.
A group of Prairie Village women noticed. Most were stay-at-home mothers active in the Prairie School PTA Library Committee. Supporting the school library wasn’t enough. Neighborhoods were growing fast, fueled by GI Bill home loans, but library services lagged.
They organized, going door to door and week after week to county commission meetings, often with children beside them. Their message was simple: We need libraries for our kids.
Volunteer libraries appeared wherever space existed: a plumbing store in De Soto, a barbershop, a neighborhood basement. In Prairie Village, shelves were tucked into the lower level of a shopping center. Husbands built bookcases. Curtains were sewn. Neighbors donated books. There was no real catalog. Borrowing worked on trust.
“The history of Friends of Johnson County Library and the history of Johnson County Library are intertwined,” said Marsha Bennett, vice president for education and outreach for the Johnson County Genealogical Society. “We wouldn’t have the library system we have today without those women in Prairie Village lobbying their county commissioners.”
Their persistence paid off. In 1952, voters approved a bond issue to establish a county library system. By 1955, the county hired its first librarian, Shirley Brother, and opened its first Library in Merriam. The Citizens Library Committee became Friends of the Library in 1956.
From the start, advocacy was their mission. For every major bond issue, volunteers organized phone banks, attended meetings and urged residents to vote yes.
As the system grew, Friends took on more roles: selling books removed from the collection. Small sales evolved into large annual events, then bookstores, pop-ups and online shops. Today, Friends is a community-funded nonprofit supported by memberships and book sales, including the Book Nook, a 5,000-square-foot space in Lenexa.
Each year, they process more than 600,000 donated items, raising over $2.5 million since 1999 and contributing tens of thousands of volunteer hours, making them one of the nation’s most impactful library advocacy groups. They also co-sponsor the Bookmark Design Contest, supply books for Library outreach efforts like Incarcerated Services and keep 1,200 members informed on library funding threats.
For Bennett, the story is tied to her own. Her mother valued education and gave her and her sister library cards early. She remembers walking to the bookmobile before there were branches and checking out her first book, “Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars.” That love of libraries continued as a parent, making weekly trips with her two children. Later, she worked for the Library in communications and community relations, serving as liaison to Friends. After retiring, she returned as a volunteer, helping patrons trace family histories in the same system she once championed.
“I’m a big believer in libraries and intellectual freedom and the right to read,” she said.
Seventy years after those first mothers organized, Friends remain a community-powered force. What began as neighbors helping neighbors continues through Library advocacy, fundraising and volunteer service, grounded in the belief that access to books strengthens communities and connects generations.
Join Friends in celebrating 70 years by becoming a member or making a one-time gift. Learn more at friendsofjcl.org and jocolibrary.org.
