Sally Goss found friendship and purpose in Beta Sigma Phi 50 years ago and she has not missed a meeting since.
"I never set out to have perfect attendance," says Goss, 77. "Just, after so many years, I kept it going."
Goss joined Beta Sigma Phi in 1973, while she was living in Coral Springs, Fla. Beta Sigma Phi is an international organization with 5,215 chapters in 17 countries and 43,586 members.
"It's a social, service and cultural organization for women. It started out in the 1950s for women who were at home while their husbands were off to war, and it gave them something to do." Goss says. "When I originally got in we would meet twice a month. Now we just make it once a month."
She was invited by a friend to be a part of the group, made up mostly of young mothers like she was at the time, says Goss, whose son -- author Kevin Brockmeier -- was about a year old at the time.
During international rush, Beta Sigma Phi sent letters to women in various cities, inviting them to a function where they would hear about the organization.
"I was a stay-at-home mom wanting to get out of the house and I thought, 'Wow, this organization sounds cool,'" she says.
Members take turns hosting meetings. Sometimes there are speakers or cultural outings, and there are themed social gatherings.
"We just enjoy each other's company," she says.
Goss grew up in Miami, having moved from New York when she was 8 years old.
"I'm from an Italian family, so we ate a lot of pasta, and I have an older brother who is five-and-a-half years older than me," she says. "No sisters, which is why the sorority became my sisters."
Her father was a butcher, and the cold winter weather made his hands ache with arthritis. He thought a warmer climate might help.
"He just said one day, 'I'm selling the store and moving to Miami,'" she says. "I hated to leave my friends. It was all I knew, in that little house and all the neighborhood children, but we moved to Florida and I made friends immediately. We were in a new subdivision with young families and kids my age, so it was wonderful."
She studied child psychology at Miami Dade College, though she was not quite sure what she would do after graduation.
"I just wanted to work with children," she says. "I enjoy children and I liked psychology."'
She did not like the science courses that were required, however.
She married young, started a family and found Beta Sigma Phi. When Goss and her then-husband moved to Arkansas in 1976 for his job, it was easy for her to transfer her membership.
"I had immediate friends. I just sent my name in that I was moving to Little Rock, and I got here and people were contacting me," she says. "It was wonderful. I met other people my age and had social outlets and it was just a great opportunity for me."
Later, as she went through a divorce, the attorney she worked for offered her an opportunity to manage his rental properties. That led to her getting a real estate license and opening her own company, Goss Property Management.
"I loved showing property. I just loved it," she says.
She initially worked out of her home, and she set a goal of managing about 20 properties.
"Word of mouth ... I just kept getting more and more and it became impossible to do out of my home, so I moved to an office," she says. "When I retired we had about 425 homes that we managed -- homes, condos, duplexes."
She met her husband, Chuck, while he was working with the North Little Rock Housing Authority. When he retired, he started working with her. They will have been married for 30 years in July.
Though she enjoyed her career, she enjoys retirement just as much.
"It was a never-ending thing, seven days a week, 24 hours a day we would get calls," she says, relieved to have made the decision to sell in 2019. "It was right before covid, so I didn't have all the headaches of figuring out all of that, with people who couldn't pay their rent because they weren't working and owners wanting their money."
Goss enjoys traveling, spending time with her sons -- Kevin of Little Rock and Jeff Brockmeier of Gainesville, Fla., and grandson, Jacob, also of Gainesville. She is active in her church, Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church in North Little Rock. She is a member of two book clubs and she collects bells.
"I have approximately 800 bells in my collection with 200 of them being Christmas or holiday bells," she says.
Beta Sigma Phi activities keep her busy as well, as they have over the years.
"People kid me that I planned the birth of my second child around the sorority, so I wouldn't miss a meeting," she says. "I think it was 10 days later that we had a sorority meeting. I believe it was at my house."
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Sally Goss, 77, has been a member of Beta Sigma Phi for 50 years. She did not set out to have a perfect attendance record, but she has not missed a meeting as yet. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)