There was the Tip Top Tippers Club, which bought eyeglasses for the needy and sponsored an annual fashion show.
The Dorie Miller Chapter of American War Mothers did patriotic work and served veterans.
And the Woman's Improvement Club ran a day care for children whose parents worked.
The day care on Pine Street had "cared for thousands of children" by the time Smith compiled her directory.
"These children are taught politeness, good table manners, love of God and obedience to the laws of society and government," according to the publication.
A 1934 issue of The Kentucky Club Woman reported that the "day nursery" provided care for about 35 children each day, and many more when tobacco-sales season came.
The Woman's Improvement Club supported the day care through donations from city commissioners and the Lexington Community Chest, and with membership dues and rent from a house the club owned.
Smith, principal of Booker T. Washington School for 20 years, led a group of women who raised money to start a Lexington summer camp aimed at feeding hungry children.
McDaniel said Smith talked local lumber yards into donating the lumber, and they built a kitchen.
The "health camp" opened in 1944 with 40 children and was serving 120 children by the summer of 1946.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Fouse of Lexington was a leader in the National Association of Colored Women and founded a "scholarship loan fund" to help young people attend college.
In her role as chairwoman of the national association's Better Homes Department, she advocated for affordable housing and home ownership.
According to Wright's book, the Kentucky club women formed a committee in 1918 to lobby the legislature in the interest of women and children.
The organization was successful in getting two books on black history and culture added to the list of materials approved for study in Kentucky schools.
Wright also credited the women with urging black doctors and nurses to move to Lexington and Louisville, and with helping those professionals set up offices when they arrived.
At a time when there was no government safety net, the clubs worked to fill the void.
They also stepped in to make sure black people got the care they needed from a segregated system that often neglected their health care needs.
McDaniel said the club women in Frankfort helped support a hospital for blacks because "they couldn't go to the other hospital."
Paris' Phyllis Wheatley Charity Club started as a knitting or sewing group that made sure the segregated ward for blacks at the local hospital had the necessary linens, Allen-Edwards said.
Without the club women, "we probably would've lost a lot of people," McDaniel said.
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