- 1928-01-00 — Queen Marie of Romania and Princess Ilena visited the King and Queen of Yugoslavia at the Karađorđević Royal Palace in Belgrade and brought with them some of their Bahá'í literature. Prince Paul and his wife Princes Olga were also in attendance. Martha Root explained some elements of the Bahá'í Faith to them. Paul and Olga expressed that they wanted to do something to help Ms Root in her work and arranged for an introduction to Professor Bogan Popovitch, literary critic and academic at the University of Belgrade. The professor obliged by translating a small Bahá'í booklet, The World Religion: A Brief Overview of its Goals, Teachings and History (‘Religija sveta: Kratak pregled njenih ciljeva, učenja I istorije). Four thousand copies of this publication were handed out in the first 10 days. [MR117-119; State of Governance of Religious Communities in Former Yugoslavia and the Developments of the Bahá’í Community and Jehovah’s WitnessesStatus by Aleksandra Zibelnik Badii p55]
- 1933-00-00 — The book Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era was translated into Serbian by the Serbian poet and translator Draga Ilić and a representative of the Bahá’í community in Yugoslavia. It had a foreword by Prof. Popović. The launch of the book was followed by a successful presentation on the Bahá’í Faith at Belgrade University.
- 1933-00-00 — After several lectures in Belgrade, Martha Root travelled to Zagreb to address the Croatian Women’s Club with more than 2,000 members. She had a long conversation with Stjepan Radić, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, and presented him with the book Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era.
[State of Governance of Religious Communities in Former Yugoslavia and the Developments of the Bahá’í Community and Jehovah’s Witnesses Status by Aleksandra Zibelnik Badii p55]
- 1933-09-13 —
Louise Gregory sailed from Boston to Europe on the SS Sinai. She spent some time in Salzburg and met with Miss Steffi Fürth whom she had met a year earlier. She had become, perhaps, the first believer in Salzburg [SYH180-181]
- By October she was settled in Varna, Bulgaria where there was a small group of active believers. [SYG181]
- On the instructions of the Guardian she left Varna for Belgrade to help Martha Root with the teaching work. Louise arrived on the 14th of March 1934. [SYH186]
- 1934-03-14 —
Louise Gregory arrived in Belgrade to join Martha Root in the teaching work. Their overlap lasted until the 25th of March when Martha left for Athens. [SYH186-187]
- Martha had arranged for a new believer, Mrs Draga Ilić, to translate Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era as well as the Hidden Words into Serbian. [SYH187]
- During her time here Louisa received American visitors Charles and Helen Bishop from Portland, OR, who were on their way to Geneva to take up service at the International Bahá'í Bureau. They had been on pilgrimage in Haifa. [SYH188; BW6p133]
- Louise established herself as a language teacher giving private lessons. On the 19th of June she moved to a larger house near the Austrian border then after a few weeks went to Salzburg to meet with Miss Fürth until the end of July. When Marion Jack arrived they travelled together to Munich and Göppingen and then to Esslingen to attend the German Bahá'í summer school at the request of Shoghi Effendi. It ran from the 5th to the 12th of August. [SYH190-191, 195]
For photos taken at the summer school see SYH198-199.
- After the summer school Marion and Louise went to Stuttgart and arrived back in Salzburg on the 3rd of September. She had trouble having her visa renewed and ultimately had to go to Vienna for this purpose. She returned to Belgrade by boat down the Danube. [SYH196-197]
- A report on her teaching work in Belgrade was printed in the Bahá'í News No 90 March 1935 pg11.
- Because her visa expired she was obliged to return to America. She left Belgrade near the end of April and went to England with plans to visit her relatives before boarding the Laconia in Liverpool destined for Boston on the 11th of May 1935. She had been away from home some 18 months on this teaching trip and had visited Varna in Bulgaria, Salzburg in Austria, Belgrade in Yugoslavia, Esslingen, Munich, Göppingen and Stuttgart in Germany, Salzburg and Vienna in Austria. [SYH 203-205, 242]
,
- 1935-09-30 —
Louise Gregory returned to Europe for her last teaching trip on that continent. Over the Christmas period she had a month-long visit from Martha Root who subsequently went on to Sofia to assist Marion Jack.
- Louise left Belgrade on the 16th of May 1936 and travelled to Norway. She sailed from Oslo to New York on the SS Bergensfiordon the 26th of May and arrived in New York on the 4th of June. [SYH206-212]
- 1935-11-24 —
The passing of Dr. Howard Luxmoore Carpenter (b. 1906, d. 24 November 1935). He was buried at the Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito, California. [Find a grave]
- A graduate of the Stanford Medical School in 1932.
- He married Mardiyyih Nabil (later Marzieh Gail) in 1929, and in 1932 he and his wife left San Francisco for Vienna, where he took a medical course, and afterward at the Guardian's direction traveled through Central Europe and the Balkans. With Martha Root in Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade, he then spent five weeks in Sofia, Bulgaria, assisting Miss Marion Jack, after which he stopped briefly in Saloniki and went on to Tirana, Albania, to visit Refo Chapary. He then left for Haifa, where he stayed three weeks on his way to Tihran.
- In Iran, notwithstanding the efforts of the Assembly, he was prevented for more than one year from obtaining a medical license. His health failed, and he was bedridden for many months. At last his physical condition improved, he resumed activities as a member of the Unity of the East and West Committee, and the authorities granted him a license to practise medicine. At this time he was stricken with paralysis. He lay seven months in a hospital, after which Mr. and Mrs. Rahmat 'Alá'í invited him to their home, surrounding him with the same loving care which they had given Keith Ransom-Kehler the year before. His doctors advised a return to the United States as his only hope for recovery; he braved the long journey across the desert by motor, the presence of the 'Ala'is, who escorted him to Haifa, helping him to survive it.
- After nine days in Haifa, during which the Guardian visited him daily, he took a ship for New York where he was greeted by the National Spiritual Assembly, and then left by way of the Panama Canal for San Francisco. Here he had recourse to the best medical authorities, but was pronounced incurable. He passed away November 24, 1935 . He is buried at Sunset Memorial Park in Berkeley. The Bahá'í service held for him was conducted by Leroy Ioas of San Francisco; Bahá'ís of Berkeley, Oakland, Geyserville, San Francisco and Santa Paula were present, and the words of Bahá'u'lláh on immortality radiated such power as to efface all thought of death. [BW6 p491-493]
- See Shoghi Effendi's tribute to him where he said:
Next to the late Mrs. Ransom-Kehler he may, indeed, be well considered as the foremost American believer who has, in the last few years, been assisted in rendering invaluable help to the Persian believers in their efforts for the establishment of the Administration in their country… .
["Uncompiled Published Letters"]
- 1991-01-27 — The first National Teaching Conference of Yugoslavia was held in Belgrade. [BINS243:3]
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