Related Photos

In keeping with AA Tradition (Tradition Eleven), this website will not publish recognizable images of AA members who are alive or recently deceased. All of the personal photos in this section have previously been featured in publications of AA World Services, Inc, and are reprinted with permission. We will carry the story of AA further as time permits us to develop this part of our site. The accompanying text is drawn from AA publications (Pass It On, Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers and AA Comes of Age) and recollections of oldtimer members. It has not been approved by AA World Services, Inc or the AA General Service Conference. Every reasonable effort has been made to insure the accuracy of the information contained here, but no guarantee is expressed or implied.

Lois Burnham Wilson (1891-1988), Bill W's devoted wife and co-founder of the Al-Anon Fellowship. The oldest daughter of a respected New York physician, she and her family vacationed in southern Vermont near Bill's home. Attractive, intelligent, charming, and from a higher "social class" than Bill, she was nevertheless drawn to his intelligence and drive.

In 1925-26 Bill and Lois went on an extended tour of the East Coast by motorcycle. Bill's onsite investigations of emerging companies soon made him the darling of Wall Street, and his career flourished - temporarily. Because of Bill's career disasters and the family's hardships during the early days of AA, the Wilsons never had a home of their own until 1941, when they were able to purchase a home in New Bedford, NY: "Stepping Stones."