Lions of Tennessee History

 Our 46,000 clubs and 1.4+ million members make us the world's largest service club organization. Tennessee alone is home to more than 200 Lions Clubs and over 4,000 members. We're also one of
the most effective. Our members do whatever is needed to help their local communities. Everywhere we work, we make friends. With children who need eyeglasses, with seniors who don’t have
enough to eat, and with people we may never meet. 

 The Lions of Tennessee are a division of Lions Clubs International, and were founded in 1917 with the charter of the first Tennessee Lions Club in Memphis in 1916. We were the 12th state to associate with the association, and therefore known as Multiple District 12. 

Leaders from our state have been active on the international stage since Clifford D. Pierce of Memphis served as International President in 1946 and 1947. He was actively involved in the development of United Nations NGO program. He was also a founder of the Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service in Memphis, TN.

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Edward M. Lindsay of Lawrenceburg led the association in 1966 and 1967. Past President Lindsay led a world wide Peace Essay contest celebrating the association’s Golden Anniversary. He was recognized for this project by heads of state in many countries including the United States, and by the United Nations. 

​It would be over 20 years before another Tennessean, Austin P. Jennings of Woodbury, would serve as International President. Upon his election in 1988, Past President Jennings organized a Sight Symposium attended by world leaders in ophthalmology. From that meeting in Singapore came the program known today as SightFirst.

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Most recently, Chancellor Robert E. Corlew of Milton served as the association's 100th International President. 

Tennessee has had eleven Lions to serve as Directors for Lions Club International since the development of the LCI Board of Directors.

In 1925, Helen Keller addressed the Lions at the International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio. She famously challenges Lions to become the "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness." This begins a century-long mission - impacting hundreds of millions of lives through the  vision-related work. 

The Lions of Tennessee took on this challenge provide free vision care to the people of Tennessee.