East Lyme — Herbert Hoover was president when Genevieve Rafferty learned to play bridge.

It was 1930, and she was a student at Norwich Free Academy.

"We had a sorority and fraternity years ago, and thank God we don't have them now because, when you were that age, you thought you were pretty important when you were a sorority member," recalled the 103-year-old Rafferty at the weekly meeting of her bridge club this week at the Lyme Tavern, where members regularly meet on Tuesdays for cards and lunch.

"(A classmate's) mother said to her one day, 'Now you people are not doing anything except socializing, and I'm going to have somebody come to teach you girls how to play bridge,' and we all raised our eyes," Rafferty recalled of how she learned the game.

That was 86 years ago; she has been playing ever since, and regularly since 1963, when she joined the Faire Harbour Club, which has been convening on Tuesdays since 1910 for ladies' bridge.

"My eyesight is not what it was, so it's kind of them to let me come," Rafferty said.

Her foursome was playing with large-print cards to assist her, but, in a group of women whose average age is about 85, the cards are likely welcomed by everyone.

The group, which attracted just 10 players last week, is suffering from a loss of membership.

Two of the 10 who arrived to play had to leave, since they couldn't put together a third foursome.

"See, our membership is not what it used to be," said Rafferty, a retired schoolteacher who celebrated her 103rd birthday with a nighttime party and fireworks on July 4, and was at the bridge table at 10:45 the next morning.

"Women now are in computers and working, and they're not going to play bridge," she said, "and if you play bridge, that means you are retired from your job, I would say."

Three years before Rafferty was born in 1913, the Faire Harbour Club was established by wives of members of New London's Harbour Club who wanted more of a presence at the social club's initial Willetts Avenue and later Montauk Avenue clubhouse.

The Montauk Avenue "cottage," located where the Lawrence + Memorial Hospital parking garage is today, was built and opened in 1912 and housed the membership until it was sold to the hospital around 1976 and leveled for parking space.

According to a history of the club, when the wives successfully lobbied for use of the clubhouse and were told it could be their domain on Tuesdays, they adopted their name, adding Faire to Harbour Club to distinguish their membership from the men's.

By the 1960s, the club, like the men's chapter, was losing membership and appeal.

But the Faire Harbour ladies have never stopped meeting for weekly bridge games. 

They moved from one venue to another, until settling about seven years ago at the Lyme Tavern.

Now proprietor Steven Carpenteri warmly welcomes them every Tuesday.

"Hello ladies," he calls out as he passes through the dining room where they were meeting, and later adds, "We love having them here. No one else can have them. They're all ours."

The club members are just as appreciative of Carpenteri's hospitality.

"He's very good to us," said Kathryn Dickson, 85, who joined the group about three years ago.

Like several of the others, Dickson is a retired teacher and learned to play bridge in high school.

She took a hiatus from the game while raising her four children but was encouraged by Rafferty — who has recruited most of them — to join the group after retiring.

Asked what skills are required to be a formidable bridge player, Dickson said having a good memory, knowing the rules of the game and "there are times when ruthlessness is part of the deal.

"You have to try to defeat them," she said of her opponents.

"It's very mentally stimulating. It keeps the mind agile," said Deane Bauchman, 81, who learned to play in college.

Christine Regan joined the group about 15 years ago, at Rafferty's urging, and has been a regular ever since.

This past May, she said, the group decided to stop being so formal — electing officers annually and abiding by club rules.

Most members are in their 80s and 90s and not up to the demands and responsibilities of the bylaws, she said.

"We will continue to play bridge, but there will be no officers, dues and hostesses. The sociability and friendships will continue as always," she said.

The group is open to adding more members, and would welcome men, too, said Regan, who is 85, a retired school teacher and was taught to play bridge by an aunt when she was 10 years old. 

Anyone interested can meet the group at around 10:45 a.m. on Tuesdays at the Lyme Tavern.

"You have to have card sense," Regan said. "The challenge is the play of the hand, and that has never changed since the beginning of bridge."

Club members said Rafferty is the rock of their group, and until recently was teaching others how to play the game.

Rafferty estimates that over the years she's taught more than 200 people locally to play bridge.

"She taught me to play," said Rose Anne Strazzo, 87. "We were in church one day, and she said something. And then she called me. That was four years ago, and I'm still playing, and I love it."

Eighty-eight-year-old Betty Wolff was part of Strazzo's foursome last Tuesday and said she learned bridge at the age of 16.

"My parents taught me, or dragged me into it," she said.

"I love the people," said Rosemary Dowsett, 81, who started playing about 40 years ago.

It's the challenge of the game, and the socialization, that makes it enjoyable, the ladies agreed.

Retired nurse Louise Clemens said as soon as she left her job, her sister-in-law taught her to play to fill out a foursome. "And that was such a good thing because I've made so many friends."

Clemens' tablemates remarked that she's a very good player.

Rafferty said that when she and Clemens were duplicate partners, no one could beat them.

"And I'm not bragging," Rafferty said. "I'm telling the truth."

The women lamented the lack of new bridge players, and several commented on the use of iPhones and laptops and social media platforms that divert young people's attention these days.

"They don't talk to each other, they text," said Gail Bogucki, who is Rafferty's niece and hosted the 103rd birthday party for her. "The one thing I like bridge for — I like the game — but it's a social thing for me."

"It was a lifesaver for me," Clemens said. "I was so lonely after my husband died, and I have made such wonderful friends." 

Rafferty knows there are dwindling numbers of bridge players today.

"It's not gonna be easy," she said of adding new players. "But I would say if you're wise and you do retire or if you're not working, join the Harbour Club and learn to play bridge.

"Playing bridge is a marvelous brain challenger. ... It is amazing what bridge will do for your brain. It will activate it. The young man who invented the computer," Rafferty said, referring to Bill Gates, "is a billionaire, but guess what he does to keep his mind active? He plays bridge."

"So you see bridge, even for billionaires, is a challenge."

a.baldelli@theday.com