Harriet Cone Greve, Alpha Omicron Pi, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The Omicron Chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was chartered on April 14, 1902.  Mattie Ayres Newman was the daughter of Dr. Brown Ayres, who began his tenure as the University’s President in 1904. His daughter, an initiate of Alpha Omicron Pi at the Sophie Newcomb (now Tulane University) chapter in New Orleans, was interested in seeing her sorority grow.

Among Omicron’s charter members was Dorothy Greve Jarnigan. Dorothy’s sister Harriet Cone Greve, was initiated during the chapter’s first year of existence. Both Dorothy and Harriet are listed as Grand Council members in early issues of To Dragma.

Harriet Greve graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1906. She taught high school in Chattanooga where her family lived. Then she earned a graduate degree from Columbia University in 1913. She held various teaching jobs until 1921 when she returned to Knoxville and became the University’s first full-time dean of women. Female students had many rules and regulations as to what they could and couldn’t do.

She gave the welcome at the 1923 Alpha Omicron Pi convention held at Whittle Springs, Knoxville, Tennessee. She also served as the sorority’s Scholarship Officer in the 1920s.

In 1926, she visited England, France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland during a summer abroad. She spoke at a November 1932 Alpha Omicron Pi alumnae meeting and talked about her tour of Europe the previous year.

Greve retired in 1951 at the age of 65. She had seen many changes in the 30 years she served as Dean of Women. According to the UT website, she “organized the counseling and hostess systems in the women’s residence halls and was active with the Girl Scouts and YWCA organizations.”

At the 50th anniversary of the Omicron Chapter, a stained glass window was presented to the James D. Hoskin library. Greve dedicated the window.

After retiring she moved to Gatlinburg. West Hall, a women’s residence hall, was named in her honor in 1963. In 1971, Greve Hall was closed due to the housing need not being great enough to warrant its use. For a time, it housed visiting athletes and high school students. In the fall of 1972, it was used again as a men’s residence hall. In 1994, the first four floors were used to house men and the two top floors were shared by Sigma Kappa, Delta Zeta, and Zeta Tau Alpha. A renovation in the summer of 2009, turned it into academic offices. An announcement in 2022 reported that the building was slated for demolition. A January 10, 2024, notice on the UTK website caution that the building would be demolished in early 2024.

Greve died at the age of 84 on December 16, 1969, in a nursing home in Athens, Georgia, the city in which her sister and nieces lived. She had been blind for several years.

It was said Greve was stern when she needed to be, but her usual demeanor was gracious and soft-spoken. She once said:

Above all, I’ve wanted our girls to learn to adjust to life as they meet it. I want the University to give them the basis for knowing how to meet life on its own terms. I think every girl should know how to earn a living – but still more. I want her to know how to live. That, I believe, is the important thing.

Greve left a $10,000 bequest to the university which was allocated to the Harriet C. Greve Memorial Scholarship Fund. Her sorority also established the Harriet Greve Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity Scholarship which is given to a sorority woman (NPC or NPHC) who has demonstrated “exceptional strength of character, leadership and stewardship to the University of Tennessee Knoxville.”

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Cynthia Coolbaugh, Alpha Sigma Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Cynthia Coolbaugh was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha during her time as a student at James Madison University. She started college as a home economics major but ended up with a degree in psychology.

Coolbaugh was active in student politics, serving as vice president of the Student Government Association as a senior. She was known for her cooking skills, but it was her ability to plan and coordinate events that served her well in her future career.

As a member of the Class of 1970, Coolbaugh was in college at a pivotal time in American history. Even though she grew up in a military family, she protested the Vietnam War. She was part of a group of students who voluntarily chained themselves to chairs in Wilson Hall. State troopers were called in to deal with the students. For her part in this, Coolbaugh was not allowed to participate in the graduation ceremonies.

A 1972 marriage announcement noted that she was employed at Virginia National Bank in Alexandria.

She later worked with a team at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The team sought to prevent nuclear energy as a form of warfare and to have it used for peaceful purposes. It promoted safeguards to assure the uses were for good purposes, promoting science and technology as well as safety and security.

Her job was as a Section Head for Conference Services and as such she shared in its award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Coolbaugh died in August 2017 at the age of 70. Her son, David Doane, a James Madison alumnus, donated his mother’s award. It is on display in Wilson Hall, the same place where his mother chained herself to a chair during her senior year.

Cindys_Award.jpg

 

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Ethel J. McCoy, Alpha Chi Omega, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Ethel J. McCoy grew up in Sanford, Florida. She graduated from Duvall High School in Jacksonville. She enrolled at Syracuse University where she became a member of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. Syracuse winters must have been foreign to her coming from sunny Florida!

McCoy served as her chapter’s editor, sending reports to The Lyre of Alpha Chi Omega. In an issue she was described as a “thoroughly wideawake, dependable young woman who goes into whatever interests her with enthusiasm.” As a senior, McCoy was chairman of the YWCA Missionary Committee, “a position of the gravest responsibility.” Her research topic was “The Spanish Colonies in America” and the it focused on her home state. In 1911, she graduated from Syracuse and headed back south.

When the Tau Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta was established at Brenau College (now University) in Gainesville, Georgia, she assisted with the chapter’s installation.

From 1913 to 1916, she was the vice-president of Sunday School work for the Southern Methodist Church in Florida. She founded Camp Junaluska for Girls at Lake Junaluska on a lakefront hilltop in North Carolina. Ads state the establishment date as 1915. She retired from the camp in 1961.

1916

During the academic year, she taught at Virginia Intermont College (an institution which closed in 2014). During her 30-year tenure there, she taught history and was, for a time, the chair of the history department. It was said of McCoy, “Her ability as a teacher and her sympathetic understanding as a friend, have left a lasting influence on all who have known her.”

Parlaying on her love of history and travel, she organized and directed a Junaluska Travel Club. It provided educational adventures abroad for older campers.

1927

McCoy divided her retirement time between Lake Junaluska and Jacksonville, Florida. She died on September 14, 1970.

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Faye Safer Silverman, Delta Phi Epsilon, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On March 17, 1917, Minna Goldsmith (Mahler), Eva Effron (Robin), Ida Bienstock (Landau), Sylvia Steierman (Cohn) and Dorothy Cohen (Schwartzman), students at New York University Law School, founded Delta Phi Epsilon. Five years later, the organization was formally incorporated in the State of New York. Delta Phi Epsilon became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference in 1951. Happy Founders’ Day, Delta Phi Epsilon!

Faye Safer Silverman, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born on June 29, 1912, in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from Andrew Jackson High School and enrolled at Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University). The first woman in her family to attend college, she was also the first to join a sorority. She became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon.

After graduating in 1930 with a two-year teaching degree, she taught music at the Fishweir School in Jacksonville. On November 29, 1933, she eloped with Joseph Silverman, her high school sweetheart. They set up housekeeping in Gainesville where her husband was working at Brownstein’s Department Store. Unable to find a teaching position in Gainesville, she became the manager of the Fashion Shop.

Her parents loaned the couple $1,500 to start their own business. They called it the Collegiate Men’s Shop and it opened in 1935. According to one of the couple’s daughters, her parents “were true partners in this business.” The family grew to three daughters and a son.

The business relied heavily on the students at the University of Florida, then an all-male institution. The store sold tailor made suits and it extended credit to its customers, a rare commodity in those days. The couple hired students to work and they also chaperoned fraternity events.

Faye Silverman said in a 2001 interview:

I had brothers who went to school at the University of Florida. We had a big fraternity row, but the girls hadn’t come yet. I used to go to all of their parties. They used to have me chaperone when they had to have one. That’s how I got started going. In those days, we had all the name bands that would come to Florida. They would all stop off at the University, and we would have big affairs at the gym. We had big social affairs. We had the Military Ball. We went to everything. Every well-known band you could think of came to Gainesville.

During World War II, Jewish soldiers who were stationed at Camp Blanding in Stark often spent their weekends in Gainesville. Silverman helped organize a hospitality program for them. She was involved with the B’nai Israel Congregation and the Daughters of Israel. She served Hadassah as a lifetime member and past president and was also involved with the Girl Scouts, Gainesville Women’s Club and the Women’s Business Association.

In 1946, the store’s name and location changed. It became Silverman’s – the Man’s Store and moved to the north side of University Avenue, across from the Florida Theatre. Another move took place in 1960, when the store moved across the street to 225 W. University Avenue and featured women’s clothing, too. Silverman’s was one of the oldest clothing stores in Gainesville when it closed 1989. A newspaper headline read, “End of an Era: Silverman’s is Closing.”

Silverman served on Delta Phi Epsilon’s national board and was instrumental in establishing the chapter at the University of Florida in 1955, after it became a coeducational institution. In 1965, she helped establish the chapter at the University of Tampa. In a 2001 interview, Silverman recalled, “I used to travel for our sorority. I had five states that I used to have to travel to. I went to all the places we had sororities.”

Southern Jewish Weekly, October 22, 1954

Silverman died on March 2, 2003, at the age of 90.

 

 

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Evelyn Hawkins Hood, Sigma Gamma Rho, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Evelyn Hawkins Hood was 99 when she died on April 6, 2023. Hood was born in Bibb County, Georgia, graduated from Macon High School and studied at Paine College, where she earned an undergraduate degree, and Atlanta University where she received a master’s degree. On June 22, 1946, she married LoVette Hood.

The Macon News, June 30, 1946

She became a member of the Eta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, in 1950. She had been invited as a guest to a ball in Atlanta and decided the sorority aligned with her goals. Hood held many offices on the local, regional and international levels. She served as the 14th International Grand Basileus from 1976-1980. During her term she  was a successful fundraiser. Some of the funds she raised went to fund scholarships for high school students.

The 1980 Boule took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and members of the Eta Sigma Chapter, traveled by chartered bus to see Hood preside.

She taught English at Ballard High School and second grade teacher at C.W. Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Her teaching career spanned more than four decades.  She was active in her church, West Mitchell Street Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1969, she was named Bronze Woman of the Year. An article in the Macon News noted that Hood, “worked with voter registration, the cancer drive, and spends many hours providing enrichment activities that help disadvantaged boys and girls. She is a member of the George Washington Carver Boys Club, YWCA, GTEA, NEA, Classroom Teachers of Georgia and West Mitchell CME Church.”

According to Hood’s obituary, Keisha Simmons, a past president of the Iota Zeta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, said, “She was the epitome of class.” Simmons added that Hood was very approachable and she “took an interest in younger members, she would guide them into leadership.

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Marjory and Ruth Cowan, Delta Gamma, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

March 15 is the date upon which Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day. Read about the founding of Delta Gamma and its connection to Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity whose Founders’ Day is also celebrated on March 15.

MARJORY COWAN

Marjory Cowan

Marjory Cowan was born on November 5, 1889. She grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. She was a charter member of the Delta Gamma chapter at the University of Oregon. Her younger sister, Ruth, followed in her footsteps and was also a member of the Delta Gamma chapter.

In 1912, she was one of the members of the University of Oregon Women’s Debate Team. In a competition with the University of Washington team, she had to debate the negative – Resolved. That the various states should adopt woman’s suffrage – even though she was a suffragist. She also acted with the university’s first dramatic interpretation group.

After graduation, she became a field representative for the Ellison White Chautauqua System, which was newly organized and was the first Chautauqua with contracts in 14 western states. After that, she turned her attention to organizing Chautauqua performances in Canada, then Australia and New Zealand.

In 1923, she headed to Seattle, Washington, where she became a field representative for the Cornish School. In the summer of 1924, she took her first real vacation and toured England and Europe. She also booked and handled artists for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau.

Seattle Union Record, November 24, 1924

An article about her in the January, 1926, issue of The Zontian, the official organ of the Confederation of Zonta Clubs of America, stated:

In the past two years, she has handled very successfully the Artists’ Course booked by the Men’s Club of Plymouth Church, which included such artists as Albert Spalding, Reinald Werrenrath, Olga Samaroff, Ernst Von Dohnanyi, Maria Ivogun, London String Quartet. Sha has handles as independent attractions such nationally known artists as Margaret Matzenauer, Edward Johnson, Mischa Elman, Moritz Rosenthal, and Roland Hayes.

A 1927 Anchora identified her as an impresario, the “manager of a musical, theatrical or operatic company.” At some point, she moved to San Francisco, California, and became concert manager and a radio entertainer for the National Broadcasting Company.

She died on October 24, 1932 in an automobile accident. She was 42. She and three others were in a car driven by a Naval Lieutenant. They were on their way to a performance in Modesto. The car plunged over an embankment when the curve was taken too fast. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

RUTH COWAN

Ruth Cowan was born on July 17, 1898. She studied for two years at the University of Oregon. Her interests were music and art. When the opportunity to manage a concert bureau in Portland became available, she took on the challenge.

Ruth Cowan

A 1927 Anchora called her a “successful Los Angeles Impresario.” In addition to being the associate manager of the George Leslie Smith Auditorium Artist Series, she was manager of the southern California Territory for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau. It was:

one of the oldest and best known musical bureaus in the United States. She has been responsible for all western tours of the great artists under the management of the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau and it is due to her efforts that many new artists have been introduced in the West in the past three years. The Artist Series of which Ruth is associate manager has become one of the  popular institutions in the City of LA. This year three artists who have never been west before are being introduced on this series, Mary Lewis, this year’s sensation of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Florence Austral, dramatic Soprano and Alexander Brailowsky, phenomenal pianist.

In 1929, she was in a car accident as the passenger in a car driven by a friend. She was cut on the lips by flying glass.

In 1951, she became director of the Music Academy of the West. She retired from that position in 1966. She died on May 21, 1979.

Musical West, May 1928

 

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Marcia Malone Slavin, Alpha Xi Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 14, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

t hitMarcia Malone Slaven was born in Grafton, West Virginia on July 17, 1932. In 1950, she enrolled at West Virginia University after graduating from Grafton High School. She was a student at WVU’s School of Pharmacy. In 1950, pharmacy was not a usual major for women. She became a member of the Iota Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. According to her obituary, she “made lifelong friendships with her sorority sisters.”

In a way, she was following in the footsteps of her older sister Emily Malone Glaser, also an Alpha Xi at WVU and the 2000th registered pharmacist in West Virginia. The fact that their father, Paul E. Malone, was also a pharmacist, might have entered their choice of career.

After graduation, she returned to Grafton to work at Malone’s Drug and Chemical Company, which was started by her father. When her father died on June 23, 1953, at the age of 55, she assumed many of his responsibilities.

On November 29, 1958, at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC, she married Maynard D. Slaven. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and a 1958 graduate of WVU’s School of Pharmacy. They had two sons.

Malone’s Drug Store was a fixture in Grafton and it served the community. It hit the one millionth prescription filled mark in the 1960s. The Slaven’s kept the store open for as long as they could and although it survived for more than 50 years, it closed in the early 1980s. The Slavens also owned Medical Arts Pharmacy in Morgantown.

According to her obituary:

Following the store’s closure, Marcia was the longest-serving pharmacist in charge at Grafton City Hospital, a multiple-decades long record that is unlikely to be equaled. She wrote, along with Maynard, the drug formulary for the institution, a massive undertaking that gave instructions for drugs approved for patients. During her decades of service to the hospital, she also served as a clinical instructor for the WVU College of Pharmacy and guided many future professionals through the processes of checking for medication errors, preparing hyperalimentation (artificial nutrition) treatments, and handling toxic chemotherapy preparations. She was, by all accounts, a consummate teacher and a detail-oriented but sympathetic instructor.

Marcia Slaven was an active member of the Grafton community and served many civic, business and professional organizations. She died on Dec. 19, 2022 at the age of 90.

 

 

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Janet Greig Post, Delta Delta Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 13, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Janet Greig Post was born on November 21, 1871, in Fonda, in upstate New York. She grew up in Oneida, Illinois, and entered Knox College. There she became a member of the Epsilon Chapter of Delta Delta Delta. Although she was not a delegate to the first Tri Delta Convention held in 1893, she most likely attended the legislative sessions. She was indeed at the Panhellenic reception held at Armory Hall where she wore a yellow silk dress with lilies of the valley.

A graduate of the class of 1894, she spent two years studying in France and Germany. Much of her work was done at the Sorbonne in France. She also spent some time doing post-graduate work at the University of Chicago.

She returned to her alma mater where she served as an instructor in French and German before becoming the Dean of Women in 1898. She held that job until 1902, when she married Probate Judge Philip Post, who, at that time, was the youngest man on the Illinois bench. Years later in a Trident article, the wedding was “still remembered as a college and Delta Delta Delta affair with Delta bridesmaid and silver, gold and blur decorations, and the ceremony read by President McClelland of Knox.” Her husband was also a Knox alumnus and a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

During World War I, she worked with the Women’s Overseas Section of the National War Work Council, an affiliate branch of the YWCA. She also served the American Red Cross. The Knox Alumnus described her war work in the April 1918 issue.  She had completed a course on what was being done in the Canadian military hospitals training as to the re-education of disabled soldiers.

The Posts moved to Winnetka, Illinois, when her husband joined the International Harvester Company. She was active in many Chicago clubs and was known as an “active clubwoman.” When Philip Post died in 1920, Janet Greig Post assumed her husband’s position on the Knox College Board of Trustees. She was the first woman to serve on the Knox Board of Trustees.

She remained a staunch supporter of both the college and her sorority chapter. There are accounts of her attending chapter and alumnae alliance events.

Her greatest contribution was leading the fundraising effort to celebrate Knox College’s 100th anniversary in 1937. She charged forward in a poor economic climate to raise funds to renovate Old Main. She wrote thousands of letters to alumni and supporters. Had she not done that it is quite possible that Old Main might not be around today. It is currently the only remaining site of a Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Post remained a member of the Board of Trustees until her death on January 24, 1964, at the age of 94. She and her husband are buried in Hope Cemetery in Galesburg, Illinois.

Knox College’s Janet Greig Post Leadership Society recognizes donors who give $10,000 or more annually to the college.

 

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Jenn Winslow Coltrane, Kappa Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Jenn Winslow Coltrane was initiated into the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College chapter of Kappa Delta on October 27, 1903. The chapter was founded earlier that year on January 28. Although she was born in Marshall, Missouri, and she died in Bellevue Hospital in New York City, she spent most of her life in Concord, North Carolina.

Jenn Winslow Coltrane

Jenn Winslow Coltrane

She served as her chapter’s president. After graduation in 1906, Coltrane was Kappa Delta’s first Inspector. She spent five years as National Treasurer before becoming National President in 1912. That year she was present at the meeting when Kappa Delta joined what is today the National Panhellenic Conference. Coltrane served as Kappa Delta’s National President until 1915. She was also the Business Manager of and a contributor to The Angelos of Kappa Delta.

Coltrane was on the state board of the Federated Women’s Club. From 1920-1923, she was Historian General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She qualified for membership by descent from her great-great-grandfather, Colonel Beverly Winslow of Virginia.

During World War I, she worked in the War Risk Insurance Bureau and helped organize a Red Cross chapter in her county. In 1930, she founded the Junior Charity League in Concord. Its original focus was to provide soup, crackers, and milk to hungry schoolchildren. The Junior Charity League continues to this day.

The December 4, 1932 edition of The Tuscaloosa News reported, “Miss Jenn Coltrane, former national president of Kappa Delta Sorority, has returned to her home in Concord, North Carolina, after a short visit at the Kappa Delta House in Colonial Place.” She died on September 4, 1934, at the age of 47.

She was remembered at the 1935 Kappa Delta Convention held at the Huntington Hotel in California. In 1997, she was inducted posthumously into the Kappa Delta Hall of Fame.

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Nell Morgan Austin Enlows, Ph.D., M.D., Sigma Kappa, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 11, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Nell Morgan Austin Enlows grew up in West Virginia where her father was a doctor. She married Harold Franklin Enlows on September 7, 1910.

She earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction from George Washington University in 1915. The Enlows were involved in fraternity life; she was a Sigma Kappa and he was a Sigma Nu. She immediately began working on a master’s degree in bacteriology at GWU and her husband began his career as a lawyer.

1915

1916

An active Sigma Kappa alumna, she wrote the 1917-1918 report from the DC alumnae chapter. That year, according to a report in The Triangle, “Nell Enlows and Mary Newcomb, accompanied by Nell’s mother and three friends (all girls) drove Ally Enlows – Nell’s Dodge – to Atlantic City, returning by way of Philadelphia.”

Another report written during that time includes this information:

Our last alumnae meeting was held jointly with the active chapter on January 2. Red Cross contributions, TRIANGLE subscriptions, and Panhellenic rules regarding rushing were the engrossing topics of the evening. We find here at Zeta that joint meetings are very helpful on both sides. After the meeting in January several of the active girls came to me and said how very much they had enjoyed hearing the alumnae tell them of the difficulties and joys of Panhellenic rushing rules of the past. The long rushing season of this year has been to say the least very unpleasant. The greater part of every business meeting is taken up by a discussion of rushing. And practically all the free hours the girls have about college are claimed by the business of rushing.

She helped install Sigma Kappa’s Rho chapter at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College on June 2, 1917, and the Omega chapter at Florida State College for Women on May 29, 1920.

Enlows worked for several years in the field for the United States Public Health Service while doing doctoral work.

Triangle, December 1921

New Castle Herald, June 18, 1921

Enlows earned a Ph.D. from George Washington in 1923. With her husband’s encouragement, she enrolled in medical school at Johns Hopkins University. She graduated in 1929 at the age of 40. She was the only woman in her class who passed the qualifying exams.

Enlows practiced otolaryngology (ENT – ears, nose and throat) in DC. She was the first female doctor to join the staff of Washington’s Episcopal Hospital. She later recounted that because there were no facilities for women doctors to change their clothes, she was forced to change in the telephone booth. The female nurses then invited her to use their facilities.

In 1942, she and her husband each received the Alumni Achievement Award from GWU.

The Enlows moved to Florida in 1945. She practiced part time until 1956, when her husband died. She then retired and spent her time volunteering. She taught first aid and life saving and served as medical officer at the Aquatic Schools founded by her husband. Enlows also volunteered with the Florence Crittenton Home. She was instrumental in organizing Florida Medical Women.

Fort Lauderdale News, April 15, 1948

She remained active in Sigma Kappa alumnae chapters and was a member of the alumnae Panhellenic association. She was also active in AAUW and medical organizations. Enlows was honored by the American Medical Women’s Association, at a mid-year meeting in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1959.

Enlows died on June 25, 1973, at the age of 83.

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