Friday, November 22, 1963, is one of those hallmark dates. Almost everyone who was alive on that date remembers exactly where they were when they heard of President Kennedy’s death. Today’s collegians might not believe that there wasn’t a 24-hour news cycle then. Television screens projected in black, gray, and white and there were only a handful of stations in each market. The news was only on at scheduled times. There was no internet to scour for the latest news.
Of the four women (the first female judge in Texas and the wives of the President, Vice-President, and Texas Governor) who played major roles on that fateful day fifty years ago in Dallas, two of them were members of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations.
The First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Onassis), graduated from Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut and entered Vassar College. She spent her junior year studying at the University of Grenoble and the Sorbonne, in a Smith College study-abroad program. When she returned to the states, she transferred to George Washington University (GWU), entering in 1950 and graduating in 1951. Although I have run across rumors of her belonging to various NPC groups at GWU, I suspect they are just that as I could find no concrete evidence of membership.
The Vice-President’s wife, Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson, entered summer school at the University of Alabama after graduating from high school in 1928. Instead of returning to Alabama that fall, she and a friend entered a two-year school, St. Mary’s Episcopal College for Women. In 1930, she graduated from St. Mary’s and enrolled at the University of Texas. There, she was invited to membership in Alpha Phi, but she broke her pledge because her father was against the idea of her joining a sorority.*
Idanell “Nellie” Brill Connally, wife of John Connally, the Texas Governor, met her husband when they were students at the University of Texas where she was a member of Delta Delta Delta. On that Friday morning in Dallas, the Connallys were seated in the open Lincoln convertible in front of the Kennedys. Years later, she recalled that as the motorcade turned onto Elm Street, she looked at the President and said to him, “Mr. President, you certainly cannot say that Dallas does not love you.” Shots then rang out. Both the President and the Governor were hit by bullets.
The Governor survived his injuries and served until 1969. Both Connallys were honored with the University of Texas Distinguished Alumni Award. The Nellie B. Connally Breast Center at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is named for her, a breast cancer survivor and a breast cancer awareness advocate. In 2004, two years before her death, she was honored with Delta Delta Delta’s Woman of Achievement Award.
Sarah Tilghman Hughes is perhaps the least known of the four women. She was born in 1896 and was raised in West Baltimore, Maryland. She entered Goucher College, graduating in 1917 with a degree in biology. As a student, she became a member of Delta Gamma’s Psi II chapter and Phi Beta Kappa. For two years, she taught at Salem Academy in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She then enrolled in the GWU’s School of Law while serving as a D.C. policewoman, working mainly with juveniles. At GWU, she met George Ernest Hughes, a classmate from Palestine, Texas. They married on March 13, 1922. After graduation, they moved to Dallas. He began a private law practice and she joined the firm of Priest, Herndon, and Ledbetter.
When the Alpha Upsilon Chapter of Delta Gamma was installed at Southern Methodist University on October 16, 1926, she was called the chapter’s “Guardian Angel.” According to an account in the January 1927 Anchora, she “proved a delightful toastmistress and made us realize that an eloquent lawyer she must be (she is a full-fledged member of a law firm in Dallas).” That Anchora issue also includes another account of the festivities written by Hughes. In 1950, she served on Delta Gamma’s Constitution and By-laws Revision Committee.
In 1930, she became one of the first women elected to the Texas Legislature; she served three terms. While women had the right to vote, and a few had run for office in Texas, they were not allowed to serve on juries. When Hughes was appointed the first female state district judge in Texas in 1935, she noted that because of the law she would not be able to serve as a juror in her own court. Just prior to her judicial appointment, Hughes and Helen E. Moore introduced a constitutional amendment to give women that right in Texas. It was not passed until 18 years later. In 1936, she was elected in her own right and in 1960, she was reelected to the last of six additional terms.
In 1961, she asked for a federal judgeship. Many thought it was an impossible task given her age, 65, and opposition from the American Bar Association and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. With some the help, the impossible happened. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, “At her request, the Business and Professional Women’s Club undertook a letter-writing campaign in support of her candidacy and (Senator Ralph W.) Yarborough, Johnson and Speaker of the House Samuel T. Rayburn lobbied effectively on her behalf. When President John F. Kennedy appointed her in October 1961, she became the first woman to serve as federal district judge in Texas.”
Hughes became the first woman to swear in a U.S. President. With President Kennedy having been declared dead, the Vice President was advised that any federal judge could swear him in as President. Johnson asked that Hughes be brought in. She was at home when she took a call from the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Harold Barefoot Sanders, Jr. He told her that Johnson wanted her to administer the oath of office before he departed Dallas on Air Force One. She stepped aboard the plane at Love Field, administered the oath, and left. In a 1972 interview in the Baltimore Sun Magazine, she said, “The whole thing took no more than 10 minutes.” As soon as she left the plane, Air Force One headed to D.C.
Years later she said that while she liked to think that Johnson chose her because of their friendship, she realized she may have been the choice because of his feelings towards the other federal judges in Dallas. Hughes died on April 23, 1985. Goucher College will remember her on Monday, November 25, 2013 at 4:30 with a talk by one of her relatives.
Below are two pictures of Judge Hughes.
* The Johnsons’ daughter, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb is a Zeta Tau Alpha having joined the sorority as a student at the University of Texas. Robb’s daughter, Lucinda Robb, is a Kappa Alpha Theta from Princeton University. Three other granddaughters are Kappa Kappa Gammas: Lynda’s daughters Catherine Robb (UVA) and Jennifer Robb (Duke), and Luci’s daughter Nicole Nugent Covert (Texas).
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2013. All Rights Reserved.
