“But I Didn’t Get My First Choice in Sorority Recruitment”

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

#BamaRush TikTok is now a real thing. Like being caught up in a soap opera/daytime drama (are they even a thing anymore?) or going on a internet quest, it kept one occupied for a goodly amount of time. When I posted a link to a news story about the #BamaRush tik tok on the Focus on Fraternity History facebook page, there were comments that Alabama is untypical of most other recruitments. I agree. But that’s the one that just put a face to sorority recruitment for many who had no prior knowledge of sorority recruitment. The haters have come out of the woodwork. FYI, I suggest not reading the comments on the articles already published as it can be another huge time suck. Haters, especially haters of the fraternity and sorority system, will not be persuaded. Until the recent past, the numbers 20/20 indicated normal visual acuity. Those of us who lived through the year 2020 realize there was little normal about it. Covid-19 made life interesting, to say the least. Several of the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations came up with a novel way of initiating women who were unable to become full members during the spring semester. Virtual initiation became an actual thing. I’m quite sure no one had that on their strategic planning bingo card 25 years ago. An Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter at Concordia University in Montréal was installed virtually and it started a trend. And many women went through sorority recruitment virtually or in a hybrid situation.

Primary sorority recruitment is a mutual selection process. Potential New Members (PNMs) rank their choices based on the Preference Parties they attended and then the PNMs are matched up with the chapter that offers them a bid, based on where the PNM appears on the chapter’s ranked bid list. It sounds like a complicated process and it is. Sometimes the PNM doesn’t get her first choice. Sometimes this causes much angst for the PNM (and perhaps her mother, grandmother, etcetera, etcetera).

Some PNMs are fine with whatever chapter appears on their bid card, but a few women decide not to accept the bid they are given and drop out of recruitment. It’s not always easy and while the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, adjusting dreams is a good lesson for the rest of one’s life. Blooming where one is planted is a skill which can come in handy throughout life. This year we are all getting a booster shot for this skill.

It’s all hard to explain to a 17 or 18-year-old who feels like she is the only one in the situation. All 26 NPC organizations are essentially the same, and one will have a similar experience in any of the groups. While our colors, badges, flowers, songs, etc. are all a little different, at the core, we believe in the same values. We are all sorority women.

This heartwarming story was posted several years ago by my Zeta Tau Alpha friend Gabbie Rimmaudo. For a time, she worked at Pi Beta Phi HQ and I loved that she would stop by the Archives when I was there. She loves fraternity history. I showed her the letter we have which was signed by Dr. May Agness Hopkins, who served as ZTA President. Her thoughts on getting her second choice chapter brought tears to my eyes and I told her so. I hope Gabbie’s story can resonate with some women who accepted bids to their second or third choice chapters. I hope they will embrace the opportunities that may be in their future.

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John A. Logan on Memorial Day

Posted on May 31, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I had no idea who John A. Logan was until I moved to Southern Illinois. An American soldier and politician, he was born in 1826. He died a little more than 60 years later. Logan was elected Illinois State Senator, Congressman, and U.S. Senator. He, on a ticket with James G. Blaine, ran an unsuccessful campaign for Vice-President of the United States. As a soldier he served in the Mexican-American War. He later became a General in the Union Army. Logan was the 3rd Commander in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. To him has been given much of the credit in the establishment of Memorial Day. The first observance of Decoration Day, as Memorial Day was known, has been claimed by many locales. Carbondale, Illinois is one of them.

Woodlawn

Woodlawn

General Order Number 11 of the Grand Army of the Republic was the document that established Decoration Day. It was signed on May 5, 1868 by General John A. Logan. 

I. The 30th day of May 1868 is designate for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades, who died in defense, of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every City, Village, and hamlet, church yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us for the purpose, among other things ‘of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings, which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.’ What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their hearts a barricade between our country, and its foes, their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom, to a race in chains, and their deaths the tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance, all that the consecrated wealth and toils of the nation can add to their adornment and security, is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice, or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present, or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people the cost of a free and undivided Republic.

Carrying

Carrying the flag of the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry

If other eyes grow dull, and other hands black, and other hearts cold, in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light, and warmth, of life remain to us. Let us, then, at the time appointed gather around their sacred remains, and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime: let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor. Let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us, a sacred charge upon a nation’s gratitude the soldiers and sailors widow and orphan.

II- It is the purpose of the commander in chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept up from year, to year, while a survivor of the war remains, to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III- Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.

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I offer thank to all who have served in the military and have given the ultimate sacrifice. One of my long term goals is to begin a honor roll of fraternity and sorority members who have served.

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Gamma Delta!

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Quick. Name an Alpha Chapter of a National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization whose chapter house was designed by a founder of the organization. There’s only one. It’s the Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta.

Alpha Gamma Delta was founded at Syracuse University on May 30, 1904 at the home of Dr. Wellesley Perry Coddington, a Syracuse University professor. Alpha Gamma Delta is the youngest of the Syracuse Triad, the three NPC organizations founded at Syracuse University. The other two, Alpha Phi and Gamma Phi Beta, were founded in 1872 and 1874, respectively.

By 1901, all seven of the founding National Panhellenic Conference organizations had chapters at Syracuse. Coddington, who had a hand in the early years of Alpha Phi, realized that the campus needed another women’s fraternity. He approached several young female students and discussions ensued. Though excitement started to grow, the women managed to keep the possibility of another organization on campus very quiet. Edith MacConnell was recovering from a serious accident and was a patient at the Homeopathic Hospital. Not even the nurses attending to her had any idea what was taking place, despite the steady stream of visitors to her room.

The announcement in the Daily Orange, the school’s newspaper, noted:

A new Greek-letter fraternity has been organized among the women of the university. The name is Alpha Gamma Delta and the members thus far are: Marguerite Shepard, ’05; Jennie C. Titus, ’05; Georgia Otis, ’06; Ethel E. Brown, ’06; Flora M. Knight, ’06, Estelle Shepard, ’06; Emily H. Butterfield, ’07; Edith MacConnell, ’07; Grace R. Mosher, ’07; Mary L. Snider, ’07.

Emily Helen Butterfield studied architecture at Syracuse University in a time when a female architect was an anomaly. After graduation she and her architect father established Butterfield and Butterfield, making her Michigan’s first licensed female architect. She was also an accomplished artist.

The Methodist Church in Farmington, Michigan, was designed by Butterfield and Butterfield. It was built in 1922. The Butterfields were members of the congregation. (Photo courtesy of the Farmington Community Library)

Her best known sketches are the ones she did of “Skiouros,” Alpha Gamma Delta’s squirrel mascot when she was editor of The Quarterly. To Skiouros was the name of the “secret edition” of The Quarterly. (FYI – the secret editions of GLO magazines contained membership numbers and information about chapter strengths and weaknesses and not anything having to do with ritual matters. These editions were not included in the exchange copies sent to the other GLOs. )

Butterfield also designed the organization’s Armorial Bearing, and wrote the Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose:

To gain understanding that wisdom may be vouchsafed to me; to develop and prize health and vigor of body; to cultivate acquaintance with many whom I meet, to cherish friendships but with a chosen few, and to study the perfecting of those friendships; to welcome the opportunity of contributing to the world’s work in the community where I am placed because of the joy of service thereby bestowed and the talent of leadership multiplied; to honor my home, my country, my religious faith; to hold faith inviolable, sincerity essential, kindness invaluable; to covet beauty in environment, manner, word and thought; to possess high ideals and to attain somewhat unto them; this shall be my Purpose that those who know me may esteem Alpha Gamma Delta for her attainments, revere her for her purposes, and love her for her Womanhood.

In the late 1920s, she designed the Alpha Chapter house at 709 Comstock Avenue. It was completed in the fall of 1928.

In the 1930’s when architecture commissions were scarce, Butterfield turned to writing  books, the Young People’s History of Architecture and College Fraternity Heraldry. After her father died, she moved from Farmington to Algonac, Michigan, where she continued painting and taught art classes. She also served as postmaster of Neebish Island, Michigan. Butterfield died in 1958, but her art and design skills live on.

If you want a real treat, visit oakewoodcottage.com and take a look at a house that Emily Butterfield designed. The house was commissioned by real estate developer Edward Beals of Farmington Hills, Michigan, in 1925. She designed it in the Storybook Tudor style which was used in California’s Hollywood Hills, but not often in the midwest. The Oaklands subdivision, where the home is located, was one of the first Detroit exurb developments. Beal, President of the Great Lakes Land Corporation, was in partnership with Issac Bond, a local farmer. By 1930, 11 homes were built in the subdivision but the Depression put an end to further building there. Vacant lots in the subdivision became farmland and stayed that way for the next 20 years. Beals lost the home in foreclosure by 1935.  It was a rental until the house became owner-occupied again in 1945.

 

In 1989, the home was placed on Farmington’s register of historic homes, which appears to have saved it from demolition. Ken and Melody Klemmer purchased it in 2013 and began the process of restoring the house to its original appearance.

Oakewood Cottage , 31805 Bond Boulevard, Farmington Hills as it appears today.

 

A watercolor by Emily Butterfield owned by the Klemmers

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Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Delta Pi

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On May 15, 1851, Alpha Delta Pi was founded as the Adelphean Society at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia by six young women. The founders are Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, Ella Pierce Turner, Octavia Andrew Rush, Mary Evans Glass, Sophronia Woodruff Dews, and Elizabeth Williams Mitchell.  Fitzgerald, known to generations of Alpha Delta Pis as “Mother Fitzgerald,” was the leader and first president of the Adelpheans.

In 1905, the Society changed its name to Alpha Delta Phi and installed its second chapter at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A year later, a third chapter was founded at Mary Baldwin Seminary, in Staunton, Virginia. Alpha Delta Phi joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) in 1909. The installation of the Sigma Chapter at the University of Illinois in 1912 came shortly after the installation, on the same campus, of the Illinois Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, a men’s fraternity founded in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.  The Illinois members made their organization aware of this duplication of name and the problems that surfaced because of it. In 1913, the convention body voted to change the name to Alpha Delta Pi.

In 1926, a bench was dedicated on the Wesleyan College campus. It was given in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Adelphean Society. The bench was designed by Emily Langham of the Sophie Newcomb College chapter. The event was chronicled in the 1930 History of Alpha Delta Pi. “We have just had a big thrill way down in Dixie. When one attends a family reunion, there is always a feeling of both pleasure and pain, so many recollections are aroused. As the large number of Alpha alumnae gathered together for the presentation of the Marble Bench by Alpha Delta Pi to Wesleyan College, commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, they felt they were returning to an old home, the mother gone, but her children ‘rising up to call her blessed.’ Every loyal heart there felt with keenest appreciation the placing of this Memorial at the home of Alpha Chapter.”

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Dedication of Founders Bench

Dedication of the Memorial Bench

The bench was placed in “a grove of great oaks. Waving mimosa trees in full bloom and magnolias added the floral decoration.” Ella Clark Anderson, the oldest member present, was a member of the class of 1862. Descendants of the founders were present when the blue and white drapery was drawn aside and the bench was unveiled. Ten years later, Alpha Delta Pi once again gathered on campus to dedicate another gift to the college. The Alpha Delta Pi’s Memorial Fountain is located in the center of Wesleyan College’s quadrangle; it was a gift to celebrate the college’s centennial in 1936. Made of Georgia marble, the Alpha Delta Pi coat-of-arms is engraved on the large slanting block at center. The names of the founders of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority are engraved on the stairs leading up to the fountain. Other elements of the fountain were added on other commemorations including two lions, the mascot of Alpha Delta Pi, given in 2011 to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary. Alpha Delta Pi Fountain (detail), Wesleyan College

The fountain with lions added.

The fountain with lions added.

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Happy Founders’ Day, Theta Phi Alpha!

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A few men have had roles in the founding of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) women’s fraternities/sororities. Dr. Wellesley P. Coddington, George Banta, and Dr. Charles Richardson are some that quickly come to mind. Of that small fraternity of men involved in the founding of NPC organizations, there is only one Bishop. 

On August 30, 1912, Theta Phi Alpha was founded at the University of Michigan.  In 1909, Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the university’s student chapel organized Omega Upsilon. He believed that the Catholic women at the university should have the opportunity to belong to an organization  that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” At that time, Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus.

Theta Phi Alpha Founders

After Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling.  There were no alumnae to guide the organization. Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive even though he was not on campus. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization, Theta Phi Alpha.

Theta Phi Alpha’s ten founders are Amelia McSweeney, Mildred M. Connely, May C. Ryan, Selma Gilday, Camilla Ryan Sutherland, Helen Ryan Quinlan, Katrina Caughey Ward, Dorothy Caughey Phalan, Otilia Leuchtweis O’Hara, and Eva Stroh Bauer.  Seven of them were Omega Upsilon alumnae and two were undergraduate members of Omega Upsilon.

Theta Phi Alpha remained a local organization until 1919 when the Beta Chapter was formed at the University of Illinois. In addition, chapters at Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati were chartered that year.

In 1921, Pi Lambda Sigma was founded as a Catholic sorority at Boston University. On June 28, 1952, Pi Lambda Sigma merged with Theta Phi Alpha. Its members at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati became members of the Theta Phi Alpha chapters on the two campuses. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Although founded on August 30, Theta Phi Alpha celebrates Founders’ Day on April 30, the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine is the patroness of the organization and her motto, “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring, ” is Theta Phi Alpha’s motto as well.

Today Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all faiths. 

Bishop Edward Kelly as a young priest. He was in his 50s when he helped found Theta Phi Alpha.

Bishop Edward D. Kelly as a young priest. He was in his 50s when he helped found Theta Phi Alpha.

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* Saint Catherine was canonized in 1461. From 1597 until 1628, the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena was celebrated on April 29, the date she died. In 1628, due to a conflict with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona, hers was moved to April 30. In 1969, the Catholic Church reinstated her feast date as April 29. 
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Happy Founders’ Day, Pi Beta Phi!

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, opened in 1856. Students who did not live in town needed to find lodging and board with local families. Ada Bruen and Libbie Brook, friends from Henderson County, found a room to share in Jacob Holt’s home. That southwest second-floor bedroom is where Pi Beta Phi was founded on April 28, 1867. The name they chose for their “women’s fraternity” was I. C. Sorosis. They modeled their organization on the men’s fraternities that were then at Monmouth. Its grip was accompanied by the motto “Pi Beta Phi.”

Chapters began using the Greek letters prior to the official name change at the 1888 convention. There was never any discussion of which Greek letters to use as they had been with the organizations since its beginning. The first edition of The Arrow, published in 1885, has “Organ of Pi Beta Phi” on its masthead even though it began publishing three years before the name change was official. The chapter at the University of Kansas was charged with the magazine’s publishing and they were one of the chapters making use of the Greek letters.

Pi Beta Phi’s twelve founders included two sisters, Emma Brownlee (Kilgore) and Clara Brownlee (Hutchinson), and their friends Ada Bruen (Grier), Nancy Black (Wallace), Inez Smith (Soule), Fannie Whitenack (Libbey), Libbie Brook (Gaddis), Rosa Moore, Jennie Horne (Turnbull), Margaret Campbell, Jennie Nicol, M.D., and Fannie Thomson.

In 1921, 100 years ago, some of the Founders were in their 70s. The June 1921 Arrow included these two thank you notes.

The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

Ada Bruen Grier’s name was misspelled, likely by the typesetter. The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

That June 1921 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi contained information about the upcoming convention being held in Charlevoix, Michigan. It also had this full page photo of a member of the University of Vermont chapter. She had recently moved to the District of Columbia from  Northampton, Massachusetts. She was a loyal Pi Phi having served as a chapter, alumnae club and province officer.

Her stay in Washington would be celebrated three years later with the unveiling of her official White House portrait, a gift from Pi Beta Phi. Her golden arrow adorns the red dress in the portrait which is in the China Room. That, however, is a story for another day. Happy Founders’ Day to my Pi Phi sisters. Here’s to another 154 years!

The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Tri Sigma!

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Sigma Sigma was founded on April 20, 1898, at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia (now Longwood University). The founders are Lucy Wright, Margaret Batten, Elizabeth Watkins, Louise Davis, Martha Trent Featherston, Lelia Scott, Isabella Merrick, and Sallie Michie.

On April 14, 1904, Mabel Lee Walton was initiated as a charter member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma chapter at Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her life was dedicated to advancing her sorority. She was Tri Sigma’s third National President and she served for 34 continuous years, from 1913 through 1947, and she was named President Emerita in 1956.

She also served as the President of the Association of Education Sororities before Sigma Sigma Sigma became a member of the National Panhellenic Conference in 1947.

The December 1913 Triangle contains a greeting from Walton. Its words are as true today as they were more than a century ago. They can also be applied to all of us who wear badges of sisterhood. She wrote:

TO THE SORORITY:

A word of greeting at the beginning to officers, chapters, and alumnae!

A Sigma Sigma Sigma never outgrows her usefulness to her Sorority — has this occurred to you? While she is in school she is a very influential personage. She is one of a number that forms a unit — which unit makes a chapter — a part of a whole. And if that girl does not play an important part in chapter affairs the fault is largely hers.

After leaving school a Sigma Sigma Sigma becomes an individual member. She acts entirely for herself. If she fails in this obligation which she deliberately took upon herself, the fault is wholly hers.

If every girl who wears the Sigma Sigma Sigma emblem would work earnestly for her Sorority, what a mighty band we would be! What a force we could prove to the sorority world! One member can never take the place of another — YOU have a work no other can perform. If you fail to do your part, the duty falls on other shoulders, willing, perhaps, to do extra work, but the question is, are you willing to stand by and see others doing what you know you should do yourself?

Let this mark a new era for the Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority. Let each one do her part in the upbuilding of her Sorority. Success, unbounded success, will be our reward! Is not this a priceless prize worth working for?

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April 19, 1995 – Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Perished in the Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

April 19, 1995 started off as an ordinary day for the residents of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is etched in the minds of all who were touched by the events of the day or those who watched on television, listened to on the radio or read about in newspapers, magazines and books. There was no googling for information back then. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people.

Skye Conley, a loyal Lambda Chi Alpha, had the opportunity to intern at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum during the summer of 2020. An internship was a requirement for his Museum Studies graduate program at the University of Kansas. He is the guiding force behind this post. He is now the Museum’s Digital Archivist/Curator. I thank him for his suggestion and assistance. In 2020, Conley said:

Perhaps it was the opportunity of something greater than a lifetime since I was able to work in person with a full staff and with visitors as the COVID-19 pandemic raged in its earliest months in the United States. In my first week in Oklahoma City, my supervisors emphasized the importance of reading several texts about the Oklahoma City Bombing. One of these was 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995: The Official Record of the Oklahoma City Bombing, published by Oklahoma Today magazine. It included short biographies on each of the 168 of those who were killed, and one in particular stood out to me. His name was Mark Allen Bolte and he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, my fraternity.

I had already known that Judge Alfred P. Murrah, the namesake of the Murrah Federal Building outside of which the bombing took place, was my brother, but I did not know that I had lost a brother in the United States’ deadliest domestic terrorism attack. It occurred when I was only 47 days old. Later, upon my first tour of the Museum’s exhibit, I learned that that Museum was keeping in its permanent stewardship a metal key ring tag belonging to Brother Bolte. It was found on his person after the bombing, printed with the name of our fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. I now have my own similar needlepoint key ring tag with our letters and the cross & crescent.

Conley felt keenly about his purpose:

I knew I wanted to spend every day ensuring that the work I was doing was not only meaningful, but I also wanted to glorify and honor all those who were killed, those who survived, and those whose lives were changed forever, to borrow from their Mission Statement. I have never felt a more personal connection to an institution and its subjects than that of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and perhaps it will never be trumped. As we mark the 26th anniversary of this painful day, I take solace in the love that I have cultivated for those with intimate connections to the bombing. My grief is their grief. I will never understand it entirely, but their losses are mine, too, and we are not alone.

However, I also take comfort in the pride that I have. Pride that I was able to grow professionally and personally in one of the most remarkable places in the world, whose mission to impart the impact of violence is an evergreen cause; and the pride in knowing that I am engaged in a sacred bond with two outstanding brothers involved in the loss but not entirely defined by it. One who was certainly fitting to be the namesake of a federal building as a result of his illustrious career as a federal judge, and one who ‘loved to make people smile, and he let his attitude lead the way.’ (Their Faith Has Touched Us)

I am in eternal gratitude to everyone who has ever given their faculties to the success and steadfastness of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, but I would be remiss to not outwardly thank Kari Watkins, the Executive Director; and my co-supervisors, Helen Stiefmiller, the Collections Manager, and Joanna Butterworth, the Curator. May we use the impact of April 19, 1995 and our fraternal bonds to be made into instruments of peace.

Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Perished in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building

Mark Allen Bolte, Lambda Chi Alpha, Arkansas Tech University, later transferred membership to the University of Arkansas. He was an environmental engineer at the Federal Highway Administration. He was  28 years old.

Mark Allen Bolte

Carolyn Ann Himes Kreymborg, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Oklahoma State University. She worked for the Department of Housing & Urban Development. She was 57 years old.

Carrie Ann Lenz, Sigma Kappa, University of Central Oklahoma. She and her unborn son Michael James Lenz III perished. Lenz was a contract employee of DynCorp, assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She was 26 years old.

Derwin W. Miller, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He was a Claims Examiner in the Social Security Administration. He was 27 years old.

Derwin Miller

Larry L. Turner, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., University of Central Oklahoma. He was a special agent with the Department of Defense Investigative Services. He was 42 years old.

Michael D. Weaver, Beta Theta Pi, University of Oklahoma. He was an attorney-adviser in the legal division in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  He was 45 years old.

 

Clarence Eugene Wilson, Sr., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., University of Oklahoma. Wilson was the fourth Black to graduate the pharmacy program at the University of Oklahoma and he worked as a pharmacist until he became a lawyer. He was Acting Director of Oklahoma City Office of Housing Urban Development. He was 49 years old.

Clarence Wilson Memorial, Lawton, Oklahoma

May they all Rest in Peace and may their memories be a blessing to those who love them. I’ve never been to Oklahoma.  I think I need to get there soon to pay my respects. Please let me know of any corrections or additions.

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On Alpha Xi Delta’s Founders’ Day, Its Connection to the P.E.O. Sisterhood

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, on April 17, 1893. Its founders are Cora Bollinger (Block), Alice Bartlett (Bruner), Bertha Cook (Evans), Harriett Luella McCollum (Gossow), Lucy W. Gilmer, Lewie Strong (Taylor), Almira Lowry Cheney, Frances Elisabeth Cheney, Eliza Drake Curtis (Everton), and Julia Maude Foster. Their ages ranged from 15 (Alice Barlett) to 25 (Eliza Curtis, a widow).

Cora

Cora Bollinger Block

P.E.O. was founded as a collegiate organization at Iowa Wesleyan University on January 21, 1869. Between 1869 and 1902, the P.E.O. members who had been initiated while enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University stayed active in P.E.O. even though they were no longer enrolled in the college. Many remained in or near Mount Pleasant. Others formed chapters in towns and communities where they  moved after graduation. The early P.E.O. chapters that had been formed at nearby schools did not survive and by the 1880s and 1890s, P.E.O.’s growth was in community chapters. The chapter at Iowa Wesleyan University was finding it difficult to operate on a college campus with the rules put forth by the community chapters.

The P.E.O. chapter at Iowa Wesleyan University had been known as Chapter A. It was named AJ to distinguish itself from the Mount Pleasant chapter, now known as Original A. When state chapters were established and chapters were renamed it became Chapter S/Iowa. After the turn of the century, the governing body of P.E.O. made the decision to withdraw the charter of Chapter S. The college women wished to remain a collegiate organization and discussed becoming a chapter of a Greek-letter organization.

P.E.O. chapter at Iowa Wesleyan in 1901. They are wearing the star of P.E.O., but most of them would soon be wearing quills as they are the women who decided to join with Alpha Xi Delta.

The Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard, having made the decision to become a national organization, and the collegiate members of P.E.O., having decided to become a chapter of a Greek-letter organization, discussed what needed to be done to grant these wishes. Anna Gillis (Kimble), a member of the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard College, hailed from Mount Pleasant. Her influence helped the Iowa Wesleyan women make the decision to become the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.

On June 9, 1902, the Alpha Xi Delta members entered the Lombard College Chapel wearing their tri-colored ribbons for the first time. The ribbons heralded the fact that they were now a national organization. After chapel, the installing officers made their way to Mount Pleasant.

The installation of Alpha Xi Delta’s second chapter took place at the home of Ellen Ball. Cora Bollinger-Block presided at the installation. Helping her were Ella Boston-Leib,* Alice Barlett-Bruner, Jennie Marriot-Buchanan, Virginia Henney Franklin, Anna Gillis, and Edna Epperson-Brinkham.

The chapter roll quickly grew. By 1905, when the Iowa Wesleyan hosted the Third National Convention, there were nine chapters. In addition to the chapters at Lombard and Iowa Wesleyan, chapters had been chartered at Mount Union College,  Bethany College, University of South Dakota, Wittenberg University, Syracuse University, University of Wisconsin and West Virginia University.

In 1913, Iowa Wesleyan University authorities allowed the chapter to initiate the P.E.O. alumnae as Alpha Xi Deltas. Afterwards, the Mount Pleasant Alumnae Club of Alpha Xi Delta was formed.

The only P.E.O. founder to be continuously involved with P.E.O. was Alice Bird Babb. Her daughter Alice Babb (Ewing) was a member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta as well as a member of P.E.O. Her daughter’s membership in Alpha Xi Delta may have had a bearing on P.E.O. Founder Alice Bird Babb becoming a member of Alpha Xi Delta. In 1926, while in Mount Pleasant for a college event, she was initiated into Alpha Xi Delta at the age of 74 years old. She died in 1926.

Alice Bird Babb

Lombard College was founded in 1853 by the Universalist Church and it was coeducational from its beginning. Originally called the Illinois Liberal Institute, its name was changed in 1855, after a fire damaged much of the college. Businessman and farmer Benjamin Lombard gave the college a large gift to build a new building and the institution was named in his honor. Among its students was Carl Sandburg. The 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression hit Lombard College extremely hard. The college closed its doors. The last class graduated in 1930. Knox College invited the Lombard students to transfer to Knox. The Lombard alumni became members of the Knox Alumni Association.

* Ella Boston Leib also served as Alpha Xi Delta’s Grand President, National Panhellenic Conference delegate, and Chairman of  NPC as well as the President of Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O. 

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The Crouch Sisters, Carnegie Heroes and Chi Omegas

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Chi Omega was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with guidance from Fayetteville dentist, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Kappa Sigma, created the organization.  The founding chapter at Arkansas is known as Psi Chapter.

Dr. Richardson, known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Psi Chapter members, is  a founder. He crafted Chi Omega’s first badge out of dental gold. I think it’s a safe bet to say that Chi Omega is the only National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization to have its first badge crafted out of dental gold.

Original Chi Omega badge crafted in dental gold by "Doc Sis."

Original Chi Omega badge crafted in dental gold by “Doc Sis.”

The Couch Sisters of Iota Chapter

“Lucile and Bess Crouch are attending the University on Carnegie Hero Funds” read the notes about Chi Omega’s Iota Chapter at the University of Texas in a 1921 Eleusis. I became very curious.

I suspected the Carnegie referred to steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and I was correct. But I was wrong about the hero, thinking perhaps that it was their father who did the heroic deed and perished doing it. I was wrong.

The heroes were the sisters themselves, Lucile and Dorothy Elizabeth “Bess” Crouch. On September 6, 1915, 56-year-0ld Lillie C. Hunt swam 15 feet from the pier in Port O’Connor, Texas. She was a poor swimmer and was unable to return in the strong current. And the water was eight feet deep. Lucile, 24-years-old, swam out to Hunt and tried to swim back with her.  When Lucile tried to swim with Hunt’s hand resting on her shoulder, Lucile sank under Hunt’s weight. The  current carried both of them away. Hunt implored Lucile to swim back alone, thereby saving herself. Lucile refused to do so.

Bess, who was ten years younger than Lucile, dove in the water from the pier. She swam 150 feet to the women. The sisters worked together to push Hunt 350 feet across the current. At that point all three were able to touch the bottom and although exhausted they all made it back to safety.

Lucile and Bess were each awarded a Bronze medal plus $2,000 for educational purposes. Lucile was a teacher in the days when one did not need a Bachelor’s degree to do so. She and Bess enrolled at the University of Texas and both became members of the Iota Chapter of Chi Omega.

 

I believe Lucile is in the top row and Bess is in the second row

Lucile graduated in 1920 and Bess followed a year later. Lucile married Dr. Frank Starr Littlejohn. She died in 1939. Bess married Edwin Ewart Sullivan in June 24, 1924. She died in November of 1981.

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