Can a Woman Belong to More Than One NPC Sorority?

Posted on August 22, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

It’s recruitment time and Panhellenic new member/pledge pins are now being worn by young women on campuses across North America. (FYI “new member” is the new terminology, but “pledge” doesn’t want to be in the background and FWIW, it is a better descriptor, as many keep telling me. “Rush” is still in common usage as “Potential New Member Recruitment” seems a bit long for the job. But I digress.)

Jen Lancaster, Pi Beta Phi, recommends Lisa Patton’s new book. Patton is a Kappa Delta alumna from the University of Alabama chapter.

Emma Harper Turner, who was one of Pi Beta Phi’s most influential Grand Presidents, is one of my favorite sorority women of yore. A fun fact about her is that she was a Kappa Kappa Gamma before she was a Pi Beta Phi. When Kappa, through a series of unfortunate circumstances, withdrew the charter of its chapter at Franklin College, Turner and a friend asked for and were granted Honorable Dismissals from Kappa. They then petitioned Pi Phi for a charter and it was granted. Turner was instrumental in establishing Pi Phi’s alumnae department in 1893 and the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

So when did it become impossible to be initiated into two National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organizations? Turns out is was more than seven decades ago as this is one of the resolutions passed by the 1947 Conference:

That no person who has resigned from one NPC fraternity is eligible to membership in another NPC fraternity.

It was a particularly important resolution because 11 organizations were admitted to associate membership at that meeting. Six of those organizations, members of the Association of Education Sororities (AES), were granted associate membership – Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, Delta Sigma Epsilon, Pi Kappa Sigma, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Theta Sigma Upsilon. These were the groups that had chapters at Normal Schools and Teachers Colleges. AES was established in 1916 and two of the Farmville Four (Zeta Tau Alpha, Kappa Delta, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and Alpha Sigma Alpha) had to close their founding chapters in order to comply with NPC rules since Longwood University was originally a teacher training institution.

Also admitted to NPC as associate members at that 1947 meeting were Alpha Epsilon Phi, Phi Sigma Sigma, Delta Phi Epsilon, Sigma Delta Tau, and Theta Phi Alpha. All 11 groups would be granted full NPC membership at the 1951 meeting.

What is important to note is that it was once possible to be a member of an AES organization and an NPC one. A member of my Pi Phi alumnae club belonged to Delta Sigma Epsilon when she was a student at Southern Illinois Normal School (now SIU Carbondale) and then joined the Pi Phi chapter when she enrolled at Northwestern University. When the AES groups became NPC groups, women who were members of two organizations had to resign from one of them.

There are some women who think the NPC ruling made in 1947 prohibiting membership in more than one NPC group is unfair, especially when one transfers institutions and there is not a chapter of her organization at the new school. She would be considered an alumna, and yet, she is an undergraduate who may be at a school with an active fraternity and sorority system. The meme one reads when encountering these stories on the internet is why shouldn’t she be able to have fun? Why should she be penalized because there is not a chapter of her sorority at the new school? Why can’t she just go through recruitment again and join another chapter? Or what about those that can be filed under “buyer’s remorse” or “the grass is always greener” situations? The answer is cut and dry. One NPC group per person, no matter the situation.

The weed growing inside the stop sign pole took “bloom where you are planted” very seriously.

 

 

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#NationalRadioDay in GLOland

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

It’s National Radio Day! Once upon a time, radios were the only electronic device in fraternity and sorority houses.

In the 1920s, radios began providing entertainment for listeners, provided they had a radio to listen to and were within broadcasting range. Programming was done locally. From the 1920s-1940s, “radio dances” were a thing in the GLO world. Prior to the availability of radio, chapters wishing to host a dance needed to find musicians to provide the music. Sometimes chapter members would form a band or orchestra, but most of the time, musicians needed to be paid to provide the music. Once purchased, music from the radio was free. This made it very attractive in the Depression years.

The April 1933 issue of the Illinois Delta Bazute, the newsletter of the University of Illinois chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, reported “in order to cut costs and still enjoy a chapter house dance, the radio has been called into service, and dancing to some of the best bands in the country has been enjoyed this semester.”

Some GLO members found fame in radio. These include:

Alpha Chi Rho, Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians, and the Blendor

A ΦΓΔ and an AΦ Meet at Syracuse – Ruth and Norman Vincent Peale

From a recent Ohio Wesleyan University magazine (Thanks, Laurie!)

Tau Kappa Epsilon and Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan started his career in radio after graduating from Eureka College.

#WHM – Edwyl Reddings, Musician, Dean, and Tri Sigma

Agnes Nixon, Alpha Chi Omega and Soap Opera Titan

Dinah Shore, Alpha Epsilon Phi, #WHM2018, #notablesororitywomen

Dr. Joyce Brothers, Sigma Delta Tau, #WHM2018, #notablesororitywomen

Irna Phillips, considered the “mother of modern soap opera,” was a Phi Sigma Sigma, University of Illinois chapter.

 

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8/18/1920 – The 19th Amendment and Sorority Women

Posted on August 18, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On August 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote passed its final hurdle of obtaining the agreement of three-fourths of the states as Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify it. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920. Colby was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi chapter at Williams College.

Sorority women including these highlighted below worked for the passage of the 19th Amendment. 

E. Jean Nelson Penfield, (1872-1961), Kappa Kappa Gamma (DePauw University). Penfield was one of seven women who chartered the Woman’s Suffrage Party of Greater New York. She also served as Kappa Kappa Gamma’s National President. 

E. Jean Nelson (Penfield) wearing her Kappa key.

Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947), Pi Beta Phi (Iowa State University). Catt was President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association from 1900-04 (and 1915-20, too). She was instrumental in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Carrie Chapman Catt wearing her Pi Beta Phi arrow badge. In the 1880s, a standardized manner of wearing the badge had yet to be determined and it was common for members to wear it in all sorts of ways, including pointing downward..

Ada Comstock Notestein (1876-1973), Delta Gamma, University of Minnesota. Notestein served as  Dean of Women at Smith College from 1921-23. Since 1975, Smith College’s Ada Comstock Scholars Program has helped hundreds of non-traditional age women to complete a Bachelor of Arts. In addition, she served as President of the American Association of University Women from 1921-23 and President of Radcliffe College from 1923-43.

Ada Louise Comstock

Ada Louise Comstock

Alice Duer Miller (1874-1942), Kappa Kappa Gamma, Barnard College (Phi Beta Kappa, too!). Miller was an ardent suffragist. In the years when women were trying to gain the right to vote, she wrote a column, Are Women People? devoted to the cause of equal suffrage. In 1915, she penned:

“Mother, what is a feminist?”

“A feminist, my daughter,

Is any woman now who cares

to think about her own affairs

As men don’t think she oughter.”

Kappa Kappa Gamma, Beta Epsilon Chapter, Barnard College

Reverend Doctor Anna Howard Shaw, (1847-1919), Kappa Alpha Theta (Wooster College) An honorary member (alumna initiate), Shaw was a suffragist, physician, first ordained female Methodist minister, and President of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Frances Willard, 1839-98, Alpha Phi (Syracuse University). Willard, an honorary member (alumna initiate), served as Alpha Phi’s National President. She was a suffragist, social reformer, and an American educator. She was also instrumental in the establishment of the second chapter of Alpha Phi  at Northwestern University in 1881.

Frances Willard

Mary Ritter Beard (1876-1958), Kappa Alpha Theta (DePauw University). Ritter was a suffragist and a noted historian.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Ph.D., (1879-1958), Kappa Kappa Gamma (Ohio State University). Fisher was an author, educational reformer, and social activist. After World War I, she did post-war relief work in Europe, enlisting her Kappa sisters’ assistance in helping orphaned children.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Edith and Grace Abbott, both Delta Gammas (University of Nebraska). Grace (1878-1939) was the highest ranking woman in the United States government for over a decade as the head of the U.S. Children’s Bureau from 1921-34. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position—Secretary of Labor (unfortunately her nomination was not confirmed). Edith (1876-1957) was the first woman to become dean of an American graduate school, the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.

Mary Gray Peck, Gamma Phi Beta, (1867-1957). Peck was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association serving as its corresponding secretary.She was on the front lines of the women’s suffrage movement.

Mary Gray Peck

There were National Pan-Hellenic Council women involved in the fight for suffrage, but because of the age of the organizations – the oldest of the organizations was founded 12 years prior to the 19th Amendment being passed. The youngest NPHC organization did not yet exist.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the first NPHC sorority was founded at Howard University on January 16, 1908. Almost five years later, on January 13, 1913, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded at Howard University. Its charter members had been members of Alpha Kappa Alpha. One of the first activities of the Delta Sigma Theta members was marching in the March 1913 suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. along with Mary Church Terrell, an honorary Delta Sigma Theta member.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Alpha chapter members

Mary Church Terrell

Mary Church Terrell

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was founded on January 16, 1920, at Howard University. The youngest of the NPHC sororities, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., was founded at Butler University on November 12, 1922. The NPHC groups played an integral role in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. (A great resource is A Pledge with Purpose: Black Sororities and Fraternities and the Fight for Equality by Gregory S. Parks and Matthew W. Hughey.)

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With R-E-S-P-E-C-T to Aretha Franklin and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Posted on August 16, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A bright light has left the world. Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” has died. On June 5, 1992, she became an Honorary Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In addition to her many Grammy Awards, she also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Condolences to all who knew and loved her and to those who never met her but she was a part of their lives.

***

While my mind is on Delta Sigma Theta and while I am in Florida dealing with family matters, I have some other Florida and Delta Sigma Theta news to share.

Cori Bostic, a member of the Beta Alpha chapter Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. is first female drum major in the 72-year history of Florida A&M University. Congratulations Cori!

The August 9 Space Coast section of Florida Today had a mention of Melbourne/Palm Bay Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Florida Today, August 9, 2018

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Is Sandra Day O’Connor a Sorority Woman?

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A few weeks ago I was asked about Sandra Day O’Connor and her sorority affiliation. Someone remembered her speaking at the 1979 Pi Beta Phi convention in Phoenix, Arizona. When that “someone” is Sis Mullis, Pi Phi extraordinaire, I knew I had to do some research. I checked the convention coverage in the fall 1979 Arrow. Not a word. But Sandra Day O’Connor was not appointed to the Supreme Court until 1981, so that might have had some bearing on the Arrow coverage.

I then went to the convention file and looked at the program. Sis was correct (of course she was, Sis is rarely, if ever, wrong!). O’Connor, who at the time was a Superior Court Judge, was part of a panel. (Do not ask me about Ed Sullivan moderating the discussion. I tend to think it was not the variety show host.)

The funny thing is that the rumor that she is a sorority woman has been going around for more than half a century. Some think she is a Chi O; others say she’s a Theta, or maybe a Kappa. Some swear she is a Pi Phi. She was at Stanford University when there was not a women’s fraternity system there and she is not a member of any NPC group.

There is one NPC woman on the court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an initiate of the  Cornell University Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter. (Edited 10/27/2020 – Amy Coney Barrett is an initiate of the Kappa Delta chapter at Rhodes College. In June 2023, Ketanji Brown Jackson became an honorary initiate of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She became the third sorority woman to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice..)

A 1951 Moot Court competition at Stanford University. Law student Sandra Day is in the photo which appeared in the Stanford Quad.

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“No Way To Go Through Life Son” – Animal House

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

What if all you knew about fraternities came from the film Animal House? Would it be reflected in Dean Vernor Wormer’s admonition to Kent “Flounder” Dorfman, with his 0.2 GPA, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son”? Would it be that food fights, toga parties and rank debauchery are seemingly more fun than living within the law? For four decades, the film has been part of American culture. In the American Film Institute’s list of 100 greatest comedies, it ranks 36th. And who among us hasn’t referenced “double secret probation” one or twice?

On July 24, 1978, National Lampoon’s Animal House premiered in New York City. A few weeks later, it opened in Portland, Oregon, a little more than 100 miles from where most of it was filmed in Eugene. The University of Oregon had been transformed into the fictional Faber College, a small southern school. About a year earlier, William Beaty Boyd, the University’s president, signed a contract with Universal Studios. In return for allowing the film to be shot on campus, the University received $20,000, plus revenue lost at the cafeteria when it was used to film the food fight scene, and assurance that the university would not be identified. Filming began in late October 1977, and students were hired as extras for $2.30 per hour.

Chris Miller was initiated into the Dartmouth College chapter of Alpha Delta Phi. Harold Ramis, who died in 2014, was a Zeta Beta Tau from Washington University. (Books from the Becque Archives)

Two Oregon fraternities allowed their facilities to be used in the film. The Sigma Nu house was used for the interior shots of the Delta Tau Chi house and the exterior was used as the Tri Pi sorority house. The Sigma Nus received $6,000 and a redecorated living room in return. The former home of Dr A.W. Peterson and his wife Amanda, seen below, served in the outdoor shots of the Delta Tau Chi house. Although it had served as a fraternity house in the 1950s and ’60s, by the time of the film’s production, it was in sad shape. It was razed in the mid 1980s and a plaque on a boulder marks the spot.

Boyd’s office was used as Dean Wormer’s office and the cafeteria was used for the food fight scene. The nearby Dexter Lake Club served as a destination in the road trip scene and the parade finale was shot in Cottage Grove, about 20 miles away.

The plaque which marks the spot where the fictional Delta house once stood.

The college unrest of the late 1960s and 1970s, had a negative effect on fraternity and sorority membership. The number of students going through recruitment and joining GLOs plummeted. According to the 20th Edition of Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities, “1973 statistics showed the lowest percentage of growth, or increase in membership since the conferences began keeping records, and for the first time the conferences had fewer chapters at the end of the year than they did at the beginning.”

The popularity of Animal House helped fuel the growth of GLOs in the 1980s. But selling the obligations of membership and the values and history of an organization was made more difficult by the images portrayed on the big screen. It would not be a stretch of the imagination to say that many members joined GLOs because they wanted the emulate the Animal House mentality they had watched in the theater, and later on VHS (and even later on DVD and through on-demand services).

The home of the Oregon Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi was used as the Omega Theta Pi house.

Phi Kappa Psi’s Oregon Alpha chapter house as it appeared on the cover of The Shield shortly after the film became popular. The Sigma Nu chapter no longer owns the house used in the film. It was sold to Northwest Christian University.

The sweatshirt John Belushi wore in the film was purchased in Carbondale, Illinois, in the early 1970s when Belushi visited his brother Jim, who was a student at SIUC at the time. Until it closed in the last few years, Gusto’s had in its windows the story and pictures about the shirt. Van Anderson, who made the shirt, has recounted the story in the Southern Illinoisan more than once.

Full disclosure: I saw the film when it first came out and several times since. I have been to toga parties. And I have known characters like the ones in the movie.

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95 Years Ago a Pi Phi and a Phi Gam Became FLOTUS and POTUS

Posted on August 4, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I should call this blog “I get by with a little help from my friends.” This time it was a post by the Phi Gamma Delta Archives (and Archivist Towner Blackstock) that reminded me about the events of the early morning hours of August 3, 1923.

On August 2, 1923, when Grace Goodhue Coolidge fell asleep in her husband’s boyhood home in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, she was the wife of the Vice President. In the wee small hours of August 3, she awoke to news that President Harding was dead. She dressed and joined her husband in the small parlor. Because the home had not yet been fitted with electricity, her father-in-law, Colonel John Coolidge, a Windsor County notary, administered the oath of office to his son Calvin, her husband, by the light of a kerosene lamp. 

In his autobiography, Calvin Coolidge recalled that prior to heading to the parlor, he knelt down, and “with the same prayer with which I have since approached the altar of the church, asked God to bless the American people and give me power to serve them.” He took the oath with his hand on his mother’s bible. She died when she was a young boy.

If you’re ever near Plymouth Notch, Vermont, you can stop by and see the room where it happened. On that night, Grace Coolidge, a charter member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at the University of Vermont, and Calvin Coolidge, a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Chapter at Amherst College, became the first President and  First Lady to have been initiated into Greek-letter societies as college students. Only one other Presidential couple can make that claim – George W. Bush, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and Laura Welch Bush, Kappa Alpha Theta.

Two additional couples can both claim membership, however there are some caveats. Rutherford and Lucy Hayes, were honorary initiates, he of Delta Kappa Epsilon and she of Kappa Kappa Gamma. George Herbert Walker Bush and his son share membership in the Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter at Yale University and both were initiated as undergraduates. Barbara Pierce Bush was an alumna initiate of Pi Beta Phi.

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Hazing Has No Place in Fraternity and Sorority Life

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Hazing has absolutely, positively no place in fraternity and sorority life. It is antithetical to everything brotherhood and sisterhood has to offer and any member who takes part in hazing needs to be dismissed from their respective GLO.

One of the most difficult things about being a proponent of fraternity and sorority life is the elephant in the room. No matter how committed the inter/national organization is, or the number of mentors, the amount of resources, and the institutional support services available, hazing can still rear its ugly head. No one who joins an organization that has at its core all the good things the founders envisioned should have to endure anything that might be construed as hazing.

Membership should not have to be “earned.” Membership is a gift and should be treated as such. Gifts connote love, respect, a willingness to be part of a relationship, and the sharing of one’s time, treasure and talents. 

My heart breaks for those parents who have lost children to hazing. In 1974, Eileen Steven’s son Chuck Stenzel was hazed as a member of Klan Alpine, a local fraternity at Alfred University in upstate New York. His death spurred his mother to found C.H.U.C.K. (Committee to Halt Useless College Killings). At the time of her son’s death, hazing was illegal in only three states. Stevens led the charge to make hazing illegal in the United States. Over the following decades, she spoke at countless fraternity and sorority conventions and leadership events. 

Stenzel’s death was the impetus for Hank Nuwer writing Broken Pledges. Nuwer’s list of hazing deaths should be read by every current member of a fraternity. Moreover, for every hazing death, there is a chapter that closes, there are members who are dismissed from the fraternity, and there is a long road of legal issues, lawyer fees, sentencing, and punishment for those who took part in the hazing. When presented with those realities, why would anyone even consider hazing as an activity?

More recently, the families of Tim Piazza and Max Gruver have walked the same road as Eileen Stevens. Max Gruver was a Phi Delta Theta pledge at Louisiana State University. Tim Piazza was a pledge of the Beta Theta Pi chapter at Penn State University. Alcohol in massive amounts played a role in both deaths.

The two mothers spoke at Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Ruck Leadership Institute. I would hope that the writing of a note to a mother who lost her son due to hazing would give pause to any fraternity man who might contemplate planning or joining in a “bonding” activity involving alcohol. 

On August 1, 2018, the Max Gruver Act became a part of Louisiana’s anti-hazing laws. I am certain nothing can ease the pain the Gruvers are enduring, but knowing that they can help prevent other parents from walking their road must give them a bit of solace.

The Gruvers spoke at the Phi Kappa Psi Grand Arch Council last month. Effective this fall, Phi Psi’s new member period will be reduced to 10 days and the “New Member Education Program will morph into new member integration and a renewed focus on continuing member education,” according to the fraternity’s web-site.

Max’s Mom is a member of Alpha Delta Pi and this article appeared in The Adelphean

Hazing has no place in any Greek-Letter Organization. It needs to stop. I implore current GLO chapter members to ensure that no new names are entered on Hank Nuwer’s list of hazing deaths. 

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#IAmASororityWoman and #myFraternity

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The excitement of fraternity and sorority recruitment is in the air. Today is August 1 and it signals the start of Delta Gamma’s #IAmASororityWoman campaign. I love sharing the stories of all Greek-letter organizations connecting the past to the present and the future. There are more than 1,200 posts on this blog and the search bar can help readers know more about their own and other GLOs.

Yes, I am confident we all love our organization the most, and yet, we are all family. The more success our organizations have, the better for all of us. And when one of the chapters fails and falls short of living up to their values, we all suffer. The world at large does not know the difference in our letters. We are all painted by the same brush when things go awry. It is incumbent upon all of us to make sure that we live up to the ideals we espouse and recite with conviction.

Kudos to Delta Gamma for their #IAmASororityWoman

The North-American Interfraternity Conference  is debuting a “#myFraternity” campaign on September 12.

Phi Delta Theta’s new video (link below) is well done, without the braggadocio that can sneak into these kinds of things. The point is made that “You get out of it what you put into it.” Yes, that is true, but I would add that the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. “Join the right fraternity for the right reasons,” is another wonderful point made in the video.

The core of any of the fraternities and sororities is friendship – a brotherhood or sisterhood – with the promise that one can be connected to the organization throughout their lifetime. Hearing alums say, “I am a…” rather than “I was a…” is an indicator of a great experience as a collegian. Staying involved past graduation, mentoring young members, helping plan for the future of the organization and supporting it financially with donations are a way of paying forward what one receives as a collegian.

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An AEPhi Tribute, a ZBT Treasure, and a Pi Phi Story

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

I was looking at the Alpha Epsilon Phi website and came across this wonderful tribute to Margery Rosen Mendelson, a 1938 initiate of the AEPhi chapter at the University of Missouri. She became a member because of the “wonderful stories she heard from Alpha Beta collegians and alumnae.  She lived in the house all four years and remembers the closeness and loving friendships of her sisters.” After graduation, she married and moved to Texas. There, she was asked to be an advisor for the chapter in Austin. That experience led her to being and involved alumna for her entire life. She held many positions, including as a member of AEPhi’s National Council, I sense she was the person collegians flocked to at conventions. She died in 2017 at the age of 96. Her sentiments can be applied to the experiences found in any sorority – the universality that the more you give of yourself to your organization, the more that will be returned to you. May she rest in peace and may her memory be treasured by her sorority sisters.

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About four years ago, the The Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation attended the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity Convention in Washington D.C. This video about the ZBT chapter at New York University was shown. It’s a wonderful story about the chapter and a young boy named Christian. This should have gone viral, but only the awful videos seem to do that.

***

I will confess I did not read this article when I flipped through my issue of The Arrow. It was brought to my attention on social media. Emily Hsieh, a graduate of the Pi Beta Phi Elementary School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, is a member of the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Emory University. How fun is that! She suspect she a student at the school when Pi Beta Phi celebrated its Centennial of Literacy in Gatlinburg in 2012. I’d love to include a picture of Emily Hsieh and the statue of Miss Dell, so I hope she will send me one.

From the Summer 2018 issue of The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi

Hsieh’s story reminded me of the story of the first Pi Phi who was a graduate of the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School. Her name was Mattie Huff (Clabo) and she was a 1931 initiate of the Iowa State chapter of Pi Beta Phi. 

 

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