While it’s the founders of an organization who are usually honored and revered, there are a whole host of others who helped in its building. Frances Best (Watkins) is one of those builders.
In the fall of 1918, she moved into a house at 1007 South Wright Street on the University of Illinois campus. A group of Catholic women had decided the previous spring to live together. Reverend Father O’Brien had found the house and made arrangements for the women to reside there with an adult chaperone.
The Catholic Girls Club, the name the group took, sought to become a part of a larger organization. Michigan and Illinois are Big Ten Conference rivals, and that is perhaps how they found Theta Phi Alpha, which was established at the University of Michigan in 1912 specifically for Catholic women. Correspondence ensued and a delegation from the Michigan chapter visited the Illinois women. The Beta Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha received its charter in May of 1919. Frances Best was a charter member of the chapter.
A 1921 graduate, she had athletic skills. She played hockey, basketball, baseball, bowled, and served as archery manager. A journalism major, she was a junior class officer, did publicity for the committee to fund and build Memorial Stadium, and was on the Daily Illini staff. She was also a member of Mortarboard as well as Theta Sigma Phi and Alpha Sigma Nu honoraries. After graduation, she worked as an editorial assistant at the University of Illinois Press.
A member of Theta Phi Alpha’s Grand Council from 1922 until 1930, she served as Historian, Grand Executive Secretary and Editor of the magazine. In 1937, she received a Guard of Honor award.
She married A. Rush Watkins, lived in the Chicago area, and had a son and daughter. The couple later divorced. Watkins belonged to the University of Illinois Alumni Association and was on its Board of Directors. She was also a member of the Chicago Illinae Club and the Cook County Hospital School of Nursing Board of Directors.
Herald Review (Decatur, IL), October 31, 1954
Elected to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees in 1949, she served until 1967. The University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry awards a Frances Best Watkins award for leadership and academic excellence.
Watkins died on October 14, 1995 at 95 years of age. Her daughter, Rosemary Watkins Donahue, a Kappa Delta at the University of Illinois, could also garner #NotableSororityWomen status. It seems apples don’t fall far from the tree.
