Today’s post is about things I’ve seen posted on the internet in the last 24 hours. The first is from an almost year-old news story which appeared in the Lansing State Journal last February. A friend posted it to her facebook page yesterday and it caught my eye.
L. Margaret Groves and Dorothy Kennedy met in 1947 and they were friends for more than six decades. The women were charter members of the Delta Tau Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. It was Michigan’s second graduate chapter of the sorority. When the Delta Zeta chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded at Michigan State University in 1954, Groves served as chapter adviser. Last year, the Delta Tau Omega Chapter established the “Keepers of the Dream Scholarship” in their honor.
When the article was written, Kennedy was 104 and Groves was 91. Kennedy, a graduate of Wilberforce University, had been employed by the Lansing Parks and Recreation Department. Groves, a Michigan State University alumna was a longtime educator in the Lansing school district. Kennedy died on November 21, 2013 at the age of 105.
The charter members of the Delta Tau Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. Dorothy Kennedy is on the far right in the second row and L. Margaret Groves is on the far right in the front row.
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The second thing that caught my eye was a picture which appeared in the Key of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Mary Loy Tatum, Past Grand President of Pi Beta Phi, is pictured with her Kappa Kappa Gamma friend Julie Sherman Morgan. When their husbands decided to buy a sailboat, the Pi Phi and the Kappa were ready with a name for it. The sailboat is called the “Monmouth Duo.” Both organizations were founded at Monmouth College in Illinois.
ghkk
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The third item has been in my twitter feed several times. And my heart hurts every time it appears. Many fraternities and sororities hold training and leadership sessions in early January. A road trip to one of these meetings ended in tragedy for one chapter.
Five young men, members of the Northeastern Illinois University chapter of Omega Delta Phi Fraternity, Inc., were travelling from Illinois to the conference in Tucson, Arizona. They never made it to the conference. They were involved in a fatal accident near Amarillo, Texas. Victor Maldonado, 18, of Chicago, and David Roman, 23, of Mundelein, died.The three other members in the vehicle survived the crash.
The chapter established a fundraising page to help the families with expenses. “These two stand up young men were on their way to a conference in Tucson, AZ. Today we are asking for your help as their families go through this difficult moment in their lives,” read the organization’s home page. For information on the fund, see http://davidvictorfund.com/.
My thoughts and prayers are with these men and their families.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com.
