Josie Batcheller Houchens was born in New Orleans, Louisiana on December 4, 1882. Her childhood was spent on a sugar plantation in southern Louisiana. At 16, she moved to New Orleans and enrolled in preparatory work at Sophie Newcomb College. She matriculated and earned a Bachelor’s degree from Newcomb.
She moved to Illinois where she enrolled at the University of Illinois. Her first degree from Illinois was in Library Science. It was a program in which Katharine Lucinda Sharp, Kappa Kappa Gamma, played a major role. Houchens was Assistant Librarian at Eastern Illinois University in 1906. The following year she returned to the University of Illinois. She became a member of the Theta chapter of Sigma Kappa while working on her second Illinois degree which she earned in 1912. She served as Chapter President and delegate to convention in 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911.
From 1911 until 1922, she served as Grand Registrar and was a member of Sigma Kappa’s Grand Council. Keeping track of current addresses for collegians and alumnae in the early 1900s was a laborious process. There were no databases and most likely each member’s comings and goings were on an index card. Those index cards were likely in alphabetical order by chapter. In 1913, a 72-page pamphlet directory compiled by Houchens was published. She completed a revised directory in 1919. When she started her tenure as Grand Registrar, Sigma Kappa had a few hundred members who belonged to 19 chapters. When she left office in 1922, there were 30 chapters and more than 3,000 members. Houchens also helped install the Tau chapter of Sigma Kappa at Indiana University.
While an employee of the University of Illinois, her job titles included order assistant, reference assistant and binding librarian. Houchens took charge of all library personnel in 1941 and she became an associate professor in 1948. For 13 years, she taught in the summer session at Columbia University and she spent a summer as a visiting professor at the University of Southern California. Houchens retired from the University of Illinois in 1951, and spent 1954 as an associate professor at Florida State University.
Houchens died on February 5, 1974 at the age of 92. She left a bequest to the University of Illinois Library for the support of those who followed in her footsteps. The University also awards a Josie B. Houchens Fellowship.
