World Wars I and II wreaked havoc on the American College Fraternity system. Chapter houses emptied almost overnight. Fraternity magazines from those years tell the heartbreaking stories of the sacrifice put forth by young fraternity men. Yesterday, May 8, V-E Day marked the 1945 anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. Bob Ragan, a member of Beta Theta Pi at Wabash College, was one of those men whose college career was interrupted by the war. In 1945, while stationed at Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona, he lost his Beta pin. Soon afterwards he was shipped to Fort Sheridan in Illinois and never located his pin. It was recently returned to him, almost seven decades after he lost it. It’s a heartwarming story and you can read it at http://bit.ly/1s9Rytm.
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One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson, Phi Kappa Psi, signed the proclamation which created Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May. Mother’s Day is a national holiday to honor mothers. I would be remiss on this blog to not mention the legions of House Directors/House Mothers/House Moms), most of them women, who have served in fraternity and sorority houses across the country. Their efforts have been much appreciated. Happy Mother’s Day to moms everywhere!
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On May, 9, 1992, the final episode of The Golden Girls aired. It ran for seven seasons and it was one of my late mother’s favorite television shows. It also gives me this opportunity to show this wonderful photograph of Rue McClanahan, a Kappa Alpha Theta at the University of Tulsa. In one episode, her character Blanche Elizabeth Marie Hollingsworth Devereaux, attended a reunion of her “Alpha Gam” sisters.
Rue McClanahan, Kappa Alpha Theta
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© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved.
