Happy Founders’ Day, Alpha Delta Pi

Posted on May 15, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On May 15, 1851, Alpha Delta Pi was founded as the Adelphean Society at Wesleyan Female College in Macon, Georgia by six young women. The founders are Eugenia Tucker Fitzgerald, Ella Pierce Turner, Octavia Andrew Rush, Mary Evans Glass, Sophronia Woodruff Dews, and Elizabeth Williams Mitchell.  Fitzgerald, known to generations of Alpha Delta Pis as “Mother Fitzgerald,” was the leader and first president of the Adelpheans.

In 1905, the Society changed its name to Alpha Delta Phi and installed its second chapter at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A year later, a third chapter was founded at Mary Baldwin Seminary, in Staunton, Virginia. Alpha Delta Phi joined the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) in 1909. The installation of the Sigma Chapter at the University of Illinois in 1912 came shortly after the installation, on the same campus, of the Illinois Chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, a men’s fraternity founded in 1832 at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.  The Illinois members made their organization aware of this duplication of name and the problems that surfaced because of it. In 1913, the convention body voted to change the name to Alpha Delta Pi.

In 1926, a bench was dedicated on the Wesleyan College campus. It was given in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Adelphean Society. The bench was designed by Emily Langham of the Sophie Newcomb College chapter. The event was chronicled in the 1930 History of Alpha Delta Pi. “We have just had a big thrill way down in Dixie. When one attends a family reunion, there is always a feeling of both pleasure and pain, so many recollections are aroused. As the large number of Alpha alumnae gathered together for the presentation of the Marble Bench by Alpha Delta Pi to Wesleyan College, commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding, they felt they were returning to an old home, the mother gone, but her children ‘rising up to call her blessed.’ Every loyal heart there felt with keenest appreciation the placing of this Memorial at the home of Alpha Chapter.”

photo (23)

Dedication of Founders Bench

Dedication of the Memorial Bench

The bench was placed in “a grove of great oaks. Waving mimosa trees in full bloom and magnolias added the floral decoration.” Ella Clark Anderson, the oldest member present, was a member of the class of 1862. Descendants of the founders were present when the blue and white drapery was drawn aside and the bench was unveiled. Ten years later, Alpha Delta Pi once again gathered on campus to dedicate another gift to the college. The Alpha Delta Pi’s Memorial Fountain is located in the center of Wesleyan College’s quadrangle; it was a gift to celebrate the college’s centennial in 1936. Made of Georgia marble, the Alpha Delta Pi coat-of-arms is engraved on the large slanting block at center. The names of the founders of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority are engraved on the stairs leading up to the fountain. Other elements of the fountain were added on other commemorations including two lions, the mascot of Alpha Delta Pi, given in 2011 to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary. Alpha Delta Pi Fountain (detail), Wesleyan College

The fountain with lions added.

The fountain with lions added.

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Happy Founders’ Day, Theta Phi Alpha!

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

A few men have had roles in the founding of National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) women’s fraternities/sororities. Dr. Wellesley P. Coddington, George Banta, and Dr. Charles Richardson are some that quickly come to mind. Of that small fraternity of men involved in the founding of NPC organizations, there is only one Bishop. 

On August 30, 1912, Theta Phi Alpha was founded at the University of Michigan.  In 1909, Father Edward D. Kelly, a Catholic priest and the pastor of the university’s student chapel organized Omega Upsilon. He believed that the Catholic women at the university should have the opportunity to belong to an organization  that “resembled the Catholic homes from which they came.” At that time, Catholics were not always welcome in the other fraternal organizations on campus.

Theta Phi Alpha Founders

After Father Kelly left campus and became the Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit, Omega Upsilon was struggling.  There were no alumnae to guide the organization. Bishop Kelly’s vision that the Catholic women at Michigan should have a place to call their own was still alive even though he was not on campus. He enlisted the assistance of Amelia McSweeney, a 1898 University of Michigan alumna. Together with seven Omega Upsilon alumnae, plans were made to establish a new organization, Theta Phi Alpha.

Theta Phi Alpha’s ten founders are Amelia McSweeney, Mildred M. Connely, May C. Ryan, Selma Gilday, Camilla Ryan Sutherland, Helen Ryan Quinlan, Katrina Caughey Ward, Dorothy Caughey Phalan, Otilia Leuchtweis O’Hara, and Eva Stroh Bauer.  Seven of them were Omega Upsilon alumnae and two were undergraduate members of Omega Upsilon.

Theta Phi Alpha remained a local organization until 1919 when the Beta Chapter was formed at the University of Illinois. In addition, chapters at Ohio State University, Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati were chartered that year.

In 1921, Pi Lambda Sigma was founded as a Catholic sorority at Boston University. On June 28, 1952, Pi Lambda Sigma merged with Theta Phi Alpha. Its members at Boston University and the University of Cincinnati became members of the Theta Phi Alpha chapters on the two campuses. The chapter at Creighton University became the Chi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in the fall of 1952 and the Quincy College chapter became the Psi Chapter of Theta Phi Alpha in 1954.

Although founded on August 30, Theta Phi Alpha celebrates Founders’ Day on April 30, the Feast Day of St. Catherine of Siena. St. Catherine is the patroness of the organization and her motto, “Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring, ” is Theta Phi Alpha’s motto as well.

Today Theta Phi Alpha is open to women of all faiths. 

Bishop Edward Kelly as a young priest. He was in his 50s when he helped found Theta Phi Alpha.

Bishop Edward D. Kelly as a young priest. He was in his 50s when he helped found Theta Phi Alpha.

*

* Saint Catherine was canonized in 1461. From 1597 until 1628, the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena was celebrated on April 29, the date she died. In 1628, due to a conflict with the feast of Saint Peter of Verona, hers was moved to April 30. In 1969, the Catholic Church reinstated her feast date as April 29. 
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Happy Founders’ Day, Pi Beta Phi!

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, opened in 1856. Students who did not live in town needed to find lodging and board with local families. Ada Bruen and Libbie Brook, friends from Henderson County, found a room to share in Jacob Holt’s home. That southwest second-floor bedroom is where Pi Beta Phi was founded on April 28, 1867. The name they chose for their “women’s fraternity” was I. C. Sorosis. They modeled their organization on the men’s fraternities that were then at Monmouth. Its grip was accompanied by the motto “Pi Beta Phi.”

Chapters began using the Greek letters prior to the official name change at the 1888 convention. There was never any discussion of which Greek letters to use as they had been with the organizations since its beginning. The first edition of The Arrow, published in 1885, has “Organ of Pi Beta Phi” on its masthead even though it began publishing three years before the name change was official. The chapter at the University of Kansas was charged with the magazine’s publishing and they were one of the chapters making use of the Greek letters.

Pi Beta Phi’s twelve founders included two sisters, Emma Brownlee (Kilgore) and Clara Brownlee (Hutchinson), and their friends Ada Bruen (Grier), Nancy Black (Wallace), Inez Smith (Soule), Fannie Whitenack (Libbey), Libbie Brook (Gaddis), Rosa Moore, Jennie Horne (Turnbull), Margaret Campbell, Jennie Nicol, M.D., and Fannie Thomson.

In 1921, 100 years ago, some of the Founders were in their 70s. The June 1921 Arrow included these two thank you notes.

The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

Ada Bruen Grier’s name was misspelled, likely by the typesetter. The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

That June 1921 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi contained information about the upcoming convention being held in Charlevoix, Michigan. It also had this full page photo of a member of the University of Vermont chapter. She had recently moved to the District of Columbia from  Northampton, Massachusetts. She was a loyal Pi Phi having served as a chapter, alumnae club and province officer.

Her stay in Washington would be celebrated three years later with the unveiling of her official White House portrait, a gift from Pi Beta Phi. Her golden arrow adorns the red dress in the portrait which is in the China Room. That, however, is a story for another day. Happy Founders’ Day to my Pi Phi sisters. Here’s to another 154 years!

The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, June 1921

 

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Happy Founders’ Day, Tri Sigma!

Posted on April 20, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sigma Sigma Sigma was founded on April 20, 1898, at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia (now Longwood University). The founders are Lucy Wright, Margaret Batten, Elizabeth Watkins, Louise Davis, Martha Trent Featherston, Lelia Scott, Isabella Merrick, and Sallie Michie.

On April 14, 1904, Mabel Lee Walton was initiated as a charter member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma chapter at Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her life was dedicated to advancing her sorority. She was Tri Sigma’s third National President and she served for 34 continuous years, from 1913 through 1947, and she was named President Emerita in 1956.

She also served as the President of the Association of Education Sororities before Sigma Sigma Sigma became a member of the National Panhellenic Conference in 1947.

The December 1913 Triangle contains a greeting from Walton. Its words are as true today as they were more than a century ago. They can also be applied to all of us who wear badges of sisterhood. She wrote:

TO THE SORORITY:

A word of greeting at the beginning to officers, chapters, and alumnae!

A Sigma Sigma Sigma never outgrows her usefulness to her Sorority — has this occurred to you? While she is in school she is a very influential personage. She is one of a number that forms a unit — which unit makes a chapter — a part of a whole. And if that girl does not play an important part in chapter affairs the fault is largely hers.

After leaving school a Sigma Sigma Sigma becomes an individual member. She acts entirely for herself. If she fails in this obligation which she deliberately took upon herself, the fault is wholly hers.

If every girl who wears the Sigma Sigma Sigma emblem would work earnestly for her Sorority, what a mighty band we would be! What a force we could prove to the sorority world! One member can never take the place of another — YOU have a work no other can perform. If you fail to do your part, the duty falls on other shoulders, willing, perhaps, to do extra work, but the question is, are you willing to stand by and see others doing what you know you should do yourself?

Let this mark a new era for the Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority. Let each one do her part in the upbuilding of her Sorority. Success, unbounded success, will be our reward! Is not this a priceless prize worth working for?

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April 19, 1995 – Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Perished in the Bombing of the Murrah Federal Building

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

April 19, 1995 started off as an ordinary day for the residents of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It is etched in the minds of all who were touched by the events of the day or those who watched on television, listened to on the radio or read about in newspapers, magazines and books. There was no googling for information back then. The bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killed 168 people.

Skye Conley, a loyal Lambda Chi Alpha, had the opportunity to intern at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum during the summer of 2020. An internship was a requirement for his Museum Studies graduate program at the University of Kansas. He is the guiding force behind this post. He is now the Museum’s Digital Archivist/Curator. I thank him for his suggestion and assistance. In 2020, Conley said:

Perhaps it was the opportunity of something greater than a lifetime since I was able to work in person with a full staff and with visitors as the COVID-19 pandemic raged in its earliest months in the United States. In my first week in Oklahoma City, my supervisors emphasized the importance of reading several texts about the Oklahoma City Bombing. One of these was 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995: The Official Record of the Oklahoma City Bombing, published by Oklahoma Today magazine. It included short biographies on each of the 168 of those who were killed, and one in particular stood out to me. His name was Mark Allen Bolte and he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, my fraternity.

I had already known that Judge Alfred P. Murrah, the namesake of the Murrah Federal Building outside of which the bombing took place, was my brother, but I did not know that I had lost a brother in the United States’ deadliest domestic terrorism attack. It occurred when I was only 47 days old. Later, upon my first tour of the Museum’s exhibit, I learned that that Museum was keeping in its permanent stewardship a metal key ring tag belonging to Brother Bolte. It was found on his person after the bombing, printed with the name of our fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha. I now have my own similar needlepoint key ring tag with our letters and the cross & crescent.

Conley felt keenly about his purpose:

I knew I wanted to spend every day ensuring that the work I was doing was not only meaningful, but I also wanted to glorify and honor all those who were killed, those who survived, and those whose lives were changed forever, to borrow from their Mission Statement. I have never felt a more personal connection to an institution and its subjects than that of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and perhaps it will never be trumped. As we mark the 26th anniversary of this painful day, I take solace in the love that I have cultivated for those with intimate connections to the bombing. My grief is their grief. I will never understand it entirely, but their losses are mine, too, and we are not alone.

However, I also take comfort in the pride that I have. Pride that I was able to grow professionally and personally in one of the most remarkable places in the world, whose mission to impart the impact of violence is an evergreen cause; and the pride in knowing that I am engaged in a sacred bond with two outstanding brothers involved in the loss but not entirely defined by it. One who was certainly fitting to be the namesake of a federal building as a result of his illustrious career as a federal judge, and one who ‘loved to make people smile, and he let his attitude lead the way.’ (Their Faith Has Touched Us)

I am in eternal gratitude to everyone who has ever given their faculties to the success and steadfastness of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, but I would be remiss to not outwardly thank Kari Watkins, the Executive Director; and my co-supervisors, Helen Stiefmiller, the Collections Manager, and Joanna Butterworth, the Curator. May we use the impact of April 19, 1995 and our fraternal bonds to be made into instruments of peace.

Fraternity and Sorority Members Who Perished in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building

Mark Allen Bolte, Lambda Chi Alpha, Arkansas Tech University, later transferred membership to the University of Arkansas. He was an environmental engineer at the Federal Highway Administration. He was  28 years old.

Mark Allen Bolte

Carolyn Ann Himes Kreymborg, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Oklahoma State University. She worked for the Department of Housing & Urban Development. She was 57 years old.

Carrie Ann Lenz, Sigma Kappa, University of Central Oklahoma. She and her unborn son Michael James Lenz III perished. Lenz was a contract employee of DynCorp, assigned to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She was 26 years old.

Derwin W. Miller, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He was a Claims Examiner in the Social Security Administration. He was 27 years old.

Derwin Miller

Larry L. Turner, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., University of Central Oklahoma. He was a special agent with the Department of Defense Investigative Services. He was 42 years old.

Michael D. Weaver, Beta Theta Pi, University of Oklahoma. He was an attorney-adviser in the legal division in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  He was 45 years old.

 

Clarence Eugene Wilson, Sr., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., University of Oklahoma. Wilson was the fourth Black to graduate the pharmacy program at the University of Oklahoma and he worked as a pharmacist until he became a lawyer. He was Acting Director of Oklahoma City Office of Housing Urban Development. He was 49 years old.

Clarence Wilson Memorial, Lawton, Oklahoma

May they all Rest in Peace and may their memories be a blessing to those who love them. I’ve never been to Oklahoma.  I think I need to get there soon to pay my respects. Please let me know of any corrections or additions.

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On Alpha Xi Delta’s Founders’ Day, Its Connection to the P.E.O. Sisterhood

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Alpha Xi Delta was founded at Lombard College in Galesburg, Illinois, on April 17, 1893. Its founders are Cora Bollinger (Block), Alice Bartlett (Bruner), Bertha Cook (Evans), Harriett Luella McCollum (Gossow), Lucy W. Gilmer, Lewie Strong (Taylor), Almira Lowry Cheney, Frances Elisabeth Cheney, Eliza Drake Curtis (Everton), and Julia Maude Foster. Their ages ranged from 15 (Alice Barlett) to 25 (Eliza Curtis, a widow).

Cora

Cora Bollinger Block

P.E.O. was founded as a collegiate organization at Iowa Wesleyan University on January 21, 1869. Between 1869 and 1902, the P.E.O. members who had been initiated while enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan University stayed active in P.E.O. even though they were no longer enrolled in the college. Many remained in or near Mount Pleasant. Others formed chapters in towns and communities where they  moved after graduation. The early P.E.O. chapters that had been formed at nearby schools did not survive and by the 1880s and 1890s, P.E.O.’s growth was in community chapters. The chapter at Iowa Wesleyan University was finding it difficult to operate on a college campus with the rules put forth by the community chapters.

The P.E.O. chapter at Iowa Wesleyan University had been known as Chapter A. It was named AJ to distinguish itself from the Mount Pleasant chapter, now known as Original A. When state chapters were established and chapters were renamed it became Chapter S/Iowa. After the turn of the century, the governing body of P.E.O. made the decision to withdraw the charter of Chapter S. The college women wished to remain a collegiate organization and discussed becoming a chapter of a Greek-letter organization.

P.E.O. chapter at Iowa Wesleyan in 1901. They are wearing the star of P.E.O., but most of them would soon be wearing quills as they are the women who decided to join with Alpha Xi Delta.

The Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard, having made the decision to become a national organization, and the collegiate members of P.E.O., having decided to become a chapter of a Greek-letter organization, discussed what needed to be done to grant these wishes. Anna Gillis (Kimble), a member of the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at Lombard College, hailed from Mount Pleasant. Her influence helped the Iowa Wesleyan women make the decision to become the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta.

On June 9, 1902, the Alpha Xi Delta members entered the Lombard College Chapel wearing their tri-colored ribbons for the first time. The ribbons heralded the fact that they were now a national organization. After chapel, the installing officers made their way to Mount Pleasant.

The installation of Alpha Xi Delta’s second chapter took place at the home of Ellen Ball. Cora Bollinger-Block presided at the installation. Helping her were Ella Boston-Leib,* Alice Barlett-Bruner, Jennie Marriot-Buchanan, Virginia Henney Franklin, Anna Gillis, and Edna Epperson-Brinkham.

The chapter roll quickly grew. By 1905, when the Iowa Wesleyan hosted the Third National Convention, there were nine chapters. In addition to the chapters at Lombard and Iowa Wesleyan, chapters had been chartered at Mount Union College,  Bethany College, University of South Dakota, Wittenberg University, Syracuse University, University of Wisconsin and West Virginia University.

In 1913, Iowa Wesleyan University authorities allowed the chapter to initiate the P.E.O. alumnae as Alpha Xi Deltas. Afterwards, the Mount Pleasant Alumnae Club of Alpha Xi Delta was formed.

The only P.E.O. founder to be continuously involved with P.E.O. was Alice Bird Babb. Her daughter Alice Babb (Ewing) was a member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta as well as a member of P.E.O. Her daughter’s membership in Alpha Xi Delta may have had a bearing on P.E.O. Founder Alice Bird Babb becoming a member of Alpha Xi Delta. In 1926, while in Mount Pleasant for a college event, she was initiated into Alpha Xi Delta at the age of 74 years old. She died in 1926.

Alice Bird Babb

Lombard College was founded in 1853 by the Universalist Church and it was coeducational from its beginning. Originally called the Illinois Liberal Institute, its name was changed in 1855, after a fire damaged much of the college. Businessman and farmer Benjamin Lombard gave the college a large gift to build a new building and the institution was named in his honor. Among its students was Carl Sandburg. The 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression hit Lombard College extremely hard. The college closed its doors. The last class graduated in 1930. Knox College invited the Lombard students to transfer to Knox. The Lombard alumni became members of the Knox Alumni Association.

* Ella Boston Leib also served as Alpha Xi Delta’s Grand President, National Panhellenic Conference delegate, and Chairman of  NPC as well as the President of Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O. 

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The Crouch Sisters, Carnegie Heroes and Chi Omegas

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Chi Omega was founded on April 5, 1895 at the University of Arkansas. Ina May Boles, Jean Vincenheller, Jobelle Holcombe, and Alice Simonds, with guidance from Fayetteville dentist, Dr. Charles Richardson, a Kappa Sigma, created the organization.  The founding chapter at Arkansas is known as Psi Chapter.

Dr. Richardson, known as “Sis Doc” to generations of Psi Chapter members, is  a founder. He crafted Chi Omega’s first badge out of dental gold. I think it’s a safe bet to say that Chi Omega is the only National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) organization to have its first badge crafted out of dental gold.

Original Chi Omega badge crafted in dental gold by "Doc Sis."

Original Chi Omega badge crafted in dental gold by “Doc Sis.”

The Couch Sisters of Iota Chapter

“Lucile and Bess Crouch are attending the University on Carnegie Hero Funds” read the notes about Chi Omega’s Iota Chapter at the University of Texas in a 1921 Eleusis. I became very curious.

I suspected the Carnegie referred to steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and I was correct. But I was wrong about the hero, thinking perhaps that it was their father who did the heroic deed and perished doing it. I was wrong.

The heroes were the sisters themselves, Lucile and Dorothy Elizabeth “Bess” Crouch. On September 6, 1915, 56-year-0ld Lillie C. Hunt swam 15 feet from the pier in Port O’Connor, Texas. She was a poor swimmer and was unable to return in the strong current. And the water was eight feet deep. Lucile, 24-years-old, swam out to Hunt and tried to swim back with her.  When Lucile tried to swim with Hunt’s hand resting on her shoulder, Lucile sank under Hunt’s weight. The  current carried both of them away. Hunt implored Lucile to swim back alone, thereby saving herself. Lucile refused to do so.

Bess, who was ten years younger than Lucile, dove in the water from the pier. She swam 150 feet to the women. The sisters worked together to push Hunt 350 feet across the current. At that point all three were able to touch the bottom and although exhausted they all made it back to safety.

Lucile and Bess were each awarded a Bronze medal plus $2,000 for educational purposes. Lucile was a teacher in the days when one did not need a Bachelor’s degree to do so. She and Bess enrolled at the University of Texas and both became members of the Iota Chapter of Chi Omega.

 

I believe Lucile is in the top row and Bess is in the second row

Lucile graduated in 1920 and Bess followed a year later. Lucile married Dr. Frank Starr Littlejohn. She died in 1939. Bess married Edwin Ewart Sullivan in June 24, 1924. She died in November of 1981.

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Blanche Skiff Ross, P.E.O., #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 31, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Blanche Skiff Ross undoubtedly knew of P.E.O. from the time she was a small child. Her aunt, her mother Mary’s sister, was P.E.O. Founder Alice Virginia Coffin. The organization was founded in January of 1869 by Alice Coffin and six of her friends who were students at Iowa Wesleyan University.

Blanche Skiff became a member of P.E.O. in June 1894 when she was initiated into Chapter AO in Newton, Iowa. She was a graduate of Northwestern University where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega. 

On February 8, 1899, she married Franklin Pierce Ross, who at that time, was a travelling freight agent for Iowa Central Railroad. They lived in Monmouth, Illinois, and she was a charter member of Chapter E in Monmouth. 

Frank Ross went into business with Blanche’s brother, Frank Vernon Skiff. They opened the Jewel Tea Company in 1901 and it became very successful. At first, the company’s main product was freshly roasted coffee which was sold and delivered from horse drawn wagons. They had six routes in 1903, 850 routes in 1905, and today the name is still around as Jewel-Osco stores.

The first Jewel store opened at 643 E. 43rd. Street, Chicago, Illinois, in 1901.

In 1910, the Rosses moved to Oak Park, Illinois, where Blanche became involved in many organizations including the Parent Teacher Association, a garden club, and the Art Institute in Chicago. She remained a loyal P.E.O. member.

In the late 1950s, plans were drawn up for a library building at Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. The college’s founder, Alice Virginia Cottey Stockard, gave the college to the P.E.O. Sisterhood in 1927. Blanche Skiff Ross and her daughters Verna Orndorff and Diane Fennekohl (a Kappa Kappa Gamma at Northwestern) were major contributors to the library fund and it was named in Blanche’s honor.

Dr. Blanche Dow, President of Cottey College with Blanche Skiff Ross

Dr. Blanche Dow, President of Cottey College with Blanche Skiff Ross (seated)

She spoke at the laying of the building’s cornerstone on September 5, 1962. The Blanche Skiff Ross Memorial Library opened on March 16, 1963. The Georgian-style 27,000 square foot building was fully air-conditioned. It was dedicated on October 13, 1963. She died in 1969. In 1977, her daughters funded the redecorating of the library.

The library at Cottey College

The library at Cottey College

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Leona Baumgartner, Ph.D., M.D., Pi Beta Phi, #NotableSororityWoman, #WHM2021

Posted on March 30, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Leona Baumgartner became a member of Pi Beta Phi at the University of Kansas where her father was a member of the faculty. She immersed herself in activities including acting in a number of theatrical productions and managing the K.U. Follies. Baumgartner served on the Y.W.C.A. cabinet,  Panhellenic Council and as president of the House Presidents’ Council and Student Government Council.  

Pi Beta Phi, University of Kansas, 1922 (astute Pi Phis will find a future GP in this photo, too)

As President of the Pi Phi chapter, she attended the 1921 Convention which took place in Charlevoix, Michigan. After convention, she camped with Pi Phis at Camp Panhellenic for two weeks. There they assisted a farmer whose cherries needed picking. And making use of her theatrical experience, the group put on a play and raised $125 for a junior high school.

Her B.A. was in Bacteriology and she graduated with Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and Sigma Xi honors. She earned a Master’s degree in Immunology.

From 1925-27, she served as Pi Phi’s Eta Province President, supervising several chapters. From 1923-28, she taught high school, junior college and at the University of Montana. On April 28, 1927, Founders’ Day, she and three Pi Phis in Missoula, Montana, “had dinner together with the ‘winest’ carnations that we could find. Wine and blue place cards in an arrow design were also used. And we all felt a very deep love for Pi Beta Phi. We hope to do it again no matter how many or how few of us there are,” she wrote to the Arrow.

Baumgartner then spent a year in Germany in graduate study. When she returned  home, she enrolled in Yale University’s Public Health Ph.D. program, which she earned in 1932. She earned a medical degree in 1934. She interned in pediatrics for two years. Baumgartner won the 1934-35 Pi Beta Phi Fellowship for graduate study. While at Yale she took part in the activities of the Connecticut Alumnae Club. 

After a short stint in the U.S. Public Health Service, in 1937, she began working at the New York City Department of Health as a medical instructor in child and school hygiene. In 1942, she married Nathaniel Elias, a chemical engineer, but she kept her professional name.

Bronxville Review Press (NY), April 23, 1942

Baumgartner worked her way through the NYC Department of Health. Named NYC Commissioner of Health in 1954, she held the position until 1962. In 1956, a photo in which she and Dr. Harold Fuerst inoculated Elvis Presley with the Salk polio vaccine was published. Presley was 21 years old and ever so sexy. The photo went viral, or the 1956 equivalent of viral, and it prompted U.S. teens to get the vaccine. The rates of teen inoculation for polio were 0.6% before the photo was taken in October 1956. By April 1957, the teen rates of inoculation had jumped to 80%.

While working as Commissioner of Health, she taught at several institutions including Columbia University, Cornell Medical College, and the Harvard University School of Public Health. She retired from Harvard in 1972. The National Academy of Sciences awarded her its Public Welfare Medal in 1977 and other organizations honored her as well.

Nathaniel Elias died in 1964. Six years later, Baumgartner married Dr. Alexander Langmuir. She died in 1991 at age 89.

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Rosaline Greene, Alpha Epsilon Phi, #NotableSororityWoman, #WHM2021

Posted on March 29, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Rosaline Greenberg, who later used the professional name Greene, was born in Hempstead, New York, on Long Island. The only  Jewish female student at Bay Shore High School, she was editor of the school newspaper and valedictorian of her class.

She enrolled at New York University and became a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi, but according to an oral history interview she did in 1951, she felt “so naïve, so out of my depth.” At NYU she took a drama course and was mortified when she received a “C” in the class – the lowest grade she earned in college. Years later, she was amused to learn that the instructor prided himself on having been her teacher.

Greene transferred to New York State Collège at Albany. She immersed herself in activities – AEPhi, Girls Athletic Association, Menorah Society, Spanish Club, and Advertising of Dramatics Plays Chairman. “Ro,” as friends called her, made time to become one of the first radio actresses.

“Ro” Greenberg is just under the “Phi”

In February of 1924, someone at WGY, a radio station in Schenectady, had the idea to perform plays over the radio. Students at local colleges could try out for parts. Although just a sophomore, Greene decided to audition for she had nothing to lose. She dressed, she later said, in “borrowed finery, with everyone in the sorority house contributing something to make me look grown-up and ‘actressy’.” She won a part in the Merchant of Venice.

The WGY Players troupe out of Schenectady was pioneering in using radio as a medium to perform stage productions. Radio drama was a new field and Greene became a large part of it. Greene reflected on the experience:

I personally think that one of the reasons I was successful in radio drama was that I had nothing of the theater to hamper me. I didn’t have to follow training or tradition. That was what seemed to confuse a lot of stage actors when they came into the radio business. They suddenly found themselves confined to a small space, unable to move around and forced to talk directly into a mike, instead of all around to the characters they were addressing. Suddenly they were unable to portray business either. They were so used to showing movement and business and action by means of stance, gesture, facial expressions, costume tricks, etc. How show all this with a voice alone?

She graduated in 1926 and took a job as a teacher in a private school in New York City. In September of that year she won the perfect voice contest at the Radio World’s Fair. According to a newspaper account, she won “in spite of the fact that the average listener prefers the male voice announcer to the female announcer.” Not satisfied teaching, she returned to radio acting. She even dabbled in theater productions.

The July 26, 1934 Syracuse Herald included a notice about a broadcast record:

the 2000th performance by a radio actress. It’s Rosaline Greene, now the speaking voice of Mary Lou in the Showboat, who has just passed this figure in portraying feminine microphone roles. Rosaline started at WGY, while still in college. In her career on the air she has been an ingenue, a villainess, a housewife, a detective, a barber and even a stooge for Eddie Cantor.

In 1935, she was mistress of ceremonies on the “Hour of Charm” program. It featured Phil Spitalny’s female vocal and instrumental group and aired on Tuesdays over CBS and WFBL. She also had the same mistress of ceremonies role on the “Ziegfeld Follies.”

 

Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), November 11, 1928

Hartford Courant (CT), April 8, 1930, Green was starring in Cleopatra at 9 p.m.

Pittsburgh Press, June 12, 1937

NY Daily News, May 29, 1936

In January 1936, she married Joseph M. Barnett, whom she met 10 years earlier just after she left teaching. They had three children. Theatrical radio programming declined when televisions became more commonplace. This combined with childrearing responsibilities may have contributed to the end of her professional career. While there are references to her performances through the 1930s, they cannot be found in the 1940s.

SUNY Albany Archives, 1974

In the early 1950s, Greene spoke about her experiences as part of Columbia University’s Radio Pioneers oral history project. The 52-page transcript is fascinating. Rosaline Greenberg Barnett died on December 17, 1987 in Los Angeles, California.

 

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