Dr. Nora Brandenburg, Alpha Gamma Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Born in Lindsay, Nebraska, on July 10, 1900. Nora Brodball (Brandenburg Johansen) studied at Nebraska Wesleyan University where she was a member of Alpha Kappa Delta, a local sorority. In 1927, it became the Beta Alpha Chapter of Alpha Gamma Delta. However, she was not on campus for the installation. She was deeply immersed in establishing herself as a doctor.

Class of 1925, University of Illinois College of Medicine. I think she is pictured fourth row from bottom, fourth from the right.

 

She was one of a handful of women who graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1925. A year later, on July 6, 1926, she married Kenneth Brandenburg. Dr. Nora Brandenburg was her professional name and she went by it even after divorcing Mr. Brandenburg and marrying John V. Johansen in 1940.

Brandenburg became a member of Alpha Gamma Delta in the summer of 1931 when a combination Founders’ Day and homecoming took place at Nebraska Wesleyan. From 1932-35, she served as National Treasurer of Nu Sigma Phi, a medical fraternity for women.

Lincoln Journal Star, June 1, 1931

In 1936, a Chicago newspaper told of a delicate operation to remove an object from the lung of a small child. Her specialty was eye, ear, nose and throat. She was a physician and surgeon at Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago as well as being a clinical instructor in the Department of Surgery at Rush Medical College.  She taught in Northwestern’s department of otolaryngology and from 1941 until the time of her death.

Brandenburg was a member of many medical associations and there are mentions of her being active in the Alpha Gamma Delta alumnae organization.

Chicago Tribune, May 19, 1940

Brandenburg died in 1950 at the age of 50.

 

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Dorothy Allison Carlin, Delta Delta Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 7, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Dorothy Allison (Carlin) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 25, 1898. She graduated from the city’s School of Industrial Arts and applied to the University of Pennsylvania’s school of engineering. However, her family said she was denied admission because she was a woman and so she set her sights on a school where she could study engineering.

She was the seventh woman admitted to Cornell University’s engineering school. At Cornell she became a member of the Alpha Beta Chapter of Delta Delta Delta. She was also class president, hockey team manager, class treasurer, secretary of the Women’s Athletic Association and a member of the Y.W.C.A. cabinet. Among the honors she accrued was membership in Phi Kappa Phi, Mortar Board and Raven and Serpent.

The Tri Delta chapter at Cornell University. Dorothy Allison is second from left in the top row.

Cornell University, Women’s Athletic Association. Dorothy Allison is fourth on left in the bottom row.

After graduating in 1924, she became the first female civil engineers employed by the Philadelphia Transit Department. She had a part in the creaton of the high speed rail line that connects Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Camden County, New Jersey.

Tiimes Tribune (Scranton, PA) November 1, 1924

Philadelphia Inquirer, September 17, 1924

Her husband, also a civil engineer, was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. In the 1940s, she stopped working while her son was young.

Carlin returned to engineering in 1955 when she began working with renown architect Eero Saarinen. Her husband also worked for Saarinen’s firm. She worked on many of his projects. These included Dulles International Airport, JFK Airport’s TWA terminal in New York City, St. Louis’ Gateway Arch and the American Embassy in London.

Carlin died on April 19, 1985.

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Lydia Eudora Ashburne, M.D., Sigma Gamma Rho, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 6, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

 

Chicago Tribune, September 29, 1977

The daughter of former slaves, Lydia Eudora Ashburne (Evans) was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1887. She was one of 12 children. Her father, she said in a 1977 Chicago Tribune interview, was “a big, strapping fellow who fought in the Union Army during the Civil War.” She added, “He taught us strength and gave us determination that, despite all odds, we could make something of our lives.”

In 1908, she graduated from Norfolk Mission College and entered Howard University Medical School. One of her older brothers, a doctor, tried to dissuade her from following in his footsteps. He felt she would never be able to establish a medical practice nor she would find a husband. She didn’t listen to him. She was the first Black woman to graduate from  the school and the first Black woman licensed as a general practitioner in Virginia. 

Ashburne left Virginia and opened an office in Chicago in 1916. She was twice married and juggled being a mother to her daughter with a medical practice at a time when that wasn’t commonplace.

A member of the Delta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., she served on the Board of the National organization from 1930-35. At the 1939 Boule (convention) in Cleveland, Ohio, she was part of a panel discussion, “How does our sorority met the needs of your community?” She was also active in the National Council of Negro Women and in 1936 was its Third Vice President.

In 1976, the Daily Sentinel, a newspaper in Woodstock, Illinois, told of two students in a junior high reading class who sent a letter to Ashburne. She wrote the students back and told them how to succeed. “There must be a will to do, love and respect for your fellow man, and above all, to be true to your divine maker,” wrote Ashburne.

A friend said of her, “She just won’t beat her own drum….I remember how, during the depression, she used to treat hundreds of school kids free. They were too poor to pay for their examinations for school and camp, and she did it for nothing.”

Ashburne established the first United Cerebral Palsy office on the south side of Chicago. It was in her medical office at 38th Street and South Park Avenue. She organized a drive to raise funds for braces and wheelchairs for those suffering from CP.

She is a member of the Chicago Senior Citizens Hall of Fame. In addition, Ashburne was honored by the Cook County Physicians Association, Howard University Medical Alumni Association and the United Cerebral Palsy Board of Directors.

Ashburne retired from her medical practice in 1977. She died on January 20, 1992 at the age of 105.

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Agnes Edwards, Kappa Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

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

Agnes Edwards was born in 1892 in Jefferson County, Florida, two miles from the little town of Floyd. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University).

After teaching French and history at Sanford High School, she took a job with the U.S. Army’s Department of Vocational Rehabilitation set up to handle injured World War I veterans. Her first assignment as a reconstruction aide was in Denver, Colorado. Pascagoula, Mississippi was her second post and she went there in 1921. She served as educational director until the vocational school closed in 1924.  Then she spent two years teaching blind war veterans at the Evergreen School in Baltimore, Maryland.

Edwards became the Assistant to the Dean of Women at her alma mater in 1926. Three years later, she took a job as dean of women at Southwestern Louisiana Institute (later known as the University of Southwestern Louisiana and now as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette).  When she began her tenure, the school was a one building industrial institute. During her early years there, she earned a Master’s degree from Columbia University, likely by attending summer sessions.

When she retired in 1957, it was a different institution than it had been upon her hire. Edwards had a hand in that transformation. She advocated the building of religious facilities for students. During World War II, she organized a Red Cross chapter on campus. She established a clubroom for female commuter students so they could feel like they had a “home” on campus and she encouraged the building of a sorority system comprised of inter/national organizations.

The Sigma Sigma Sigma chapter at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the first national sorority on the campus, gives Edwards credit on its current webpage. The chapter mentions Edwards’ decision “that a chapter with national affiliation would be an asset to sorority life on campus, prompted this historic event.” Tri Sigma, then a member of the Association of Education Sororities, was the first national sorority on campus. In 1956, Edwards helped establish Kappa Delta’s Gamma Kappa Chapter.

Daily Advertiser (Lafayette, LA), April 28, 1960

Edwards was a member of many organizations including the National Association of Deans of Women. It honored her in 1956 for her work with Louisiana youth.

On September 8, 1965, the Agnes Edwards House, a privately financed and owned women’s residence hall opened. The Alumni Association bought the building in the 1970s and named it Conference Center. In 2017, the building was renamed in honor of Agnes Edwards.

Edwards was 75 years old when she died on September 2, 1967. Her “very presence on campus was a living example of the high principles and virtues each of us hope to find in the folks we love,” said one of her eulogists.

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Ruth Levensalor Crowley, Phi Mu, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The Philomathean Society was founded on January 4, 1852, at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. Mary Ann DuPont (Lines) likely came up with the idea. She joined with Mary Elizabeth Myrick (Daniel) and Martha Bibb Hardaway (Redding) and they are the founders of Phi Mu. Founders’ Day is celebrated on March 4, the day the new society was announced. In 1904, the Philomathean Society became Phi Mu and established its second chapter at Hollins College in Virginia.

Ruth Levensalor Crowley

Ruth Levensalor (Crowley) was born on January 21, 1918 in Sebec, Maine. After graduating from Foxcroft Academy, she entered Colby College where she joined Phi Mu. She spent two years at Colby and then enrolled in the Boston University School of Law. She graduated with an LL.B.(Bachelor of Law) in 1941. She was also a member of Kappa Beta Pi legal sorority.

Colby Echo, October 21, 1936

Aglaia of Phi Mu, January 1940

Admitted to the Maine Bar in April 1941, she began practicing law. On October 5, 1942, she married Elmer Francis Crowley, a mechanical engineer, from Greenville, Maine. After the ceremony and reception, they left “immediately for a short trip to New York. The bride chose for travel a three-piece brown tweed suit with white blouse and brown accessories. Her corsage was of roses and gardenias.”

Bangor Daily News, October 7, 1942

The couple lived in Greenville for 17 years where Crowley practiced law in her home and raised her son William.

Maine Alumnus, October 1947

Crowley, the first woman in the state of Maine to be appointed Assistant Attorney General, was assigned to the Maine Department of Health and Welfare. From 1957 until 1977, the Crowleys lived in Augusta, Maine. In 1969, Crowley became chairman of the National Conference on Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of (child) Support. She was also a charter member and second president of the American Association of Welfare Attorneys.

The couple spent their retirement years living in Florida. They traveled extensively visiting six of the seven continents. and more than 50 countries. After her husband’s death in 2002, Crowley moved back to Maine. She died on March 21, 2009 at the age of 91.

From the Sebec Lake Bears House Museum Facebook page

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Dr. Bessie and Anne Pierce, Alpha Xi Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 3, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Sisters Bessie Louise Pierce and Anne Elise Pierce were members of the University of Iowa chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. Bessie graduated in 1910 and Anne in 1927.

Bessie Louise Pierce, Ph.D.

Daily Iowan, May 19, 1922

Although Bessie Louise Pierce was born in Caro, Michigan on April 20, 1888, she spent her formative years in Iowa. Bessie earned Phi Beta Kappa honors at the University of Iowa. For six years, she taught high school history in Sanborn and Mason City, Iowa. According to a 1940 article, “A very small woman, Bessie Louise Pierce did not let her lack of size make any difference. She handled her classes easily, getting along especially well with her pupils. But nobody was allowed to get out of line, for the hard working history teacher could be firm and brooked no monkey business at any time.”

 

University of Iowa, 1925

 

Daily Iowan. April 21, 1922.

Bessie began teaching at the University of Iowa in 1916. She earned a Master’s degree from the University of Chicago taking courses during the summer. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Iowa where she worked with working with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.  She became Dr. Bessie Louise Pierce in 1923. As a faculty member at Iowa from 1916-29, she found time to serve as an Alumna Advisor to the Alpha Xi Delta chapter.

In 1929, she headed east to teach American history at the University of Chicago. There, as in Iowa, she was involved in many projects and organizations. A book,  As Others See Chicago, was published in 1933 in conjunction with the Century of Progress. Bessie was the author of what was to have been a five-volume set on the history of the city. She retired in 1954 and the third volume was published in 1957. Bessie was at work on the fourth volume when she died in 1974 at the age of 86. Her books are back in print courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.

Among the honors bestowed on Bessie was an honorary degree from Northwestern University in 1954 and a Distinguished Citizen of Chicago award in 1960. 

Bessie Louise Pierce

Anne Elise Pierce

Anne Elise Pierce was born on March 14, 1892. She earned a degree from the American Conservatory of Music in 1920 and a master’s in 1928 as well as a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1927 and a master’s from Columbia University.  Anne joined the Alpha Xi Delta chapter at the University of Iowa. She, like her sister Bessie, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Anne E. Pierce

Anne taught music at University Schools from 1917-19 and then spent a few years teaching at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. For three years starting in 1923, she sung professionally and taught voice in New York City. From 1926 until 1955 she was head of the Music Department at the University School at the University of Iowa.

The author of several books on music education, Anne was very active in professional music organizations. In 1927, she was the principal speaker and guest conductor of the Illinois All-State chorus consisting of 600 students at a meeting of the Illinois Music Educators’ conference. 

Anne Pierce retired in 1955 and died on July 10, 1967 at the age of 77. She “dedicated herself to excellence in music education,” according to a published tribute.

 

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Araminta McLane, Alpha Sigma Tau, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 2, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Araminta “Minta” Morgan McLane was born on May 10, 1868. She taught school for a few years before becoming a librarian. Her first library job was at the State Normal School at Indiana, Pennsylvania (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania).  When the Delta chapter of Alpha Sigma Tau chapter was chartered at the school on May 25, 1916, she was one of its members and she served as a chapter patronesses.

McLane became the librarian at Temple University in 1918. While there, she helped established the Lambda chapter in 1919. She attended the 1925 Alpha Sigma Tau convention in Detroit and was appointed a member of the committee to draft a constitution. She was also chosen to assist the first Anchor editor, Louise Glade Bohlen. When the Delta chapter was revived in 1928 after several years of being closed, McLane assisted with the installation.

In 1921, McLane moved to McKeesport, Pennsylvania, where she took a job as the librarian at its Carnegie Library.

Indiana Gazette (Indiana, PA), November 22, 1916

McLane was visiting her sister Josie in East Liverpool, Ohio, when she suffered a stroke. She died on July 30, 1935 at the age of 57. At the time of her death she was organizing an alumnae chapter in Pittsburgh. In a tribute in The Anchor it was said, “Her love for Alpha Sigma Tau girls and the best interest of the sorority was always uppermost in her thought.”

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Anna Marie Todd, Sigma Sigma Sigma, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2021

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

When she retired as associate professor of English and literature at Central Missouri State College in 1953, Anna Marie Todd was believed to be the longest serving teacher in the institution’s 82 year history. She had completed 45 years of service to the college.

Born in 1882 in Seneca, Kansas, her family moved west to Washington state. As a high school student she earned her teaching certificate. Her first stint at small country school prompted her to earn a 64-hour diploma at Cheney Normal School. Instead of taking a schoolhouse job, she taught for four years at Cheney. Summers were spent studying at the University of Chicago. Todd began her tenure at Central Missouri State College in 1908. At first she was a supervisor of English in the Training School for teachers and then at the university.

The Nu Chapter of Sigma Sigma Sigma was installed on November 29, 1915, as the first sorority on the Central Missouri campus. Todd was a charter member and a faculty sponsor of the chapter. During a fall 1945 recruitment party, she read several selections of poetry.

1920

She seems to have been a well-loved and inspirational teacher. An article in the University of Central Missouri Magazine, noted “Above all, Miss Todd was a master teacher. She knew the secret of leading young people to the excitement of reading great literature.”

Todd was also a member of AAUW, P.E.O. and the American Association of University Professors. She enjoyed gardening and collecting Missouri antiques.

Today, the institution she served is known as the University of Central Missouri. Todd Hall, a women’s residence  hall built in 1961, was named in her honor. Today Todd Hall  is an upper class residence consisting of mainly one bedroom apartments.

Todd died on January 20, 1962 and sundial was dedicated to her on May 16, 1962. The sundial was placed in the Todd Memorial Garden, on the south side of Todd Hall. The program included the reading of Todd’s poems.

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Looking Forward to #BadgeDay2021

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

March 1, the first Monday in March, is NPC International Badge Day. It is a day for members to wear their respective NPC badges. If  “pin attire” is not worn, then it is perfectly acceptable to wear letters, those articles of clothing sporting the Greek letters.

I’m mentioning this today because I spend the month of May, Women’s History Month – #WHM2021, profiling #NotableSororityWomen.

The National Panhellenic Conference’s International Badge Day began in 1997.  In the spring of 1996, Nora M. Ten Broeck wrote an article about her experience after she wore her Alpha Sigma Alpha pin to work one day. The article appeared her sorority’s magazine, The Phoenix, and was titled “A Simple Solution – Wear Your Membership Badge Today.” Her NPC colleagues loved the idea and endorsed the project. The month of March was chosen because it is also National Women’s History Month.

NPC consists of 26 women’s organizations and here are some ideas for celebrating #BadgeDay2021 online from the NPC website:

International Badge Day Celebration Ideas
• Join the International Badge Day event on Facebook. RSVP to the event and share the event from your account or your
College Panhellenic or Alumnae Panhellenic Facebook page. Ask your member associations or chapters to post on
their pages as well.
• Post the International Badge Day logo (download from npcwomen.org) on your Panhellenic website, and ask your
member associations or chapters to post on their pages.
• Change your profile picture on March 1, 2021, to a photo of your sorority’s badge.
• Change your status on Facebook on March 1 to read, “#IWearABadge today to celebrate the sorority experience with
members worldwide.”
• Post a photo of your badge day celebration event on the International Badge Day Facebook event page.
• Share your photos, celebrations and thoughts about International Badge Day on Twitter, Instagram and other social
networks by marking your posts with #BadgeDay21. Tag @NPCWomen for an opportunity to be featured on NPC’s
social media.
• Share your sorority story using #BadgeDay21 on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
• Feature stories of sorority women who have made history in your community or from your campus using
#IWearABadge and #BadgeDay21. 

Over the years, other Greek-letter organizations have joined in the fun. The more the merrier!

P.S. Be sure to read about the #NotableSororityWomen who have worn badges and in their own ways have performed wise and wide human service. There are links on the right hand side of the page.

A graphic courtesy of Delta Gamma

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The Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities Follows in Baird’s Footsteps

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

I collect Baird’s Manual of American College Fraternities. I use them for research and to just randomly open a page and read. William Raimond Baird published the first edition in 1879. After Baird’s death, others took on the job of editing Baird’s Manual. The twentieth and last edition, edited by Jack Anson, Phi Kappa Tau, and Robert F. Marchesani, Jr., Phi Kappa Psi, was published in 1991. It’s a very large book (8.5 x 11 x 2.5) and if another edition were to be published, it would likely have to be twice the size, what with the changes that have taken place in ensuing three decades. Moreover, it would be outdated before publication.

Carroll Lurding, Delta Upsilon, made his hobby the study of fraternities and sororities. For decades he painstakingly researched the local groups which became national organizations. He kept track of the changes that have happened in the fraternity and sorority world since the last edition of Baird’s was published in 1991. Lurding combed fraternities and sororities publications including histories, pledge manuals, magazines, and websites as well as available yearbooks. He also consulted the publications available at the University of Illinois Library’s Student Life & Culture Archives,  Indiana University’s Lurding Collection of Fraternity Material at the Lilly Library and the New York Public Library’s Baird Collection. He expanded on information offered, including the names of local organizations which became chapters of fraternities and sororities.

The Almanac of Fraternities and Sororities picks up where that 20th Edition of Baird’s Manual ended. And it includes much more! I hope you will take a look at it and use it regularly.

This from the “How to Use” section offers an overview of the Almanac as well as a listing of all the institutions where there is or once was a fraternity and sorority system:

This Almanac contains several sections. There are introductory files with the evolution of the fraternity and sorority system, founding dates, chronology, a list of the founding institutions, and largest organizations by decade. The organizational listing is divided into three sections –Men’s, Women’s, and Co-ed, for organizations with more than three chapters. In each section, there is a listing of the manner in which an organization evolved. Information includes the name of a local if that is how it was founded, when it became a part of the organization and the chapter identifier, as well as any time the chapter may have been inactive. There is also a section dedicated to organizations which are no longer active.

The institutional listing encompasses more than 1,000 North American higher education institutions, listed below for easy of finding in each pdf file. It includes information about the institution’s founding, the status of housing for fraternal organizations and the chronology of the chapters. The men’s groups are listed first, followed by the women’s groups and then the co-ed organizations. Organizations that are in bold-face type are currently active on campus. There is also a section for more than 100 institutions which no longer exist.

Please help publicize this important resource.

 

 

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