Hazel T. Nimmo, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 23, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Hazel Taft Nimmo was raised in North Carolina. Born on May 28, 1925, in Greenville, she graduated from North Carolina College for Negroes (now North Carolina Central University) in Durham. She majored in English. She earned a master’s in library science from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) and a master’s in education from Rutgers University.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated was an important part of her life. She joined the sorority in 1943 when she was an undergraduate. At the time of her death, she was an 80 year member.

In 1967, she helped start the sorority’s Theta Pi Omega chapter in Blackwood. In a 2008 Philadelphia Inquirer article about an Alpha Kappa Alpha event, she said, “Now we attend all the sorority activities.” And she added, “It makes you feel good to see the young people achieving.”

In 1946, she married her high school sweetheart, James Allen Nimmo. Three years  later, her became the pastor at 10th Street Baptist Church and the Nimmos moved to Camden, New Jersey. Rev. Nimmo would spend the next 50 years at the church until his death in 1999.

Courier Post, April 7, 1973

Hazel T. Nimmo was a pastor’s wife and the mother of two sons. In addition, she taught English at Hatch Middle School and then became head librarian at Camden High School. She retired in 1987. According to an obituary, she “combined a lifelong love of learning and reading with her innate skills for outreach and organization to touch the lives of thousands of students, church members, neighbors, sorority sisters, and others.”

At the 10th Street Baptist Church, she taught Sunday school and was on the religious education committee. In 2014, the church honored her with the naming of the Sister Hazel T. Nimmo Spiritual Research and Resource Center.

From 1994 until 2014, she was a member of the board of trustees at Camden Community College. During her tenure, she chaired the committee on academic and student affairs.

She was 98 years old when she died on June 12, 2023.

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Carmel LaTorra Chittim, Delta Zeta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 22, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Courtesy of the Boulder Public Library

Carmel LaTorra was born on November 17, 1894 in Boulder, Colorado. She graduated from Mount St. Gertrude Academy, a Catholic school which opened in 1892. According to Boulder Magazine, “a signed certificate of completion from Mount St. Gertrude’s meant automatic acceptance at CU.” There, at the University of Colorado, she became a member of the Delta Zeta chapter.

An accomplished piano and vocal soloist, her musical skills were highlighted in The Lamp of Delta Zeta. The Boulder Area Alumnae Chapter’s 1919 report noted, “An unusually fine musicale was given under the auspices of the Blue Bird Circle April 16, at the home of Mrs. John McLucas. The Misses Carmel Latorra (sic), Carolyn Bergheim, and Marion Klingler gave piano numbers.”

While teaching music at the University of Colorado, she stayed involved with the Boulder  Area Alumnae Chapter. In a 1927 Lamp, it was noted that she was “a concert pianist of growing distinction.” She also served as organist and choir director of Sacred Heart Church.

The March 1929 Lamp reported, “A cordial welcome will be given to all Delta Zetas, by Boulder AC. Please call Miss Carmel LaTorra, 907 Elizabeth.” She also served as organist and choir director of Sacred Heart Church.

Miss Carmel LaTorra became Mrs. Clifford C. Chittim in 1932. Her husband was a Boulder lawyer and became an assistant U.S. attorney general. They had two children Claire Louise and Clifford Alfred.

Chittim died of food poisoning on August 22, 1941 at the age of 46. A Requiem High Mass took place on August 25.

 

 

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Marcia Josel Levin, M.D., Alpha Epsilon Phi, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Marcia Josel Levin graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. She then enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where she became a member of Alpha Epsilon Phi.

 

After graduation, she enrolled at the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1949, she married Aaron R. Levin, a Yale graduate who served in the United States Navy and Merchant Marines as a commissioned officer during World War II. The ceremony took place in Israel and they honeymooned in Europe. Back in the states, they lived in Philadelphia while Dr. Levin completed her studies. The Levins moved to California for her residency. There, they had two children, a boy and a girl.

Levin was a pediatrician in Sacramento. In 1970, she served as the first Director of Alta California Regional Center, which served the developmentally disabled. She also worked with the Sacramento Crippled Children’s Service and consulted with the Head Start program of the Intertribal Council of Nevada.

She was active in professional organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Academy of Cerebral Palsy and the Academy of Mental Deficiency. In addition, she served the National Federation of Temple Sisterhood District 24, the Jewish Community Relations Council and Temple B’nai Israel Board of Education.

Times Advocate, September 18, 1974

On September 25, 1975, the car she was driving was hit head on by a drunk driver.  Her car went over an embankment on Star Highway 37, in a section known as the Black Point cut-off. The car came to rest in a drainage canal 10 feet deep, with about four feet of water in it. The car landed on its roof. Her leg was trapped beneath the door and rescuers were unable to extradite her. Levin drowned in 4 feet of water.

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Harriet Cone Greve, Alpha Omicron Pi, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 20, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

The Omicron Chapter of Alpha Omicron Pi at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, was chartered on April 14, 1902.  Mattie Ayres Newman was the daughter of Dr. Brown Ayres, who began his tenure as the University’s President in 1904. His daughter, an initiate of Alpha Omicron Pi at the Sophie Newcomb (now Tulane University) chapter in New Orleans, was interested in seeing her sorority grow.

Among Omicron’s charter members was Dorothy Greve Jarnigan. Dorothy’s sister Harriet Cone Greve, was initiated during the chapter’s first year of existence. Both Dorothy and Harriet are listed as Grand Council members in early issues of To Dragma.

Harriet Greve graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1906. She taught high school in Chattanooga where her family lived. Then she earned a graduate degree from Columbia University in 1913. She held various teaching jobs until 1921 when she returned to Knoxville and became the University’s first full-time dean of women. Female students had many rules and regulations as to what they could and couldn’t do.

She gave the welcome at the 1923 Alpha Omicron Pi convention held at Whittle Springs, Knoxville, Tennessee. She also served as the sorority’s Scholarship Officer in the 1920s.

In 1926, she visited England, France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland during a summer abroad. She spoke at a November 1932 Alpha Omicron Pi alumnae meeting and talked about her tour of Europe the previous year.

Greve retired in 1951 at the age of 65. She had seen many changes in the 30 years she served as Dean of Women. According to the UT website, she “organized the counseling and hostess systems in the women’s residence halls and was active with the Girl Scouts and YWCA organizations.”

At the 50th anniversary of the Omicron Chapter, a stained glass window was presented to the James D. Hoskin library. Greve dedicated the window.

After retiring she moved to Gatlinburg. West Hall, a women’s residence hall, was named in her honor in 1963. In 1971, Greve Hall was closed due to the housing need not being great enough to warrant its use. For a time, it housed visiting athletes and high school students. In the fall of 1972, it was used again as a men’s residence hall. In 1994, the first four floors were used to house men and the two top floors were shared by Sigma Kappa, Delta Zeta, and Zeta Tau Alpha. A renovation in the summer of 2009, turned it into academic offices. An announcement in 2022 reported that the building was slated for demolition. A January 10, 2024, notice on the UTK website caution that the building would be demolished in early 2024.

Greve died at the age of 84 on December 16, 1969, in a nursing home in Athens, Georgia, the city in which her sister and nieces lived. She had been blind for several years.

It was said Greve was stern when she needed to be, but her usual demeanor was gracious and soft-spoken. She once said:

Above all, I’ve wanted our girls to learn to adjust to life as they meet it. I want the University to give them the basis for knowing how to meet life on its own terms. I think every girl should know how to earn a living – but still more. I want her to know how to live. That, I believe, is the important thing.

Greve left a $10,000 bequest to the university which was allocated to the Harriet C. Greve Memorial Scholarship Fund. Her sorority also established the Harriet Greve Alpha Omicron Pi Fraternity Scholarship which is given to a sorority woman (NPC or NPHC) who has demonstrated “exceptional strength of character, leadership and stewardship to the University of Tennessee Knoxville.”

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Cynthia Coolbaugh, Alpha Sigma Alpha, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Cynthia Coolbaugh was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha during her time as a student at James Madison University. She started college as a home economics major but ended up with a degree in psychology.

Coolbaugh was active in student politics, serving as vice president of the Student Government Association as a senior. She was known for her cooking skills, but it was her ability to plan and coordinate events that served her well in her future career.

As a member of the Class of 1970, Coolbaugh was in college at a pivotal time in American history. Even though she grew up in a military family, she protested the Vietnam War. She was part of a group of students who voluntarily chained themselves to chairs in Wilson Hall. State troopers were called in to deal with the students. For her part in this, Coolbaugh was not allowed to participate in the graduation ceremonies.

A 1972 marriage announcement noted that she was employed at Virginia National Bank in Alexandria.

She later worked with a team at the International Atomic Energy Agency. The team sought to prevent nuclear energy as a form of warfare and to have it used for peaceful purposes. It promoted safeguards to assure the uses were for good purposes, promoting science and technology as well as safety and security.

Her job was as a Section Head for Conference Services and as such she shared in its award of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Coolbaugh died in August 2017 at the age of 70. Her son, David Doane, a James Madison alumnus, donated his mother’s award. It is on display in Wilson Hall, the same place where his mother chained herself to a chair during her senior year.

Cindys_Award.jpg

 

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Ethel J. McCoy, Alpha Chi Omega, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Ethel J. McCoy grew up in Sanford, Florida. She graduated from Duvall High School in Jacksonville. She enrolled at Syracuse University where she became a member of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. Syracuse winters must have been foreign to her coming from sunny Florida!

McCoy served as her chapter’s editor, sending reports to The Lyre of Alpha Chi Omega. In an issue she was described as a “thoroughly wideawake, dependable young woman who goes into whatever interests her with enthusiasm.” As a senior, McCoy was chairman of the YWCA Missionary Committee, “a position of the gravest responsibility.” Her research topic was “The Spanish Colonies in America” and the it focused on her home state. In 1911, she graduated from Syracuse and headed back south.

When the Tau Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta was established at Brenau College (now University) in Gainesville, Georgia, she assisted with the chapter’s installation.

From 1913 to 1916, she was the vice-president of Sunday School work for the Southern Methodist Church in Florida. She founded Camp Junaluska for Girls at Lake Junaluska on a lakefront hilltop in North Carolina. Ads state the establishment date as 1915. She retired from the camp in 1961.

1916

During the academic year, she taught at Virginia Intermont College (an institution which closed in 2014). During her 30-year tenure there, she taught history and was, for a time, the chair of the history department. It was said of McCoy, “Her ability as a teacher and her sympathetic understanding as a friend, have left a lasting influence on all who have known her.”

Parlaying on her love of history and travel, she organized and directed a Junaluska Travel Club. It provided educational adventures abroad for older campers.

1927

McCoy divided her retirement time between Lake Junaluska and Jacksonville, Florida. She died on September 14, 1970.

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Faye Safer Silverman, Delta Phi Epsilon, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 17, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

On March 17, 1917, Minna Goldsmith (Mahler), Eva Effron (Robin), Ida Bienstock (Landau), Sylvia Steierman (Cohn) and Dorothy Cohen (Schwartzman), students at New York University Law School, founded Delta Phi Epsilon. Five years later, the organization was formally incorporated in the State of New York. Delta Phi Epsilon became a full member of the National Panhellenic Conference in 1951. Happy Founders’ Day, Delta Phi Epsilon!

Faye Safer Silverman, the daughter of Russian immigrants, was born on June 29, 1912, in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated from Andrew Jackson High School and enrolled at Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University). The first woman in her family to attend college, she was also the first to join a sorority. She became a member of Delta Phi Epsilon.

After graduating in 1930 with a two-year teaching degree, she taught music at the Fishweir School in Jacksonville. On November 29, 1933, she eloped with Joseph Silverman, her high school sweetheart. They set up housekeeping in Gainesville where her husband was working at Brownstein’s Department Store. Unable to find a teaching position in Gainesville, she became the manager of the Fashion Shop.

Her parents loaned the couple $1,500 to start their own business. They called it the Collegiate Men’s Shop and it opened in 1935. According to one of the couple’s daughters, her parents “were true partners in this business.” The family grew to three daughters and a son.

The business relied heavily on the students at the University of Florida, then an all-male institution. The store sold tailor made suits and it extended credit to its customers, a rare commodity in those days. The couple hired students to work and they also chaperoned fraternity events.

Faye Silverman said in a 2001 interview:

I had brothers who went to school at the University of Florida. We had a big fraternity row, but the girls hadn’t come yet. I used to go to all of their parties. They used to have me chaperone when they had to have one. That’s how I got started going. In those days, we had all the name bands that would come to Florida. They would all stop off at the University, and we would have big affairs at the gym. We had big social affairs. We had the Military Ball. We went to everything. Every well-known band you could think of came to Gainesville.

During World War II, Jewish soldiers who were stationed at Camp Blanding in Stark often spent their weekends in Gainesville. Silverman helped organize a hospitality program for them. She was involved with the B’nai Israel Congregation and the Daughters of Israel. She served Hadassah as a lifetime member and past president and was also involved with the Girl Scouts, Gainesville Women’s Club and the Women’s Business Association.

In 1946, the store’s name and location changed. It became Silverman’s – the Man’s Store and moved to the north side of University Avenue, across from the Florida Theatre. Another move took place in 1960, when the store moved across the street to 225 W. University Avenue and featured women’s clothing, too. Silverman’s was one of the oldest clothing stores in Gainesville when it closed 1989. A newspaper headline read, “End of an Era: Silverman’s is Closing.”

Silverman served on Delta Phi Epsilon’s national board and was instrumental in establishing the chapter at the University of Florida in 1955, after it became a coeducational institution. In 1965, she helped establish the chapter at the University of Tampa. In a 2001 interview, Silverman recalled, “I used to travel for our sorority. I had five states that I used to have to travel to. I went to all the places we had sororities.”

Southern Jewish Weekly, October 22, 1954

Silverman died on March 2, 2003, at the age of 90.

 

 

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Evelyn Hawkins Hood, Sigma Gamma Rho, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 16, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

Evelyn Hawkins Hood was 99 when she died on April 6, 2023. Hood was born in Bibb County, Georgia, graduated from Macon High School and studied at Paine College, where she earned an undergraduate degree, and Atlanta University where she received a master’s degree. On June 22, 1946, she married LoVette Hood.

The Macon News, June 30, 1946

She became a member of the Eta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, in 1950. She had been invited as a guest to a ball in Atlanta and decided the sorority aligned with her goals. Hood held many offices on the local, regional and international levels. She served as the 14th International Grand Basileus from 1976-1980. During her term she  was a successful fundraiser. Some of the funds she raised went to fund scholarships for high school students.

The 1980 Boule took place in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and members of the Eta Sigma Chapter, traveled by chartered bus to see Hood preside.

She taught English at Ballard High School and second grade teacher at C.W. Hill Elementary School in Atlanta. Her teaching career spanned more than four decades.  She was active in her church, West Mitchell Street Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1969, she was named Bronze Woman of the Year. An article in the Macon News noted that Hood, “worked with voter registration, the cancer drive, and spends many hours providing enrichment activities that help disadvantaged boys and girls. She is a member of the George Washington Carver Boys Club, YWCA, GTEA, NEA, Classroom Teachers of Georgia and West Mitchell CME Church.”

According to Hood’s obituary, Keisha Simmons, a past president of the Iota Zeta Sigma Chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Incorporated, said, “She was the epitome of class.” Simmons added that Hood was very approachable and she “took an interest in younger members, she would guide them into leadership.

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Marjory and Ruth Cowan, Delta Gamma, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 15, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

March 15 is the date upon which Delta Gamma celebrates Founders’ Day. Read about the founding of Delta Gamma and its connection to Phi Delta Theta, a fraternity whose Founders’ Day is also celebrated on March 15.

MARJORY COWAN

Marjory Cowan

Marjory Cowan was born on November 5, 1889. She grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. She was a charter member of the Delta Gamma chapter at the University of Oregon. Her younger sister, Ruth, followed in her footsteps and was also a member of the Delta Gamma chapter.

In 1912, she was one of the members of the University of Oregon Women’s Debate Team. In a competition with the University of Washington team, she had to debate the negative – Resolved. That the various states should adopt woman’s suffrage – even though she was a suffragist. She also acted with the university’s first dramatic interpretation group.

After graduation, she became a field representative for the Ellison White Chautauqua System, which was newly organized and was the first Chautauqua with contracts in 14 western states. After that, she turned her attention to organizing Chautauqua performances in Canada, then Australia and New Zealand.

In 1923, she headed to Seattle, Washington, where she became a field representative for the Cornish School. In the summer of 1924, she took her first real vacation and toured England and Europe. She also booked and handled artists for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau.

Seattle Union Record, November 24, 1924

An article about her in the January, 1926, issue of The Zontian, the official organ of the Confederation of Zonta Clubs of America, stated:

In the past two years, she has handled very successfully the Artists’ Course booked by the Men’s Club of Plymouth Church, which included such artists as Albert Spalding, Reinald Werrenrath, Olga Samaroff, Ernst Von Dohnanyi, Maria Ivogun, London String Quartet. Sha has handles as independent attractions such nationally known artists as Margaret Matzenauer, Edward Johnson, Mischa Elman, Moritz Rosenthal, and Roland Hayes.

A 1927 Anchora identified her as an impresario, the “manager of a musical, theatrical or operatic company.” At some point, she moved to San Francisco, California, and became concert manager and a radio entertainer for the National Broadcasting Company.

She died on October 24, 1932 in an automobile accident. She was 42. She and three others were in a car driven by a Naval Lieutenant. They were on their way to a performance in Modesto. The car plunged over an embankment when the curve was taken too fast. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

RUTH COWAN

Ruth Cowan was born on July 17, 1898. She studied for two years at the University of Oregon. Her interests were music and art. When the opportunity to manage a concert bureau in Portland became available, she took on the challenge.

Ruth Cowan

A 1927 Anchora called her a “successful Los Angeles Impresario.” In addition to being the associate manager of the George Leslie Smith Auditorium Artist Series, she was manager of the southern California Territory for the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau. It was:

one of the oldest and best known musical bureaus in the United States. She has been responsible for all western tours of the great artists under the management of the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau and it is due to her efforts that many new artists have been introduced in the West in the past three years. The Artist Series of which Ruth is associate manager has become one of the  popular institutions in the City of LA. This year three artists who have never been west before are being introduced on this series, Mary Lewis, this year’s sensation of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Florence Austral, dramatic Soprano and Alexander Brailowsky, phenomenal pianist.

In 1929, she was in a car accident as the passenger in a car driven by a friend. She was cut on the lips by flying glass.

In 1951, she became director of the Music Academy of the West. She retired from that position in 1966. She died on May 21, 1979.

Musical West, May 1928

 

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Marcia Malone Slavin, Alpha Xi Delta, #NotableSororityWomen, #WHM2024

Posted on March 14, 2024 by Fran Becque, Ph.D.

t hitMarcia Malone Slaven was born in Grafton, West Virginia on July 17, 1932. In 1950, she enrolled at West Virginia University after graduating from Grafton High School. She was a student at WVU’s School of Pharmacy. In 1950, pharmacy was not a usual major for women. She became a member of the Iota Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta. According to her obituary, she “made lifelong friendships with her sorority sisters.”

In a way, she was following in the footsteps of her older sister Emily Malone Glaser, also an Alpha Xi at WVU and the 2000th registered pharmacist in West Virginia. The fact that their father, Paul E. Malone, was also a pharmacist, might have entered their choice of career.

After graduation, she returned to Grafton to work at Malone’s Drug and Chemical Company, which was started by her father. When her father died on June 23, 1953, at the age of 55, she assumed many of his responsibilities.

On November 29, 1958, at the Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament in Washington, DC, she married Maynard D. Slaven. He was a member of Alpha Sigma Phi and a 1958 graduate of WVU’s School of Pharmacy. They had two sons.

Malone’s Drug Store was a fixture in Grafton and it served the community. It hit the one millionth prescription filled mark in the 1960s. The Slaven’s kept the store open for as long as they could and although it survived for more than 50 years, it closed in the early 1980s. The Slavens also owned Medical Arts Pharmacy in Morgantown.

According to her obituary:

Following the store’s closure, Marcia was the longest-serving pharmacist in charge at Grafton City Hospital, a multiple-decades long record that is unlikely to be equaled. She wrote, along with Maynard, the drug formulary for the institution, a massive undertaking that gave instructions for drugs approved for patients. During her decades of service to the hospital, she also served as a clinical instructor for the WVU College of Pharmacy and guided many future professionals through the processes of checking for medication errors, preparing hyperalimentation (artificial nutrition) treatments, and handling toxic chemotherapy preparations. She was, by all accounts, a consummate teacher and a detail-oriented but sympathetic instructor.

Marcia Slaven was an active member of the Grafton community and served many civic, business and professional organizations. She died on Dec. 19, 2022 at the age of 90.

 

 

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