Martha Broadus Anderson Winn, a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., was born in 1875 and she was raised in Washington, D.C. In 1898, she married railroad porter Henry S. Anderson.
A soprano, she studied voice, first in Washington with John T. Layton, and then at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. She then enrolled at the Chicago College of Music and became its first black graduate when she earned a bachelor’s in music in 1908.
She taught voice in Chicago and had her hand in many local musical activities. She hosted musicales in her home. She was a soloist at Quinn Chapel AME Church, Chicago’s first Black congregation, and she was a member of the Choral Study Club. She co-founded the Coleridge Taylor School of Music in Chicago and was choir director of the Bethesda Baptist Church.
In the 1920s, she was writing for The Broad Ax newspaper. Her column was called “The Music Cabinet.” She served as an officer of the National Association of Negro Musicians.
She married Baptist minister, the Rev. John Henry Winn, and moved to Texas. There, she taught and performed. Then ty moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma where Rev. Winn became pastor of the Fifth Street Baptist Church. He died in 1955. His wife served as the head of the church’s music department and she remained an active volunteer.
Martha Broadus Anderson Winn died in 1967 at the age of 91.
Iris Barrel Apfel died on March 1, 2024, at the age of 102. As an octogenarian she became known as a style icon, although she was fashionable and had her own sense of style throughout her life.
Apfel grew up in Astoria, Queens. Her father ran a glass and mirror business and her mother owned a fashion boutique. She studied at New York University and then attended the University of Wisconsin where she majored in art. There she became a member of Phi Sigma Sigma and served as the chapter’s vice president.
Capital Times, December 20, 1942
She’s second from left in the second row
She worked in fashion in New York City before marrying Carl Apfel on February 22, 1948. From 1950 until 1992, the Apfels owned a textile company, Old World Weavers, and she branched out as an interior decorator. The company’s focus was on 17th, 18th and 19th century fabric reproductions. They collaborated on renovations of the White House under nine presidents from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton.
Apfel had a wonderful eye for fashion and bought items while on her travels all over the world. In September of 2005, Rara Avis (Rare Bird), an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, featured her clothing and accessories.
She was a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Apfel was the subject of a documentary by Albert Maysles; in 2014, Iris premiered at the New York Film Festival. Three years later she appeared in the documentary, If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast.
She wrote a biography, Iris Apfel: Accidental Icon, in 2018 and a year later, she signed a modelling contract at the age of 97 .
The Apfels were married for 67 years when Carl Apfel died at the age of 100 on August 1, 2015. I suspect the number of married couples who both make it to age 100 is exceptionally miniscule. What an amazing woman and what an amazing life she led.
Carol J. Nemitz, Dean Nemitz,as she was known to legions of Iowa Wesleyan University students, was born in Pulaski, Iowa, on February 25, 1934. After graduating from high school in 1951, she enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan. There, she became a member of the Alpha Alpha Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha chapter and she was involved in many student activities including athletics, music, drama and literary pursuits.
She left Iowa Wesleyan after her sophomore year because her father died. She became an elementary school teacher in the Iowa school systems of Wapello, Keystone, and Corydon.
The Zeta Tau Alphas held the third annual Iowa State Day on April 30, 1955, and she was in attendance as an alumna. Nemitz graduated from Iowa Wesleyan in 1956.
After earning a master’s degree at the University of Northern Iowa, she worked there for several years as a residence hall director. In 1962, she was serving as an officer the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Alumnae Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha. When she was hired by Iowa Wesleyan in 1963, the alumnae chapter gave her a send off.
Courier, July 11, 1963
Between the fall of 1963 until her retirement nearly 50 years later in August 2013, she was an integral part of the campus. Among the jobs and titles she had were counselor and Dean of Students. She served as toastmistress at the 1966 Zeta Tau Alpha Iowa State Day.
When she became Vice President of Student Affairs in 1970, she was Iowa Wesleyan’s first female vice president. In 2002, Nemitz even served as Iowa Wesleyan’s Interim President. Her ability to remember names and dates was exceptional. Given her history with the campus and her excellent memory, she was a font of information.
Iowa Wesleyan, her alma mater, appreciated and loved her. Among the honors she received were an Alumni Service Award, a Distinguished Served Award, and an honorary doctorate. A new residence hall, Nemitz Suites, named for her in 2006, as was an award for outstanding IWU staff members.
Carol Nemitz received a Distinguished Service Award from Iowa Wesleyan in 2014.
Nemitz was active in professional organizations and was the first woman to be awarded the Iowa Student Personnel Association Distinguished Service Award. Among her civic affiliations were Rotary, AAUW and Chapter DD of TTT. In addition, she was an active member of Mount Pleasant’s First United Methodist Church.
The P.E.O. Sisterhood was founded at Iowa Wesleyan on January 21, 1869. She was a 50+ year member of Chapter Original A and served as the chapter’s president. Nemitz also served as Historian of International Chapter. She led tours of the Memory Room in Old Main and was a member of the Sesquicentennial Committee for the festivities in 2019.
She died on February 3, 2024, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, at the age of 89.
I consider myself lucky for having met her several times. Her dry sense of humor always brought me a smile. And she will be missed by oh so many Iowa Wesleyan grads, Mount Pleasant citizens and members of the P.E.O. Sisterhood.
March 4, 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 – #WHM2024, 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.
Use #BadgeDay24 and #IWearABadge across social media.
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, the first Greek-letter organization for African-American women, was founded on January 15, 1908 by nine young female Howard University students. They were led by the vision of Ethel Hedgeman (Lyle); she had spent several months sharing her idea with her friends. During this time, she was dating her future husband, George Lyle, a charter member of the Beta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.
After choosing a name for their sorority, the nine women wrote a constitution and a motto. Additionally, they chose salmon pink and apple green as the sorority’s colors and ivy as its symbol. Seven sophomore women were invited to become members. They did not partake in an initiation ceremony and all 16 women are considered founders. The first “Ivy Week” took place in May 1909 and ivy was planted at Howard University’s Miner Hall. On January 29, 1913, Alpha Kappa Alpha became incorporated.
Althea Gibson, was born in 1927 in rural South Carolina. In 1930, her parents moved to Harlem, New York, where the opportunities must have seemed better than being sharecroppers on a cotton farm. Althea learned to play paddle tennis at a Police Athletic League play area. She became the city’s paddle ball champion at the age of 12. A natural born athlete, she played many sports and was musically talented, too, winning a prize for singing in an Apollo Theater contest. She was not the best student and often was truant. At one point, she dropped out and went to night school.
Althea Gibson was the first African American to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Many mentors and other supporters who recognized her athletic talent spurred her on. She moved to North Carolina to train and give high school another try. In 1949, in her 20s, she entered Florida A&M College (now University) on a basketball scholarship because there were no tennis scholarships. She played basketball, tennis, and golf on the men’s team. She became a member of the Beta Alpha chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Incorporated.
She went on to win numerous titles, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals. She was the first African American to win both of those championships. Unfortunately, tennis at that time did not come with a means of making a living. There were no big prizes and it was difficult to make ends meet.
In 2013. as part of the United States Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series, the Althea Gibson commemorative stamp debuted. Gibson was the first African American to win a Grand Slam.
This week has in it the founding days of three of the four National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) Sororities. All three, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. were founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C.January 13, 1913, is the date upon which Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. came into being. It was founded by 22 Howard University collegians – Winona Cargile (Alexander), Madree Penn (White), Wertie Blackwell (Weaver), Vashti Turley (Murphy), Ethel Cuff (Black), Frederica Chase (Dodd), Osceola Macarthy (Adams), Pauline Oberdorfer (Minor), Edna Brown (Coleman), Edith Mott (Young), Marguerite Young (Alexander), Naomi Sewell (Richardson), Eliza P. Shippen, Zephyr Chisom (Carter), Myra Davis (Hemmings), Mamie Reddy (Rose), Bertha Pitts (Campbell), Florence Letcher (Toms), Olive Jones, Jessie McGuire (Dent), Jimmie Bugg (Middleton), and Ethel Carr (Watson). All of the sorority’s members were initiates of Alpha Kappa Alpha, which was founded on January 16, 1908. When a disagreement about the future of the organization arose between the active chapter and the alumnae, an ultimatum was given, decisions were made, and in the end, the active members left Alpha Kappa Alpha and became Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Myra Davis Hemmings went from being the president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter to being president of the Delta Sigma Theta chapter. Many of the first meetings took place in Edna Brown Coleman’s living room. The 1913 Valedictorian and Class President, she married Frank Coleman, a founder of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Florence Letcher Toms’ hobby of collecting elephant figurines led to the animal becoming the sorority’s symbol.
Two months later, on March 3, 1913, the sorority walked in the historic suffrage march in Washington, DC. They were the only African-American women’s group to participate. Honorary member Mary Church Terrell, an ardent suffragist and civil rights activist, joined them in their march. She inspired and mentored the women. Terrell wrote the Delta Oath in 1914.
The daughter of former slaves, Terrell was an 1884 graduate of Oberlin College. She taught high school, was a principal, and was appointed to the District of Columbia Board of Education. Terrell was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and picketed at the White House. She was the first president of the National Association of Colored Women. Terrell dedicated herself to suffrage and equal rights. She signed the charter that established the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Terrell help found of the College Alumnae Club, which later became the National Association of University Women (NAUW). She was awarded three honorary doctorates before she died in 1954.
Happy New Year! I thank you for reading this blog. And thanks to all of you who share these posts and tell others about them. I think it is imperative that members know about their organization (I do not, however, believe learning about this history should be used as a way to haze members.)
My time will be scarce this month, and I know I will not be able to do new posts for the organizations that celebrate Founders’ Day in January. Here are links to previous, but nonetheless interesting, posts.
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, died on December 1, 2023, at the age of 93. Although there are rumors to the contrary, O’Connor was not a sorority woman. She attended Stanford University when there were no NPC chapters on campus. A few of my archivist friends and I share common experiences searching for Sandra Day O’Connor connections, in pre-internet days, to our organization because our alumnae were absolutely certain she was a member of our respective organizations. It was funny when we all compared notes on this!)
O’Connor’s mother Ada Wilkey Day was a member of the University of Arizona chapter of Gamma Phi Beta.
I was asked about Sandra Day O’Connor and her sorority affiliation because someone remembered her speaking at the 1979 Pi Beta Phi convention in Phoenix, Arizona. I checked the convention coverage in the fall 1979 Arrow. Not a word. But Sandra Day O’Connor was not appointed to the Supreme Court until 1981, so that might have had some bearing on the Arrow coverage. I then went to the convention file and looked at the program. O’Connor, who at the time was a Superior Court Judge, was part of a panel. (Do not ask me about Ed Sullivan moderating the discussion. I tend to think it was not the variety show host.)The funny thing is that the rumor that she is a sorority woman has been going around for more than half a century. Some think she is a Chi O; others say she’s a Theta, or maybe a Kappa. Some swear she is a Pi Phi. She was at Stanford University when there was not a women’s fraternity system there and she is not a member of any NPC group.
A 1951 Moot Court competition at Stanford University. Law student Sandra Day is in the photo which appeared in the Stanford Quad.
Three other justices have been sorority woman. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an initiate of the Cornell University Alpha Epsilon Phi chapter.
Ruth Bader Cornell University yearbook)
Amy Comey Barrett, an initiate of the Kappa Delta chapter at Rhodes College, was the second sorority woman appointed to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Barrett, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English. She is a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board and is in the Rhodes Student Hall of Fame.In June 2023, Ketanji Brown Jackson became an honorary initiate of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
I am reminded of the quote from a post which was highlighted previously. In 1921, Mary Love Collins, Chi Omega , said “All women are lifted up by heights attained by one woman.”
One hundred years ago today, the National Panhellenic Conference was meeting in Boston. Grace Goodhue Coolidge, Pi Beta Phi, had become the First Lady in August. One of the first orders of business was to authorize a telegram. “The Eighteenth … Continue reading →
On October 13, 1870, Kappa Kappa Gamma was founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. Having walked the Monmouth campus and downtown many times, I always try to envision what life was like for those 1870 coeds. It never fails to amaze me that Kappa and its Monmouth Duo partner, Pi Beta Phi, are here today. Both were forced to cease operations when the college banned all fraternal organizations in the late 1870s.
In those days, the Alpha chapter, the Mother chapter, was typically the head of governance of the organization. It issued charters and ran the show. Lucky for both Kappa and Pi Phi that the women who joined the other young chapters of the organizations took charge of things and continued without the respective Alpha chapters.
One of the most influential of early Kappa Kappa Gamma members was Tade Hartsuff of the Mu Chapter at Butler University. As an undergraduate she advocated for a Grand Council governance model and she proposed the founding of a fraternity magazine. She served as Kappa’s first Grand President while still an undergraduate. During her term of office, Kappa invited six groups to a meeting in Boston. It was the first attempt at Panhellenic cooperation. She was Grand President from 1881-1884. She graduated the same year as she left office.
From the first edition of The Golden Key, as The Key was then known.
In 1886, she married John Bugher Kuhns, a member of Phi Delta Theta.
March 1886, Key of Kappa Kappa Gamma
Elizabeth Gowdy Baker, a Kappa Kappa Gamma alumna from the Monmouth College chapter, was well known in the art world. Kuhns, the subject of this full length portrait, gave it to Kappa Kappa Gamma at its Golden Jubilee convention in 1920.
Tade Hartsuff Kuhns, loved to travel and she loved to attend Kappa conventions. She planned her world travels for the off-convention years. Kuhns would often wear jewelry and clothing she purchased as she traveled. She slowly lost her ability to hear, making it difficult to carry on conversations. Because of this conventions were difficult for her, but nonetheless, she truly enjoyed being among her Kappa sisters.
At the 1928 Breezy Point convention:
Following the custom begun several years ago, a special table has been presided over, at each luncheon, by Mrs. Tade Hartsuff Kuhns, beloved first grand president. Each day 11 or 12 delegates from active chapters have received personal invitation written in the name of Mrs. Kuhns. At the request of National President Mrs. Lloyd-Jones these invitations are to be taken by the delegates to their respective chapter, to be preserved in the archives chests as historic treasures.
Kuhns attended the reinstallation of Kappa’s Alpha Chapter at Monmouth College in 1934. She was hit by an automobile in March of 1937 and died later that year. An editorial in The Key reflected on the loss:
The realization that never again will the fraternity be honored by Mrs. Kuhn’s presence at any of its meetings is staggering. For through her was preserved the living sense of the fraternity’s continuity with that brilliant past to which she contributed so much.
It was through her, and almost through her alone, that the fraternity was virtually reorganized after the first 11 years of its existence. It is a tribute to her progressive thought that the reorganization was along lines which have required little fundamental change in the 56 years since she took office.
There are many posts on this blog. Use the search button to find the posts about your organization.
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Welcome! Chances are good you found this blog by searching for something about fraternities or sororities.
I was the last person anyone would have suspected of joining a sorority in college. I am sure I would have agreed with them, too.
When I made my way to Syracuse University, I saw the houses with the Greek letters that edged Walnut Park, and wished I could tour them. My roommate suggested I sign up for rush (as it was then called, today it’s known as recruitment) and go through the house tour round and then drop out of rush. It sounded like a plan. I didn’t realize that I would end up feeling at home at one of the chapters. And that I would become a member.
In this blog I will share the history of GLOs and other topics. I wrote a dissertation on “Coeducation and the History of Women’s Fraternities 1867-1902.″ It chronicles the growth of the system and the birth of the National Panhellenic Conference.
My Master’s thesis details the history of the fraternity system at Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1948-1960. The dates are significant ones and the thesis is available on the top menu.
I have done research at the Student Life Archives and have written several histories of University of Illinois fraternity chapters for the Society for the Preservation of Greek Housing.
