Noted Communicators
(Journalists, Authors, Public Speakers, State and National Leaders)
During the Female-Only Days at University of Mary
Hardin-Baylor
Copyright © 2000
Diane Howard, Ph.D.
Department of Communication and Dramatic Arts
Performance Studies Division
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Belton, Texas
The history of the female-only days
at University of Mary Hardin-Baylor is full of stories of notable
journalists, authors, public speakers, and state to national leaders. Dr.Eleanor James (1986) reviews the first one hundred years in the
history of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in her book Forth From Her Portals,
The First One Hundred Years in Belton. Having begun her education in the college's
demonstration kindergarten and having earned straight "A's" in all courses,
James received her B.A.in English from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (then called
Baylor College for Women) in 1933. She earned a teaching fellowship at the University of
Wisconsin, where she completed her Ph.D. degree. Dr. James taught English for thirty-two
years at Texas Women's University. In her account of the first one hundred years of Mary
Hardin-Baylor's history, she admiringly begins with
Miss Frances Trask, the founder in the 1830's of Independence Female Academy, the first
school for girls in Texas, which developed into coeducational Baylor College in 1846.
. . . . Miss Frances Trask was an intrepid New England lady who
came into this largely uninhabited country with the Dix Family
who
settled in Coles Settlement. She pioneered with her school in
Coles
Settlement,later known as Independence. She began her school with
the five daughters of Mrs. Coles, adding the daughters of other
plantation owners....Dr. Frederick Eby, thus sees a straight line
of descent from Independence Academy to Baylor Female College. He
writes: 'among the most popular schools for girls during the
forties
was Independence Academy which later flowered into the Baylor
Female
College. This institution, which is the oldest in the state, was
removed to Belton in 1886.' (James 1986: 2-3)
(The school took Judge Robert Baylor's name as he assisted in preparing the charter, secured the charter's passage through the legislature, presided as president of the first Board of Trustees, and gave the first gift of one thousand dollars to Baylor College. The school was made up of two divisions, one for men and one for females. Judge Baylor is buried today on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor campus.)
Dr. James writes of another female
leader and communicator, Miss Elli Moore Townsend, from the early female-only days of the
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (then called Baylor Female College). Elli Moore Townsend
had a profound and long history of influence on female students at the college. In her
institutional history of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, James devotes a chapter to
Elli and the Cottage Home System.
Seven years after Baylor Female College had opened in Belton, after separating from Baylor
Men's College in Independence in 1886, a very plain cottage was built back of the campus.
James recounts how this was the materialization of a dream of Elli Moore, graduate
of the Class of 1879, who then was presiding teacher at Baylor Female College. The little
dwelling and was to be the first of seven. This raw cottage stood in sharp contrast to the
fine stone college building on campus. However, it was to be home to twelve poor students
and a sign of a covenant Miss Elli had made with God.
Elli, according to Dr. James, was being bright, strong-willed, loyal to the college, and devoted to God. Elli's lifelong dream as that of helping Baylor and worthy, but impoverished girls, to educate themselves. Early in her teaching career, Elli was besieged by girls who could not afford college, but who saw in education their only hope for advancement.
While in Philadelphia, Elli learned of Mary Lyon, a strong Christian woman who in 1837 founded Mt. Holyoke College for women in Massachusetts. All students at Mt. Holyoke were to work for the college a certain number of hours a day for their education. Influenced by Mary Lyon, Elli established a series of modest cottages, in which poor girls could live and work, in order to be able to attend Baylor Female College.
Mary Lyon and Elli Moore's initiatives were extremely innovative in the 1890's. Even in New England and in older southern states a college education for girls was bold. Mary Lyon had fought against the idea that women's minds were not capable of the same studies as men. She had fought as well for the opportunity of the same examinations for her young female students as the young male students were given at Yale and Harvard.
James asserts that at the turn of the century parents discouraged and refused their daughters from thinking of attending college. They were afraid that their daughters would be unattractive to men if they were educated. They even feared that a college education might render their daughters unfit as mothers and as wives. Girls of wealth were allowed and limited to pursue cultural accomplishments like playing the piano, drawing likenesses, or embroidering doilies. It is a wonder that a college for women, like Baylor Female College would develop before the Civil War in 1845 and would provide educational opportunities for poor girls at the turn of the century. It was due largely to the faith, patience, and perseverance of Elli Moore.
Elli was determined of will, but as never physically robust, according to Dr. James. As Lady Principal she drove herself into illness after illness, disregarding the urging of her doctors that she rest and relinquish some of her responsibilities. After twelve years of teaching, she resigned her teaching post to devote herself exclusively to the development of the Cottage Home System, a kind of early work study program at Baylor Female College. Having been refused permission by the board of trustees at the college to build a house for cooperative living on campus, she determined to go ahead and somehow build a cottage close to the campus.
A trustee who sympathized with her offered to give her half the value of the house and easy terms to pay the remainder for a lot he owned near the college. Using her own savings, Elli arranged for carpenters to build a small cottage. Like an answer to prayer, three train carloads of lumber were sent to her from a sympathetic alumna. By September 1892 a simple little house with three small bedrooms, a kitchen, and a sitting room was available for twelve girls, four to a bedroom. Meager furnishings were used. Wooden boxes served as washstands and curtains on wires served as closets.
James describes the first twelve to live in the cottage with Elli. Some were orphans, some were ministers' daughters, and all were very needy. Sometimes cold, hungry, and uncomfortable (sleeping on shuck mattresses and so forth), Elli shared hardships with these girls. However, Dr. James asserts that the early Cottage Home students described Elli as wonderful, friendly, and energetic.
Writing inspirational anecdotes from this history, Dr. James recounts a heartwarming stories about Elli Moore and the first cottage home. The first is a tale of a Friday when a carpenter, who was yet to be fully paid for his work, insisted to Elli that he be paid his $150, which he had earned and needed for his own family. Elli told him to come back Monday, having no source for the money. On Monday, after a spartan breakfast and prayers, Miss Elli sent two girls for the mail. The carpenter arrived and Miss Elli seated him, while she glanced at the mail. From the first envelope a check fell out for $150. Elli endorsed it and handed it to the carpenter.
Elli Moore, who married Ernest Gale
Townsend in 1899, also had a significant impact on a student in the 1940's, Marg-Riette
Montgomery, whose life as a published author, like Dr. James's, suggests internal locus of
control.
Ms. Montgomery (1950) writes a biography of Elli Moore Townsend, a faculty member for
sixty years during the female-only days, beginning in 1886. Ms. Montgomery's biography of
Elli Moore Townsend, Ten Thousand Texas Daughters, was published in 1950 by a
regional Texas publishing company. It is dedicated to the Mary Hardin-Baylor Alumnae
Association, whose goals were to sponsor and promote the ideals of Christian education for
women. This alumnae association was organized by Elli Moore Townsend, who was considered a
model Christian educator.
According to Ms. Montgomery, Ms. Townsend was one of the great educators of her generation. Ms. Montgomery writes how Elli Moore came from Independence to Belton as Lady Principal of Baylor Female College. Ms. Montgomery describes how Elli worked with great dedication to raise money for both the female college in Belton and the male college in Waco and to set in place the early work duty program (The Cottage Home System). Ms. Montgomery credits to Ms. Townsend the eleven "cottage homes," (early work-study homes), two cooperative dormitories, and the raising of a quarter-million dollars in scholarship funds. Ms. Montgomery further credits Ms. Townsend for influencing over ten thousand girls. (Montgomery, 1950)
In Ten Thousand Texas Daughters, Ms. Townsend gives rationale for separate schools for women.
Why do we
need separate Christian schools for women? ...In
coeducational schools, there is what has been called the
'vice-president complex' on the part of women students. But here,
women assume full responsibility for leadership...through the
work-week, there is no distraction from study life.
(Montgomery, 1950: 168-69.)
When Ms. Montgomery was writing her biography of Ms. Townsend, Elli would only consent to the writing of her story, if the biography essentially concerned her inner spiritual growth. Therefore, Elli's factual story and name were told, but the names of the Christian college, university, and presidents were fictionalized to stress the importance of Christian education, without referring to a denominational institution. Elli also insisted that her weaknesses honestly be presented. She felt that her story of working through struggles would be an encouragement to the readers. Ms. Montgomery was a student in Mrs. Townsend's dormitory and a close friend of Mrs. Townsend's niece. Ms. Montgomery verified her story of Ms. Townsend by exhaustive research.
Another writer influenced by Elli
Moore Townsend, was Winifred Cheaney,
who also wrote a biography in 1901 of Elli Moore. This book, Chapters
From Life, chronicles the lives of early Cottage Home girls and their relationship
with Ms. Townsend. This book, which was actually published
by Elli Moore Townsend, is dedicated by Ms. Cheaney to Elli and her girls.
Ms. Cheaney (1901), who knew Elli personally, did not know the girls personally but writes this book based on the girls' autobiographical stories. The profits from the sale of this book were used to continue the educational support of poor, but worthy, girls. The nine girls in Cheaney's story are not from the first cottage home but from subsequent years.
She includes in her book excerpts from
letters from three of the Cottage Home girls: Leah, Louise, and Rachel. These girls became
Elli's inner circle prayer partners. The first girl's story told by Ms. Cheaney is that of
Leah. She was born into a poor country family. Nevertheless, she loved to read, had strong
self-esteem, and had aspirations of becoming a leader. As a young girl she longed to go to
college, but her family could not afford to send her. She decided to study on her own to
take the county teacher's examination, which she passed. She was able to secure modest
teaching positions and began to save her money for college. During her fourth year of
teaching, her contract was terminated and she was replaced by a male teacher. During the
second year of Elli Moore's Cottage Home, Leah was able to gain admittance. College for
the year cost her nearly all her savings, $88 for tuition and board.
The following excerpt from a letter written by Leah to her cousin Rachael suggests
evidence of internal locus of control and of Elli Moore as a role model.
My Dear
Cousin Rachel:
...Miss Moore is the best manager I ever saw. Every girl chooses
the task that is most agreeable to her and when she gets tired,
the task is changed. Miss Elli has been sick most all the time
I have been here but she always, when possible, comes to worship
and always has us come to her room on Saturday and teaches us
Hebrew History to the Life of Christ....On Sunday afternoons
she teaches us lessons from different parts of the Bible....As
for
my idea of Miss Elli...the secret of her grandeur and nobleness
of character is her childlike trust in God and her complete
submission to His will. The object of every plan and act
of her life is to honor and glorify God....In spite of the fact
that Miss Elli is an invalid she is ever busy...
Yours sincerely,
Leah
(Cheaney, 1901: 9-22)
She tells another story about Louise, who was introduced first in a letter to Miss Elli by her friend Miss Ella Yelvington.
Dear Miss Elli:
I address you
. . . on behalf of a young girl with whom I have ...
been associated. She is a peculiar genius . . . an English
girl....
She has been greatly disappointed in her struggle for an
education,
having been compelled by poverty to leave school when she was in
the
height of...great distinction...Louise....is capable of leading
great
numbers...she has no money, but I will bear part of her expenses
....
You can plan ways and means for others better than I can, for
your
whole life has been spent in such work. If you help me to give
Louise
the education her soul craves I shall be deeply grateful....
(Cheaney, 1901: 23-34)
Ms. Cheaney tells another story about one of the early cottage girls, Rachael, Leah's cousin. Rachael loved to read and had high ambitions like Leah. She had a beautiful singing voice. She was, unfortunately, orphaned at twelve. She, like Leah, was able to gain a county teaching position and struggled to save money to go to college as well. Miss Elli Moore drew the orphaned but ambitious girl to her heart and enabled Rachael to join the Cottage Home family.
The following excerpt from a letter from Rachael to Leah suggests evidence of indicates internal locus of control and of Elli Moore as a role model before achael joined the Cottage Home family. (Cheaney, 1901)
... I am
studying in this little country school the very books I
should take were I in Baylor. After Christmas I shall teach a
little
school out here. It is a very small school and a short term but I
shall be very economical and it will be a start...I feel
something
like Thomas Moore's Peri must have felt when it found itself shut
out
of Paradise. But you know the Peri gained paradise after while,
and I
doubt not, enjoyed it better for its exile. So may the door of
Baylor
at last open for me. Shall I not improve the opportunity more
because
of the waiting? (Cheaney, 1901: 35-49)
Ms. Cheaney recounts another anecdote about Elli and the first cottage home in her book Chapters From Life. Ms. Cheaney tells of an event that took place in the first plain cottage, while wealthier students lived across the street in a great deal more comfort in a beautiful stone college building on the Belton campus of Baylor Female College.
This scene takes place in near starvation times for the first cottage home in 1893. The day comes when the first twelve cottage students and Miss Elli have no money nor food. Heavyhearted and weeping, Miss Elli's eyes fall upon her jewel box full of family heirlooms. It occurs to her that this box could provide the needs of the girls. She takes the jewelry to the bank and asks that it be held as collateral for a loan or until the bank can dispose of it profitably. At her insistence, the banker complies with her wishes. It is an answer to Elli's prayers. Prayer was at the center of the Cottage Home life. All sources agree that Elli would pray fervently with her eyes open, fixing as on a countenance in the sky, visible only to her. (Cheaney, 1901)
The stories and descriptions of Mrs. Townsend by Dr. James, Ms. Montgomery, and Ms. Cheaney are supported by many other sources: Mrs. Townsend's letters and writings, interviews of those who knew her, oral histories with her former students, news articles, yearbooks, and so forth. These sources consistently portray Elli Moore Towsend as a great woman of faith who was very outspoken, assertive, and sacrificial.
From these various sources, it is apparent that after 1879, for most of Elli Moore Townsend's life, Ms. Townsend's intense energy was focused primarily on enabling orphaned or poor girls to go to college. At the end of her life, she was described as continuing to be intense whenever she heard of a girl who couldn't go to college for lack of funds (James, 1986; Montgomery, 1950; Cheaney, 1901).
Ms. Townsend also enabled Negro boys and girls to get their education. Some of them were the grandchildren of her grandfather's slaves. She left her estate to provide scholarships for Baylor College students on the basis of need and scholarly promise. Students at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor still receive today scholarships from Townnsend Memorial Scholarship Funds. Ms. Townsend died in 1953 and is buried in the North Belton Cemetery, where lie many of the University of Mary Hardin Baylor's presidential families (James, 1986; Montgomery, 1950; Cheaney, 1901).
Due to Elli Moore Townsend's influence and example, in 1994, Ms. Gene Skeen gave $100,000 to assist in the building of a new female dormitory at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Ms. Gene Skeen, a Baylor Female College student in 1923, heard about Ms. Elli Moore's selling her jewels to secure monies for students. She promised herself that if she lived to retirement that she would give back to the school what she could because Ms. Moore gave all she could so that needy girls could go to school.
Finally, another Baylor Female College
Cottage Home student who became
a respected writer and journalist, Bess Whitehead Scott, looked to
Ms. Townsend as a role model. Ms. Scott wrote a poem, which is dedicated to Ms. Townsend
and found in the foreword section of Ten Thousand Texas Daughters.
It seems to
me the very light that shone
From countenance of Christ in days of old
Is mirrored in your eyes. In perfect mold
His life by love is blended with your own.
Like Him you walked Gethsemane alone
And borne the cross that others might behold
The gifts of God. And in your heart is sown
The seeds of peace that naught but wisdom hold.
Oh friend, to us whose faith has not been tried,
Who need the clasp of hand- a word, a sign,
You are a tower of strength, a beacon guide,
A living well of truth and love divine.
It seems to me that always by your side
The lights of God in benediction shine.
(Montgomery, 1950: ix)
As well as identifying a role model in Ms. Townsend, Bess Whitehead Scott also displayed evidence of internal locus of control in her life. She grew up in a home with eight siblings, which was held together by her widowed mother. Measles and a mastoid operation left her with a serious hearing handicap, but she overcame her physical impairment and her family's financial difficulties. She graduated from college and taught school briefly. Then, at the age of twenty-five, in 1915, she entered the male-dominated world of news reporting for the Houston Post. Her success with that newspaper led to other jobs in the public relations field. While trying her hand at writing screen scripts in the film world of Hollywood, she became friends with Lyndon Johnson and Clark Gable (Scott, 1989).
Further outstanding examples of
students who were strong communicators and leaders and were influenced by female faculty
role models in the female-only days of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor came from
interviews conducted in 1995-96 by the researcher with Betty Sue Beebe, Director of Alumni
Affairs at the university, and a former student in the last female-only days of the
university. (Ms. Beebe also exhibits strong leadership and communication ability in her
successful management of an active alumni program.) Ms. Beebe, described the following
Mary Hardin-Baylor students, who made national contributions(Howard,1996) .
Ailese Parten, another student of journalism, from the Class of 1925, who was influenced
by Elli Moore Townsend, established the first program in journalism for women in the
United States. Miriam Ferguson was the first female governor of Texas, and in the nation.
Oveta Culp married former Governor Hobby of Texas. She as very capable and
knowledgeable about law and politics. She was appointed by President Roosevelt to head the
first womens' military organization, the Women's Auxiliary Corps (WACS), during WWII. She
then served as Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under
President Eisenhower. Finally, she became owner of the Houston Post and was the power
behind it and its broadcast affiliates.
Ms. Beebe also provided for the
researcher stories of female faculty who were role models as leaders and as communicators,
during the female-
only days of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. These female faculty
role model examples clearly influenced students, who later developed outstanding national
reputations. An example of a female faculty role model, who exhibited internal locus of
control and who clearly influenced students, during the female-only days of the University
of Mary Hardin-Baylor, was
Dr. Amy LeVesconte.
Dr. LeVesconte served the university from 1931-52 and from '57-70. She served in the capacities of professor and as chairman of the Chemistry Department. She was highly regarded by her students, even after they graduated. In 1985, Charter Day was proclaimed "Amy LeVesconte Day" at the university. LeVesconte was given an album of notes and letters written by former students in which they expressed their gratitude to her for her example.
Sally Provence was influenced by Dr. LeVesconte, the sponsor of Sally's Class of 1937. After earning her bachelor's degree in general science with pre-medical courses at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Ms. Provence earned her M.D. degree and affected the field of pediatrics nationally. She developed the Child Study Center, bearing her name, at Yale University. Dr. Allena Pace, another student from the female days of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor who had a female role model and displayed internal locus of control, wrote a letter to me in response to my interview with her in 1994. After graduating from the university (then Mary Hardin-Baylor College) in 1939 in vocational home economics education and science (Howard,1996).
Dr. Pace married a military officer at
the beginning of the WWII. After planning their wedding for a year, war was declared just
days before the Paces' wedding. The war immediately affected their wedding and marriage.
First, as a reserved officer, groom was obligated to wear his dress uniform for his
wedding. Since his new wife, Allena, was teaching, the groom was called in to see the base
commander, to answer by endorsement, why he, an officer in the United States Army, would
allow his wife to work. After being married in 1941, Allena's military husband was killed
in a battle in France in 1944. Dr. Pace asserted, that at that time, she especially grew
in Christian character. In her 1994 letter to me Dr. Pace wrote,
I was teaching... in 1941....In 1944 my husband was killed in
battle . . . My wonderful mother helped me to keep my feet on the
ground. I secured a job in a junior college and began working on
my
master's degree...then my doctorate...worked with wives of
veterans
who were returning to college and pioneered adult education...In
my
thorty-nine years of teaching ...I developed new curricula in the
area of nutrition...fashion merchandise...child development,
interior decoration...during these years of teaching in three
universities, I have been treated with respect and...as well
as...
many of the men faculty. (Pace 1994,in Howard 1996)
One of the oral histories gathered by
the author in this study was with Berneta Peeples, a University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
student during the fifties, who has since demonstrated internal locus of control as an
active and assertive journalist for the Belton Journal for sixty years. The oral history
revealed Berneta's internal locus of control, especially in her driving desire to research
and report Belton and University of Mary Hardin-Baylor history. The oral history also
revealed the impact on Berneta of a female faculty role model at the university, Dr.
Mildred Fussel
(Howard,1996).
Dr. Fussel had been head of the English Department, when Berneta was a student at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. Ms. Peeples told a story with awe about her role model, Dr. Fussel, in a 1994 oral history with the researcher.
She was a
child protege...when she started school at six years old
she was in the third grade, both her parents were teachers. She
was
teaching in high school...before she was nineteen years old. She
had her masters when she was twenty-one. Along came WWII and
Mildred
enlisted in the WACS. She was one of thirty-six girls who were
chosen
for cryptoquote. It was a code. They sent code messages. There
were
thirty-six of them. They lived in separate barracks. They never
saw
anybody but these thirty six. They were transported in armored
trucks
from their barracks to Lord only knows where...All these strange
little messages about Project Manhattan were going. About four
o'clock one morning she realized that somebody was breathing down
her
neck. She got through sending that message. She slammed her chair
back on somebody's toes. And Harry Truman was standing there.
(Peeples, 1993)
Surveys were sent to me by living
members of WWII-era classes of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. I had asked them
questions about the educational and professional goals the graduates had when they were
students, and the effect of the war on their education and professional lives. Eleven
wrote to me and provided stories, which indicated that they had both internal locus of
control and female role models (Howard,1996).
With my Class of 1945 survey, Strelsa Burks rote of attending graduate school at Julliard
in New York. Betsy Hunt wrote, on her Class of 1945 survey, of preparing for teaching and
having been influence by her aunt, who was an Army nurse and who was her female model.
Betsy described her aunt. She had a difficult time even making enough at times to live on
after graduation from Baylor Nursing School during the grim depression years. She had gone
on to New York City to do graduate work then to nurse there. We did not see her for quite
a few years. She enlisted in the new Army Nurses Corps and was stationed at Brook General
after her basic training. I enjoyed seeing what her life was like . . . She wore her
uniform with pride and I believe she thrived under the discipline and regimentation that
came with the job (Howard,1996).
Neta Mayfield, graduate of Mary-Hardin Baylor in 1947, testified, in an interview with me in 1993, that the faculty at Mary Hardin-Baylor provided the students with security, stability, and direction. Ms. Mayfield asserted that the faculty had a special, close bond with the students, especially during the war years. She said they were like personal guides, mentors to the girls (Howard,1996).
Graduates whom I interviewed, who had graduated in 1947-48 from Mary Hardin-Baylor College, remembered with particular fondness Imogene Emery, the speech instructor, and Emilie Johnson, the drama instructor, who had trained the girls well in the personal skills of public speaking and who instilled confidence in the students. Ms. Emery prepared the girls to win many collegiate debates. The students developed a deep loyalty to the faculty, to the college, and to the traditions of the school, because in these they found security during the troubled war years (Howard,1996).
Mary Purcell, who graduated from Mary
Hardin-Baylor College in 1947, wrote to me after my interview with her in 1993. Ms.
Purcell, who had been
influenced by Ms. Emery in the Speech Department at Mary Hardin-Baylor, wrote that she
finished her graduate degree in speech at Lousianna State University in 1948 and went to
Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to teach speech and to direct the women's
debate program. Interestingly, her students in her public speaking course were mostly men,
who had returned from the war and who were older than she was. She testified that she was
not awed by her students, but only felt challenged. She stated that her years at Mary
Hardin-Baylor College gave her immense confidence to handle whatever came her way. In the
50s she began working with the American Association of University Women and served on the
national board in the 70s. She continues today in leadership of the International
Federation of University Women (Howard,1996).
During and after WWII the loss of male
competition as the girls graduated and entered the professional world was to their
advantage. Many Mary Hardin-Baylor war year graduates told the researcher of abundant
professional opportunities that were available to them. Mary Hardin-Baylor graduates in
education, during and immediately after the war, stated that teaching jobs were plentiful
from the elementary to college levels. Along with equal pay for equal work appeared, new
opportunities emerged for women to teach on college faculties.
Many former Mary Hardin-Baylor female-only students were influenced by
Dr. Rachel LaRoe. Dr. LaRoe, as Mary Hardin-Baylor student from 1935-37, had been
influenced Lucile Capt, a female biology faculty member. In an oral history with the
researcher in 1993, Dr. Rachael LaRoe, recounted how when she was on the Mary
Hardin-Baylor faculty at the onset of the WWII, she was invited to teach physics with one
other female physics instructor at Oregon State University. She also taught pre-flight
physics for the Air Force. She would not have had these opportunities had not some of the
previous male faculty been drafted. She told me humorous stories about teaching the Air
Force students who were as old as she was (Howard, 1996).
The Air force program was extremely rigid in its demands of the students to exhibit military courtesy in the classroom. Dr. LaRoe told the author that, in class, the students were expected by their commanders to keep both feet on the floor, to keep their chin off their hands, to sit up straight, and to stand to attention in the aisle when called on and to say, "Miss LaRoe, Air Cadet Jones, John C. reports to answer the question." She would say,"Yes, Mr. Jones." And he would sometimes say after all that, "I don't know the answer." Rachel got tired of this, went to the commandant, and told him that she could not teach effectively under the conditions of the rules of military etiquette, as it wasted too much time. The commander allowed the military courtesy to be suspended in her classroom. He said if any commander were to come into her classroom, she could tell him to get out, that this was her classroom and that she was not obligated to military etiquette. The students continued to be marched to her class, but they could behave as normal college students once in her classroom.
Dr. LaRoe was invited to teach physics at Duke University as the only female instructor. Before the war there had been resistance at Duke against female graduate students, let alone female faculty. Dr. LaRoe returned to Mary Hardin-Baylor in 1953 and continued to serve as role model in math and physics through the end of the female-only era. She later served as Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Maxine Presnall, in the Class of 1945
survey, wrote of being hired on Wall Street, New York, after graduation. Her third year at
Mary Hardin-Baylor she took all business courses, thinking that would be her last year in
college, due to the war. The following year, she worked in a bank and within a few months
was in charge of the bookkeeping department. She felt this duty and her job later on Wall
Street came due to the male shortage. In 1946, she worked again in what was formerly a
male-dominated field, in a Civil Service finance department. There she was the first woman
among twenty-three men (Howard, 1996).
In 1993, on the Class of 1945 survey,
Enid Davidson, testified of finding jobs plentiful in the field of chemistry in 1945
"because the men were not yet back." Helen Sedge, Class of '45 told of finding
jobs "galore" in Washington. Having been with the Signal Corps three weeks
learning "crypt," she was offered eight jobs in one day. Bolling Field was her
choice and she went from hangar duty to the commanding general's office in a few months.
She served with the Army, Pentagon for four years, and went to Viet Nam.
She went to work at NASA's Johnson Space Center in 1964. She received many honors (Howard,
1996).
Male shortages at home during WWII
opened up new doors of professional opportunities for leadership for female college
graduates and female faculty. However, throughout the history of the female-only days of
the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor there were many examples of recognized female
communicators and leaders.
REFERENCES
Cheaney, W. A., (1901). Chapters from Life, Belton: Elli Moore Townsend.
James, E. (1986) Forth From Her Portals, Belton:
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Press.
Howard, D.(1996) The Relationship of Internal Locus of Control
and Female Role Models in Female College Students,
Contact Dr. Howard
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