The First Reunion of the Class of 1585

In 1926, the alumnae of the North Carolina College for Women (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) were making plans for their class reunions. As these preparations were being made, it occurred to some of the alumnae that the celebration should include those students who had attended the woman’s college but had never graduated, or were never officially associated with a reunion class. This honorary group was christened the “Class of 1585.” This unusual name was a reference to the state’s early history, when Sir Richard Grenville’s English ships landed on the coast of what is now North Carolina.

The first “reunion” of the Class of 1585 was held on June 5, 1926, during the celebration of Alumnae Day. To mark the occasion, there was a luncheon given in the Spencer Residence Hall dining room. In keeping with the 1585 theme, large centerpieces were fashioned in the image of Elizabethan ships. The tables were decorated with vases of daises (the school flower), with individual blossoms spelling out 1585 – 1926. For a special remembrance of the day, guests were presented with a small booklet created by students in the college’s art department. On the cover was a hand-drawn representation of a ship being greeted by a young Native American woman, while the interior contained the day’s program and a photograph of the guests of honor. Those being honored were administrators, professors, and staff members associated with the college’s early history. They included Miss Viola Boddie, Miss Laura Coit, Mr. Edward Forney, Dr. Julius Foust, Dr. Anna Gove, Miss Minnie Lou Jamison, Mrs. Lula McIver, and Miss Mary Petty.

Over ninety guests were entertained with a program which paid tribute to the eight guests of honor. Continuing the theme of settling a new land, these educators were represented as champions of learning and “rescuers of the maidens” held captive by ignorance. In thanks, their former students presented them with “love, loyalty, reverence, and gratitude.” The luncheon’s entertainment also included a song by Miss Molly Matheson Boren and a commemorative verse by Miss Eleanor Watson Andrews, as well as Miss Vaughn White Holoman’s “series of word pictures sketched with the delicacy and precision of a cameo, [of] the eight ‘founders’ of the ‘settlement.’”


The moving program ended with each attendee drawing the name of one of the eight honorees and completing the phrase, “What we really want to tell you…” on a small sheet of paper. These kind thoughts were later collected and incorporated into a commemorative book. The event concluded with the guests toasting the Class of 1585 with best wishes and the hope that the tradition would persist.  For the next several years, the Class of 1585 continued to hold alumnae luncheons with the other college classes, but by the 1930s, this seems to have come to an end. Only one of the hand-drawn booklets survives as a testament of the class’s first reunion held on that June day in 1926.

A History of Adult Students at UNCG

When the doors of the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) opened on October 5, 1892, for the first day of instruction, 176 women from across North Carolina arrived in Greensboro to attend. The number would grow to 223 by the year's end. Many of the students who arrived were non-traditional students with previous degrees from other institutions. One was 26-year-old Minnie Lou Jamison from Rowan County, NC. She had attended a local academy in her home county and worked for a number of years teaching in order to save money for her tuition. In 1896, after graduation from State Normal, she remained on campus in a faculty position in the Department of Home Economics.

Minnie Lou Jamison

Jamison reflected President Charles Duncan McIver's statement in the 1902 Annual Catalogue that the "State Normal and Industrial College stands for a public educational system that will educate all people." The institution attracted about one-third of its enrollment in the early years from local "town students," including one who commuted daily to class on horseback. A steady commitment to non-traditional students continued to grow.

This commitment can be seen in Margaret Rowlett (Class of 1925), who began working at the age of 14 in a North Carolina rag mill to earn money to support her education. She enrolled in the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG) as a 25-year-old freshman. After graduation, she was able to pursue a career in writing and illustrating children's books and creating textiles and draperies aimed at children.

During World War II, the college's focus shifted to supporting the war effort. Spouses of many active military servicemen enrolled at Woman's College (now UNCG) after the institution shifted its previous policy banning married students. Following the war, the enactment of the G.I. Bill affected higher education throughout the country, and Woman's College was no exception. By 1946, 54 veterans of the women's branches of the armed forces had enrolled at WC on the G.I. Bill.

The first group of WWII veterans to enroll at WC

One of these returning veterans was Reva Fortune of Greensboro, who served with the Army Air Force while in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) from 1943 to 1948 and with the Women in the Air Force (WAF) from 1948 to 1952. In 1954 at the age of 37, she enrolled at Woman's College on the G.I. Bill. She had long wanted to attend college, but noted that "before the War [she] did not have the means." Fortune graduated in 1958 with a degree in biology and a minor in Spanish.

In the late 1950s, college administrators began to recognize a growing need for higher education for a group that was described as "special undergraduate students." In a 1958 report, Chancellor Gordon Blackwell projected a steady increase in the number of adult students at WC, "from 40 in 1957 to 230 by 1970." This growth did continue and, in the late 1960s, an Ad Hock Committee to Study Non-Traditional Students was formed. Following the committee's recommendation, the first Office of Adult Students was created in 1972 to "recruit, admit, and monitor non-traditional students at UNCG."

UNCG's support for non-traditional students continues, with the UNCG Campus and Activities Program (CAP) coordinating many events and activities aimed at assisting adult and commuter students. Through these types of programs, UNCG continues to provide opportunities for students to learn, grow, and be active on campus.

Minnie Lou Jamison: the second line of defense

Minnie Lou Jamison, a native of Rowan County, was one of the 225 students who entered the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) when the doors opened in the fall of 1892. From Scotch-Irish descent, Jamison attended a local academy in her native Rowan County and taught school for several years before applying to State Normal. In 1896, she accepted a faculty position in the Department of Home Economics.



Minnie Lou Jamison

Jamison focused her efforts on the school’s Home Economics Department until 1915 when she was given a leave of absence to accept a position as a home demonstration agent for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. This position grew out of the Smith-Lever Act, which had been established the previous year as a system of “cooperative extension services” to inform people about developments in home economics, agriculture, public policy, and other related topics. In her new position, Jamison formed rural women’s clubs to study foods and elevate knowledge of healthy diets, meal efficiency, and food conservation. She traveled to the most rural areas of the state, convincing women of the benefits of “simple home conveniences” such as fireless cookers, similar to a modern crock-pot.  At the request of many of these women, she wrote several pamphlets including “Plans for Community Club Work in the Study in Foods and Household Conveniences,” which saw three printings. This government publication was distributed throughout the United States in addition to many foreign countries.

On April 6, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. The same year, Jamison was called back to the college to help with mobilizing the home front, the “second line of defense” of the War.  At the suggestion of Herbert Hoover, who was then the national food administrator, Jamison taught a ten day course in food conservation at the college. She began to give similar presentations to women throughout the state. Jamison reached over 18,000 women with her 200 demonstrations. These classes included canning, meat substitutions, creating recipes for cold dishes and balanced meals, and demonstrations of drying fruits and vegetables. She designed a community food dryer for her demonstration classes, and then shared it with the Women’s Defense League of Guilford County. It was estimated that more than 1500 pounds of fruit and vegetables were conserved in the dryer.

  

World War I Food Preservation

On May 14, 1918, Jamison became the secretary of the North Carolina College Volunteer Workers and of the Women’s Land Army. She rallied hundreds of girls throughout the state, creating units at most of the colleges, including the State Colored Normal School in Fayetteville, now Fayetteville State University, which was commended for bringing in members of the community to learn canning and food preservation.  These girls were asked to work within their communities to upgrade the standards of living, including recruiting well-trained teachers for state schools, assisting in the state’s farm work, and general community upkeep. An interesting part of this work was the early assistance of the state’s “mill girls,” who were an overlooked demographic. Young volunteers assisted these girls by forming reading circles, creating libraries, teaching music education, and even giving them helpful hints in making their clothes and hats. At State Normal, Jamison organized the students to preserve the food harvested from the college farm and to ration it for school use.  When the War ended, Jamison continued to work with rural women throughout the state through the Home Demonstration Extension division of the college. 

The Lady with the Powder-Puff Hair

Then it all ended. A nearly fatal car accident in June of 1922 kept her convalescing until 1924. When she returned to the college, which had since changed its name to the North Carolina College for Women, she did so as a freshman counselor. Jamison was extremely popular with the students, believing that “her girls could do no wrong.” She was well-liked with the students’ dates as well who would bring her favorite flowers and chocolates as a bribe to put in a good word for them. As these students graduated and forged out on their own, many still kept in contact with Jamison, still seeking her sage advice accompanied by her “quick wit and chocolates.”

Jamison went into semi-retirement in 1936, but continued in a part-time capacity as the head of the Student’s Building and counselor of social activities. She became known affectionately to her students as “the lady with the powder-puff hair,” noting her beautiful white hair. She loved social activities and into her eighties Jamison attended all of the college dances in a simple black velvet dress. Always entertaining, as well as modest, Jamison joked that she was glad that she had an “average” mind so that when she began to lose it, it wouldn’t be so noticeable.

Jamison dedicated her entire life to service and to the school. To show its appreciation, in the spring of 1939, the college named a residence hall in her honor. That same year, the students dedicated the school’s yearbook, Pine Needles, to her. Minnie Lou Jamison died in January of 1948 at the age of eighty-one, and was memorialized for her kindness, her sense of humor, and her love of flowers and music. But perhaps her greatest contribution was her push for improvements and modernizations in rural North Carolina, her innovations in food conservation, and her work in mobilizing the state’s second line of defense during a war that was to end all wars.