Hide Article Text (OCR)
lei go 01 mai iana woum ne in some traae ror or can neraiJOldest graduate remembers early days of SoutheasternCHRISTINA CHAPPLESoutheastern Louisiana UniversityrFew people’s memories of Southeastern Louisiana University go farther back than Juanita Foster's.The 91-year-old Hammond retired high school librarian is one of Southeastern's oldest graduates — maybe the oldest.In 1927, she was one of 14 students in the second graduating class of Hammond Junior College. Florence Bourdier, Mabel Campbell, Lillian Crouse, Florice Gray, Genie Guenard, Pearl Knieper, Quida Robertson, Mrs. J.E. Lambert, Vesta Wascom, Emily Etta and Wellington Way, Myrtie Williamson and Dorothea Wolters also graduated.Their memroies are particularly cherished this year, as Southeastern's 75th anniversary.Hammond Junior College,Foster said, wasn't much different from high school. Hammond Junior College's first student body included some older transfer students, such as her brother,Tom Foster, who came from Georgia Tech, and May Addison, who had been studying at the teachers' college in Natchitoches.Most of the students, like Foster, were walking back into the same building that they had recently left as high school graduates.When it opened in 1925, HammondTurnFOSTERHammond High School, then called Annie Eastman High School. It would be two years before the future university moved to its own campus on the northern fringe of Hammond.Linus Sims, Southeastern's founder and first president was still principal of the high school, Foster said. Dovie Vickers, Foster's high school English teacher, was Southeastern's first English teacher andwould be the English department until her retirement in 1956.The first faculty also included Walter S. McKay, dean and science and psychology teacher; Maria del Norte Theriot, who taught French, American and European history; and Joseph Perry Montgomery, who handled education, mathematics and sociology classes. lone Duncan was the part-time music and art teacher. In 1926, chemistry and physics teacher Tom Pursley joined the faculty. He would become as much of a campus legend as Vickers and would stay until 1966.Verna Joiner, one of Southeastern'sPhoto submittedFIRST GRADUATES — From left are, front row, 1927 graduates Florice Gray, Juanita Foster, Emily Etta Way, Lillian Crouse and Vesta Wascom; back row, 1926 graduates Tom Foster and May Addison and 1927 graduates Wellington Way, Ouida Robertson and Juanita Lambert.degree after putting five children through Southeastern and remembered some of the first faculty in a 1954 English paper written for Vickers,McKay “was a handsome brunette with a lively personality,” she said. “There was nothing he liked better than a friendly argument, and many were the times his class led him unsuspectingly away fromJunior College shared facilities with first freshman clays, later returned for her the problems of chemistry into^ discussion that occupied the entire period.“Mr. Montgomery was a decided blond, efficient and businesslike, a good teacher, Joiner wrote. “Though he was often dignified, yet, in general no one effervesced more wit and humor than he.''Duncan, Joiner said, was “a little brunette,” who organized the first Glee Club, while Theriot was “a charming. (See Oldest Graduate, Page 2)
Newspaper Details
Hammond Daily Star
Hammond, Louisiana, US
Mon, Jan 17, 2000
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
LA, USA 08 Feb 2020
Other Publications Near Hammond, Louisiana
Hammond Daily Item
Hammond Wednesday Star
Hammond Sunday Star
Daily Star
Hammond Star
