ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS
 
Golden Girls 
Women in the Military

  
                                                             Elizabeth Smith Gwin, '30, signs her interview.

THE GOLDEN GIRLS ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
In 2005, when our campus opened the Southern Women’s Institute, now the Center for Women’s Research and Public Policy, a major part of its mission was preserving the history of our university through an alumnae oral history project. Student interns learned appropriate interviewing and transcription techniques and began recording and preserving the memories of alumnae. In the process, current students forged a stronger link between themselves and women who attended the W at least fifty years ago.  This project was built on a previously laid foundation. The Center was very fortunate that the MUW Alumnae Association had already begun interviewing and recording the memories of women such as Mary Ellen Weathersby Pope, Class of 1926, Emily Eugenia Summer, Class of 1945, and Mary Elizabeth "Libby" Bickerstaff Payne, Class of 1954. Our student interns continued the original project and conducted their first major set of interviews at the Class of 1956’s "Golden Girl" weekend in April, 2006.  To date interviewers have collected and transcribed over sixty interviews, twenty of which were edited and published in Golden Days: Reminiscences of Alumnae, Mississippi State College for Women, 1926-1957 (UP of MS 2008).  Student Interns are collecting material for future volumes, and Golden Girl interviewing is ongoing. At Homecoming of 2012, student interviewers were happy to record the memories of thirteen members of the Class of 1962.  If you are an alumna of the W and are interested in being interviewed, please contact Dr. Bridget Smith Pieschel at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or the Center Office at 662-241-6125.  Biographical forms, permission forms and a list of interview questions may be downloaded from the links below:

GOLDEN GIRLS ORAL HISTORY BIOGRAPHICAL FORM
GOLDEN GIRLS ORAL HISTORY DEED OF GIFT FORM
GOLDEN GIRLS ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Below l. to r. : Reminiscing on the steps of Orr Chapel are Judges Mary Libby Bickerstaff Payne, '54 & Lenore Loving Prather, '53.

Mary Ellen Weathersby Pope, Class of 1926

Elizabeth Spann Smith Gwin, Class of 1930

Juanita McCown Hight, Class of 1934

Hyacinth McCormick Hayman, Class of 1935

Katherine Lipscomb Worrell, Class of 1936

Carmen Pearson Ronken, Class of 1937

Emily Eugenia Summer, Class of 1945

Mary Glynn Williams Lancaster, Class of 1947

Frances Mildred Bethea Dent, class of 1950

Joan Crawford Meadows McLemore, Class of 1951

Lenore Loving Prather, Class of 1953

Mary Elizabeth Bickerstaff Payne, Class of 1954

Sylvia Camille Duck Clark, Class of 1956

Mary Elizabeth Barrett Francis, Class of 1956

Janet Carol Davis Gray, Class of 1957

Beverly Stuart Koch Jones, Class of 1957

Donette Dunaway Lee, class of 1957

Nell Ann Pickett, Class of 1957

Barbara McMillin Webb, Class of 1957