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→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
Visits from Dorothy Canfield Fisher, BN-Ohio State, and Robert Frost, while he was the university's Poet-in-Residence, were also of great interest to the chapter.
Outstanding Beta Deltas of the 1920s include three honored in architecture: Marion Frances Blood, awarded the Booth Scholarship in Architecture; Ruth Goodhew Chasteney, editor of Architectural Forum magazine; Frances Sutton Schmitz, first woman architect registered in the State of Michigan, a long term member of the Fraternity Housing Committee, and recipient of a Kappa Distinguished Alumnae Award. Phyllis Laughton Seaton became the first Michigan coed to direct the Junior Girls Play, later a leading drama coach in Hollywood, California, and a mayor of Beverly Hills.
The paramount interest of Michigan women during this period was the planning and financing of a Women's League building as a campus activities headquarters. At that time women were not allowed to enter the men's Michigan Union by the front door, or use the building for meetings. In 1923 Beta Delta stood first in contributions among organized houses, and in 1929 the beautiful million dollar Michigan League made the university the first and only campus with two student buildings.
The Kappa Kronicle, chapter financed, which appeared in the spring of 1931, has been continuously published and has received many Fraternity awards. It chronicles the times for Beta Delta alumnae. The Depression years note such items as the addition of a water softener, linoleum in the attic dorm ("no more splinters"), and electrical equipment in the pantry. ("Now we can have hot toast and even an egg in the morning if we pay a nickel.")
In spite of the Depression, the Kappas entertained: at high teas; at dinners honoring faculty, patronesses, or alumnae; and in 1930 at a tea introducing their new chaperone to the campus. The inimitable Mrs. Louise Doggett, white hair piled high, black velvet band at throat, lent her grace, dignity, and friendship to the chapter for seven years.
After the Depression came lighter, happier times. Initiates of 1937 were required to skip, rather than walk, and to bow when encountering an active. Beta Delta's Helen Bower, star reporter for the Detroit Free Press and editor of The Key from 1930 to 1946, often came to initiation banquets, delighting each new class with her rendition of "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," complete with gallops across the dining room floor. This was the Big Band era. Kappas danced to the music of Jimmy Dorsey at one end of the Intramural Building and Kay Keyser at the other at the "U Hop" in 1938. In the late 1930s dressy Michigan coeds no longer strolled down the "Diag," the main walk on campus, in high heels, gloves, and hats. Instead they wore saddle shoes, skirts, and cardigans (preferably Braemars( buttoned down the back, and always with pearls.
The high point of 1940 was the celebration of fifty golden years of Beta Delta. Two charter members, Mildred Hinsdale and Lucy Clark Terry, and two Kappa presidents, Elizabeth Bogert Schofield, M-Butler, and Florence Burton Roth, were honored guests. Over 100 attended the reunion and formal banquet with Helen Bower as toastmistress.
The December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor drew excited Kappas to their radios, concerned for men in service and those subject to call. The campus theme again became sacrifice on the home front.
==Highlights of 2012==