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→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870-1976)
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.Kappas danced to records at the spring formal and donated their band money to the Bomber Scholarship Fund. The Michigan Daily praised Kappa for being the first sorority to give up "the frills." Nightly exercises for fitness became part of life at 1204 Hill. The Michigan League Council became the Women's War Council and traditional activities were out for "the duration." The Sophomore served as hospital volunteers, the Juniors took on a stamp and bond drive, and the Seniors made surgical dressings. As men on the labor force left for service, women filled in at the university laundry, in food service, and even on campus groundskeeping, uniformed in plaid shirts and jeans, saddle shoes, and hairbows! The term "chaperone" had disappeared, and even "house-mother" was on the wane when the gracious Mrs. John Owen arrived in 1942 ad house director. Her sense of humor carried the chapter (and herself) over rough times of rationing and shortages. Stories of "rabbit-chicken" and Kappas serving as maids, cooks, and waitresses attest to her ingenuity. She stayed until 1954, proof of her durability, too. The chapter house, built in 1910, had met the needs of the group until growing enrollment required annexes for additional members. There were happy times in those modest homes, but there was also an unsatisfactory separation of members. In 1938 property adjacent to the chapter house had been purchased for $13,500 and, in spite of the war, the addition was almost finished by fall, 1942. Again members returned to an unfinished house, rushees walked over planks to the front door, but a large class of 26 was pledged. The remodeling costs of $46,000 which transformed the house into one with white Georgian columns were considered well spent. Many campus customs were revived with the war's end. The Kappa house abounded with happiness, sisterhood, campus activity, achievement, and tradition. A full social life included cherished weekends for mothers and fathers, exchange dinners, serenades, and T.G.I.F. (Thank God It's Friday) parties. Drinking was not allowed on campus and curfew was enforced. Twenty-first birthdays were celebrated at the "Pretzel Bell" with names etched on its wooden table tops. Kappa, with
==Highlights of 2012==