Category:The Woman Behind The Badge

Minnie M. Marsh was the owner of the badge that the Gamma Gamma President wears. It is the "old style" of flat badge with a striking stickpin guard. It is still proudly worn by the chapter president and emains cherished and safe. Here, at last, is the missing information, taken from the 1926 KKG Directory and the 1890 "Catalog." Minnie was a member of Omicron Chapter, Simpson College (originally known in 1867 as Simpson Centenary College), Indianola, Iowa. The chapter was founded April 10, 1880 - installed by Delta Chapter from Indiana Univ., which remains the oldest continually existing chapter of Kappa - with 7 charter members. Minnie was initiated in 1881 and after graduation, from 1885-1886, she was a teacher of music in Indianola...perhaps at Simpson College. By 1927 she was living in the Bennington Apartments in Walla Walla, Washington…home of Whitman College…probably as a professor of music. That is undoubtedly how the badge came to Gamma Gamma. Minnie was likely on hand when the chapter was installed April 29, 1918, and gave her badge then as the president's badge. WOW - what a wonderfully long history for the loving care and use of that old badge!!

Omicron Chapter had a short life due to the small size and relative isolation of the chapter. It was installed 4/10/1880 and dissolved in 1890, because the Grand Council of KKG decided that Simpson College was not a setting in which a Kappa chapter would grow and thrive. Thus, there were few members over the chapter's original 10-year history and very few keys that exist from its early members. The chapter was reactivated in 1990, exactly 100 years after its demise, and remains a small but active chapter today. Thus, our chapter's president's badge is a true treasure which should be guarded with great care to preserve it for future Gamma Gammas. Perhaps being able to share its history and special character will add to the chapter's appreciation for Minnie's badge. As you may guess, I'm both a sentimentalist about Kappa and a lover of its heritage, and I am delighted to know, 50 years after wearing it, the “Woman Behind the Badge.”

Mary Ruddick Silzel – Gamma Gamma Chapter President 1958-59