UK THANKSGIVING, 1929

In 1929 UK President Frank McVey declared November 28 "a day of thanksgiving."  He noted that, "As members of the University we are thankful for health, for opportunities to work, study and play. We are glad we are citizens of this great Republic and reside in Kentucky."

Like other football rivalries across the country, the UK - Tennessee football game was played on Thanksgiving making it an even more special game for players and fans alike.  Looking ahead to the upcoming football game McVey added that, "It is enough to make us celebrate the day with grateful hearts and to carry in our minds the hope and expectation of a fine victory over Tennessee on Thursday."  But the UK president warned that the celebration must not include alcoholic beverages, especially since prohibition was the law of the land."  He asked that "good sportsmanship and good behavior should be the order of the day."

But just in case the president's request was not sufficient, McVey let the students know that ""The University has asked the federal prohibition department to send a large force of agents to see that the law is obeyed" and "persons violating the law will be arrested by prohibition agents."

The game, witnessed by 20,000 fans in an almost blinding snowstorm, ended in a 6-6 tie and no reports of arrests were mentioned.  But like so many Kentucky-Tennessee football games before and since, Kentucky sportswriters and fans tried to make the best of another disappointment.

A Tennessee sportswriter reported that, "It was a heart-breaking scene for the loyal supporters of the courageous Kentucky eleven. With victory in their grasp ]Tennessee players] Bobbie Dowd and Buddy Hackman changed things so quickly that even now they are trying to figure out just how it all happened."

"...Let's pay tribute to a great Kentucky eleven. They deserved to win the football game today. From the start of the game they had outgained and outplayed Tennessee. But, folks, they didn't outfight the Volunteers. Every single Tennessee man left the field wearing the red badge of courage."  But even though Tennessee had won 28 of their last 29 games, "it will be a long, long time before the narrow escape will be forgotten."  And so it goes....

Kentucky Kernel, November 27 and December 6, 1929

 

A FORGOTTEN DEAN - JOSEPHINE PRICE SIMRALL

Dean Josephine Price Simrall

As a former dean I understand that some deans are forgettable.  But others deserve remembering.

Josephine Price Simrall was born the oldest of six daughters to Charles Barrington and Isabella Downing Price Simrall July 19, 1869 in Covington, Kentucky.  Simrall's mother attended Daughters College in Harrodsburg, Kentucky prior to the Civil War and her father became a highly regarded attorney for the Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Texas Pacific Railway Company.

Josephine Simrall earned a B.S. degree from Wellesley College in 1893.  She later earned a certificate from the Cincinnati Kindergarten Training School before doing graduate work at the University of Cincinnati, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia.  From 1916 to 1919 Simrall served as Head of Psychology and Instructor in English at Sweet Briar College.

President Frank McVey hired Simrall as Dean of Women and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Kentucky beginning in the fall of 1919.  Writing on her behalf Emilie W. McVea, president of Sweet Briar College, described Simrall as "an excellent teacher" with "unusual executive and administrative ability, and much social accustomness (sic)."

Chancellor Frank W. Chandler of the University of Cincinnati noted that "Miss Simrall is possessed of marked literary talent and was active in this community in the work of women's organizations."  He added that, "She is sympathetic and gentle in manner, but by no means lacking in force."

In addition to her administrative and teaching duties, Dean Simrall was active in campus events and even wrote and performed in campus plays.  But she resigned in the spring of 1921 to become Dean of Women at the University of Cincinnati where she served until 1933.

A Kentucky Kernel editorial noted that Dean Simrall would be returning "home" and stressed that she had been "notably successful in the supervising of the education of women."  Moreover, "Her sympathetic attitude toward women students and her perception of their needs as well as her ability to understand the student point of view are a few of the characteristics that contributed to her success."

Simrall's successor?  Another Seven Sisters graduate (Vassar) and English instructor at UK, Frances Jewell.   The newspaper described Jewell as "one of the outstanding figures in the university faculty."  She "brings to her new position rare knowledge of student life and problems and a personality that begets confidence and elicits admiration and respect.

Two year later Frances Jewell married President Frank McVey and gave up her positions as dean and instructor.  Nevertheless, she would become arguably the best known and most highly regarded woman in UK's long history.  But Frances Jewell McVey would want us to remember and acknowledge her successful and all but forgotten predecessor, Josephine Price Simrall.

1918 INFLUENZA RAVAGED UK AND THE COMMONWEALTH

Student patients and nurses in the temporary hospital
established in the gymnasium.

In 1918 the flu became so bad that the University of Kentucky closed for a time that fall.

The flu outbreak caused illness and loss of life across the commonwealth and few Kentuckians escaped its impact.  My grandmother, Leila Phillips Birdwhistell, was pregnant with her second child when she was stricken with the flu that year.  She lost her baby, and even more devastating, learned that because of complications she could not have more children.  This made my father an only child at a time when farmers had large families to help with work around the farm.

In a 2006 report Alex Azar, Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Service described the devastation of the 1918 flu in Kentucky.

“Kentucky saw its first cases of influenza during the last week of September 1918. Infected troops traveling on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad stopped off in Bowling Green, KY, where they passed the virus on to a few of the local citizens.”

“By the time the first week ended, Louisville had already suffered an estimated 1,000 cases of influenza.  The pandemic grew even worse in ensuing weeks. Louisville alone lost 180 people each week from influenza during the second and third weeks after it struck.”

On October 6, the Kentucky State Board of Health announced the closing of "all places of amusement, schools, churches and other places of assembly."

By late October “state officials reported more than 5,000 cases of the flu. Over the next three weeks, they reported over 8,000 more.  Even as late as mid-December 1918, Kentucky was so overwhelmed by the disease that a local health officer sent an urgent telegram to Surgeon General Rupert Blue requesting that the U.S. Public Health Service take over the administration of health work until the influenza epidemic had abated.”

Medical staff outside the gymnasium

In his November, 1918 report to the UK Board of Trustees President Frank McVey noted that "the University closed for about a month from October 11 to November 6."  There had been "352 cases of influenza in the hospital, the total number of deaths had been 7" and "there were 43 cases of influenza at the university, 15 of which were convalescents." 

McVey added that while UK was again open it remained "under quarantine."  The "men of the Students' Army Training Corps were confined to the camp" and "the girls of Patterson Hall and Maxwell Hall are not permitted to leave the halls except to attend classes." 

By December the women's dormitories closed because of a shortage of help as nearly all assistants were ill.  The women students were sent home.

UK Students, Please Take a Bath!

Water has always been important to UK and sometimes a scarce commodity. 

October 7-13 is University of Kentucky Water Week, "a week of films, panel discussions, invited speakers and service activities examining climate change impacts on water quality" sponsored by the Colleges of Agriculture, Food and Environment, Arts and Sciences, and Engineering, and the Kentucky Geological Survey, all of which are members of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment’s water systems working group. Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute is also a collaborator.

The focus on water reminded me that in 1930, in addition to economic woes brought on by the Great Depression, Lexington and the University of Kentucky faced a severe drought that put the region's water supply in jeopardy.

During a gathering in Memorial Hall for the first convocation of the 1930 school year, President Frank McVey advised the students that if they had been in the habit of taking a daily bath that they should consider taking one "every other night."  If they had been "taking one every other night, take two baths a week."  But if any student had been taking only one bath a week, McVey encouraged those students "for goodness sake keep that up!"