Keeping President McVey in Kentucky

A century ago this month, the University of Kentucky nearly lost its president.  Having been in Kentucky less than four years, Frank LeRond McVey had to make a tough decision in July, 1921.  The University of Missouri made the nationally recognized president with a Yale Ph.D. a very enticing offer to become their next president.  

In his biography of McVey (Frank LeRond McVey and the University of Kentucky: A Progressive President and the Modernization of a Southern University, University Press of Kentucky, 2011) Eric Moyen notes that, "News of the (Missouri) job offer shocked many in Kentucky, and they expressed their fears in the local papers as McVey contemplated a move to Columbia.  A deluge of telegrams and letters, along with numerous editorials and resolutions, revealed the immense respect and popularity McVey had earned...in Lexington."

The Louisville Times editorialized that, "Under his (McVey's) hand the University has broadened and strengthened, and if he stands by his task it will someday be an institution which will be of more value to the state than all of the fustian, outworn tommyrot about horses, women, manors and hospitality."  A meeting of university professors unanimously issued a letter begging McVey "not to embarrass Kentucky by leaving" and pledging their "hearty support and cooperation."

President Frank LeRond McVey

Apparently UK intended to match any salary offered by Missouri.  And fortunately for Kentucky, Mabel McVey, the president's spouse, was less that keen on relocating to Missouri.  Learning that Frank has reservations about the president's home in Missouri, Mabel wrote, "I shouldn't worry about Missouri if I were you - Certainly if they expect their president to live in a hole of a house the job is a hole of a job."

Thanks to Eric Moyen's superb biography of McVey, we know that his twenty-two years as UK's president were some of the most important years in UK's long history.  He is recognized to this day as one of UK's greatest presidents.  We should still be glad that he chose a century ago to remain in the Bluegrass. 

TO MARRY OR NOT TO MARRY? (April is National Poetry Month)

 

        To marry or not to marry became a major theme among UK women in the 1920's and 1930's. Must one choose between marriage and career? At the time most women could not have both. The issue of marriage became a subject that many women expressed their feelings about through poems.

Old Maid (1925)
Sarah Litsey

“She caught at life with far too fragile hands.
Being well versed in patience such as hers
It managed to evade her mild demands.

Pleasurable martyrdom which sometimes slurs.
Across the prickly edge of torn conceit
Guarded her vanity. Small duties done
Rounded her hours and made each day complete.

Her life went out in dribbles. One by one
She laid the passionless, pale days aside.
Then she adopted a thin, scraggly boy;
And all the neighbors wondered when she died
If he had been a duty or a joy.
Now he is tall and gay and rather brave,
and once each year sends flowers to her grave.”


Spinsterhood (1932)
Anonymous

“I am a book of one volume,
Pocket edition, and easy to carry around.
Yet I remain quietly upon my dutiful shelf.

But if you care to dip within my neat covers
You will find surprising things-
Great hopes, gay laughter, cruel disappointment,
And all the back and forth, that saws a heart in two.”


Misunderstood (1931)
Anonymous

I sit with the sick,
I comfort the dying-
Men look at me, and do not see.
They think I'm shy!
They cannot know that long ago
Out of a book a Knight came riding by.

These men about me
Are fat men, thin men;
They sweat in summer time.
They sell socks and ties,
And gasoline and groceries,
And have not words to charm my heart.

When I am dead.
They will write upon my tomb;
"She never know [sic] love"-
And will not guess
I loved myself too well to share
My own exquisiteness
With less than Lochinvar.

So I make pretense
And send abroad another self
To gossip with the world.
I sit with the sick,
I comfort the dying,
And men look at me and say:
"Pity, she never married."

        Yet, even if they chose to marry some women were unsure about the eventuality of such a union. Kathryn Myrick wrote in 1931:

Marriage
Kathryn Myrick

And then you asked, "How long will you love me?"
And in a low, choked voice I answered dutifully, "Forever,"
But even as I spoke I knew I lied.
"Forever" is too long a time for love.
Love is sharp and bright,
Love is youth and smiling eyes,
Who hums a haunting little tune
As he strolls along.
He stops only one hour
To gather fragrant blossoms to wear in his golden hair.

        Moreover, some women realized that marriage was not just about love, but about their personal freedom. Anne Luxon, a recent UK graduate, expressed her feelings in 1932:

Freedom
Anne Luxon

My husband has left me.
At last I can
Listen to the rain on the roof,
Or sit up in bed
And watch the moon.

My husband has left me.
I ought to be sad.

From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020

WHO'S WATCHING THE SPIES - WALTER MONDALE (1928-2021)

Former United States Senator and Vice President Walter "Fritz" Mondale (1928-2021) lived a life of service to his country.  An important part of that service was his participation in a review of intelligence activities by the United States.  Serving with him during than investigation was Walter Dee Huddleston, UK graduate and United States Senator from 1973 to 1985.  For several years Senator Huddleston worked with the University of Kentucky Libraries Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center to bring important programs and speakers to UK.

In September, 2006 the University hosted a panel discussion about United States spy programs entitled, "Who's Watching the Spies?"  The event was sponsored by UK Libraries Ford Center, the UK School of Journalism and the First Amendment Center.  Dr. Tracy Campbell, UK Professor of History and Co-Director of the Ford Center, chaired the panel discussion.  Participating on the panel were Vice-President Mondale, Senator Huddleston, and Fred A.O. Schwarz, former Chief Council of the U.S. Senate Church Committee which investigated United States intelligence practices in the 1970s.

The Kentucky Kernel afterwards editorialized that, "UK students got a rare opportunity to hear about U.S. history told by a group that has shaped it."

The event, held in Memorial Hall and attended by several hundred people, was also broadcast on C-SPAN which you can view here.  Church Committee Report on U.S. Spy Agencies | C-SPAN.org (c-span.org)    

MY AUTOMOBILE SET ME FREE

 

Between the First and Second World Wars, University of Kentucky women (students, alumnae, faculty, and faculty spouses, published poems in Letters, the campus literary magazine and in the Kentucky Kernel.  Many of the poems explored the contradictions in women’s lives, their views toward careers and marriage, and expressions of freedom.

Perhaps more than anything the automobile changed both the perception and the reality of women’s lives during this period.  Cars offered a degree of freedom not previously experienced by women, and they quickly realized and understood the extent of this change.  It also provided women a means of transportation without depending on men or public transportation.  Writing in Letters in the summer of 1930, Louise Good, a member of the University Scribbler's Club and Chair of Literature for the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs, aptly described this sense of freedom for women:

My Automobile

My automobile is a jailor's key

Unlocking my chains and setting me free

Setting me free on the open road

A gypsy song my only goad

With seven-league boots I'm swiftly shod

I'm armed with Mercury's winged rod

I step on the carpet of Bagdad and soar

Far, far away from my prison door.

No pirate, watching his foaming keel,

Feels freer than I, in my automobile.

From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020

April is National Poetry Month

 

REMEMBERING AL SMITH

Many poignant memories have been shared over the past week following the death of Al Smith and deservedly so.  Al meant as much or more to Kentucky as any elected official.  He was the conscience and crusader for many of the progressive changes that the commonwealth desperately needed and still needs.

I first met Al in the 1970s when one of his projects was to fund and expand oral history research in Kentucky, not just at colleges and universities but also through a network of public libraries across Kentucky.  Working with John Ed Pearce they convinced Governor Julian Carroll of the need and back then that was all that was needed to procure state funding.  They established the Kentucky Oral History Commission, the only one in the United States, and over the years the Commission has funded hundreds of oral history projects.

I always felt fortunate to spend time with Al.  We once met for breakfast at a local restaurant for reasons I do not recall.  But I do remember sitting there with Al trying to absorb the rush of ideas and topics he went through seemingly without taking a breath.  As the clock moved from morning towards noon, our server stopped by our booth and asked, “Would you like to see a lunch menu?”  Breakfast and lunch could often bookend a meeting with Al.

When Al and Rudy Abramson decided that the University of Kentucky needed an Institute for Rural Journalism, there was no turning back.  They secured $50,000 in grants to begin planning and establishing the groundwork for the institute.  They then convinced UK President Lee Todd to get behind the effort. 

Al and Rudy recruited the distinguished Appalachian scholar Ron Eller, Journalism professor Roy Moore, and me to manage the grants.  We used the seed money to hold information and listening sessions across a broad swath of Appalachia including Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, and North Carolina.  Not only did Al seek the support of scholars, activists, and civic leaders, he sought to convince them that the institute should be at the University of Kentucky.  Of course, Al and Rudy made the institute a reality, hired Al Cross. and the rest as they say is history.

Al wrote all of his adult life but before he began his two volume memoir I thought he should do a series of oral history interviews about his life and career.  It took some time to convince the seemingly ever moving Al to sit for two hour interview sessions, but he finally acquiesced.  Know far and wide for his ability to talk at length, when I told people I had begun a series of interviews with Al the inevitable refrain was, “Do you ever get to ask a question?”  I always replied, “Yes, I get to ask one question at each interview session.”  Then I would be asked, “Well, how do you choose the question to ask since you only get one per session.  I said, “Oh, it’s always the same question.  Al, can you wait until I turn on the recorder?”

I told that story innumerable times in Al’s presence and he always seemed to enjoy it as much as my audience.  Al was that way.  He was serious about issues and did not hesitate to stand atop a bully pulpit.  But he was also a humble, sincere, kind, and gentle man.  We do not get many like Al Smith and that is why we will miss him so much.  Here is hoping that others will take up his crusades in such a way that Kentucky continues to make progress and that the life and work of Al Smith will be both remembered and honored.

 

A BIG HEART AND A HELPING HAND - FRANCES JEWELL MCVEY

Frances Jewell McVey seemingly tried to look out for everyone.  For example, Clifford Amos arrived on campus from Pike County, Kentucky in the middle of the Great Depression.  A first generation college student, he had grown up in a coal camp and began college at UK with no more than a few dollars in his pocket.  Clifford found a job waiting tables and took on a paper route among various other part-time jobs.  He remembered working up to 75 hours a week as a student just to survive.

Clifford Amos

One November afternoon in 1938, while walking along Limestone Street near the campus, Clifford fainted on the sidewalk, a result of hunger and exhaustion.  Frances Jewell McVey, heard about Clifford’s misfortune and immediately sent word for Clifford to meet with her at Maxwell Place.  After some conversation, McVey offered Clifford a place to live on the second floor of the garage in back of Maxwell Place to save money.  Three other boys already lived there.  Clifford’s only payment for his room was to do a few chores each month. 

Clifford lived in that garage until he graduated.  He told me years later in an interview for the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History that “Mrs. McVey saved my life.  I was too young to fully appreciate what she had done.  I was just trying to survive.”  Clifford fondly remembered that McVey would often walk out to the garage and ask, “Clifford, have you eaten yet?”  She would then invite him into the Maxwell Place kitchen for a meal.  Clifford admitted, “There I was just a little mountain boy, who didn’t know straight up!  Mrs. McVey always asked me how school was going and if there was anything else she could do to help me.  She was a leader without personal ambition.  She was always there to help those in need and never seemed to be in a hurry.  She was as down to earth as anyone I ever knew.”

From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020

Also see oral history interview with Clifford Amos, December 5, 1991 in the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, UK Libraries (1991oh408_af459).  https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/    

A BAND OF OUR OWN

Until World War II the UK band was all-male.  But in the spring of 1927, UK band director Elmer Sulzer casually mentioned to some women students that they should one day have a band of their own.  Without further encouragement, forty-five women students met to form a brass band.  

Reporting this phenomenon in the Kentucky Kernel under the headline "Males Again Retreat," Katherine Best wrote: "Weep, men, at your loss of prestige.  No longer will ye olde brass band (male) strut down the field of honor with roses and hollyhocks strewn in its path; no longer will hats be raised to welcome 'the greatest band in Dixie.'  No!  Its rival has appeared!  And on its own campus, too.  We fear the results!"  

Best added, "The only requirements for membership are a speaking acquaintance with music, and the rather restrictive quality of being a girl!  Therefore, if your momma calls you daughter and you can read music, report to practice Tuesday, state your preference as to instruments, and automatically become a member."

From Our Rightful Place: Women at the University of Kentucky, 1880-1945 (University Press of Kentucky) 2020