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UNCG CENTENNIAL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE: Edna Carpenter Baker
INTERVIEWER: Missy Foy
DATE: March 9, 1990
[Editor’s note: an audio recording was not made when Mrs. Foy [Class of 1986] visited Mrs. Baker to conduct an oral history interview. Mrs. Foy sent questions to Mrs. Baker who responded with the following responses.]
MF: What was student life like at Woman’s College [of the University of North Carolina, now
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro]?
EB: Mother and I packed a trunk of my clothes and other possessions. The trunk was put on
the train and the trunk and I were off to Greensboro.
My friend who lived next door in Durham, [North Carolina] was one year ahead
of me at Woman’s College. Both of us lived in New Guilford Dormitory [during] my freshman year.
Miss Elizabeth Steinhardt [Class of 1929], a Woman’s College graduate, was the dormitory counselor. We were sometimes invited to her room to party and enjoy food her mother had sent. Miss Steinhardt was a perfect counselor—thoughtful, helpful, interested,
cheerful, and lovely. A year or so later she left to marry Ray Price Widmer. We still keep
in touch at Christmastime.
MF: Did you know Katherine Taylor [Class of 1928, French professor, dean of women, dean
of students, and dean of student services]? What can you tell me about her?
EB: She was the dorm counselor my last two years at Woman’s College. She, too, was a
wonderful counselor. She was efficient, pleasant, lovely, intelligent, respected, and
admired. She taught French. Miss Taylor had a suitor. We hoped she would marry him,
but she did not. She never married. She signed my yearbook.
MF: What about the [Great] Depression? How did it affect life at school?
EB: Not as many people went to college. There were fewer than 2,000 students at Woman’s College—it seemed like a big school to me. Only two 1933 Durham High School graduates entered Woman’s College in 1933, Elizabeth Anderson [Class of 1937] and I.
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Daddy was assistant postmaster in Durham. Postal employees took a ten-percent salary cut so on one would lose his job.
MF: Did you know Miss [Harriet] Elliott [history and political science professor, dean of women, public servant, and political figure]?
EB: I never knew Miss Elliott, but I heard nice things about her.
MF: What about dorm life? What was it like?
EB: One morning each week we put our laundry outside our room for the college laundry to do. In a few days it was returned; clean, starched, and pressed, to this same place.
Stealing was not a problem. There would occasionally be house checks to see if we had anything in our room that we were not allowed, such as alcohol.
After bedtime, they would check sometimes to see if we were all safely in bed. They used a flashlight to be sure a person, not a pillow, was there. There were rules for our good. It was safer then. Dormitory counselors were like substitute parents. I feel that today’s students need similar guidance.
MF: What about traditions; were there a lot of traditions?
EB: Class jackets: my class jacket was white with green letters I think. Class rings: prior to my class, each class chose its own. My class and the two following classes decided upon a ring in hopes that future classes would also like it and it would become recognizable. It was a successful undertaking; rings today are almost identical to those of the Class of 1937. May Day: It was a real pretty occasion on the lawn in front of Foust [Building]. Daisy Chain was in front of Aycock Auditorium.
I think [the] Alumnae House was completed in 1937 and was used for the first time at our graduation. I took part in the traditional Junior-Senior Wedding, also the traditional Chapel program in which students mimicked faculty members.
MF: What do you know about the apparent riff between the Alumni Association and Chancellor [William] Moran?
EB: I have read available material about it. I suppose as usual there’s my side, your side, and the right side. I don’t know Dr. Moran.
As far as I know Barbara [Parrish, Class of 1948, director of alumni affairs, and executive director of the Alumni Association] has done a wonderful job for Woman’s College and the Alumnae Association.
MF: Is there anything else you want to make sure you mention?
EB: Evening meals: students had assigned tables [and] everyone ate at the same time with a blessing before the meal. Other meals were served cafeteria-style.
Chapel: twice a week; once a year the Sedalia Singers [a black singing group] came [to campus]. 3
Outstanding professors: Dr. Helen Barton, professor of mathematics and Dr. Alfred S. Keister, professor of economics.
[End of Interview]
UNCG University Archives
