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| Bessie Leach Priddy | |
|---|---|
.png) Bessie Leach Priddy in 1916 | |
| Born | January 18, 1871 Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois, USA |
| Died | May 27, 1935 (age 64) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
| Children | 3 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Belvidere High School Adrian College, State Teachers Certificate |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan, PhD |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History and Political Science |
| Institutions | German teacher at Adrian College History teacher, associate professor of social science and Dean of Women at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) Dean of Women at the University of Missouri General Federation of Women's Clubs |
Elizabeth "Bessie" Leach Priddy (January 18, 1871–May 27, 1935) was an American educator, social reformer, clubwoman and leader of the Delta Delta Delta women's fraternity.
Life
Priddy was born in 1871 in Belvidere, Illinois. She attended the Belvidere High School and won a scholarship to Adrian College. She was initiated as a member of the Gamma chapter of Delta, Delta, Delta when it was first installed at the Women’s Christian Temperance Union parlors in 1890 by charter member Lotta A.W. Stevens.
After she graduated from Adrian College in 1891, Priddy was employed as a school principal in Capron, Illinois, for two years.
She married attorney Frank E. Priddy in 1893 and they had 3 children. He died in 1909. To support her family following her husbands death, she taught German at Adrian College alongside studying towards her State Teachers Certificate.
She taught history at the Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University), Ypsilanti, Michigan, and alongside teaching she contributed articles to teaching publications, such as writing recommendations on how to teach about World War I for the History Teacher's Magazine. She was promoted to Dean of Women at Michigan State Normal College. Whilst in post, Priddy and the University president Charles McKenney took disciplinary action against female students found smoking, with 17 expelled. When one of the expelled students, Alice Tanton, sued the college, her expulsion was upheld by the Michigan State Supreme Court and Priddy was praised for "maintaining certain ideals" and "upholding some of the old-fashioned ideals of young womanhood."
Priddy became Chairwoman of the Civics Department of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and in 1918 presented the biannual meeting with a "resolution in favour of state censorship of motion pictures," which passed.
In 1921, the Michigan State Normal College senior class dedicated its yearbook to Priddy, with the inscription: "To Bessie Leach Priddy, Dean of Women and Mother to us all, this volume is lovingly dedicated." The Bessie Leach Priddy Scholarship Fund was launched in her honour in 1923, when she moved on to her next employer.
Priddy was next was appointed the Dean of Women at the University of Missouri, from 1923. Whilst in post, she expelled 11 students, including four female students, for drinking liquor.
Throughout her academic career, Priddy remained active in Delta Delta Delta. During her tenure as their National Historian, she wrote A Detailed Record of Delta Delta Delta, 1888-1907, which was the first such publication by any women's organization. In 1931, she was elected National President.
She died of heart disease in 1935 in St. Louis, Missouri.
References
- ^ "Celebrating: Bessie M. Leach Priddy". Tri Delta Digital Museum. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
- ^ Becque, Fran (March 12, 2016). "#WHM - Bessie Leach Priddy, Dedicated ΔΔΔ and Dean of Women". Fraternity History & More. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
- History Teacher's Magazine. McKinley Publishing Company. 1917. p. 358.
- ^ Segrave, Kerry (July 26, 2005). Women and Smoking in America, 1880-1950. McFarland. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-0-7864-2212-8.
- Tate, Cassandra (2000). Cigarette Wars: The Triumph of "the Little White Slaver". Oxford University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-19-514061-3.
- Fronc, Jennifer (November 15, 2017). Monitoring the Movies: The Fight over Film Censorship in Early Twentieth-Century Urban America. University of Texas Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-1-4773-1393-0.
- Smith, Laurence N.; Heaton, Paul C. (1999). Eastern Michigan University: A Sesquicentennial Portrait. Eastern Michigan University. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-912042-88-6.
- Nelson, Lawrence J. (2003). Rumors of Indiscretion: The University of Missouri "sex Questionnaire" Scandal in the Jazz Age. University of Missouri Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-8262-6290-5.
- Turk, Diana B. (June 21, 2004). Bound by a Mighty Vow: Sisterhood and Women's Fraternities, 1870-1920. NYU Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-8147-8282-8.
- Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities. G. Banta Company. 1977. p. 17.
- "Fraternity Presidents and Deans of Students: 100 Years Apart". Tri Delta. May 20, 2021. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
- The Fraternity Month. Leland Publ. Incorporated. 1935. p. 36.
- O'Shea, Michael Vincent (1935). The Nation's Schools. Vol. 16. McGraw Hill. p. 70.