Louise S. McGehee School

The

Promise

Miss McGehee and Her School

The Past, The Present,

Promise The

When Miss Louise S. McGehee learned that Newcomb College would soon close its high school, she saw the perfect opportunity for a girls’ college preparatory school, and called upon Dr. Pierce Butler, dean of Newcomb College, and Miss Imogene Stone, English teacher at Newcomb, for guidance. Opening her school in 1912, she saw seven girls wearing short white dresses and long kid gloves carrying white peonies at the first graduation.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the school’s founding, Alice Kinabrew ’38, editor of The Spectator, wrote: “This is the most important year in the history of McGehee since its founding. . . . It is hard for us, with our school so established and secure, to realize or conceive the heart-aches and disappointments that were undergone to realize Miss McGehee’s ambition for a girls’ school. . . . And now we turn from the past to the future—and a greater school year every year!”

On the school’s fiftieth anniversary, Kathy Boylan ’63, editor of The Spectator wrote: “McGehee’s has changed a great deal and yet somehow remains the same.

Physically we have changed, intellectually we have changed, but the spirit of the school is the same that Miss Louise McGehee instilled in the class of 1913. As the thirty seven very old seniors prepare to make their final bow, twenty-five very new five-yearolds prepare to enter the first grade. Each girl, each class, will leave her small impression on the school, and on each of them McGehee’s will leave its large one. McGehee’s has grown mellow with tradition, wise with experience, and old with the grace that comes with age. And yet it remains eternally young.”

As we enter our second century, her words still ring true: “We have only to look ahead to a picture as bright as the faces of our five-year-olds, for McGehee’s is two things: on the corner of Prytania and First, a monument to the past; on the corner of Prytania and Philip, a promise to the future.”

2343 Prytania Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 504.561.1224 www.mcgeheeschool.com

The Past The Present

The Promise

The Past The Present

The Promise

The Story of Miss McGehee and Her School

Author and Editor, Sarah Caskey Smith Editorial Director, Rob Levin Managing Editor, Renée Peyton Publisher, Barry Levin Designer, Laurie Shock Copyediting and Indexing, Bob Land Copyright © 2011 by Louise S. McGehee School Printed in the United States ISBN: 978-1-4507-9656-9 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Louise S. McGehee School.

®

Book Development by Bookhouse Group, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia www.bookhouse.net

Opposite: Remy Rendeiro ‘14 and Tina Nguyen ‘14 carry the daisy chain their freshman year.

Contents Foreword by Eileen Powers, Headmistress Introduction by Betsy Shaw Nalty ‘60

Chapter 1 — Our Founder, Her Mission, and Her Times . . . . . . . . . 2 Chapter 2 — Academics: Bringing Out the Best . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Chapter 3 — Arts at McGehee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Chapter 4 — Honor: Living the Code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Chapter 5 — Service: It Comes Naturally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Chapter 6 — Tradition of Excellence, Fun, and Festivities. . . . . . . . 86 Chapter 7 — Athletics: Red and Grey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Chapter 8 — Board Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Afterword by Charlotte Barkerding Travieso ‘60 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Frigate bookplate.

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Foreword What I continue to discover about McGehee’s even after fourteen years as headmistress is what sets McGehee’s apart is its culture.

Miss McGehee founded the school with a purpose in mind in regard to the place of women in our society at this time. Many girls’ schools were founded in the period from the 1880s to the 1920s, but McGehee’s was one of the few girls’ schools that answered the need of Newcomb College and the like, an all-girls’ school that was more than a finishing school, a school that offered academic rigor commensurate with the education offered to young men. McGehee’s is also one of the few independent, nonsectarian girls’ schools in this country to remain in operation and true to its original mission.

The McGehee culture goes beyond the culture of academic rigor to engage the ethical life of its students as well, through the Honor Code and the school motto, Noblesse Oblige. The Honor Code, established in 1921 and one of the first in the city, touches every aspect of the McGehee experience. Students are introduced to the concept early on and are committed to uphold the Honor Code, as well as to hold their peers accountable. McGehee’s motto, Noblesse Oblige, means to give back to the community. Community service begins in lower school, expands to service learning in middle school, and by upper school the students’ commitment to service is reflected in their daily lives. There is a higher purpose to what we do here. Today, when we see all around us examples of unethical behavior and moral confusion, McGehee’s constantly pulls its students back to its mission and requires ethical behavior of its students. So in addition to giving students an extraordinary college preparatory education, McGehee’s gives girls roots both in an ethical system and a community.

Coming out of the Progressive tradition, which was a significant force in education at the time, two things emerged that counterbalance each other. First was the individual approach to education. Second was Miss McGehee’s intent to found a school for girls that was very academically rooted. You can see the things we do so well as coming out of that balance.

Tracing the history of girls’ schools, attendance grew steadily until the 1970s when the most elite male institutions became coeducational and attracted girls their way. Even the strongest girls’ schools began to suffer. It wasn’t until the 1991 AAUW report titled “How Schools Shortchange Girls” that recognition was given to the research supporting the growing belief that the coed classroom was “a chilly climate for women.” In addition to the AAUW report, Wellesley College established the Wellesley Center for the Study of Women in the early 1990s to study the ways women learned in the classroom, Carol Gilligan of Harvard studied the way young girls make moral decisions, and JoAnn Deak studied the ways girls learn. Deak also studied contemporary brain research that showed the differences in the male and female brains and the different ways they developed. These and many other studies such as ones conducted by the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) pointed to the fact that there was indeed a very important place for girls’ schools even at the end of the twentieth century.

McGehee’s alumnae base and board of trustees are to be commended for never losing sight of the mission of the school despite the hardships the school endured in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and again in 2005. They kept the school true to its mission as an all-girls’ school, as well as its commitment to diversity and remaining on the cutting edge of technology. McGehee’s is an independent, all-girls’ school, preserving the spirit of free inquiry.

— Eileen Friel Powers Headmistress Opposite: Lower School girls explore geodes in science class.

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Introduction You will hear many voices throughout this publication celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Louise S. McGehee School. You will hear the voice of Miss McGehee, along with students from every decade, both those who sat in her classroom and those who entered after her death in 1934. Whether they knew her personally or not, all of our writers have something in common that rings true to all, and that is their love of the legacy Miss McGehee left behind: our mission, our traditions, our service to the community, our lifelong love of learning, our inclusiveness, all that is our school.

This sense of community and inclusiveness drew me to this project and to take on the role of chair of the Centennial Steering Committee. I entered McGehee in the ninth grade, which made an indelible impression on my life. One of my strongest memories from my school days was the charge to transmit the school to the next generation better than it was transmitted to me. Archaic words perhaps, but I have taken that lesson and applied it to many, many aspects of my life. Whether you call it Noblesse Oblige or service learning, it has been a driving force of giving back to the community that has given so much to you. Coupled with our mission of individual success, our motto and our mission gave the school the vitality to survive two world wars, the Depression, several downturns in the economy, the periodic unpopularity of girls’ schools, and most recently Hurricane Katrina.

We have not only survived, we are thriving! We saw a record opening-day enrollment for our centennial year 2011–2012, in addition to the 175 children in our Little Gate program.

We are fully committed and prepared to carry out Miss McGehee’s mission of individual attention to each and every girl to help her reach her full potential.

With the input of alums, faculty, and students, we chose to arrange this book thematically to reflect the culture and mission of the school. You will hear many voices in our centennial publication because we are many voices singing in unison. We are a diverse community inclusive of all ages, generations, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, races, ethnicities, and interests. We believe our inclusiveness creates a very rich, vibrant community whose focus is on fulfilling our mission of fostering self-esteem and encouraging high personal standards, active student participation in learning, and addressing individual student needs. On this wave we sail into our second century.

—Betsy Shaw Nalty ‘60 Betsy Shaw Nalty ’60 was the first woman to chair the Louise S. McGehee School Board of Trustees. She is the mother of Elizabeth Nalty Smither ’88 (who is the mother of Madison ’17 and Emily ’20). Nalty is also the mother of Helen Nalty Butcher ’88 (who is the mother of Laura ’19), and the grandmother of Layne ’15, the late Abby ’17, and Morgan ’20 Nalty.

Opposite: McGehee’s open gates have welcomed generations.

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Left: Grace Ortkiese ‘10 volunteers for Habitat for Humanity. Below: The Upper School presents A Chorus Line, 2006.

Above: Louise the Hawk helps Jane Pharr Gage ‘28 celebrate her one hundredth birthday in 2009. Right: Eleanor Olson ‘08 enjoys a senior privilege, sitting on Bradish Johnson steps.

“I don’t think it is the place of a school to turn out diplomas and certifications. I believe that pupils should get training in how to live. Teach so that a real interest is aroused. Don’t teach the memorizing of facts.”

— Louise Schaumburg McGehee

Chapter One

Our Founder, Her Mission, Her Times

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iss Louise Schaumburg McGehee was ahead of her time both in terms of her vision M as a woman and as an educator. Opening a college preparatory school for girls in 1912 she defied the conventional wisdom of her day that women could not handle the rigors of an education equal to their male counterparts. The few schools devoted to the education of young women were considered finishing schools, preparing women not for college but for the end of their education and the demands of etiquette, society, and domestic life. Miss McGehee’s approach, for an educator, was thoroughly modern.

Born in New Orleans on March 30, 1872, she was the daughter of Scott McGehee, a member of a prominent Mississippi family, and the former Miss Louise Schaumburg of St. Louis, Missouri. She was a student of Mrs. Seaman’s school on Coliseum Street and later attended Columbia University. Returning to New Orleans to study at Tulane University in 1909, she had earned fourteen semester hours credit from Columbia. She attended summer sessions at Tulane from 1909 to 1916 and then entered the Division for Teachers from 1916 to 1919. Miss McGehee completed her course of study at Tulane in the summer of 1920 and received her B.S. in education.

Opposite: Louise S. McGehee, age six, grew up to become a leader in education.

Miss McGehee also studied at Oxford and Cambridge universities. She began her teaching career by giving private lessons and teaching at the school of Miss Frances Blake located at Prytania and Philip streets. She was a member of the Progressive Education Association and the National Council of English Teachers, and a life member of the Orleans Club.

Miss McGehee died January 30, 1934, and was survived by a sister, Miss Ethel McGehee, and a brother, Major Schaumburg McGehee of Shreveport. In her January 31, 1934, obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, she was recognized as “a pioneer in education . . . the first in the city to inaugurate the progressive system of education in her classes.”

Higher education had been available to men in the United States since the 1600s, but higher education was not offered to women until 1836 when Mount Holyoke Seminary for Girls opened in Massachusetts and later became Mount Holyoke College in 1893. In 1861 Vassar in New York was the first of the seven sister colleges, followed by Wellesley in 1870 and Smith in 1871 in Massachusetts. The traditional all-male colleges began to establish auxiliary colleges for women. Columbia opened Barnard in 1887, and Harvard, Brown, and Tulane followed suit. As a result of the emergence of women’s colleges, the need to establish preparatory schools to adequately prepare young women for the rigors of college work also grew.

In New Orleans, Miss McGehee had been teaching for several years at Miss Blake’s School, one of the better-known finishing schools in the city. At about the time Miss Blake retired, Newcomb College had also decided to close its preparatory high school. Miss McGehee saw a prime opportunity to open a college preparatory school for girls. Encouraged by Dr. Pierce Butler of Newcomb College, Miss McGehee opened her school in the firm belief that it was the right and obligation of women to take their place in the world of educated people. She insisted on a strong curriculum with an equally strong faculty. She wanted women to receive an education equal to that offered to men and superior to that offered to most women.

The Katherine Pharr Gage ’55 Archives of the Louise S. McGehee School reveal the intricacies of school life—from its first campus at 1520Louisiana Avenue in 1912 to its relocations to 1439

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Opposite: Miss McGehee’s diploma from Tulane University. Above: In 1914 Miss McGehee moved her school to 1439 Louisiana Avenue, a two-story home that was adapted for the school.

Louisiana Avenue in 1914 and then to its current location at 2343 Prytania in 1929. However, a thorough search of the school’s extensive archives reveals few words in the founder’s own voice. Surviving are a couple of thank-you notes and letters, including an amusing letter rebuking a young man who had been hanging around campus all too often.

She was a woman of few words when it came to talking about herself, but it is safe to presume that the early publications about the school and its “Aim” as labeled in those documents were in fact Miss McGehee’s words and very much her voice. In a pamphlet published for the 1916–1917

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I

Inclusiveness: Part of Our Culture

Bonita Robertson ’02 came to McGehee as a freshman. As a testament to what an integral part of the class she was in those four short years, her classmates voted her both Mary for Nativity and May Queen, two of the most highly regarded roles of honor and leadership at McGehee. Bonita’s peers embraced and respected her.

With a catch in her voice, she recalled, “How honored I am still. That my classmates thought of me in that

way, that they held me in such high regard, I am still honored today. I always tried to be nice to everyone and do the right thing. Being on student council helped me to get to know people outside my class as well as the faculty. Being May Queen was the best day of my life until I passed the bar and found a job in the same day. It was exhilarating and such an honor. It is humbling to have your class think of you like that,” she said.

This inclusivity, coupled with diversity, are two vital aspects of the McGehee culture that remain important

to Bonita.

One of the first things that comes to my mind about McGehee—and I have to say this out loud—one of the most important things I learned from McGehee is the sense of sisterhood. Being an only child, that was especially important to me. When my classmates and I see each other now, it’s as if no time has passed. I have a close friend from law school and she said she would never go back to her high school, says it was the worst time in her life. She doesn’t understand when we still talk about high school. We’d go back tomorrow! How could you not love high school? The people, the small community, the sense of camaraderie. After first semester freshman year I knew this was the right place for me, where I wanted to be.

Diversity at McGehee is especially meaningful to me. I was the only African American in

my class, but that didn’t take away from my experience at all. I never felt different, I was never made to feel different in any issues.

Coming from a more diverse school community, Bonita said, “I came to McGehee as a freshman from Lusher.

My mom always wanted me to go to McGehee.” Even though she started in ninth grade at a school that many of her classmates entered as four-year-olds in prekindergarten, she never felt like the new girl. “A couple other girls came in that year, and all our classmates welcomed us like we were part of the fourteen-year club. I felt like this is where I should be. I remember the day when I first came to visit McGehee, and my buddy for that day became my best friend.

She’s still my best friend now. Everyone was so nice when I visited and encouraged me to come to McGehee.”

Today, a busy lawyer, she stays in touch with her classmates and her alma mater, and appreciates the contin-

ued focus on diversity that she sees. “In The Gate you see people of all different races and religions. McGehee is more diverse than when I was there and getting more diverse all the time. Diversity is a good thing.

“Diversity versus inclusivity?” she contemplated. “They are different things. Diversity means different races,

religions, etc. Inclusivity is where people are included. At McGehee, no one is excluded. McGehee is both diverse and inclusive.”

— Bonita Robertson ’02

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school year, Miss McGehee traces some of the school’s history and exposes her very keen vision for her school, its students, faculty, and even parents in the following announcement: Miss Louise Schaumburg McGehee begs to announce that she will re-open her School for Girls in the Preparatory and High School Grades at 1439 Louisiana Avenue. . . .

As no successful work can be accomplished without the co-operation of parents and teachers, Miss McGehee begs that parents will unite with her in maintaining punctuality, regularity of attendance and systematic, uninterrupted home study.

The Principal also urges that engagements for dentistry, dress-making or theatres shall not interfere with school routine; and that parents will scrutinize carefully the monthly reports of their children and discuss with her the progress of their daughters.

The few words that survive in her voice are powerful. In a 1931 New Orleans newspaper interview, Miss McGehee reveals her strong, clear, and forward-thinking vision that led to the school’s founding. In this article she notes the many influences on the formation of her ideas, as well as the forces motivating her in the unique direction she took. “I don’t think it is the place of a school to turn out diplomas and certifications. I believe that pupils should get training in how to live,” she said. “Teach so that a real interest is aroused. Don’t teach the memorizing of facts.”

Perhaps the most powerful of all her surviving words—and the words that seem to lay the foundation for the mission on which she founded her school, the mission that is very much in place today—are as follows: “One of the big failures of education is to brand a child a ‘failure.’ None should fail. If a girl is not interested in what she is studying, find some way to present the subject to her so that she will become interested. And give her other subjects to which she is drawn naturally.”

Noting her own studies at Columbia, Oxford, and Cambridge, as well as influences from travels to Spain, France, and Germany, Miss McGehee compared the thoroughness of the European educational system to the American practices of her day. “We study Latin four years in America, get four points of credit and then kiss Latin goodbye,” she said. “I’m only saying this as an explanation of what I mean by the fact that we haven’t been building a foundation on which to grow. We teach a little and then consider that finished, and forget all about it.”

Elaborating, she continued, “I don’t think we ought to try so much to teach English literature as to try to teach an interest in English literature. If that sounds like arguing on the other side of the fence, don’t forget that you can’t arouse an interest in any subject until you’ve gone rather deep into it.”

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Left: A 1916 school guide and calendar. Above: In the 1930s, the school library was located in the Bradish Johnson House as it is today.

In this article she also reveals why we know so little about her personally: “I have spent all my life with school work until there isn’t much to tell about me, personally.” When told by the newspaper reporter that she is often referred to as “an influence in New Orleans,” Miss McGehee replied, “I’m brand new in my own eyes as an ‘influence.’” The reporter also noted that Miss McGehee made this reply “with huge amusement.” Our founder appears to have had a keen sense of modesty as well as a good sense of humor.

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Above: Photo of students from 1913.

Right: A sketch of first campus at 1520 Louisiana Avenue.

Several photographs of Miss McGehee survive as well as a well-known portrait, which hangs in the headmistress’s office. Many other “portraits” of Miss McGehee were painted in the words of her students. Her pupils remember her vividly, and their memories are of an elegant woman from whom a look conveyed much meaning.

“In her appearance Miss McGehee was a handsome woman, tall and slim. Her clothes, like Queen Mary’s, always suited her, and she had elegance,” wrote Lucile Scott Monsted ’26. “She could not abide ‘high-style,’ and when any of her girls overdressed for school, she directed some cutting remarks in the erring one’s direction.”

Lucile continued, “There was nothing dull about Louise S. McGehee, 1913.

Miss McGehee’s classes. She entertained her students as she taught them. An inspired teacher, she used her compelling personality and beautiful speaking voice to give her pupils a knowledge and love of English which is for many an enriching memory and a continuing influence.”

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Excerpts from “Was Our Founder a Feminist?”

The feminist atmosphere of the 1920s must have settled to some extent upon 1439 Louisiana Avenue, particularly, if Miss McGehee was interested in the position of women in society. We know that current affairs were a particular concern of Miss McGehee. A 1917 Spectator article titled “Woman Suffrage” in which the writer declares, “Woman Suffrage is now a formidable question, despite all opposition and derision, for it has been recognized as a movement which cannot be thrown aside, and women realize that it is impossible to bring about the much-needed reforms they desire without the vote.” Surely we can conclude that “Woman’s place” must have been the topic of discussion under Miss McGehee’s direction on plenty of occasions.

From the Spectators, I learned that Miss McGehee encouraged community service. She

set an example of imaginative community service. Not content just to serve through existing institutions, she founded a workshop during the Great Depression called Warrington House to train people in ironwork skills. She must have had a sincere and well-informed perception of community need, and her example reminds us that routine service without forethought may be a disservice because it may not be addressing itself to the changing needs of the community.

Before we can conclude whether Miss McGehee was a feminist, we have to know

whether she was willing to face and to inform her students of controversial subjects.

Elise McGehee, Louise’s niece, told me that some of the speakers she remembers were

Norman Thomas, the famous socialist leader; Max Eastman, who Elise McGehee described as a “far-out liberal poet and essayist”; and Langston Hughes, a black poet. Remember that the school was located in what was then conservative New Orleans and controversial speakers such as those men must have raised quite a few eyebrows. Miss McGehee, however, had the courage, and must have felt it was important enough to risk having her school branded as a far-out liberal place in order to expose her students to all points of view—even unpopular ones.

Finally, consider what evidence the founding of the school itself is. She believed that

the way to a woman’s happiness and fulfillment lay not in the lady like virtues taught in finishing

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She believed that the way to a woman’s happiness received by men. So determined was she that her school be recognized as offering this sort of education that she spent and fulfillment lay not every summer of the early years of the school earning her in the lady like virtues degree from Tulane so that her lack of a degree would be no taught in finishing schools barrier to the school’s accreditation. An early faculty membut in the tough, formal ber told me that Miss McGehee always encouraged indepeneducation identical to dence and suggested that, when possible, students go away to college, though there was a fine college here for those who that received by men. schools but in the tough, formal education identical to that

wished to stay. And what about the student government and the honor system Miss McGehee installed in her school? Would she have taught us to govern ourselves, to make and enforce our own rules and to assume responsibility for the smooth running of the school if she intended that upon graduation we should become submissive members of society, letting others tell us what we should and should not do? This school was founded to give women the same opportunities in life as men through giving them the same educational foundation as men. Whether Miss McGehee’s students seized the opportunities or rejected them was out of Miss McGehee’s control, but there is little doubt in my mind that it is those who seized who would have received Miss McGehee’s blessings.

I am certain that she believed in equal opportunity for women. Would she have educat-

ed her students rigorously as she did only to have them frustrated at the end of their education by discrimination against them? And although she would never have discouraged her students from pursuing traditional relationships with men, she taught her students that they were not confined to those relationships. That is what I call a feminist.

— Cynthia Samuel ’65 This essay was first presented at a Founder’s Day assembly.

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Jane Pharr Gage ’28 recalled her school days at 1439 Louisiana Avenue: “Perhaps my clearest memory is that of Miss Louise McGehee, that regal figure, presiding at graduation in her black lace evening gown and long dangling earrings, opening and closing her beautiful old lace fan and charming her audience of students, parents, and guests with her perfect diction, interesting subject matter, and grace of manner.”

For a 1982 feature printed in the Dixie rotogravure section of the Times-Picayune, former students had tales to tell. “She was exquisite,” said Tippy Pool Wilson ’23. “She had the most glorious eyes I have ever seen. And she had a sarcasm that would knock you cold. She wore a lorgnette on a long silver chain and she would pick that thing up and look at you and I’m telling you, you would wither. . . .”

Or consider the story told by Fannie Evenchick ’25, after eloping just following a Christmas break: “I went to see Miss McGehee at her home and said, ‘Miss McGehee, please let me come back and finish. I do so want a diploma.’ And she said—I can see her now—she said, ‘You should have thought of that before you went off and married Louie.’ And I said, ‘Miss McGehee, I was thinking of something else then.’ With that she burst out laughing and let me come back.”

In her Founder’s Day address in 1950 Lalise Moore O’Brien ’30 recalled an event that painted an in-depth portrait of Miss McGehee and her relationship with her students.

One of my most vivid recollections of the old school is of the day the Junior Class, of which I was a member, decided to go to English with makeup on. . . . A few of the class had lipsticks which were passed around, and those of us who felt particularly devilish smeared it on with more generosity than skill. I believe that we were almost 100 percent devilish that day. Well, we went into class looking braver than we felt. I assure you, I don’t know how Miss McGehee managed to control herself. She must have been very amused although I know that she also must have been very disappointed and hurt. We really expected to be put thoroughly in our places but never in the manner which she so wisely chose. She conducted the entire lesson without a single mention of or apparent attention to our horrendous appearance. We recited and read our themes with lipstick smeared and caked on our mouths and in an atmosphere of utter scorn. Somehow, without saying a word about it, Miss McGehee showed us how impertinent and how unworthy our behavior had been. We left that room feeling ashamed and penitent, not because we had worn lipstick, not just because we had done something of which we knew Miss McGehee did not approve, but because we had deliberately flaunted our disregard for her wishes and had proven ourselves unworthy of her respect. How she managed to teach us all this without saying a word I do not know.

Opposite: This portrait of Miss McGehee hangs in the office of the headmistress.

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Getting Wet My first year at McGehee’s certainly set the scene for all the others I spent here. I started out here as a kindergartener, doomed never to join the great ranks like my sister, already an elite member of the fourteen-year club. Likewise, I was never the good rule-following girl my sister was: I was always getting in trouble. I remember with particular clarity one of the coldest days of my kindergarten year. At recess I didn’t feel like joining my more coordinated peers in the never-ending game of kickball or four-square. I just sat on the stoop outside of the classroom that led (and still leads) out onto the playground. As I daydreamed, watching my breath make smoke, I realized my luck.

Mr. Bill, the handiest of all handymen, had left the garden hose attached to the faucet and within arm’s distance of my seat. I called my best friend, Donnis, a sweet girl much like my sister, who was probably playing an innocent game of house, over to share my discovery. I then proceeded to convince her we needed to turn the hose on; destiny gave us this opportunity; there was no way we were going to get in trouble. While she kept watch, I turned the hose on high . . . and was busted by my kindergarten teacher, Ms. Gough, before anyone but myself could get soaked with winter hose water.

Let’s just say Ms. Gough was not quite as forgiving as Ms. Bendana. She hauled me off

to timeout sopping wet. Still, I quickly forgot my sins because I had stored an array of rocks in my soaking Topsider shoes to keep me entertained.

This one experience in some ways expresses the theme of my entire McGehee experi-

ence. No, not getting in trouble—or getting my friends in trouble—though there may have been a little of that along the way. From that first year, and every year afterward, as my uniform shoes changed from Topsiders to bucks to Doc Martens, McGehee challenged me to get my feet wet in some form or another.

The community at McGehee was and is unlike any I know. It allowed its girls to explore

new ideas, new genres, and, in so doing, themselves.

It is no coincidence this school’s symbol is the frigate, found inside the class ring. Mc-

Gehee teaches each and every one of us how to navigate the waters beyond these walls. While I may get a little wet, and not always have the smartest or well-thought-out plan, much like my new uniform of deathtrap heels, I am never bored, I am never ordinary, and I am certainly not afraid of getting a little wet.

— Whitfield Colbert Caughman ’00

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Lucinda Walmsley from the first graduating class of 1913 with founder Louise McGehee; Patsy Brown, first daughter of an alum; Kathaleen Eshleman, president of the senior class 1932; and Alma Hammond ‘13.

Perhaps I am giving you the impression that Miss McGehee was a very superior person who sat on a kind of mental throne and watched us with an eagle eye. She really was a most human person; that, I believe, was her greatest quality. Her standards were the highest, yet she believed thoroughly in our ability to attain them, and she was ready to help us. We felt that she understood us, that she tried to see the best in all of us. And we knew that she loved us, all of us.

When our graduation time came, Miss McGehee spoke to us very seriously about how she felt toward us, and she reminded us that if ever we needed help or advice of any kind we could feel free to come to her, and she would be ready to assist us in any way she could. And we knew that she meant that, for she never said a thing unless she meant it.

A woman of few, carefully chosen words, a woman of vision, a woman who led by example, Louise Schaumburg McGehee left behind a legacy that has endured for one hundred years and now enters its second century. The vision and mission of Miss McGehee are as relevant today as they were in 1912. The need for trained intelligence and for independence of mind are seen as a priority today as much as they were in 1912 and as much as they will be in 2112. The school exists to show girls and young women what the possibilities are and what they have a right to expect from themselves.

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Chapter Two

Academics: Bringing out the Best Announcement

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Miss Louise S. McGehee begs to announce that she will open a School for Girls in the Preparatory and High School Grades. The School also offers a year of Advanced Work after graduation.

The grounds will be large, a tennis court will be provided, physical culture will be given out of doors, and whenever it is possible classes will be held in the open air. Up to the beginning of the session Miss McGehee may be seen or communicated with at 5524 Garfield Street. Telephone. 2458 W. Uptown.

The Aim The School is designed, first of all, to give a thorough and systematic education—that is, to give each girl, no matter at what age she enters, regular and carefully-planned work through the years of her school life. It is also designed for girls who wish to prepare for college, and for those who desire a year of Advanced Work instead of college.

The course in College Preparation is governed by the requirements of Newcomb College, or other colleges of similar rank.

All pupils are not required to take the same course, but, as far as possible, each one is considered individually, and the studies arranged with reference to the particular need of each. No formal written examinations are held for entrance, but, if doubt exists as to classification of a pupil, she is graded by means of a written examination.

The one requirement for all work is that it shall be thoroughly, thoughtfully and faithfully done to the best of the student’s ability. It is intended that instruction in all branches shall be in accordance with the best modern methods in sympathy with col-

Left: Notice of founding of school. Above: Early photo of faculty members from the collection of Mrs. Richard Ford, 1919. Right: Student Body Constitution from 1936.

lege standards, and shall lead to accurate scholarship acquired by habits of strict mental discipline.

The discipline is mild but firm, and every effort is made to have the girls realize the value of self-discipline. The School aims to be a center of interest and pleasure in the lives of its pupils, and participation in its pleasant activities will be made the reward of good scholarship and good behavior.

In the following pages a general idea of the courses is given. A list of texts will be furnished upon application.

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These words come from documents originally published in 1912 to promote a new school inNew Orleans, the Louise S. McGehee School for Girls in the preparatory and high school grades. These publications were lovingly saved in the senior scrapbook of Helen Lowe Hiller, a member of the Class of 1913, Miss McGehee’s first graduating class. From its inception, the Louise S. McGehee School for Girls was designed to be an academically rigorous college-preparatory school with an enduring mission to address the needs of the individual

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Seniors in math class, 1954–1955.

student. In a later school publication, Miss McGehee wrote, “The School is organized, first of all, to be a cooperative group of children, teachers and parents working to provide a school situation that will bring out the best possibilities of the individual. . . . In the School there is no mass education.” These early documents also spell out clearly the mission of the school, the mission that has so influenced the way we teach.

Modeled to meet the requirements established by Newcomb College and colleges of that caliber, McGehee’s offered classes in English, history, art history, mythology, science, current topics and civics, mathematics, Latin, Greek, French, and German, as well as physical culture, drawing, and music. Sewing and Greek dancing were offered as electives. From the beginning, Miss McGehee sought parental support for her progressive idea to prepare women for college, urging parents to “scrutinize” their daughter’s educational progress reports and “discuss them with the teachers if warranted.”

Most importantly, Miss McGehee stressed that appointments with the dentist or dressmaker were not to interfere with classes. McGehee’s was not a finishing school.

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I

Independent Inquiry I knew right away what I wanted to do my senior year: I wanted to argue. I wanted to have time in which I was just allowed to argue with people about the issues that were most important to me and to our country. I needed to debate the hottest constitutional questions of the day—the juvenile death penalty, gay marriage, abortion, civil liberties. I turned to Senior Mentorship, a program in which students are given the opportunity to create a course on a subject they’re passionate about and graduate with distinction in that discipline. The Mentorship program as a whole is designed to satisfy the appetite of the intellectually curious mind. So I created a Constitutional Law Mentorship in which I, along with two classmates and two teachers, would study and argue Supreme Court cases.

I knew that the idea of getting to argue about the Bill of Rights could get my heart pumping,

so I decided to stay basically within the boundaries of these ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

I created Supreme Court case briefs and was able to argue my side of the constitutional questions I’m passionate about. I researched the court, the justices, and past and current cases. I loved being able to immerse myself in information about the branch of government I most admire, but I had no idea that I would become such a Supreme Court junkie. In preparation for judging arguments in the role of Sandra Day O’Connor, I stayed up all hours of the night to watch the A&E biography about her.

That O’Connor briefly dated Chief Justice Rehnquist in law school started to feel like what should be common knowledge to me, while those around me (who, poor things, were constantly subjected to my endless information on the court) were rather creeped out by the bit of trivia itself, not to mention the fact that I knew it.

But beyond the almost obsessive search for trivia and the actual class itself, my Mentorship

drew me toward thinking about our government and the importance of tolerance within it in different ways. Tolerance of people’s beliefs is very important to me, and the connection between tolerance and people’s natural rights is why I’m so interested in the Bill of Rights. A writer once summed up Voltaire’s stance on free speech: “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” This is the basis for what is one of the most important, if not the most important, rights we have as Americans: freedom of speech. Tolerance of other people’s thoughts, speech, and actions, especially if they are different or even contradictory to your own, is important to our country because it’s also the only way for a community to evolve; without diversity of thought, progress would be impossible. When people openly discuss different thoughts about an issue, they come away with more solutions to problems than they had to start with because they were able to bring the best parts of different ideas together. The only way for a country to improve as a whole is through the inclusion of many different ideas from all of its citizens, and this is exactly what the Bill of Rights protects. In studying cases having to do with the rights that many Americans value most, I’ve learned that this is why these rights are also the most valuable to our government.

— Rebecca Anne “Becky” Elliott ’05

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According to her obituary, Miss McGehee was a student at Mrs. Seaman’s school in Coliseum street, later attending Columbia university and then returning to New Orleans where she received a degree of bachelor of arts at Tulane university. She also studied at Oxford and Cambridge universities, England, and other famous universities and observed extensively at model schools such as Syracuse. . . . In addition to her studies at Tulane, Columbia and in England, Miss McGehee each summer would study at other schools. These included the Teacher’s college at Pennsylvania and institutions at Rochester, Minnesota, and Woods Hole, Massachusetts. (Tribune, January 31, 1934)

There were many influences on the development of Miss McGehee’s educational philosophy.

One in particular was the Progressive movement and the Progressive Education Association, of which she was a member. The Progressive movement came into prominence during the first half of the twentieth century. Founded by American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer John Dewey, the Progressive movement was highly influential in educational and social reform. Dewey espoused the philosophy that education and learning are social and interactive processes, that the school itself is a social institution through which social reform can take place. Dewey was on the faculty at Columbia University from 1904 to 1930, including the year Miss McGehee attended Columbia.

Specifics as to the academic demands of the day were outlined in a school handbook from the 1916–1917 school year. The following are some of the explanations given regarding some of “The Studies” offered at Miss McGehee’s School: ENGLISH—Special prominence is given to the Department of English, as it is believed that, whatever else may be omitted, the study of English is of the first importance in a child’s education. In the lower classes the work is largely drill in punctuation, sentencebuilding and simple construction work. In every grade Spelling and Definitions are given special attention. The Memorizing of Poems is also insisted upon, not only for the value of this work as mental training, but to give the pupils a lasting knowledge of, and love for, the beauties of their own and other literature.

In the upper classes original and imitative work is done in the various rhetorical forms. One theme a week is prepared out of class, and frequent impromptu themes are required.

LITERATURE—The first aim is to inspire a genuine love for books; and afterwards, by comparison and discussion, to cultivate the imaginative sympathy and the critical faculty.

Opposite: Mathilde Villere Young '53 (center) and classmaes listen to Miss Lydia Schuler.

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HISTORY—Is taught with the aim of giving not merely historical data, but a breadth of view and an understanding of the continuity of all history.

MYTHOLOGY—No study is more necessary for a true appreciation of the beauties of literature.

A CLASS IN CURRENT TOPICS AND CIVICS will meet weekly, the aim of this class being to widen the horizon and awaken an interest in the literary and political movements of our own and foreign countries.

GREEK as required by college entrance.

Requirements for graduation in the early days of the school were as follows: four years of mathematics, completing plane and solid geometry; four years of French or Latin; two years of French or German; four years of history and civics; three years of science; four years of English; and four years of English and American Literature. Today’s graduation requirements are quite similar with the exception of the language and English literature requirements. A McGehee diploma is awarded to students who complete twenty-four units as follows: four units of English; two units of fine arts, three units of foreign language, four units of history, four units of mathematics, four units of science, and two units of physical education. Upperclassmen may pursue up to three electives per year; however, only one elective credit is required.

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Changes I entered McGehee’s at the seventh-grade level in the fall of 1978. Miss Maria Fernandez was headmistress. During my six years as a student there were many changes. The middle and upper school libraries were consolidated and moved to the original carriage house, which was later a gym and then an art room. Beautiful, light, and airy art facilities were built above the renovated auditorium, and the lower school was enlarged several years after the prekindergarten was added. Miss Janet Hensley became headmistress when I was a junior. Parts of the main building were repaired and redecorated, and Senior Study was moved back to the basement near the First Street entrance, the same location as when my aunt was a student. From 1978 to 1984 there were also changes in the curriculum and the faculty. The school entered the computer age, graduation requirements were expanded, and the number of academic periods increased. These changes were necessary to keep pace with the times, but the intangibles, those things that we cannot define or determine with certainty, remain the same, making McGehee a very special school for three generations of my family.

— Hillary Gage ’84

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Darian Harris ‘12 in chemistry class.

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Extracurricular activities reflected the school’s emphasis on language skills, literature, and the written word. As early as 1916 the students produced a literary journal called the Spectatress, which was published four times a year as a single-folded sheet. Each upper school class supervised and financed one issue each year. In 1920 the name was changed to the Spectator, and in 1960 the first hardcover edition was printed. The Spectator is still published today, but in 1972 it evolved into the school yearbook, and Melange debuted as the school literary magazine. Both are now published once a year.

The intellectually competitive side of extracurricular activities was duly noted in School News, a section of the Spectator, printed in 1922. It included a prominent promotion for scholastic debate.

“Who has not heard the word Philippines on every lip for the last three weeks?” the article boldly begins, challenging every reader. Results were given for a debate between the juniors and seniors on the topic of current national interest regarding the United States retaining permanent possession of the Philippine Islands. The debating team challenged Miss Lottie Miller’s School’s team to a challenge: “Resolved—The Philippines should retain permanent possession of the Philippine Islands.” McGehee took the affirmative side in the competition, and school support was strongly urged: “The event is of immense interest to the school as a whole and every pupil should feel it as a personal responsibility that we win,” the School News urged. Today, mock trial takes the place of a debate team.

Decades later, Patrice Hightower ’08 acknowledged how extracurricular activities benefitted her academic success. Recognized by the local media as an A+ athlete, Hightower said academics always came first in her life, but sports helped her achieve success on the court and in the classroom. “Athletics Above left: The Spectatress debuted in 1916. Right: Caricature of Miss McGehee, 1931.

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Citizenship girls from the Class of 1932.

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built in me the idea of hard work. If I wanted to do sports, I had to do my studies first,” said Hightower. “Athletics gave me organization and a schedule. And being at McGehee from PK through twelfth grade, I learned a driving work ethic.”

The success of the McGehee education was evident from the early days by its college placements, and in the early 1920s a slogan was coined: “McGehee girls shine everywhere they go.” As reported in the 1935 school handbook, “Early in the 1920s the school became a member of the Southern Association of Southern Schools and Colleges. Our graduates became student body presidents, members of Phi Beta Kappa. . . . We

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had scholarships offered to us to Radcliffe, Vassar, Sweetbriar. Our students are well known for their preparation for colleges. The Southern Association Report last year showed that of all the non-sectarian schools in the city we had the smallest per cent of college failures—7 per cent.” By the 1950s McGehee reported over 90 percent of its graduates attending college, and soon after classes were routinely reporting 100 percent college enrollment.

The early use of field trips as a tool for meaningful study was highly touted in the 1938–1939 handbook. “Perhaps no other city in the South offers so many advantages for cultural development as does New Orleans with its old world traditions and background. . . . Following the progressive trend, the faculty uses the entire city for their textbook, and the students study modern industries and businesses first hand.” Field trips to the Philharmonic Series, Little Theatre, Civic Symphony Orchestra, traveling theatrical companies, opera, as well as the local libraries, universities, and museums were also referenced.

Above center: Ethel McGehee with delegates to Washington, D.C., 1942. Left: The Class of 1963 in Washington, D.C. McGehee students continue the tradition today. Above: On their U.S. Government trip, juniors visit with Hillary Clinton in 2007.

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Above: The Class of 1942. Right: Class of 2009

In those years, students entering McGehee from the local public system schools that ended at grade seven were eligible to enter McGehee’s upper school on probation, but were strongly advised to enter at the eighth grade to “secure a more adequate foundation for their advanced work.” In upper school, girls were awarded a diploma for either a college preparatory or a general course of sixteen state-recognized academic credits. Students planning to go to college were urged to map out their four years of course work as freshmen, as they are today.

Scholastic success continued throughout the history of the school. For example, the Class of 1960 was the first to have four members (10 percent) who were National Merit Scholarship Finalists, and in the Class of 1961 seven were named finalists and one honorable mention. Also in 1960, honors courses were offered to give students “a taste of the mixture of independence and responsibility that she will later find in college,” according to an editorial written by Susan Vieth Wall ’60 in the Spectator. Honors courses were started to provide the opportunity for talented seniors to pursue in depth their special academic interests. These courses were originally conducted as tutorials. Today, within McGehee’s accelerated curricu-

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lum, honors courses are offered from ninth to twelfth grades, as well as two courses in eighth grade, foreign language and Algebra I, for qualified students.

A variety of Advanced Placement (AP) courses have been offered for many years.

The Senior Internship, a unique program at the time, was established in 1974 to provide each member of the graduating class an opportunity to spend time working in her field of interest, providing off-campus work experience and career exploration. Initially the program was a month long.

Though later pared to two weeks, the Senior Internship remains vitally important to the senior curriculum.

Mentorships are open to eligible seniors who have an overall GPA of 3.0 and an A average in the related field of interest. A student is admitted to the Mentorship Program based on the merit of her proposal. The senior who successfully completes a rigorous plan of independent study with her faculty mentor graduates with “Distinction” on her diploma in her chosen field of study. Examples of mentorships in recent years include an amazing study of James Joyce’s Ulysses and physics’ unified field theory, the influence of Web 2.0 on education and politics, and music studies and performance on the blues and contemporary singer/songwriter Billy Joel.

Today McGehee continues the traditions of its founder and her mission to provide a rigorous college preparatory education for girls in an inclusive environment that fosters self-esteem, encourages high personal standards, addresses individual student needs, and emphasizes active student participation in learning. But there is one other key ingredient to the success of the school, something all students recognize and remember. Everyone in the McGehee community realizes that the strength of our wonderful school does not lie in the beauty of the facility, or even the rigors of the curriculum. The McGehee student has a unique opportunity to interact with her teachers in a close working and learning relationship. Our school’s strength can be attributed to the dedication and commitment of our extraordinary faculty throughout the history of the school.

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McGehee girls shine everywhere they go. — Slogan coined in the 1920s

A candid moment before graduation, members of the Class of 2005.

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O

On the Cutting Edge of Technology By the time you read this, the information below will be out of date. That is the nature of technology, always growing, always changing, as unlimited as the human mind. At McGehee we understand the evolutionary nature of technology, and that informs the way we teach.

How does an author read a book to a McGehee kindergarten class on a school morning when she’s teaching high school in New Jersey? The answer: Skype.

McGehee alumna Tynia Thomassie ’77 read from her book Felicia Feydra LeRoux: A Cajun Tall

Tale while a McGehee kindergarten gathered around the SMART Board in the Marsha Miller Wedell ’59 Student Center at McGehee. Thomassie was in her high school classroom in New Jersey as she read.

While it is not exactly the same as having the author in person, Skype allowed the girls to see the author’s animated face and hear her very expressive Cajun accent as she read. The girls and the author could see each other and ask questions back and forth.

The technology available to McGe-

hee students allows them to have real-time dialogues with students in India or blog with students in France. A state volleyball playoff game, a mock presidential debate, or singing on the stairs can be streamed live onto our website for parents and alums to watch live from wherever they are. And when it snows once in a decade in New Orleans, we can quickly upload a video so parents can share the joy as their children play in the snow at school.

At McGehee, technology is part of our everyday lives. Pod-

casts, blogs, Skype, Woo, Twitter—the list of the tools of technology constant-

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y

grows and evolves. When a student graduates from McGehee, we want her to know these technologies and have the confidence to discover new ones. Whatever comes next, we want our girls to be prepared.

Above: Megan Masters ‘09 and Carolyn Baker ‘09 use computers to conduct experiments in physics.

Opposite: McGehee was the first school in the city to use laptops in the classroom.

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Chapter Three

Arts at McGehee Tim Trapolin and Sarah Young

“McGehee’s is a school of individuals who meld together with a loving atmosphere that makes each individual the finest she can be. It is not a stamped-out place. It is a place where each person: the eccentric, the bohemian, the intellectual, the jock, the socialite—each person can fit in and be respected for that individuality. Because of the spirit of the place that is so infectious, they are molded into people who leave McGehee with a spirit of love, wonder, and friendliness that is built into the self-confidence that McGehee gives to each person. This was reflected in the art and music departments while I was there.”

Tim Trapolin, art teacher, 1973–1983

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ven from its earliest days on Louisiana Avenue the program at McGehee was a reflection of the mission set forth by its founder: to encourage and nurture the growth of each individual girl. Creativity has never been in short supply on the McGehee campus. From its beginning, with a curriculum offering art, music, and art history to the current plethora of classes, choirs, exhibits, and performances, McGehee has always been a place were the arts are nurtured and celebrated.

A description of the art program in a handbook from the 1920s espoused free play to encourage the creative process in each individual, and opportunities offered included scene painting, set design, costume design, fabric design, clay modeling, poster work, drawing from life, outdoor sketching, block printing, mechanical drawing, and drawing from the East. In the 1927 handRight: A figure created for graduation 1931. Opposite: Lower school McGehee girls are on stage early and often, enhancing their confidence. Under the Sea was performed in 2008 by the Prekindergarten, Class of 2021.

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book it was written of the art program, “This is another department in which the consideration of the needs of the individual is paramount.”

From the early years, music, and in particular vocal music, was embraced. The earliest handbooks describe courses in choral and part singing, sight singing, and music appreciation. The music curriculum was described as follows: “This course is provided chiefly to cultivate in the girls a vivid interest in another field of art, that through learning to sing and to know the best in music they may come to love and appreciate it.” Again Louise McGehee and her fellow teachers were focused on developing lifelong passions in their students, a love of art and music that would last long past graduation.

Left: The Upper School Choir 1958. Top: Singing on the stairs, 1975.

Right: “Singing on the Stairs” by Adrienne Gardner ‘04.

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V

Voice Lessons with Ethel McGehee I enrolled as a freshman at McGehee School when I was thirteen years old. I started kindergarten at age four. I did not attend eighth grade because it was not offered in public schools. I went from the seventh grade to Louise Schaumberg McGehee High School. I graduated in June 1941. I was sixteen years old at the time. All that to say, McGehee School was truly an education for me—a place so new, so wonderful, so alive with new friends, new teachers, and new ideas.

A whole new world opened for me.

Elise McGehee, Miss Louise’s niece, taught freshman English, algebra,

and biology. I loved Elise, but I hated biology! Four years of Latin with Miss McFetridge, “All Gaul is divided into three parts.” “De gustibus non disputandum est.”

On to Shakespeare and Miss Janet Wallace, who soon became Mrs. Ben Yancey. She told us that her new husband played with boats in the bathtub. We were too polite to ask about that. Many years later, married to an admiralty lawyer, I understood. With Janet Yancey, we studied the works of well-known writers—poetry, classics, fiction, both old and new, and she made us love them all. What more could a high school girl want?

Well, I wanted music. I loved the choir, the operettas in the Loft, and I loved my wonderful voice teacher, Miss Ethel McGehee, Miss Louise’s sister. She had a small room at school just large enough for her piano and me. All four years I studied voice at school with Miss Ethel. I sang Italian, French, and German arias. I remember them all as I remember Miss Ethel with love and affection.

Learning to care and to share was ongoing at McGehee School, and it carried into my adult life. I was

fortunate to have the time and energy to volunteer in many different areas, primarily addressing the needs of children—the blind, the learning impaired, the emotionally disturbed teenagers. As a parent of two McGehee girls I served as room mother and as president of the Parents’ League, broadening my love for the school at different levels.

My four happy years at McGehee School gave me a broad education and enabled me to move on

to Newcomb College. The greatest gift, however, was the gift of confidence in myself and the ability to venture forth in the wide world and, perhaps, in small ways to make a difference.

— Virginia Smart McIlhenny ‘41

Above: Miss Ethel Scott McGehee.

Above: McGehee girls study and perform Shakespeare in second grade. Right: Playbill from the 1960s.

This is another department in which the considerations of the needs of the individual are paramount. — From a McGehee School Handbook

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For audiences attending plays at 1439 Louisiana Avenue, more than the usual suspension of disbelief would be required as one had to imagine the porch as a theatrical stage. The move to Prytania Street brought some improvement to the performance space. The Loft, as it was dubbed, was where everything happened: assemblies, plays, and performances. The Loft had been the site of the hayloft for the stable building of the Bradish Johnson House. What had previously been a stable became the cafeteria, and the hayloft became the auditorium/theater space. The school no longer had to worry about performances being rained out. It might have been a loft, but at least it was indoors. In 1953–1954, when the first new building was completed on Prytania Street, it included the school’s first real auditorium.

Performances in the Loft came to an end with the Founder’s Day production of H.M.S. Pinafore.

The Dramatic Club of the Louise S. McGehee School presented The Wonder Hat and Birthday of the Infanta in 1932.

Plays were often held in the Loft.

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The art studio also grew from humble beginnings and had locations that shifted over the years of moving and expanding. In 1981 the growing program was located in the arts and sciences wing that had been completed in 1964. The art studio, located in an addition over the present auditorium, is filled with natural light and plenty of space for teaching a wide-ranging art curriculum.

Left: In the 1980s under the direction of Tim Trapolin students painted. Below: Alia Soomro ‘09 pursues art and architecture.

Bottom: Kathryn Adams ‘08 paints her self-portrait.

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LMS-0141-maypole 1959

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The present performing arts program at McGehee grew out of the early founding of the drama and glee clubs. Plays and performances were always woven into the fabric of the school. Out of some of the school’s earliest performances came its most enduring traditions: May Day, Nativity, and Founder’s Day.

May Day became a permanent event in the 1920s and continues to the present day as a celebration of the senior class. Originally performed by the freshmen for the seniors, it evolved over the years to be a production of the sophomore class for their “big sister” class, the seniors. Students from the lower school dance the maypole, and skits written and practiced over months of time are performed for the entire school, parents, and guests. Each May Day had its own unique invitation, theme, and skit.

The highlight was, and continues to be, the revelation of the May Day queen and her maids. One of the school’s highest honors, the May Day court is elected by the entire upper school student body based on characteristics of kindness and school spirit. The May Day court represents the finest qualities of a “McGehee Girl.”

Top left: May Day celebration, 1924. Opposite bottom: Young McGehee students dancing the Maypole, 1959. Top: May Day skit, 1962. Left: 50th anniversary May Day program, 1963. Upper right: 1957 May Day program. Right: 1958 May Day program.

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Opposite: 1963 May Court, from left to right, Reid Barkerding, Barbara Manard (Queen), Kathleen Boylan, and Jane Feierabend. Right: May Queen Beth Gardner with Liz Wittmann and Tynia Thomassie at 1975 May Day. Bottom: Third graders dance the maypole in the 1960s.

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The first Nativity play was probably in December 1922, when the junior and senior classes both presented plays. The juniors presented Where Love Is, God Is, and the seniors performed The Nativity. A description of the evening appears in a Spectator from 1922–1923: The first play was “The Nativity,” by the Senior class. This is the first time it has been given in New Orleans. It is a beautiful Folk Play, and we are proud to say that our school is the first one in the South to give “The Nativity.” All went well in the play except that at the very end the Victrola, which was supposed to play Holy Night, refused to work and a dead silence prevailed. It did spoil the effect as everyone was supposed to be very reverent and solemn, but the audience forgave us and we tried not to notice it.

One of the highlights of senior year continues to be The Nativity, presented by the seniors as a gift to the school. Members of the class are elected to roles in The Nativity through secret ballot— roles that represent qualities of leadership, loyalty, and kindness.

Right inset: Angels Katherine Kovach ‘08 and Adele Humphreys ‘08. Right: Nativity performance from 1933 is a reminder of the importance of this event in the life of the school.

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D

Drama: Finding Success in Failure My most embarrassing moment happened at this podium. I mean I have been humiliated plenty of times since then, but none when I was seventeen in front of other seventeen-year-olds, so none of the rest have felt quite as bad. I was running for student body president, and for some reason I decided to incorporate magic tricks into my speech. They had something to do with turning water different colors. And I was all excited and I had these tricks down, but I never practiced what I was going to actually say. And when I went up there I choked. It was bad. I was just fumbling and not making any sense, and no one understood what I was doing with the water. I remember the feeling so clearly, wanting to hide under a rock somewhere. But here’s the thing: it turned out fine. I didn’t win, obviously. But one of my longtime best friends did win. And I learned my lesson. I was over the humiliation and ran for vice president. And we were a great team.

I think that’s the most valuable thing McGehee helped me find, the ability to fail with

grace. Maybe “fail” isn’t the right word. But when things haven’t worked out completely in my favor, it was never the end of the world.

Another example: I desperately wanted to play middle blocker on the volleyball team,

but being five feet, six inches, I was told I was too short. I didn’t like that answer. Well, the summer before I was going out for varsity, I researched how to improve my vertical. And after three months of training with some crazy-looking things called strength shoes, I played middle blocker. That time it worked out for me. But I knew I might do all that training and still not play middle blocker. I had already received a firm “no,” but I had to try. Where it didn’t work out in my favor was winning state. I was so sure we would win my senior year. We didn’t, but I received my first and only yellow card for arguing a call with an official. I had to sit out a play at a very crucial moment. But my coach couldn’t have been more proud, because standing my ground on that call was a personal victory for me.

I graduated salutatorian, but because I never could figure out the SATs, I didn’t get into the

top fancy schools I wanted. So I went a different route and ended up at a grad program where I never would have dreamed I had a place. And now, as an actor, I “fail,” or am rejected at minimum, three times a week. I probably am awarded one job for every twenty or thirty for which I audition, which does make me question the requirements for being “distinguished.” But maybe it’s true, maybe there is success in every failure. It has worked out that way for me. So I’m so very honored to be able to thank the school and the family who taught me that. And I hope everyone at McGehee eighteen or under is discovering the same. You have go for it, whatever it is, even if your “it” changes, even if your “it” isn’t clear yet. Just put yourself out there. Because as my father likes to say, “Ya never know.”

— Rebecca Brooksher ’96

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Top: Katherine Cochran, Carroll Gelderman, Blair Johnson, Kinsey Schell, and Miranda Matherne, Class of 2011, in Grease, 2008. Above: The cast of the Pirates of Penzance assemble on stage in 1965.

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Lighting the cake on Founder’s Day 1944 with Miss Ethel McGehee in hat.

The first Founder’s Day was held on March 30, 1935, in the year following the death of Louise McGehee. The event served as a way to remember the school’s founder and to celebrate McGehee and everything that made it so special. It was an occasion for plays, performances, and birthday cake.

For many years the program included a skit performed by the faculty. Although the faculty no longer perform for Founder’s Day, much of the celebration is the same and includes speeches, songs, and a large cake cut by current students who are daughters of alumnae.

In addition to creating some of McGehee’s most endearing traditions, the creative arts program also provided the school with some of its most memorable and beloved teachers, including Ethel Scott McGehee (Louise McGehee’s sister), Maud Fox Moore, Elise Cambon, Louise Boteler, and Tim Trapolin. During a 2011 interview for the school archives Tim Trapolin remembered a sense of camaraderie and kinship that the faculty and staff enjoyed during his tenure. “It was a life-changing experience,” said Trapolin, who loved the sense of community and was grateful for the leadership of Headmistress Maria Fernandez. “Make the art department bloom!” she told him, while supporting Trapolin in his expansion of the program.

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With a flair for the dramatic, McGehee girls waltz in 1937.

The present creative arts curriculum is built on wonderful traditions and the efforts of many dedicated and creative faculty members.

Music education at McGehee begins in Little Gate and continues through high school.

Opportunities in choral music begin in third and fourth grades with Choristers, the fifth- and sixthgrade Young Singers, the middle school auditioned choir of Les Petites Chanteuses, and the seventhand eighth-grade Ensemble. In the upper school, girls participate in concert choir, Ensemble, and an

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Elise M. Cambon Upper school music hit a high note in the 1950s during the tenure of Elise M. Cambon. A scholar of choral and keyboard music, Cambon created a challenging repertoire for her classes and choir.

We were introduced to music of every period from the medieval to the present. Petite and well dressed, eager to teach, she had our full attention. She was demanding in rehearsals, which were occasionally stressful, but she showed us that hard work produced a beautiful sound, and that good music, though often difficult to learn, was worthy of our effort. In her hands, traditional Christmas carols, so often taken for granted, sounded heavenly, and made the Nativity play a moving experience. At first we weren’t sure if we liked the “Ceremony of Carols” by Benjamin Britten. A contemporary setting of medieval carols, its dissonances were disconcerting. She had such determination to perform the best music for our voices that we simply had to persevere. When we finally performed the Britten accompanied by the symphony’s harpist, we were excited by the beauty of this musical gem.

She was spirited and fun to be with. To our amazement she demonstrated proper breath-

ing technique for singing by lying on her back on the floor. In one of her early years at McGehee this demonstration was accidentally observed by Mrs. Yancey, the headmistress, who happened to be walking by. The class was sure Miss Cambon would be fired, but Mrs. Yancey, herself a good actress, must have liked that kind of spunk.

Miss Cambon’s tenure as a McGehee faculty member was short compared to our other

memorable teachers. I had her for only one year but cried when she announced she was leaving to pursue a Fulbright scholarship in Germany and finish her PhD. Dr. Cambon went on to a professorship at Loyola University and to accolades at home and abroad, including a decoration by the French government. She served as organist and choir director at St. Louis Cathedral for sixty-two years. Many of her McGehee girls sang in that choir as well.

At age eighty-eight Dr. Cambon evacuated to Houston in the face of Hurricane Katrina.

Undaunted, she restored her house on Valmont Street and returned for her ninetieth birthday. She died almost a year later and is buried in her mother’s family tomb in Metairie Cemetery along the straightaway of the old race course. By happy coincidence, her neighbors along that same avenue are Katherine McFetridge, our legendary Latin teacher, and Louise S. McGehee.

To the end of her life she always said how much she loved her McGehee girls. Today’s

students are beneficiaries not just of the tradition she established but also of the generous legacy she left for the endowment of the music program. She was unforgettable to her students, and the feeling was mutual.

— Cynthia Samuel ’65

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Dramatic production at McGehee from the 1920s.

a cappella choir. Annual music assemblies are staged by every class from prekindergarten to sixth grade, and the annual musical productions of the fourth grade, eighth grade, and upper school are eagerly anticipated events. These opportunities encourage and develop stage presence, choral singing, and cross-curricular activities. Nativity and May Day continue to be beloved productions made all the more special by their long traditions at McGehee.

Presently three full-time faculty members are dedicated to the instruction of music. In addition to the fine, long-standing vocal program, students have the option in fourth grade of taking a class in string instruments to play viola, violin, or cello. The school also offers an advanced Orff Ensemble for sixth and seventh graders who would like to learn a nonstring instrument.

Acting continues to be a passion of many McGehee girls, and drama today is offered as an elective course. The drama club, started so many years before, continues to attract budding thespians.

Opportunities to sing and perform have always been a part of the McGehee tradition—a tradition that many graduates remember as a great confidence booster. In her March 2009 Founder’s Day address, Katherine Goldstein ’99 recalled her experiences on the McGehee stage:

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McGehee’s premier upper school choir, Ensemble, performs at Canal Place, 2007.

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I loved being up on a stage singing and performing, and all of my inhibitions just melted away. Choir solos—I could handle that. Monologues in the play in front of a packed auditorium—no problem. Without even realizing it, I had gone from being a shy, quiet girl who preferred to sit back and listen, to a confident McGehee woman, someone who was not afraid to speak her mind if she didn’t agree with someone’s opinion in a class discussion, and someone who stood up at graduation and gave a valedictory address about how glad she was she went to McGehee’s.

With performances that ranged from a chicken to a singing crab, Katherine gained confidence in herself, just as many McGehee girls had done before her. “From then on,” said Goldstein, who graduated from the University of Alabama Honors Program in 2003, “I was involved in every musical activity I could cram into my schedule, singing in the choir every year, Les Petites Chanteuses in middle school, ensemble in upper school, the upper school musical every year from sixth grade on, and taking piano lessons.”

The visual arts program has also grown considerably since the early years on Louisiana Avenue. A faculty of three full-time and two additional part-time instructors provide art instruction from prekindergarten through high school. Instruction continues in the more traditional drawing and painting. In addition, classes offered in the upper school now include ceramics, photography,

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Opera My quest for personal development started when I was nine years old and decided I wanted to be an opera singer. I pestered my parents to let me take voice lessons, and finally they agreed. When I turned sixteen I was finally able to study Madame Butterfly, but wasn’t allowed to sing the opera for almost a year. Since then, I have put my talent to good use with symphony work in New York and Connecticut, and have performed in concert benefits for museums and other nonprofit organizations.

When asked what I remember about my days at McGehee, I replied that McGehee is more of an

atmosphere than any one memory. But soon the specifics started to pile up: Latin with Miss McFetridge, the dreaded chemistry class, biology with Miss McGehee, English with Miss Yancey, dancing, French classes, and the beautiful building. It was an eighth-grade class about Egypt with Miss Virginia Norwood that first sparked my interest in archaeology and art history.

I often say, “You can never see around a corner.” I think McGehee prepares you for your life in so

many different ways. The school gave me a general grounding and a grace of living. There is cohesiveness and a great strength to the school. I was very shy and an only child, and it enabled me to extend myself considerably.

— Catherine Burns Tremaine ’42

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and independent study. Students can elect to enhance their fine arts education with mentorships in the senior year.

From its very beginning McGehee’s was a school that recognized the importance of the arts in the lives of its students.

Singing, creating, performing, painting, and playing all were activities recognized early on as important to the educational and emotional development of young women. The creative process was one that has always been nurtured and encouraged.

During the painful months of displacement in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a number of McGehee students were welcomed into the Hockaday School in Dallas, Texas.

Hockaday, an excellent girls’ school with a beautiful campus and a rigorous academic program, had generously opened its doors to as many McGehee students as it could fit into its classrooms.

When it was time to return to McGehee, the head of school at Hockaday remarked to McGehee Headmistress Eileen Powers on how joyful the McGehee girls had always seemed in spite of the sadness of the situation they faced. The headmistress of Hockaday remarked that the McGehee students were always singing! In spite of adversity, the McGehee traditions of singing out, of facing the world with confidence and joy, were carried out into the world.

From its inception, the arts—visual and performing— permeated the culture of McGehee. Miss McGehee’s mission was to bring the best out of each individual girl, and the creative arts have always been an important part of that process. The selfconfidence found on the stage, the passion discovered in beautiful music and art, and the joy emerging from self-expression were all qualities that McGehee girls have happily carried into their lives as McGehee women since 1912. One can only imagine the pleasure Miss McGehee would have felt at hearing the joyful singing of her displaced young women as they gathered together in song, confident that they would soon return to their beloved school.

Sarah Chesser Young is the mother of Bess ’06 and Charlotte ’09, and wife of former board chairman George V. Young. She was instrumental in organizing the archives for the school’s centennial. New Orleans artist Tim Trapolin is a former faculty member and was head of the Art Department.

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Opposite top: Mary Leigh Fitzmorris ‘10 at the pottery wheel. Opposite bottom: Layne Nalty ‘15 in ceramics class.

Above: Winter Choral Concert performed by the Young Singers at St. Charles Presbyterian Church, 2007.

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Chapter Four

Honor: Living the Code LIVING THE CODE “I remember leaving a favorite green sweater behind at school one day, not long after starting at McGehee as a sophomore. My mother said, ‘That’s the last you’ll see of that sweater,’ but I told her she was wrng.

The next day at school there it was, handed in to the lost and found. I knew a McGehee girl wouldn’t steal my sweater!”

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin ‘50

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ne of the defining elements at McGehee—arguably the

The Honor Code defining element—is the Honor Code. Miss McGehee’s School adopted an Honor Code in 1921 when such an idea was On my honor I will do my own work, uph old the rare outside of colleges and the military. In fact McGehee was the ideals of my school , support Student Bod y first school in New Orleans to introduce an honor system and its Government, protect the good name and property of my school and see essential partner, self-government. The idea that high school stuthat all others do the same. dents might create a self-policing system of government built on the individual’s determination to demand the highest standards of herself and of others was certainly a novel one at the time. But Miss McGehee was a woman of the utmost integrity, and she expected nothing less of the young women in her care.

Lalise Moore O’Brien ’30 recalled her memory of Miss McGehee in her Founder’s Day Address in 1950: “A gentlewoman in the finest sense . . . wonderful mixture of manner and manners that made her girls so anxious to please her, so ashamed to disappoint her, so proud to win her praise. [Her portrait shows] a fine sense of humor . . . a deep sense of justice, her integrity, her utter contempt for sham or falseness of any kind.”

“The ‘real world’ doesn’t have an honor code, but I have always had my internal McGehee’s Honor Code. It’s part of my core values, and I’ve always operated out of it. It keeps you sane and steady knowing clearly what your core values are. I think that I’m known for being grounded in my values. I’m a lawyer. Staying grounded in values other than making money is critical to professional competence and success.”

— Katherine Huff O’Neil ’56

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Honor Code: The Beginning We have two weeks to look over, examine, try out and experiment with that precious tool—the Honor System. Can we, shall we, risk the preservation of this invaluable of valuables because of the slight trouble and moral courage it requires. As a school full of intelligent girls, preparing to become the bulwark of a nation, shall we falter at a crisis like this?

We must have that spirit, school spirit, that moves every girl to do her best. We must try

to live up to certain standards—we must not let personal ambition stand in the way of accomplishing the great end. The sword of Damocles hangs over us. The Spy or the Honor System—which?

—Mary Bryan, Editor, Spectator, December 1921 The acid test is being applied. The dross is being separated from the gold. The Honor System is in working order and we, who are cadets may learn to live and be fit to live now and prepare for the great voyage that is life. We have burrowed into the heart of things, and we understand. We see how petty infringements are often grossly exaggerated into glaring, almost sins. We see how we stress the minor details and miss the great fundamentals. But out of it must come a light. We realize what inestimable good the Honor System holds for us. We see the benefit of its application in the most unthought [sic] of situations. We live under its guidance and we become better pupils, better citizens, better individuals. And in coming to a full comprehension of the worth of this influence we must not lose sight of the essential though bare facts. We must play the game. “A home divided against itself” will soon crumble into ruins. We must be unified. We must not let the innumerable pin pricks of personal jealousy and injury weaken the strong fabric of good will and friendliness. We must stand behind our chosen leader and work for one end. And what with the tools of a smooth self-government in our hands and the spirit of earnestness and a desire for the better animating our hearts, we should soon be well on the road to success.

— Mary Bryan, Editor, Spectator, March, 1922

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Students raise the flag in 1942. The first flag to be raised at school was a big event with 3 buglers in 1917.

The Class of 1921 was not without trepidation in adopting this new scheme. According to a 1922 issue of the Spectator, several of the teachers and Miss McGehee presented their views on the subject at a meeting with the student body, covering such topics as: “what the student body is meant to represent, that hinting and playful prompting are violations as well as deliberate cheating, and the importance of common, everyday politeness in the classroom. Miss McGehee spoke for a few minutes on the subject and read us . . . a set of rules by which we should guide our daily lives and that applied to our outside lives as well.”

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“The idea that, if you commit a violation, you will be judged by your peers and that the responsibility of policing such activities falls largely to you places an early emphasis on self-accountability.”

— Jordan Samford Lambert ’02

Another Spectator editorial from 1921 exhorted the girls not to shrink from the challenge of living up to the demands of the Honor Code: “We have two weeks to look over, examine, try out and experiment with that precious tool—the Honor System. Can we, shall we, risk the preservation of this invaluable of valuables because of the slight trouble and moral courage it requires? As a school full of intelligent girls, preparing to become the bulwark of a nation, shall we falter at a crisis like this?”

Miss McGehee’s girls did not falter, of course, and McGehee’s Honor Code was adopted. In many ways the character of Louise McGehee is the embodiment of the Honor Code she introduced to her school in 1921 and which has influenced the lives of every generation of McGehee women who have followed.

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin recalls her sense of wonder at the atmosphere of the school when she started in the late forties. “There was no proctoring of examinations, and the teachers trusted me and treated me as a person of value. No one thought I would cheat and I never did cheat. I felt respected at McGehee’s and I never felt that way before.”

The student body president of 1958, Mary Ann McLellan Stroker wrote in the Spectator, “We are very proud of our democracy and feel that it is the best and most advantageous way to run student affairs. . . . Our system of government has proved very efficient, and we find it helps make honest, trustworthy, and loyal school citizens.” The involvement of each McGehee girl, whether as an officer of student government or by the physical act of signing the Honor Code or reciting the School Oath, marks a commitment to ethical behavior that is a widespread characteristic of McGehee women.

But student government is more than just espousing a fine set of words. Kimber Ashman ’09 said the Honor Code teaches students “to do the hard thing.” It is not an easy thing to always demand the best of oneself, and failure is inevitable. Carolyn Wood Lorio ’77 recalls, In the business world, I have been told more than once that it is a pleasure to do business with someone who honors their word. Any school can teach you facts; the Honor Code at McGehee helped mold us into honorable citizens. It always made me feel that I was special, trusted, and different than others. I was given these special standards to live by and I was going to live up to them.

Rachael Marcus ’03 states, “The Honor Code at McGehee prepares girls for all walks of life and the moral and ethical quandaries that girls will face in their futures. Being exposed to an expectation of internal integrity is something priceless that many do not experience their entire lives, and it is something that helps guide us in all future interactions from business to social and everything in between.

It also encourages learning from mistakes and growing.”

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“From the moment I became a McGehee girl, I was expected to hold myself to a higher standard and be the best friend, student, and person I could be, and I still strive for these goals today.”

— Mary Frances Gregorio ’06

Opposite: Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin ‘50. Above: Signing the Honor Code, 2004.

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In an address to students at the inauguration of a National Honor Society chapter at McGehee in 1988, Adelaide Benjamin agreed that determination and persistence are important characteristics: “Even those of you who may never be tapped for membership [in the NHS] can rise to your own personal best because you have a goal to aim for: and sometimes striving for a goal can teach you almost as much as attaining it would have.”

Katie Wohl ’05 agrees that the honor system calls on students “to be the best version of themselves—not just academically but in all facets of their lives.”

Honor systems are now an inherent aspect of many schools, but the McGehee model still stands as one of the best, and graduates have carried the Honor Code with them into many different communities.

Nancy Pacella Herin ’86 writes that “with the help of McGehee’s administration, I had the privilege of helping to adopt an honor code” at the school where she works in Baton Rouge.

Though the Honor Code is a fixed set of principles, the governing of students is constantly evolving as the challenges of school life evolve. The issues of academic integrity have become ever more complex as “In order to be successful in business (and in personal relationships), honesty really is the best policy. I have seen individuals and businesses ultimately fail as a result of dishonesty. As a McGehee student, I learned at a young age that you cannot have the respect of others unless your words and your actions are honorable. The simple act of signing my name to a contract or a business letter verifies to those with whom I am dealing, as well as to myself, that what is written is the truth and that I will perform to the best of my abilities in all ways. At McGehee, acting in the honorable way is the only way, and that has carried over into my successful life as an adult.”

—— Mary Meyers Howard ’77

National Junior Honor Society induction, 2007.

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“The attitude that I assume when facing my daily life is still influenced by the Honor Code. I have learned to trust the people around me, to give people the benefit of the doubt, to admit my mistakes, and to face the consequences of my own actions.”

— Suk Young Kang ’06

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technology provides unprecedented opportunities for intellectual theft. Having a system that places accountability on the individual and fosters a sense of responsibility among peers is a strong safeguard against unethical behavior. McGehee’s Honor Code is an inspiration to others, as demonstrated by the school’s hosting of the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education’s Honor Systems Conference in February 2009.

In a newspaper interview in 1931 Miss McGehee said, “I believe that pupils should get training in how to live.” Decades later, Rachael Marcus ’03 reflects, “The Honor Code taught me to have confidence and pride in who I am, where I’ve come from, and where I’m going. McGehee is an extraordinarily unique place, and McGehee girls are equipped with an entire arsenal enabling them to take on anything.” Sarah Dunn ’06 agreed: “Rather than just a set of rules, the Honor Code is a way of life.” It has been a way of life for every generation of McGehee women since Louise McGehee introduced this novel concept back in 1921, and the Honor Code will continue to influence young women through the school’s second century and beyond.

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The School Oath I will never bring disgrace to this, my school, by any act of dishonesty or disloyalty. I will uphold the ideals of my school when

Softball team, 2008.

alone or with others. I will strive unceasingly to develop and quicken school spirit. I will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the principles of my school. I will obey the school laws. Thus, in all ways, I will transmit the school greater and better than it was transmitted to me.

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Chapter Five

Service: It Comes Naturally “I was reading the other evening—a habit I picked up from Louise McGehee when I lived with her during the days your grandmothers were little girls—when I came across a quotation. I don’t know the book from which it came, and Louise McGehee could never have read it, for E. M. Forster wrote it in 1951. But to me it represented what she believed and lived, and what I think she had in mind when she established her school:

‘I believe in aristocracy . . . not an aristocracy of power based upon rank and privilege, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes—they represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory over cruelty and the chaos.’

There in a nutshell is [Louise McGehee’s] idea of Noblesse Oblige.”

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Elise McGehee, ‘28 reminiscences given on Founder’s Day, 1972

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he school motto, Noblesse Oblige, has been the topic of much discussion throughout the history of the school. Typically, articles appearing in school publications were written in defense of the motto, because there was obviously some discomfort among the students that the motto gave a mixed message.

In 1959 Miss Elise McGehee addressed the student body: “I hear by the grapevine that certain of you are unhappy about comments on your school motto, ‘Noblesse Oblige.’ ‘Nobility obligates,’ they sneer. ‘What do you think you are? Nobles? How snooty can you get?’” But even from the earliest days, the students generally interpreted the motto as a call for service to the community rather than a sense of superiority.

“If we take all McGehee offers us and give it back to the society we live in, then we will be showing the school’s true purpose,” said Melissa Jones ’67.“By fulfilling this responsibility, we will be giving to other people part of what the school gave us.”

Opposite: Thirty-two first grade girls collected and recycled 1,000 pounds of aluminum cans to earn cash to help restore one of the horses on the carousel at City Park.

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In 1941 McGehee girls knit socks and sweaters to support the war effort.

Simply put, Noblesse Oblige, as I interpret it, is a call to action. It is an opportunity to right wrongs, to give back, to be useful to our communities, and to make a difference. These are the opportunities we as McGehee women are privileged to have. It is our obligation to make the most of them. — Elizabeth Jahncke ‘98

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One early McGehee faculty member, Katherine McFetridge, expounded on the subject: “I did not as a student go to McGehee or any other private or independent school. From kindergarten until I entered college I attended the New Orleans public schools, but by my interpretation of the words ‘noblesse oblige,’ they would have been a perfectly appropriate motto for any or all of my schools. I had the advantage of an education—it does not matter where I received it. I, therefore,

She continued, We have no nobility in this country in the narrow sense of the word and have never had since we became an independent nation; therefore the school could not have chosen this motto with any such idea in mind as that of class distinction. Rather I think these words should be thought of in this sense: I have and am enjoying certain advantages—as applied to a school, the advantages which an education gives one. I do, therefore, owe a debt to society which, if I am an honorable and responsible person, I should feel obligated to discharge in some way or other.

The interpretation of our motto as well as how students put these words into action has evolved throughout the years. Wilmer Shields Rich ’19 recalled the efforts of McGehee students during World War I: “The tears that flowed over the enforced departure of the most popular girl in the sophomore class, Margot Roh, daughter of the German consul in New Orleans, were soon wiped away. And, while still keeping a tender spot in their hearts for Margot, her friends buckled down to fighting the Germans with every ounce of their energy.” Meanwhile, Rich remembered, “The high school girls knitted socks and sweaters by the dozens, those who could knit without looking being allowed to create their masterpieces in class. Every pupil painted posters exhorting the citizens to save wheat, buy War Savings Stamps, or otherwise do their part toward winning the war. One poster with an original slogan was entered in a national contest.”

Another student, Jane Pharr Gage ’28, who knew Miss McGehee personally, said Miss McGehee’s emphasis on community service had the greatest impact on her life. Gage’s commitment to helping others determined the course of her life. “I was interested in community service. After I graduated from McGehee and Newcomb, I went on to the School of Social Work at Tulane and became interested in community organizations and affairs.” Among the earliest practitioners in this developing profession of social work, she later worked at Charity Hospital in

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the tuberculosis ward, counseling pregnant women. Even after marriage and three children, she dedicated herself to volunteer work and service to the community.

In recent times a wonderful example of an alumna living a life of service is Elizabeth Jahncke ’98. She acknowledges, “A literal interpretation of our motto is ‘obligation of the nobles’ or ‘nobility obligates.’ In its literal translation, the motto has elements of superiority and condescension. But much like society itself, the motto has evolved beyond its original meaning.”

After graduating from McGehee, Jahncke taught English in a Japanese school, earned graduate degrees in philosophy and public health, and now works in Singapore as associate director of the MPH Program at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. She also designs and conducts capacity-building trainings in low- and middle-income countries throughout the region.

As McGehee graduates we have been given tremendous opportunities—to learn in an environment which rewards critical thinking, to mature alongside faculty and fellow students who bring out the best in one another, and to be encouraged to not just be leaders but to be fearless. How can one simply walk away from these opportunities, these tools, and not put them to use?

In the past, actions, in the context of Noblesse Oblige, may have meant acts of charity, and while these are generous acts, as McGehee women we must and we can do more. The obligation, the oblige, is not only to ourselves, our parents, and our mentors, but to the larger community, and the action is not just giving back but acting in ways that are useful and applicable to the community in which we are inextricably linked.

For me, Noblesse Oblige was never explicitly in the forefront of my mind when setting out to study or “do something.” I naturally gravitated toward certain interests, certain fields of study, and it really wasn’t until graduate school, when I was asked time and time again, why public health, that I began to think seriously about choices I had made. The simple answer is, I didn’t choose public health—it chose me.

“In public health, we often talk about . . . inequities in health outcomes,” said Jahncke, who noted, as an example, the infant mortality rates (the risk of a baby dying between birth and age one) in places as close to home as the state of Louisiana and as distant as Mozambique.

I read these statistics, see the inherent inequity, and am moved to do something. Why? Two reasons. One, because this inequity should not exist. We have the technology and tools needed to save most of these lives. Two, Noblesse Oblige. I have access to and have taken advantage of opportunities that the majority of people in this world struggle to obtain. Simply put, Noblesse Oblige, as I interpret it, is a call to action. It is an opportunity to right wrongs, to give back, to be useful to our communities, and to make a differ-

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A McGehee student volunteers at Kingsley House in 1955. Records of McGehee students supporting Kingsley House go back as far as 1921.

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McGehee seventh graders work with residents of St. Anna’s, 2002.

ence. These are the opportunities we as McGehee women are privileged to have. It is our obligation to make the most of them.

Today as in the past, McGehee students are well accustomed to making the most of opportunities. From developing a literacy program with second graders attending a local public school to connecting with elderly occupants of St. Anna’s residence; from gutting flood-damaged houses with the St. Bernard Project to holding food drives for Feeding America—today’s McGehee students live to serve.

Generations of McGehee students agree that the motto had little to do with privilege and prestige. In a poem written by Emilie Russell Dietrich Griffin ’53, she summed up her thoughts about the motto, but she also struck upon another chord: “That was the founding spirit, late Victorian, perhaps, but also very contemporary.”

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Literacy is one of the service learning programs at McGehee to be nationally recognized.

The role of community service or service learning as it has become known in the independent school community has only grown in its importance in recent decades.

Today it is central to the independent school education. Service learning addresses both curricular goals and standards in the classroom while meeting actual needs in the community. McGehee has been nationally recognized several times for its Service Learning Program—as a National Service Learning Leader School in 2002–2003, followed by the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Leading Edge Award for Community Relations, and the Connecting Ages Award by the Council on Spiritual and Ethical Education in 2008.

At McGehee, one of the newest members of the community service family is the Green Society, a club that brainstorms ways to make our campus more environmentally friendly. In 2009 the team raised money to buy custom Nalgene bottles and encouraged all of campus to use reusable water bottles instead of throwing away used water bottles. For Earth Week, McGehee students are reminded to walk, bike, or take the streetcar to school, as well as turn out the light when leaving a room.

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After Hurricane Katrina, McGehee students spent much of the year doing some type of community service, whether it was in City Park cleaning up debris or fallen branches or out in the wetlands replanting or helping build playgrounds in various neighborhoods. In 2008 a group of McGehee students and faculty spent their spring break on a community service trip to Costa Rica where they helped to create drainage systems in an area that had been recently flooded out—a topic obviously close to the hearts of any New Orleanian at that time.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina also saw several McGehee women rise to national prominence as each in different ways fought for change and started grassroots organizations that helped keep national attention on the city at its time of greatest need. Becky Curry Zaheri ’85 spearheaded Katrina Krewe, Ruthie Jones Frierson ’58 organized Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, and numerous alums were involved with Women of the Storm.

At the same time the organizations they helped form took a hands-on approach to citywide cleanup, federal support for recovery and wetlands protection, and legislative reform.

Opposite: Students gather on the front lawn on October 17, 2005, the first day of school after Hurricane Katrina.

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Founder’s Day, 2006 Headmistress Powers, faculty, staff, student body, and alumni, on behalf of the members of Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, we want to thank you for honoring our members this Founder’s Day.

It was here at McGehee School, our alma mater,

that we were taught the importance of community service to better our city by helping those in need and the invaluable role we have as women in shaping the lives of those in our families, our workplace, and our community. Never did we imagine that the needs would be this overwhelming, for Katrina and its aftermath has been the single worst disaster in the history of our country. We are all changed as a result of it.

The most encouraging and positive thing has been

the increase in citizen activism and involvement. The trigger for me was the rejection of levee reform and consolidation by the special legislative session last November. My thought was to try to organize a petition drive to compel Governor Blanco to call a special legislative session to resolve the levee issue. I began making calls and asked each person to call five others. The result was 120 people coming to my house for a meeting. Within a week, we had formed a true grassroots, nonpartisan organization. . . . This effort resulted in one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of our state being passed.

Our coalition of dedicated citizens, civic leaders, and elected officials came together to effect true reform.

This historic reform legislation has tremendous implications for the future of how our

public policy will be handled. The message to us all is that we cannot take responsible government for granted. We must stay alert, stay involved, and shine the light on the process so that the public is aware and will demand good government. Each of us needs to be informed—read the paper, listen to the radio and television, ask questions, and above all else get involved. This Founder’s Day, I am so proud to be a graduate of McGehee School, where serving community has always had such high priority.

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— Ruthie Jones Frierson ’58 Chairperson, Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, Founder’s Day Assembly, March 17, 2006

Opposite top: Until their schools reopened, brothers and sons were admitted to McGehee briefly after Katrina.

Opposite bottom: McGehee students made a map of all the places they went after the hurricane. Above: Terence Blanchard, father of Sydney ‘15 and Jordan ‘17, plays his trumpet on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

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Left: Volunteering for the Green Project, 2000. Above: Planting seagrass, 2007. Top: McGehee girls lend a hand to Habitat for Humanity, 2005. Right: Gaby Spangenberg ‘10 planting as community service.

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Today’s McGehee students live to serve.

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Digging Ditches in Costa Rica, 2011 As part the 2008–2009 Service Learning program, eleven McGehee Upper School students participated in the Central American Services Expedition and traveled to Yorkin in the Bribri territory of Costa Rica during their spring break.

The trip was absolutely amazing! I’d never been on anything quite like it before. We were staying in lodges without air conditioning and tons of bugs. I’ve always taken trips to hotels or resorts, but this trip was probably the best trip I’ve ever been on.

It was so peaceful in Costa Rica. The people all over Costa Rica, especially in Yorkin, were

eager to help you out whenever they could. I was amazed by all the similarities in our cultures. The people in Yorkin just went through a flood in December and their women’s group (Stibrawpa) is working with other organizations to repair the damage that was done to their homes. We can relate personally with that experience. We’re an all girls’ school that worked through the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. Not only have we both experienced disasters, but it was cool to see how we (even though Yorkin is in the middle of a rainforest and we live in New Orleans) laugh about the same things, have fun doing the same things and even talk about similar things. We had a chance to go to their high school and sit in on one of their classes. It was basically the same school you’d find in the U.S., except for the fact that it didn’t have air conditioning.

While in Yorkin, we worked on digging ditches to help drain the rain water, so the chil-

dren don’t have to walk in mud on their way to school. We also lugged heavy bags of wet gravel and sand up a steep hill and into a clinic, which they are in the process of rebuilding after the flood.

Afterwards we agreed we were happy to have helped them out. And we all saw how hard those volunteer groups must work in New Orleans.

Our trip to Costa Rica was absolutely incredible! I didn’t even mention one-third of what

we did, but if I told you everything, it would take you hours to read this!

—Ellen Curry ‘12

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The setting may be the Pacific rain forest of Costa Rica or right here in New Orleans, but the result remains the same; no young woman leaves McGehee without knowing that part of taking her place in the world involves service to others . . .

Noblesse Oblige.

Right: Elizabeth Weston ‘09 at rally. Below: Lower school girls pitch in to clean up the playground, 2007.

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Chapter Six

Tradition of Excellence, Fun, and Festivities

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radition is incorporated into every facet of life at McGehee. From the time a young girl is admitted and dons a crisp plaid jumper to the final graduation ceremony in a pale pink dress under the shade of oak trees, traditions are woven throughout the journey. These practices and rituals tell the story and vision of Louise S. McGehee again and again to every generation. The inheritance of formal ceremonies emphasizing academics, honor, and service is balanced by the culture of fellowship, friendship, and playfulness of young women fortunate enough to be educated inside the gates. These traditions are a tie that binds students and alumnae of every age to their McGehee foundation. The school calendar wraps itself around the customary ceremonies that mark the year: Nativity, Founder’s Day, May Day, and graduation. In between are other traditions that enrich a year in the life of a McGehee girl and create wistful memories for alumnae.

Early May Day photo from the collection of Mrs. Richard Ford ‘19.

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Ashley Van Wormer and Lindsey Olson at their graduation, 2004.

Graduation 1913: Seven girls wearing short white dresses and long kid gloves and carrying white peonies were the first graduates. Dean Butler of Newcomb gave the commencement address.

From that simple beginning a wonderful tradition has evolved. True to form, McGehee girls created a unique experience, choosing to graduate in pink starting in 1926 and setting themselves apart

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My Pink Dress

I know graduation is special to every high school senior, but one thing that makes the McGehee graduation unique is that all the graduates wear pink dresses. The seniors started wearing pink after a rebellious class in the twenties decided to wear pink dresses to reflect their class color. McGehee has always appreciated the voice of a “revolutionary” woman, and the dresses have stayed pink ever since. This is one of the many things I love about my school. When talking to my fellow classmates about their hurricane situations, one of my friends mentioned that if we had to go to a different school for the whole year, then we would not be graduating together. Then it hit me; I can’t graduate in white or in a standard cap and gown . . . this is not me . . . I have to find a way to graduate in my McGehee pink.

McGehee is such a great school; apart from just giving its students an education,

McGehee provided me with self-confidence and friendships that I will keep my whole life. It’s a place where the teachers not only know your name but they know everything about you from your study habits to your favorite movie. McGehee is the kind of place where the students have dance-offs in the locker room, dress up as characters from Pride and Prejudice, and play every sport because one doesn’t have to be an excellent athlete to participate. McGehee has impacted my life so much that there was no doubt I would graduate in pink. I waited fourteen years for the privilege.

— Bess Young ’06

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from all the other graduates around town. In a spirited burst of independence, the Class of 1936 decided to graduate in yellow, but were the only class to do so. Another transformation came in 1968 when that senior class moved the graduation ceremony to campus under the oak trees from Tulane University. Today graduation is held on the front lawn of the 2343 Prytania campus with all the girls dressed in pale pink and the beautiful Garden District at sunset as the backdrop.

“When in 1913 the first class graduated from Miss McGehee’s School, it was composed of girls who for the most part felt that they were founders of the school along with Miss McGehee,” noted an article from the Spectator. “When they left the school they decided that something must be done to keep them in touch with it. Then it was that they founded the Alumnae Association.”

By the second year Alumnae Association reunion lunches were held. In 1933 Miss McGehee held a reception for over two hundred of her former students on the twentieth anniversary of the school. On that occasion the Alumnae Association was reorganized, and each class elected a representative to the Alumnae Executive Committee. Today the Alumnae Association boasts twenty-four hundred members.

Our literary tradition had an early start as well. In 1916 the first edition of the Spectatress was published as a single-folded sheet, the beginnings of our literary journal. In 1920 the name was changed to the Spectator and published four times a year, each upper school class supervising and financing one issue. Beautiful student artwork graced the Spectator covers, spirited articles reported news of various aspects of school life, and local advertisements filled its back pages. The first hardcover, single edition of the Spectator was published in 1960, and in 1972 the Spectator became a true yearbook. There is now a separately published literary magazine called Melange.

Two definitive McGehee traditions, the Honor Code and May Day, originated in 1921.

McGehee’s was the first school in the city to adopt a student body government and an honor system.

(See Chapter 4, “Honor: Living the Code.”)

May Day. The May Court. The maypole. A momentous occasion in the life of the school, May Day enraptures not only the graduating class, but the sophomores and third graders as well, in its magic and majesty. According to the Spectator, “The celebration of May Day began but was quite different from the performance today. However, the May Pole was danced by young students, and a king, a queen, and their court were selected.” Today the May Queen and her court reflect the girls most respected by their peers as the true unsung heroines of the class, and the sophoAbove: Spectator, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1920).

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Reflections originally appeared in Meanings, The Spirit of McGehee, published in honor of McGehee’s seventy-fifth anniversary in 1987.

By 2011 McGehee School has been my second home for thirty-two happy years—eight as a student and twenty-four as a member of the faculty. I have had the benefit of a fine education, the wisdom of teachers who instructed both my mother and me, the guidance of my former teachers when I joined the faculty, the joy of lasting friendships formed in my student days, the support of capable administrators and fine teachers, and the pride in watching my students grow up, complete their education, and become contributing members of their communities.

When I became one of thirteen small, wide-eyed

fifth graders in 1947, our classroom and that of the sixth grade were formerly the grooms’ quarters in the carriage house. We had physical education classes in the same building where the wooden floors shook as we played ball or ran to lunch in the

Miss Katherine Gage in the classroom, 1974.

cafeteria, which had housed the horses. For assemblies and music classes, we climbed ,the steps above the stable/cafeteria and occupied the hayloft. As long as that room was used, it was known as The Loft. In the seventh through twelfth grades, our classes were held on all floors of the main building and in the old servants’ quarters. The first addition to the physical plant, the present middle school building, was built on the site of the old dormitory and completed when I was a senior. This was followed seven years later by construction of the lower school building, new cafeteria, and gym. All other additions and alterations have been made since I returned to teach in 1962.

Students have entered the Prytania Street gate for fifty-seven years. The world around

them has moved from the Great Depression to the space and computer age. The girls have worn different hairstyles and dress lengths, danced to different tunes, read different books, and watched different movies. However, the constants such as the school’s student government and traditions like May Day and the Nativity have been important to McGehee students throughout the years.

—Katherine Gage ’55

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mores honor their teachers and seniors in a well-meaning, but spirited satire with a healthy dose of homegrown humor.

The first known Nativity play by the seniors was in December 1922 and was recorded in the Spectator: “Friday night, December 22, saw McGehee’s School all lighted up for the plays given by the Junior and Senior classes. The audience, although not as large as we hoped it would be, was large enough to gratify us. The first play was ‘The Nativity,’ by the Senior class. This is the first time it has been given in New Orleans. It is a beautiful Folk Play, and we are proud to say that our school is the first one in the South to give ‘The Nativity.’”

In 1926 two new clubs were organized, the Dramatic Club and the Glee Club. Both traditions continue today, but the Glee Club transformed into the choir. “The Spectator staff wished the greatest success to the Dramatic and Glee Clubs, and may their good beginnings prophesy a brilliant career.”

Senior study made its debut in 1930. It was located in what is now the headmistress’s office.

Although senior study has had many homes, it is highly coveted by the class. In her 2011 Founder’s Day remarks, Katie Cian ’01 remembered that the senior study was housed in a trailer and taught her class a lesson in negotiation.

The first Founder’s Day celebration was held on March 29, 1935, the year after Louise McGehee’s death. “There was no school that day, but everyone came. In the morning there was an assembly

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Senior Study: Important Traits McGehee Taught Us When I walk around campus, I am often flooded with memories and am intrigued to see all of the changes.

The biggest change began when I was a senior. That year started the long process of turning the main

building into the library, and the old library into what is now the student center and faculty lounge. The senior study used to be in the very back left corner of the main building and opened up into the backyard. One November morning in homeroom, Mrs. Powers stopped by to talk with our class. She explained that the construction was going to begin in the basement of the main building, which would leave us without a senior study. In order to resolve the issue, the school was going to rent a trailer, park it in the side yard, and that would be our senior study for the second half of the year. It only being Mrs. Powers’s third year at McGehee, she didn’t want to rock the boat of tradition too much, so she said that our class could meet with her in a week and propose a privilege that we’d have in exchange. At first we were upset because we finally had the senior study and it was going to be taken away from us, but then we realized how glorious it would be to have a free-standing unit of our own, away from all the teachers and other students. We had just scored in a big way!

Back then, seniors had lunch privileges to leave campus on Tuesday and Thursdays, so we decided

that we would go to Mrs. Powers and ask for one extra day of lunch out. Since we knew negotiations would be in store, we decided to ask for lunch privileges every day of the week so that the compromise would be the one extra day.

The next week, a few of my classmates and I went to meet with Mrs. Powers, and the conversation was

incredibly brief and went something like this:

“Mrs. Powers, we are so upset about the study being taken away from us, but we understand why

it has to happen. We were hoping that our privilege in exchange would be lunch off campus every day of the week.”

Her reply, “Thanks for understanding, girls. If you can follow the rules and not be late getting back,

that sounds fair to me.”

We couldn’t believe it! Every. Single. Day. That night at dinner while I was telling my parents about

how glorious the whole thing was, I realized just what had happened. My classmates and I had used many important traits that McGehee had taught us while students. We had the courage to go meet with Mrs. Powers one-on-one, speak with her candidly, and negotiate a resolution that made both of us happy. I cannot tell you how important those three things are in life—courage; the ability to speak with anyone, no matter their current status or background; and negotiation.

In my adult life I’ve had countless negotiations with bosses, clients, and colleagues. I have courage to

face going to work as a pediatric critical care nurse, not knowing what will face me each day. I know that I can effectively communicate with my pediatric patients and their parents, other nurses, and the doctors, no matter any of their backgrounds. I feel confident in these strengths I gained while at McGehee and have watched some of my college friends struggle with these issues in their lives. Between academics, sports, choir, volunteer work, and student organizations, I truly believe that McGehee empowers its girls to become women who work effectively as leaders in their communities. I’m not sure what else a girl could ask for from a school to make them a better person than what McGehee has to offer.

— Katie Cian ’01 Opposite: Class of 1979 coordinates Founder’s Day cake with upper school musical, Mary Poppins.

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Things about McGehee I’ll Never Forget Almost eight years, and every day has had some little experience in a class by itself, and though I’m sure I can’t remember everything, there are a few things I’ll never forget about my McGehee school days.

“The Little Ladies Club” in the fifth grade, and the way we’d elect a new president at each

meeting, because of something the old one had done we didn’t like . . . the time we put a few tacks in Mrs. Peters’s chair because it was April Fool’s Day, and how she took her revenge on us with a spelling test . . . the experience of watching new girls enter the fifth grade . . . the time we all dressed up in blankets like Indians and went out in the front yard to bury the hatchet over a quarrel we had had with Deeda.

By the seventh grade, we were really growing up . . . our first exams . . . crushes on seniors

. . . having a sit-down strike in history class because we thought we could put it over on our substitute. In the eighth grade, we were printing and writing the Tattler . . . winning the song contest . . . having leads in the annual Thanksgiving play . . . finding secret passages on the third floor.

Suddenly we were freshmen and having the thrill and excitement of giving and planning

May Day for the seniors . . . struggling through first-year algebra . . . participating for the first time in high school activities such as Glee Club and Dramatic Club.

During our sophomore year, English classes are with Mrs. Yancey, who always bawled us

out so soundly in grammar school . . . carrying the daisy chain for our sister class . . . realizing (in an overdoing way) the part boys played in our lives.

Junior year, we shouldered the responsibility of having little sisters . . . wondering just

what Burke’s Conciliation was really about . . . the joy of electing fellow classmates to major offices.

And then our senior year, the best of all. The thrill and excitement of really being a senior

and all the senior privileges . . . having our own senior study hall . . . taking the student body test for the last time, and . . . well, so many other things that we all have to look forward to, to make our last year just a little bit more perfect than the years before have been.

— Jane Ivens ’46

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in the loft. Dean Pierce Butler of Newcomb College, a friend of Miss McGehee and of the school, paid tribute to her. Today, Founder’s Day remains basically the same—a day to honor the founder of the school,” according to Meanings, published on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the school. Founder’s Day has become a major event in the life of the school for current students and alums.

The Class of 1937 redesigned the school ring, made of gold and onyx and displaying the school crest. “Ring day is a special day for each junior girl.

Parents are invited to attend the reception,” Rowanne McIntyre McKnight ’89 remembered. “Each ring has a balloon attached to it and a special friend in the senior class presents each girl with her new class ring. Some rings are shared by sisters, daughters, mothers, and grandmothers. The juniors are required to get their ring turned around their fingers the same number of times as their graduating year.”

At graduation, the girls turn their rings so that the ship emblem embedded in the ring sails out of the harbor.

In 1938 Miss Yancey decided it was time for a new school song, and she held a contest. The winner was Jean Bumstead, whose version of the Alma Mater we sing today.

The Citizenship Award was started in 1943 to recognize upper school students who had given their best to McGehee in loyalty, achievement, and support. It was discontinued in Above left column top to bottom: 1926 Class ring; 1930 Class ring; McGehee charm. Above right column top to bottom: 1938 Class ring; 1934 Class ring; 1964 Class ring; 2006 Class ring.

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Opposite: Every inch of campus is used for Father/Daughter Luncheon. Photo from the 1970s. Opposite inset: Father/Daughter luncheon, 1979. Top: Eleanor Bernard ‘86 poses with her father. Above: Hannah Tyler ‘11 with her dad, Doug. Above right: Martha Pinney, Evelyn Argote, and Ainsley Snyder, Class of 2020, try on their dads’ coats for size.

the 1970s and reestablished in 1987.The class banners with their colorful felt patches recognize the loyalty, service, and achievement of grades five through twelve since 1943.

Each year at the opening and closing school assemblies, the incoming fifth grade receives its class banner and learns about the significance of earning patches throughout their years in middle and upper school.

The first father-daughter luncheon was held in 1961 and has become one of the most popular McGehee traditions. “Any graduate can well remember the smell of fried chicken wafting out of the cafeteria and the sea of dads, grandfathers, and special friends spilling out into every corner of the lawn and playground. The choir sang on the steps, and it was definitely one of the most festive school days of the year,” Rowanne McKnight added.

Uniforms were adopted in 1971, apparently as a form of self-defense during the miniskirt craze of the times.

A traditional blue and green with a red stripe plaid was chosen, and lower school girls wear jumpers; middle and upper school girls wear pleated skirts.

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Dad’s Club was organized in 1984 and is a reminder of how very important fathers are in the lives of their daughters. In recent years Dad’s Club has outdone itself in terms of events and attendance with swimming, movie, and bowling parties, as well as community service and road races to name but a few of the opportunities for fathers and daughters to bond.

Another popular tradition started in the 1980s was Little Sister / Big Sister. McKnight explained, The tradition of little and big sisters was a huge one.

Younger students were assigned a big sister but were not told who it was until on a surprise day, your big sister would come to your house and “kidnap” you before school for a silly scavenger hunt followed by a big breakfast together with other big sis / little sis pairs. Afterward, one would throw on a uniform and go to school, new “sister” in place. The big sister was a true shepherd to the little sister through the next two years, explaining the ropes of upper school and life ahead. The tradition continued as the little sister became a big sister to another younger student down the road.

Alums love to visit the campus and reminisce about the old days, but are constantly reminded how in some ways things have not changed so much. “Our generation was very aware of the traditions that we had inherited from the founding classes,” Lalise O’Brien Melillo ’60 said.

“Many of our mothers had known and been taught by Miss McGehee, and we had seen pictures of events like May Day in the past. This heritage was meaningful to us, though we also saw ourselves as initiators of new programs and customs that might, themselves, become traditional.”

Returning to campus in the spring of 2010 to give the fifty-year speech for her class, Melillo recalled, I had the pleasure and honor of working with the junior and senior classes, and I was struck by the way this balance of tradition and innovation has enriched their lives at the school. I had a wonderful conversation with the seniors about the May Day festivities that they had put on, and we discussed other events and customs that were completely familiar to me and to my classmates and that still resonate with today’s students. At the same time, the school has clearly been open and daring, moving into the twenty-first century in remarkable ways and allowing these young women to flourish within a setting that both treasures continuity and fosters growth.

Opposite: Lindsey Gibert ‘17 masters the hula hoop. Above: Big sister with little sisters on Spirit Day, 2002.

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One of the young students she met was Gaby Spangenburg ’10. Their conversation sparked these thoughts from Spangenburg: I think at McGehee, the word tradition means so much more than just participating in the same rituals repeatedly every year. It is the traditions at McGehee that bring the whole community together with a common activity or experience to bond over.

It is nice to know that in twenty years I can return to the Bradish Johnson house on graduation day and see girls in pink dresses, or go to the back courtyard in May to see the third graders dancing around the maypole while seniors wear white.

Ring Day is another tradition I love. Our class rings we receive on this day have so much symbolism and deep meaning which every girl strongly believes in. The turning of the ship on your graduation night is a moment when you cannot help but get goose bumps all over your body. McGehee’s traditions are unique and give the students something to look forward to each year. I remember as a middle schooler watching the seniors sing on the stairs before Nativity. All of us were in awe of these older girls and strived to be like them and sing on those stairs one day. It is all of these experiences that bring together each class, making them more like sisters rather than just classmates.

Spangenburg added, “The traditions I participated in gave me a connection to the past, present, and future students and community of McGehee. Thinking about how far back some of these rituals go is unreal. McGehee girls take great pride in our traditions. My middle and high school experience would have been completely different if it were not for the strong traditional ties McGehee has.”

As Melillo summed it up, “McGehee has found a beautiful and delicate balance between the sustained traditions that draw together the generations of women who have been part of the school and the new defining moments of school life that have evolved in response to a changing world.”

I think at McGehee, the word “tradition” means so much more than just participating in the same rituals repeatedly every year.

It is the traditions at McGehee that bring the whole community together with a common activity or experience to bond over.

— Gaby Spangenburg ‘10

Opposite: The May Day court, 1956.

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Chapter Seven

Athletics: Red and Grey

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n 1896 the first modern Olympics were held in Athens.

Women, however, were not allowed to compete. At the turn of the last century, questions abounded as to the soundness of physical exercise for women. The dangers of athletic competition for women were even more widely feared. The belief that competition would make a woman less feminine and jeopardize her ability to bear children was prevalent even among physicians and physical education instructors. Then the tide began to turn. By the 1900 Olympics, women were allowed to compete, but only in singles and mixed doubles tennis, as well as croquet. Nineteen women are recorded to have participated.

The year the Louise S. McGehee School opened, the 1912 Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden, and fifty-seven women representing eight nations were competing in tennis and gymnastics, as well as swimming and diving, which were added for the first time that year. Physical education for women was gently stepping into a new era, and McGehee was on the cutting edge once again. The original McGehee’s handbook proudly announced, “All gymnastic work is done out of doors. The grounds are equipped with basket-ball [sic] and tennis courts.” Physical culture was required and considered important enough to be listed under “Studies” between civics and mathematics, and the teacher was given equal billing with other faculty members.

The significance of Miss McGehee’s early recognition of the importance of physical education was later recognized in a 1936 interview with the gym instructor, Marie Musson, by then-sophomore Elsa Hoehn: “At this time gym was not compulsory in most of the New Orleans schools with the exception of Miss McGehee’s, thus you see that the importance of gymnastics

Opposite: McGehee pennant, 1931. Above: The Class of ‘46 vs. the Class of ‘47 in a game of volleyball in the side yard. Right: Felt letter from 1936.

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has been more fully realized. Today girls are more inclined to be athletic, for most of their amusements are those of swimming, tennis, etc., and sororities too have helped girls to enjoy athletics. The increasing enjoyment is largely due to new games and equipment. . . . The girls have always had almost excess school spirit towards Gym and have given me their entire cooperation.”

In the early years of the school, basketball reigned supreme at McGehee. A play-by-play description of a championship game between McGehee and Manual Training took up over three and a half pages in the March 1922 issue of the Spectator. However, on the other side of the page was this amusing note: “Gym! What does this little word mean to you? Does it mean being bored for half an hour twice a week by stupid exercises, silly games and being bothered by putting on those horrid middies and bloomers?” Fortunately, the article goes on to say, “To many girls gym does mean this, and they want us to agree with them that it would be much nicer to promenade on the avenue and see all their friends.

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But does gym mean this to you, or does it mean invigorating exercises, good sportsmanship, lots of fun, contests and games which we play with all our strength for McGehee or our classes?”

The first athletic banquet held in 1926 was actually called the Basketball Banquet, and it was an instant hit.

Last month one of the very nicest things that happened to the athletes of the school was the banquet given the Basket Ball [sic] team by the School. . . . Miss McGehee opened the banquet with a delightful little speech. Allie Rhodes, President of the Athletic Association, Ida May Born, who has served as referee in all the games this year and Adele Jahncke, Captain of the team, also gave brief and encouraging talks. . . . The dinner was brought to a charming close when Marietta Griffin, President of the Freshman Class, announced that in appreciation of the fine work of the Team, her class wished to present the players with basket balls [sic]. They proved to be lovely little pendants having on one side the owner’s name and on the other an M in red enamel.

Opposite: Gym news from a 1921 edition of the Spectator. Opposite inset: The basketball team of 1939. Top row, left to right: Edna Schlegel, Frances Rembert, Mary Virginia Taylor, Majorie Butler, Peggy Martin, and Miss R. W. Little, coach.

Second row, left to right: Eloise Colcock, Celeste Lyons, Cora Jahncke, and Gail Behre. Third row, left to right: Louise Schramm, Geraldine Gaudet, captain, and Jessie Janvier.

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Our Early Days of Basketball Reprinted from the Spectator The new school year opens with a brand-new plan of activities. Basketball, the most important of the fall activities, starts the beginning of November. Last year basketball practice was spread over a period of months and we even played other schools very late in the season, but this year we are going to practice for two weeks straight every day. There will be varsity practice once a week until all school and outside games are played, which will be before Christmas.

Miss Musson has taken the “March” in our school song literally and the floor will be

worn a couple of inches before we stop marching around the gym for class work.

For those who don’t play basketball there is badminton which has also become the daily

sport at lunch. A few play shuffleboard and some practice archery, but ring tennis and volleyball haven’t come in yet.

The main accomplishment of the athletic department this month was the dancing in Mid-

summer Night’s Dream. There were dances of moths, of bats, of grasshoppers, and of fireflies. Also there were two lovely solo dances by Starlight and Moonlight.

— Mary Ann Hackett Cummins ‘38

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Top: McGehee’s volleyball team plays hard at state playoffs. Above: Cross-country team in competition.

Right: Kathryn Smith ‘08 on the basketball court.

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The athletic banquet remains a much-anticipated event every spring, and from this event sprang several other popular traditions steadfastly held today, such as our school colors: red and gray. The color red, or rather scarlet, had been designated as one of the school colors a few years earlier. “Now as the Class of ’22 leaves, it leaves the colors scarlet and silver, to its Alma Mater. . . . The Scarlet stands for pep, action, character—the Silver gray for clear-headedness, dependability, singleness of soul and purpose.”

Athletics continued to grow and take an important place in school life. In the winter of 1929, “Miss Little had a new scheme never before tried in this school—dividing the whole of the gym classes into two divisions, the Reds and the Greys.” In 1955 the tradition of awarding small silver R and G charms was instituted to show exceptional effort, cooperation, and spirit in physical education classes. To this day all students belong to the Louise McGehee Athletic Association and either the Reds or Greys.

Alums continue to identify themselves as a Red or a Grey long after they have retired from the soccer field or basketball court.

Left and opposite: Felt letters from 1936. Below: Volleyball team huddles, 2002.

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W

Winning in Volleyball There’s nothing like it in the world, nothing else that can make you feel the way winning does.

The 3.6 seconds it took for me to hit the ball over the net were the longest of my life, and the few minutes after were the best. I thought winning last year was something I would never experience again, and I thought I was lucky to have been able to do it once.

Ten of us started off the summer season; we trained every day but Sunday, two hours in

the morning for conditioning drills and two and a half hours in the afternoon for court play. We went to two team camps, played teams we’d never heard of, teams from schools that some of us couldn’t pronounce. We went to Gretchen Fritchie’s house in Mississippi for a retreat where we did Coach Val’s “brain-busters,” watched movies, and grew to know each other. By the time we got to the “one big court,” there were twelve of us, and we were a family.

On a team like ours everyone played a part; everyone was friends with all members of

the team. One coach, two seniors, three juniors, five sophomores, and two freshmen, we all had different tastes and we are different people—an unlikely that the reason we won was because we had that one big hitter, one powerhouse, the one go-to person. I would like to tell you that the person was me, but I can’t. We were a team, and we, the team, are the reason we won; all twelve of us played a part—on and off the court.

It’s something that took more dedication,

more passion, and more effort than anything else I’ve ever done.

— Andrea Renée “Andy” Kutcher ’05

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mix. I would like to tell you

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Left: Eleanor “Ellie” Platt ‘10 competes on the McGehee swim team. Above left: Carroll Gelderman ‘11 pole vaults, 2009. Above right: Kathryn Smith ‘08 makes dive in softball.

In addition to the traditional sports such as volleyball, basketball, and baseball (now softball), McGehee continued to introduce various other activities, with an emphasis on social sports that students could carry with them after graduation, such as ping pong, badminton, tennis, and riding through special arrangements with the Audubon Riding Center. In the 1960s, trampoline, balance beam, tumbling, modern dance, and field hockey were introduced.

The social sports were eventually discontinued, and today the school offers nine sports: volleyball (in which McGehee dominates, having won several state championships), swimming, cross-country, basketball, soccer, tennis, softball, track and field, and golf. McGehee fields thirty teams, supported by twenty-seven coaches. Middle school has a rate of 85 percent participation, and 65 percent of those athletes continue to play in upper school.

Margo Jackson DuBos ’74, a varsity volleyball player and president of the athletic association during her senior year, recalls her early interest in sports and the influence McGehee athletics had on her: “By nature I am a competitive person, and I really enjoy exerting myself physically and mentally in response to a challenge. These are two constants in any team sport, and no doubt that was a big part of the attraction that sports have held for me all my life.”

Many McGehee student-athletes participate in sports even though some close friends may not play on athletic teams. The value

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Spirit Day would not be complete without a tug of war, 2010.

One great benefit of sports for women is that playing a team sport teaches young women to work together for a goal that is bigger than any of them individually.

of playing sports, recalls DuBos, is that athletics offered opportunities to get to know classmates as well as members of other classes. Playing sports also exposes McGehee students to activities they can enjoy long after graduation. “Today, I dance and exercise five mornings a week—and I love it,” says DuBos. “It reminds me of how much fun the class of 1974 had doing square dances in the gym. It wasn’t competitive, so the whole class enjoyed it. I remember fondly dancing to the Virginia reel and the do-si-do. To me, exercise and fitness are a lifestyle and require a commitment. I started while I was a student-athlete at McGehee.”

Many McGehee alumnae stay in touch with their memories by attending varsity and junior varsity games—either to reconnect with their alma mater or to watch their daughters, granddaughters, and nieces play.

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Reflecting on past concerns about women in sports being unfeminine, DuBos says, “I really don’t think that what you do defines femininity. To me, femininity is more about who you are, how you do what you do, and how you handle all the things that life throws at you. So whether you are playing sports or playing the piano, you can be feminine in your own way.”

One great benefit of sports for women is that playing a team sport teaches young women to work together for a goal that is bigger than any of them individually. “Learning to be supportive of teammates while still seeking to push yourself to the next level serves women well in a business environment,” says DuBos, the CEO of Gambit Communications Inc. and publisher of the Gambit weekly newspaper and bestofneworleans. com. “Playing sports is a lot of fun and can relieve the stress girls may feel in high school and college. I admit that society does still give out some mixed messages toward and about women. However, to be a successful woman in business today you must be assertive—and competitive.”

Lindy Arnof Kearns ’88 echoes DuBos’s thoughts. Entering McGehee in sixth grade, Kearns said she started playing sports as soon as she could. “Because of the size of McGehee I played all of the sports. I remember running in track meets even though I couldn’t make it to practice, because it conflicted with another sport. I remember the volleyball training was extremely intense. While others were enjoying the final days of summer, we were conditioning with expert coaches to kick off the junior year. Our team was undefeated.”

Kearns reveals another layer to the mystique of sports. “Playing sports at McGehee gave me an opportunity to make friends in other grades. Looking back on the experience, I think that is part of how I learned to get along with lots of other people. When I started working in the hotel industry, a boss once commented on how he was impressed with my comfort and ability to interact with everyone from the bellmen to the general manager. I gained this confidence from McGehee.”

Kearns was also able to play sports as well as be a peer-support leader, on student council, Protem her senior year, and start a SADD chapter (Students Against Drunk Driving) at McGehee. “Being at a small school made me feel as if I could make a difference in everything that I got involved in.”

Athletics serves a variety of purposes for different students, and the McGehee athletic department has a place for both the fiercely competitive and the girl who simply wants to participate. As one junior noted in a 1930 Spectator article, athletics helps develop a sound body and mind, the art of cooperation, and sportsmanship. Adding her personal sentiments she wrote, “Perhaps the reason why I like and praise physical training is . . . because it is downright fun. Nothing is more exhilarating than winning a game and realizing you have conquered. Nothing is more thrilling than a close, well-fought game even if you lose.”

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Chapter Eight

Board Leadership In 1929 the school had grown to such an extent that Miss McGehee and the parents of children in the school recognized the need for insuring the permanence of the school as an institution vital to the needs of the community. Accordingly, the school was incorporated and became The Louise S. McGehee School, Inc. The school is owned and operated as a non-profit making corporation. Control of the affairs of the school rests in the Board of Directors composed of men and women representative of the leading social, civic and business interests of the community. The Headmistress and the President of the Parents’ League are members of the Board of Directors.

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From the school handbook, 1934–1935

T

he Louise S. McGehee School was founded on the vision of one woman. Her vision launched the school into its early years of success, but with success came greater responsibility and the need to incorporate the school. In 1934 a board of directors composed mainly of the parents of her students was created to help guide the school and ensure its future. McGehee is the school it is today because of the mission of our founding headmistress coupled with the sound leadership of board members in the years since.

The board has been instrumental at every major step the school has taken. Some of the issues it faced in earlier years were opening or closing the dorms (1937–1953), tearing down the old dorm at 2323 Prytania to build the middle school and auditorium, building the lower school in 1962–1963 and dedicating the cornerstone for the new lower school at the 1962 Father/Daughter luncheon, or making the decision to add prekindergarten in 1973. At each point, the board analyzed and then supported those decisions.

Opposite: In the fall of 1929 the Bradish Johnson House became the third and current location of the Louise S. McGehee School.

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Second location of the school, 1439 Louisiana Avenue.

Above: The first location of the Louise S. McGehee School, 1520 Louisiana Avenue. Opposite top: The Bradish Johnson House lit up at night. Opposite top right: The First Street Building at the corner of St. Charles Avenue and First Street. Opposite left center: 2336 St. Charles Avenue. Opposite bottom right: Abby Hall, 2328 St. Charles Avenue.

Opposite bottom left: Third and Fourth grades are housed in this historic building, 1528 Philip Street.

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School’s first location in 1912 in 1500 block of Louisiana Avenue School’s location in 1914 1439 Louisiana Avenue School’s move in1929 to 2343 Prytania Street

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In modern times there have been several pivotal points in the school’s history. First were the years coming out of the 1980s when girls’ schools had fallen out of favor. Other hurdles came with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. And throughout the past decade, the McGehee board of trustees has faced the challenges of success as the school experienced explosive growth. All of these cases required sound and creative leadership, and that leadership was found in a series of dedicated, hardworking board chairs who were also McGehee mothers, fathers, alums, and grandparents.

Opposite: 1954 architectural rendering of the lower school building. Above: Board Chair Morgan L. Shaw and Headmistress Margarita Chapman at ribbon cutting, 1964.

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Traditional mayday photo on the staircase of the Bradish Johnson House, 1947.

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Commitment to Mission

Harriet “Muffin” Wilson Balart ’64 recalls many wonderful years on the McGehee board, including chairing it from 1995 to 1997.

Fortunately, when I was board chair we were in excellent shape. I really think that a driving force for all of us on the board has been the mission. And central to the mission is giving the girls the environment they need to excel, to develop leadership and humanity. It was wonderful for me to bring my McGehee experience to the chairmanship, all the traditions and fabulous teachers. Although I was not a leader while at McGehee’s, I am a good example of how the McGehee experience stays with you for life.

I am proud of the steps we have taken; we were bold enough to expand the school and keep the curriculum competitive. I will never forget Eileen when we were interviewing her, and this was critical to our future: she helped us refocus on our mission.

She had tremendous goals and ideas for McGehee’s and a lot of drive. She knew what she wanted the school to be, and she has taken it there. She’s been a strong headmistress.

Balart has been involved with many boards in this community, and she noted that the level of commitment of the McGehee board to the mission of the school is unique. “McGehee’s has always known what it wanted to be, and it has succeeded because of that. The driving force in our success is our mission to create an environment where a girl can reach her potential and fulfill herself, to be a good human being, a good servant to the community. The mission is so clear, so strong, and everyone has a commitment to it.” Her daughter, Anne, graduated from McGehee’s in 1994.

Fiscal Responsibility

George Young joined the Louise S. McGehee Board of Trustees in 1993 and chaired it from 1997 to 1999. His daughters Bess and Charlotte graduated in 2006 and 2009, respectively. Young inherited a school that was on the upswing, but there were many battles yet to be fought. “We stabilized the finances and made the budget work. We needed to market the school. But an all-girls’ school was an odd concept in the early 1990s. McGehee was strong through the 1970s, but the ’80s were a difficult decade,” Young recalled.

“So we formulated new strategies to market the school,” he said. “We focused on enrollment and reached out to students who would not typically apply. We made a commitment to increasing our diversity and meeting the financial aid needs of our families. Among the novel marketing solutions were two mantras from former board member Tommy Ellis. He said, ‘What we need is a waiting list.’” Added to that theory was the Ellis Echo Theory: the more good things you say about McGehee out in the community, the more will come back to you. As Margaret Wagner, headmistress from 1988 to 1998, said, “Perception becomes reality.”

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Cammie Kock Mayer ‘71; Ginger Kock ‘78; Mary Dickson ‘00; Anne Kock Montgomery; Marguerite Young Kock, mother of Anne ‘09 (kneeling); Mary Foster ‘47; and Marguerite Young at Anne’s graduation, 2009.

Young was on the board when the decision was made to do something cutting-edge: the first tax-free bond financing. “It allowed us to borrow money at a fraction of the current rate,” Young said. “We were able to borrow more money than ordinarily we could. We had a $4 million bond,” he noted. This bond issue allowed McGehee to do the 2001 renovation of the Bradish Johnson House, purchase and renovate the Susan Hackett House on St. Charles Avenue, address deferred maintenance, and make the campus wireless. “This expansion was our first bond issue, and it allowed us to take a different approach. We borrowed the money first and finished the project before we went to the parents with the campaign. We were one of the first independent schools to issue a bond,” Young added.

To ensure the future and the health of the school, the board also has great fiduciary responsibilities. With regard to the future, the endowment is key. During Young’s tenure the board took advantage of investing wisely during the bull market of the 1990s, he said, and made prudent use of the income from the endowment. “We adopted and adhered to a consistent policy statement regarding the endowment. A consistent investment policy has allowed growth even in dark times. We can’t change with the wind,” Young stated.

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S. Emily Smith ‘09 experiments in Bob Shaw’s physics class.

Taking Risks for the Future

In 2001 Pauline Hardin, mother of Katheen ’07, became board chair. She recalled another pivotal decision: “I remember we wanted to do some marketing and put out a glossy brochure.” She also remembered the price tag: fifteen thousand dollars, which at the time seemed like a big expense. “There was a big discussion on the board as to whether we could afford it or not. We decided that we could not afford to not do it.”

Marketing was one of the first steps she and the board took at this juncture. She said, The most significant thing we decided to do was just move forward. We bought the house on St. Charles and turned it into the Paulette de la Vergne Stewart ’57 Alumnae Center. We renovated the library and turned it into the Marsha Miller Wedell ’59 Student Center. We turned the Bradish Johnson House back into the Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin ’50 Library.. We started having a series of meetings and everybody became involved. We asked, “What would you like to see happen at McGehee?” We had a meeting with the students, alums, and parents, even the neighbors. We brought all of the

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Sketch of the Bradish Johnson House and the Middle School building.

constituencies together, hired professionals, and put together a master plan. Then we started our first major capital campaign. Within a couple of years there was a strong and steady increase in enrollment.

That was the jump start we needed. It started a lot of buzz in the city as to how McGehee was moving forward. We started seeing a big uptick in our admissions.

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At the same time, Hardin said, the board put similar emphasis on academics and faculty compensation. “It was an exciting time of moving forward on many different fronts.”

She credits this success to the synergy between the board and the headmistress.

Disaster and the Silver Lining

It was going to be a good year, it was going to be an easy year, Harry Hardin recalled of his one brief but intense year as chairman of the board, 2005–2006.

Sometime in August we were meeting and looking ahead at the coming year. Admissions were up, applications were up, college acceptances were stronger than ever, alum participation, annual giving, and endowment were all up. I looked at Eileen and said, “This is going to be an easy year.”

And then came Hurricane Katrina.

We had some interesting things happen. We were all scattered around the country and for a time there was no communication. So we started using the Jones Walker conference call system that was still up and working to hold board meetings by phone.

And I recommended that everyone find a fourteenyear-old to teach them how to text message on their phones. Being on the sliver by the river, we reopened in October because we were lucky only to have a little tree damage. Unexpectedly, a lot of our families were back and desperate to find a place for children to go to school.

Father of Kathleen ’07, Harry added, “It was a very emotional time.” The board and the administration worked together to devise a plan to reach out to the alums around the country and produced a heartwarming video of the girls coming back to school after the storm to show the alums. “So we went on the road to New York, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. We made our alums cry all over the country in joy and relief. It was a moving time.”

And the cloud that was hanging over New Orleans opened up, and goodwill and volunteerism rained down, he said. “In some respects, it was an easy year; it was just different than we

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expected. We raised over $1.4 million, and the board did not have to touch the endowment that year,” an incredible feat in the face of such devastation to the city. “We moved from a tight spot to a great spot.”

Planning for the Future

E. James Kock III, board chairman from 2006 to 2009, father of Anne ’09, also remembers the silver lining of Katrina. “We didn’t know what enrollment would be, what teachers to hire, and there was financial uncertainty. But despite all that, we had one of our most successful annual giving seasons ever. We opened a lot of doors with different people, and we reestablished contact with alums.”

One of the big uncertainties post-Katrina was enrollment. Remembering those somber days, George Young added, “Eileen said the city needs to reopen, but the city can’t reopen until there is a place for the children. She said we need to have schools open to support the city. She also said, ‘Expect to do a lot, and don’t expect New Orleans to be the same,’” he said.

Kock noted, “In August ’05 our enrollment was at an all-time high. How to come back after Katrina to that enrollment was a challenge. We had little physical damage, but due to the strength of Eileen’s leadership and being one of the first to reopen, we were back on our feet quickly.”

The board also recognized that it is the faculty that has made McGehee special throughout its history. Recalling his personal experience when touring the school as a prospective parent at a time when McGehee’s reputation was not at its height, Kock said, “I’ll give my wife Marguerite credit for bringing our daughter Anne here. I’ll never forget watching the teachers leading a PK class when we toured. We were sold.”

Each year the board considers that one of its most important mandates is faculty compensation, including professional development and benefits, and McGehee’s strong faculty retention is a reflection of the board’s efforts. “We supported teachers with professional development, technology, and a good working environment attentive to the needs of young families and working parents,” Kock said. “We were creative with our perks for our faculty. We were cutting edge.”

As board chair, Kock also faced the renovation of the First Street building.

When we first purchased First Street we had grandiose plans. But we had to put them on hold until the board made the decision that the timing was right to raise money to renovate. Enrollment quickly went back up after Katrina, and we needed the space. I give credit to the board for being able to acquire property when it became available and for being inventive with our dollars. We bought First Street at a tax sale.

I also remember when the house next door at 2328 St. Charles Avenue became available. We heard that the owner was interested to sell, and we had a long discusOpposite: A detail from the wrought iron fence on Prytania Street.

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Top: The Indians, Class of 2020, and the Pilgrims, Class of 2019, at annual Thanksgiving celebration, 2006. Left: Marsha and Henri Wedell cut the ribbon at the dedication of the Marsha Miller Wedell '59 Student Center.

sion about whether we could we afford it. What use would it serve for the school? And again we were very creative with our approach. We paid the owner a certain amount and then she donated a percentage back to the school and she took a tax write-off. The board had the vision to purchase that property for the expansion of the school. Now we can put the whole lower school in one area, middle school in another, and upper school in another.

Today the perception is that McGehee is at the top of its game. Much of that success is due to the school’s unique mission to which the board is committed and the fact that it is small by design.

“Eileen reminded the board that everything we do has to be reflective of our mission,” Kock noted.

“One of the beauties of McGehee is the diversity, openness, and flexibility we have here.”

Managing Success

“As we enter our second century, our challenge now is managing our success,” outgoing board chairman Herschel Abbott, 2009–2011, said.

Today, one hundred years after Miss McGehee opened her simple schoolhouse, McGehee has grown into an educational village of five historic buildings encompassing almost an entire city block. “One of the most important chapters in the history of McGehee is the success we experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” Abbott continued. “We were one of the first schools to reopen and allow our families to get back to the work of rebuilding our city. In the now six years since Katrina we have experienced explosive growth. Young families who are just moving to New Orleans as well as those who have lived here for generations are attracted to the strong reputation enjoyed by McGehee that is reverberating throughout the city.”

Abbott added, One of the reasons I accepted the chairmanship was because of McGehee’s important role in the community as a distinguished institution that has provided female leadership for over one hundred years. The board has provided continuity in leadership, and we have remained strong because we have remained nimble and flexible in developing our strategic plan as any healthy, nonprofit has to do in this day and age. McGehee has remained responsive to the changing conditions and needs of our families, building on our reputation as one of the leading girls’ schools in the nation.

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Afterword Greater and Better None of us can know what Louise S. McGehee School will be or look like in 2112, one hundred years from now. One thing we do know with certainty, though, is that it will be a greater and better place than it was transmitted to us in 2012.

While I was a student at McGehee, I made a promise to transmit the school greater and better than it was transmitted to me. It was part of our Honor Code. My mother—who was born in 1912, the year of McGehee’s birth—made that promise.

So did my sisters, aunts, cousins, and thousands of women who have enrolled at McGehee School in the last one hundred years.

Most of us probably did not understand the significance or assumed responsibility of that phrase. I certainly did not. Nor did I understand how that concept, the idea of continuous improvement, would color my life and actions to this day.

It seems safe to say that Louise McGehee understood that phrase and wanted to create a better world than the one she found, particularly the world of women’s education in 1912. It must have taken extraordinary strength, daring, patience, and common sense for her to do what she did. There must have been difficult moments. If what she did had been easy, we might have even more fine centennial schools in New Orleans than we do today. But she was driven and motivated to improve her world, and she persevered.

A continuous-improvement philosophy takes courage, patience, and common sense. It means knowing when and how to take the time to analyze your inherent strengths and challenges. It means having the vital leadership and commitment to keep and enhance the things that are working and to chart a better course or let go of the things that are not.

Having this philosophy as part of the McGehee education has ensured not only a greater and better school in 2012 than it was in 1912, but it also lays the foundation for young women to leave each of their worlds a better place. Having this philosophy helps the board and headmistress guide the school deeper into the next century as we encounter new challenges. As chair of the board of trustees for the centennial, I am confident that Miss McGehee’s vision for the school—her mission—will be the steady hand at the helm as we navigate the ever-changing waters of technology and globalization, as well as the growing demands on our facilities and curriculum. Our motto reminds us of our civic responsibility, and no matter the need, our motto provides the leadership to respond, just as it did in 2005.

Here’s to the next one hundred years!

— Charlotte Barkerding Travieso ‘60 Chairman of the Board at Louise S. McGehee School

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Appendix Headmistresses of McGehee School Louise Schaumburg McGehee — 1912–1934

Janet Wallace Yancey — 1963–1964 acting head

Janet Wallace — acting headmistress rest of 1934

Margarita Lopez-Trelles Chapman — 1964–1972

Nar Warren Taylor — 1934–1936

Maria Lourdes Fernandez — 1972–1982

Nina Preot Davis — 1936–1938 acting head

Janet Pamela Hensley — 1982–1984

Nina Preot Davis — 1938–1953

Molly Stark Strassner — 1985–1987

Elise McGehee and Janet Wallace Yancey —

Barbara Hill Ryan — 1987–1988 acting head

Margaret Wagner — 1988–1998

co-heads 1953–1956

Elise McGehee — 1956–1964 (1963 took medical

Eileen Friel Powers — 1998–present

leave one year, returned 1964)

McGehee Board Presidents by Year 1937–48

Adair Lyon, M.D.*

1981–84

Richard A. Whann

1948–50

Vance Greenslit*

1984–86

Hans A. B. Jonassen

1950–52

Clayton Nairne*

1986–88

L. Richards McMillan II

1952–54

J. Raburn Monroe*

1988–89

Elizabeth Shaw Nalty ‘60

1954–56

Frank G. Strachan*

1989–91

Carolyn McLellan Buckley ‘67

1956–57

Harris G. Lyman*

1991–93

Richard J. Gardner

1957–59

Donald H. Halsey*

1993–95

Robert C. Hassinger

1959–62

John P. Manard*

1995–97

Muffin Wilson Balart ‘64

1962–64

A. E. Alexander*

1997–99

George V. Young

1964–65

Morgan L. Shaw*

1999–2001 Ron E. Samford

1965–67

McDonald Stephens*

2001–03

Pauline Hardin

1967–69

E. James Kock*

2003–05

Cammie Kock Mayer, ‘71

1969–71

George Coiron*

2005–07

Harry S. Hardin

1971–73

Simon Ward, M.D.*

2007–09

E. James Kock III

1973–75

John Hammond*

2009–11

Herschel L. Abbot, Jr.

1975–77

David Conroy*

2011–13

Charlotte Barkerding Travieso ‘60

1977–79

Pierre Lapeyre

*deceased

1979–81

James McComiskey, M.D.*

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First Alumnae Association Board President — Frances Kittredge Burke ‘24*

Vice-President — Lummie Bartlett Irwin ‘29*

Secretary — Marlou McCall Brown ‘23*

Treasurer — Anna Meyers Opitz ‘21*

Alma Hammond ‘13*

Nancy Allen Ogden ‘27*

Alice Dameron ‘15*

Jane Pharr Gage ‘28

Alice Parkerson ‘15*

Jean Martin Wilson ‘30*

Isabel Seymour Romain ‘16*

Gerry Gaudet Geary ‘31*

Muriel Saxon Lambert ‘17*

Flo Singreen Walters ‘32*

Elizabeth Parkerson ‘19* As printed in the Act of Incorporation of Louise S. McGehee

Wilmot Hall ‘20*

School Alumnae Association, Inc. May 23, 1933,

Clara Fitzpatrick Pratt ‘21* Betty Hardie Capomazza de Campolattaro ‘25*

*deceased

Allie Rhodes Walmsley ‘26*

Alumnae Board Leadership Frances Kittredge Burke ‘24*

Rosemary Gugert Kennedy ‘44

Suzanne Wolfe Fromherz ‘66

Jane Hayward French ‘26*

Jane Bland Morrison ‘46

Tina Shannon ‘71

Helen Bell Wagner ‘29*

Mary Foster Kock ‘47

Cynthia Miller Yeates ‘72

Lynne Hecht Farwell ‘31*

Peggy Werner Edwards ‘48

Laurie Ellis Doyle ‘75

Lady Helen Henriques Hardy ‘33*

Sue Toledano Treadway ‘53*

Lindsey Baker Rohm ‘75

Susan Buck Mayer ‘33*

Constance Carriere Barkley ‘55

Carolyn Wood Lorio ‘77

Dotte Singreen Collins ‘37*

Katherine Gage ‘55

Eugenie Lyman ‘77

Kay Braselman Boylan ‘38*

Carolyn Gelbke McCall ‘57

Ann Clayton Pizzo Chamberlain

Evelyn Senter Claiborne ‘39*

Eleanor Tolbert Farnsworth ‘58

‘82

Mickey Dureau Howell ‘40*

Ann Maylie Bruce ‘60

Elise Lapeyre Merlin ‘87

Janet Jones Lorber ‘40*

Blanche Kirchhoff Gray ‘62

Wendy Corona Joseph ‘88

Dottie Eaves Kostmayer ‘41

Suzanne Maginnis Whann ‘62

Jo Thomas Collins ‘42*

Claudia Harold ‘64

Gayle Stocker Denegre ‘44*

Kitty Claiborne Schmidt ‘65

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*deceased

May Day Queens Clara Fitzpatrick Pratt ‘21*

Yvonne Paulet Beeson ‘53

Katherine Harang Hunter ‘87

Mary Bryan Bruns ‘22*

Dixie Stafford Trace ‘54

Wendy Corona Joseph ‘88

Marlou McCall Brown ‘23*

Virginia Jones Callicott ‘55

Katherine Magnuson Ragsdale ‘89

Pokey Smith ‘24*

Franca Trinchieri Camiz ‘56*

Blake Howard Brown ‘90

Florence Pierson Hammond ‘25*

Lynne Murray Gleason ‘57

Ashley Ilgenfritz Rogers ‘91

Flora Hardie Fenner ‘26*

Alys O’Brien Venable ‘58

Laura Wootten Rush ‘92

Betty Werlein Carter ‘27*

Sally Chapman Goodyear ‘59

Felice Viguerie Killian ‘93

Sally Reed Atkins ‘28*

Ann Wisdom Stolley ‘60

Jody Burks Reese ‘94

Margaret Mooney ‘29*

Kathy McMillan ‘61*

Kathleen Viguerie Banta ‘95

Jean Myers ‘30*

Sally Stocker Maxson ‘62

Dana Parks ‘96

Louise Hoehn Hogan ‘31*

Barbara Manard ‘63

Miranda Restovic ‘97

Celestine Ross Wallace ‘32*

Jane Eustis ‘64

Stacy Babovich Karaszewski ‘98

Kathleen Eshleman Maginnis ‘33*

Debby Flowers Edgerton ‘65

Corinne Seltzer Skott ‘99

Belle McGehee Lipscomb

Pat Bass Ehlinger ‘66

Kaydee Doyle 2000

Bonnie Riess Pope ‘67

Katie Cian ‘01

Sarah Buck Wilson ‘35

Alice Marquez Wright ‘68

Bonita Robertson ‘02

Mary Hoehn Roth ‘36*

Loretto O’Reilly ‘69

Rachael Marcus Johns ‘03

Seweese McLellan Jumonville ‘37

Mimi Stafford Dalland ‘70

Amanda Thompson ‘04

Sarah Villere Bohlen ‘38*

Meredith Muller ‘71

Emmy Kelly ‘05

Eleanor Logan ‘39*

Jeanie Crane Cian ‘72

Yasmin Abbyad ‘06

Nathalie Crump Grehan ‘40

Mary Nel Watters Arbaugh ‘73

Jeanie Riess ‘07

Mary Grey MacDonald ‘41

Virginia Holbrook ‘74

Jenna Way ‘08

Nancy Nunez Stern ‘42

Beth Gardner Boeing ‘75

Kelsey Zeitzer ‘09

Barbara King Amedee ‘43

Jill Praetorius Oubre ‘76

Ellie Platt ‘10

Tee Rand Beatrous ‘44

Liz Conroy Morris ‘77

Blair Johnson ‘11

Josephine Rodgers Morrison ‘45

Nonie Perdigao Grayson ‘78

Sis Ochsner Mann ‘46

Deirdre Provosty Jasmin ‘79

Mary Pennebaker Wikstrom ‘47

Melissa Puyau Manuel ‘80

Martha Herbert Walker ‘48

Ashley Pipes Bowen ‘81

Carol Keyes Rader ‘49

Ann Clayton Pizzo Chamberlain ‘82

Patsy Clesi Wood ‘50

Page Pizzo Castle ‘83

Daisy Meriwether

Ellie Hobson Rand ‘84

Johnson ‘34*

VanDenburgh ‘51 Matilde Bonilla Sternfels ‘52

Susan Meriwether Lee ‘85 Liz Slatten Healy ‘86

P 134

*deceased

Student Body Presidents Maud Williams Gomila‘21*

Jane Anderson Rote ‘54

Mary Hassinger Schmidt ‘88

Beatrice Ford ‘22*

Carol Connett Roberts ‘55

Jill Giordano Butterworth ‘89*

Tippy Pool Wilson ‘23*

Donna Odom McNamara ‘56

Susie Weston Davis ‘90

Stella Hayward Vieth ‘24*

Carolyn Gelbke McCall ‘57

Rachel Scheuermann Givens ‘91

Betty Hardie Capomazza de

Mary Ann McLellan Stroker ‘58

Fran Williams ‘92

Campolattaro ‘25*

Marsha Miller Wedell ‘59

Felice Viguerie Killian ‘93

Jack Bartlett Kelleher ‘26*

Lalise O’Brien Melillo ‘60

Angela Matherne Faust ‘94

Rosalind Rogan Meade ‘27*

Murray Maught Pitts ‘61

Alison Ramhofer Dicksey ‘95

Elizabeth Pierson Hogan ‘28*

Randy Lorber Stephens ‘62

Sarah Babovich Offner ‘96

Lummie Bartlett Irwin ‘29*

Barbara Manard ‘63

Christine Melchers DeMint ‘97

Jean Martin Wilson ‘30*

Susan Andry Milling ‘64

Betsy Hassinger Van Horn ‘98

Lynne Hecht Farwell ‘31*

Cindy Samuel ‘65

Brandy Branigan Lawrence ‘99

Ruth French Hershey ‘32*

Bee Ewin Fitzpatrick ‘66

Charlotte Maumus 2000

Frankie Talbot Yeargain ‘33*

Missy McLellan ‘67

Alex Sedlander ‘01

Betsy Bradley ‘34*

Janine Unkauf Wesenhagen ‘68

Lauren Sedlander ‘02

Sallie Tebo Chisholm ‘35*

Tita Collins Hebert ‘69

Kolbi Johnson ‘03

Charlotte Carter Smith ‘36*

Steffie Samuel Dupuy ‘70

Valerie Blackman ‘04

Elizabeth Bethea Hiatt ‘37*

Cindy Ross Schoenberger ‘71

Kris Budde ‘05

Ruth Hackett East ‘38

Melissa West ‘72

Mary Frances Gregorio ‘06

Betty Grant Smith ‘39*

Ginger McHale Tobey ‘73

Gretchen Fritchie ‘07

Charlotte Hillyer Dupuy ‘40*

Cory Smith Meyers ‘74

Rachel Bland ‘08

Bettie Brewster Stockton ‘41*

Beverly Ogden Dickinson ‘75

Kendall Fritchie ‘09

Patsy Gibbens Caffery ‘42

Kathleen McKee Garey ‘76

Sam Tillery ‘10

Ellen Schneider Brooks ‘43

Tynia Thomassie ‘77

Carroll Gelderman ‘11

Betty Browne Fouts ‘44

Marian McFarland McGavran ‘78

Hallie Brown ‘12

Martha Nicholson Fox ‘45*

Constance Barkley-Lewis ‘79

Elsie Landram Layton ‘46

Carolyn Kelly York ‘80

Toni de Bonneval Frederick ‘47

Amy Springer ‘81

Cheri Hinds Sewall ‘48

Madeline Hughes Haikala ‘82

Holly Walker Butler ‘49*

Molly Russell Creel ‘83

June Coleman Hinckley ‘50

Jennifer Case ‘84

Betty Sanford Molster ‘51

Charlotte Russell Bradford ‘85

Mimi Rainold Gibert ‘52

Dodie Carpenter Powers ‘86

Sue Toledano Treadway ‘53*

Ashley Joseph Wallace ‘87

P 135

* deceased

Student Council Presidents 1923 †

Patty Hanley Rabig ‘56

Ashley Smetherman Lemmler ‘90

1924 †

Lynne Chapman Rencher ‘57

Tasha Metz ‘91

1925 †

Joan Gueymard McCloskey ‘58

Gifford Riess ‘92*

Dorothy Benedict Dalrymple ‘26*

Corinne Thomas Marlow ‘59

Kathy Pham ‘93

Betty Werlein Carter ‘27*

Joan Matthews Starr ‘60

Chalon Viosca LaFleur ‘94

Sally Reed Atkins ‘28*

Jane Alexander Mathes ‘61

Shannon Brown Blakeley ‘95

Margaret Mooney ‘29*

Lynn Garrison Shelton ‘62

Kelly Becker ‘96

Lise Wehrmann Wells ‘30*

Nina Shaw Ross ‘63

Miranda Restovic ‘97

Gerry Gaudet Geary ‘31*

Dixie Tucker Madigan ‘64

Elizabeth Jahncke ‘98

Jane Carey George Phelps ‘32*

Allison Brennand George ‘65

Caitlin Mabile Hitt ‘99

Alice Buford Taylor ‘33*

Mary Lou McCloskey O’Keefe ‘66

Monica Mega 2000

Meezie Hebert Sims ‘34*

Dottie Kostmayer Landry ‘67

Meredith Wilson Blanque ‘01

Alice Westfeldt Mathews ‘35*

Peggy Woodward ‘68

Jordan Samford Lambert ‘02

Adele Williams ‘36*

Susan Aiken Fonger ‘69

Rachael Marcus Johns ‘03

Edith Fenno Labouisse ‘37*

Lydia Kostmayer Scanlon ‘70

Megan Cian ‘04

Betty Schramm Poitevent ‘38*

Tina Shannon ‘71

Katie Wohl ‘05

Jean Bumstead Williams ‘39*

Cynthia Miller Yeates ‘72

Suky Kang ‘06

Arthe Monroe Duncan ‘40

Charlotte Christman ‘73

Sarah Witt ‘07

Ellie Witherspoon Caffery ‘41

Anne Murphy Leche ‘74

Catye Cantrall ‘08

Dottie Hecht Cooper ‘42*

Kathy Johness Mossy ‘75

Kimber Ashman ‘09

Gladys Malcolmson Povey ‘43

Susan Jewell Whitaker ‘76

Sydney Proze ‘10

Donnie MacDonald Strayhorn ‘44

Greyson Haddad Brown ‘77

Kinsey Schell ‘11

Brucie Witherspoon Rafferty ‘45

Vicki Vosbein ‘78

Emily Ann Sharpe ‘12

Jean Browne Davis ‘46

Tanya de la Vergne ‘79

Blayney Nicholson Tillett ‘47*

Elizabeth Flanders Clay ‘80

Pat Halsall Colville ‘48

Liz Herkes Hillard ‘81

Lucie Crane LeCorgne ‘49

Cici Lapeyre Weinmann ‘82

Suzanne Melancon

Betsy Campbell Richard ‘83

Montgomery ‘50

Lauren Smetherman Lacerda ‘84

Betsey Boisfontaine King ‘51*

Teresa Collazo Ashkinazi ‘85

Gladys McCarroll McIntosh ‘52*

Malti Tewari ‘86

Betsy Maught White ‘53

Allison Cornelius Alleva ‘87

Judy Johnson Carse ‘54

Elizabeth Nalty Smither ‘88

Babs Hitchcock Finn ‘55

Rowanne McIntyre McKnight ‘89

P 136

† Multiple students served as representatives to Student Council * deceased

Index Numbers in italics indicate images.

———

Blanco, Kathleen, 80 board of trustees, 114–29 bond financing, 122

a cappella choir, 55

Born, Ida May, 105

A Chorus Line, xii

Boteler, Louise, 52

Abbott, Herschel, 129

Bradish Johnson House, xii, 8, 41, 115, 117, 120, 122, 123–24

Adams, Kathryn, 43

Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education, 69, 77 cross-country, 106 culture, importance of, 62 Cummins, Mary Ann Hackett, 105 Curry, Ellen, 84

Adelaide Wisdom Benjamin ’50 Library, 123–24

Brooksher, Rebecca, 50

Dad’s Club, 97

Brown, Hallie, 84

dance, 53

Advanced Placement courses, 29

Brown, Patsy, 15

Deak, JoAnn, ix

Alumnae Association, 90

Brown University, 4

debating team, 24

Alumnae Executive Committee, 90

Bumstead, Jean, 95

Dewey, John, 20

Argote, Evelyn, 97

Butcher, Helen Nalty, xi

Dickson, Mary, 123

arts program, reflecting the founder’s mission, 34–37

Butcher, Laura, xi

dorms, 114

Butler, Majorie, 104

drama, 39, 40–41, 45, 50, 55

Butler, Pierce, 4, 92

Dramatic Club, 92

Ashman, Kimber, 64 athletics, 102–13. See also individual sport listings

DuBos, Margo Jackson, 111–13

athletic banquet, 105, 108

Cambon, Elise M., 52, 54

athletic insignia, 102, 103, 108, 109

Caughman, Whitfield Colbert, 14

Audubon Riding Center, 111

Central American Service Expeditions (CASE), 84 “Ceremony of Carols” (Britten), 54

Baker, Carolyn, 32

Choristers, 53

Balart, Harriet “Muffin” Wilson, 121

Cian, Katie, 92, 93

Barnard College, 4

Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, 79

basketball, 104–5 Basketball Banquet, 105 Behre, Gail, 104 Bendana, Jeanne Hopkins, 14 Benjamin, Adelaide Wisdom, 60, 64, 66

Citizenship Award, 95 Citizenship girls (Class of 1932), 25 class banners, 95 Clinton, Hillary, 27 Cochran, Katherine, 51

Bernard, Eleanor, 97

Colcock, Eloise, 104

big sisters, 45

Columbia University, 4, 20

Birthday of the Infanta, The, 41

community service, ix, 10, 71. See also Noblesse Oblige

Blake, Francis, 4 Blanchard, Jordan, 81 Blanchard, Sydney, 81 Blanchard, Terence, 81

concert choir, 53 CoopeCampesinos, 84 Costa Rica, community service trip to, 79, 84

P 137

Dunn, Sarah, 67 Earth Week, 77 Eastman, Max, 10 Ellis, Tommy, 121–22 Ellis Echo Theory, 121–22 endowment, 122–23, 126 Ensemble, 53, 56 Eshleman, Kathaleen, 15 Evenchick, Fannie, 13 extracurricular activities, 24 faculty retention, 126 Father/Daughter Luncheon, 96–97, 114 Feeding America, 76 Felicia Feydra LeRoux: A Cajun Tall Tale (Thomassie), 32 feminism, 10–11 Fernandez, Maria, 22, 52, 119 field trips, 27

fine arts, 42, 43

Hensley, Janet, 22

Lambert, Jordan Samford, 63

First Street building, renovation of, 126

Herin, Nancy Pacella, 66

Lanaux, Isabel, 84

Heuer, Morgan, 84

Les Petites Chanteuses, 53

Hightower, Patrice, 24–26

library, 8

Hiller, Helen Lowe, 17

literacy programs, 77

H.M.S. Pinafore, 41

Little, R.W., 104

Hockaday School, 58

Little, Gail Behre,

Hoehn, Elsa, 102

Little Gate, 53

Honor Code, ix, 60–69, 90

Little Sister / Big Sister, 99

honors courses, 28–29

Loft, The, 41, 91

Howard, Mary Meyers, 66

Lorio, Carolyn Wood, 64

Gage, Hillary, 22

“How Schools Shortchange Girls” (AAUW), ix

Louise the Hawk, xii

Gage, Jane Pharr, xii, 13, 22, 73–74

Hughes, Langston, 10

Gage, Katherine, 22, 91

Humphreys, Adele, 48

Gardner, Adrienne, 37

Hurricane Katrina, 54, 58, 78–81, 125, 126, 129

Fitzmorris, Mary Leigh, 58 Forster, E.M., 70 Foster, Mary, 123 Founder’s Day, 45, 52, 55–56, 80, 92 fourteen-year club, 6 Frierson, Ruthie Jones, 79, 80 frigate, as school symbol, vii, 14 Fritchie, Gretchen, 109

Gardner, Beth, 47 Gaudet, Geraldine, 104 Gelderman, Carroll, 51, 111 Gibert, Lindsey, 98 Gilligan, Carol, ix girls’ schools, history of, ix Glee Club, 92 Goldstein, Katherine, 55–57 Gough, Grace, 14 graduation traditions, 86–89, 120 Grease, 51 Green Project, 82 Green Society, 77 Gregorio, Mary Frances, 65 Griffin, Emilie Russell Dietrich, 76 Griffin, Marietta, 105 Habitat for Humanity, 82 Hammond, Alma, 15 Hardin, Harry, 125–26 Hardin, Kathleen, 123, 125 Hardin, Pauline, 123–25 Harris, Darian, 23 Harvard University, 4

Louise McGehee Athletic Association, 108 Louise S. McGehee School for Girls.

See McGehee School Lyons, Celeste, 104

integrity, 62

Marcus, Rachael, 64, 67

Ivens, Jane, 94

Marsha Miller Wedell ’59 Student Center, 32, 123

Jahncke, Adele, 105 Jahncke, Cora, 104 Jahncke, Elizabeth, 74 Janvier, Jessie, 104 Johnson, Blair, 51 Jones, Melissa, 70

Martin, Peggy, 104 Mary (for Nativity), honor of being selected for, 6 Masters, Megan, 32 Matherne, Malayne, 84 Matherne, Miranda, 51 May Day, 44, 45–47, 55, 87, 90, 100, 101

Kang, Suk Young, 68

Mayor, Cammie Kock, 123

Katherine Pharr Gage ’55 Archives, 4

maypole, 44

Katrina (hurricane). See Hurricane Katrina

May Queen, 6, 90

Katrina Krewe, 79 Kearns, Lindy Arnof, 113 Kingsley House, 75

McFetridge, Katherine, 38, 54, 73 McGehee, Elise Scott, 4, 10, 38, 57, 70 McGehee, Ethel Scott, 27, 38, 52

Kock, Anne, 126

McGehee, Louise Schaumburg, xiii, 2, 3, 9, 12, 15, 24, 54, 105

Kock, E. James, III, 126–29

character of, as embodiment of the Honor Code, 64

comparing European and American educational systems, 7

concerned with current affairs, 10

Kock, Ginger, 123 Kock, Marguerite Young, 123, 126 Kovach, Katherine, 48 Kutcher, Andrea Renée (Andy), 109

P 138

education of, 2–4, 20

educational philosophy of, 20–22

importance of physical education, 102

Monsted, Lucile Scott, 9

encouraging community service, 10, 73

entering, from New Orleans public schools, 28

faculty, dedication of, 29

encouraging independence, 11

family of, 2

Honor Society, induction into, 66–67

few writings of, 5

inclusivity and diversity of, 6

graduation requirements of, 22

humor and sarcasm of, 13

lower school building, architectural rendering, 118–19

Nalty, Abby, xi

legacy of, 15

marketing of, 123–24

Nalty, Betsy Shaw, xi

memories of, 9–15, 60

mission of, 121

Nalty, Layne, xi, 58

modesty of, 8

National Merit Scholarship Finalists from, 28

Nalty, Morgan, xi

promoting tough, formal education for women, 10–11

opening announcement and mission of, 16–17

sense of humor of, 8

vision of, for the school, 5–7, 114, 131

receiving awards for involvement in service learning, 77

Montgomery, Anne Kock, 123 Moore, Maud Fox, 52 Mount Holyoke Seminary for Girls (Mount Holyoke College), 4 music, focus on, 37, 53–55 Musson, Marie, 102–4, 105

National Association of Independent Schools, 77 National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS), ix National Council of English Teachers, 4

McGehee, Schaumburg, 4

relocation of, 4–5

National Honor Society, 66

McGehee, Scott, 2

reputation of, 129

Nativity, 45, 48, 49, 55, 90–92

McGehee School (Louise S. McGehee School for Girls)

sense of sisterhood at, 6

Nativity, The, 48

speakers at, 10

Newcomb College, ix, 4, 18

students, images of, 9, 18, 25, 26–27, 30–31, 128, 130. See also image listings throughout index

Nguyen, Tina, v

teaching about finding success in failure, 50

Norwood, Virginia, 57

1439 Louisiana Avenue, 5, 41, 116

1520 Louisiana Avenue, 9, 116

1528 Philip Street, 117

2323 Prytania, 114

2343 Prytania campus, 88

McIlhenny, Virginia Smart, 38

2328 St. Charles Avenue, 117, 129

O’Brien, Lalise Moore, 13, 15, 60

McKnight, Rowanne McIntyre, 95, 97, 101

Olson, Eleanor, xii

Abby Hall, 117

McNairy, Daisy, 84

boys temporarily admitted to, 81

changes at (1970s–1980s), 22

Meanings, The Spirit of McGehee, 91, 92

class graduation photos, 28, 29, 120

Melange, 24, 90

opera, 57

Melillo, Lalise O’Brien, 99, 101

O’Quinn, Maisie, 84

college placements from, 26–27

Mentorship program, 18, 29

Orleans Club, 4

Michaels, Anne Balart, 121

Ortkiese, Grace, xii

continuous-improvement philosophy of, 131

designed as college prep school, 17–18

Noblesse Oblige (school motto), ix, 70–85

Olson, Lindsey, 88 Olympics, 102 O’Neil, Katherine Huff, 61

Middle School building, 124 Miguel, Don, 84

Parents’ League, 38

early curriculum of, 18, 20–22

Miss Blake’s School, 4

early faculty members, 17

Miss Lottie Miller’s School, 24

Paulette de la Vergne Stewart ’57 Alumnae Center, 123

early recognition of the

mock trial, 24

performing arts, 45 Peters (Mrs.), 94

P 139

pink dresses, 86–89, 101

Smith, S. Emily, 123

visual arts, 57–58

Pinney, Martha, 97

Smith College, 4

vocal music, focus on, 37, 38

Pirates of Penzance, The, 51

Smither, Elizabeth Nalty, xi

volleyball, 103, 106, 108, 109

Platt, Eleanor (Ellie), 110

Smither, Emily, xi

Wagner, Margaret, 122

Powers, Eileen Friel, ix, 58, 93, 121, 125, 126, 129

Smither, Madison, xi

Wall, Susan Vieth, 28

Snyder, Ainsley, 97

Walmsely, Lucinda, 15

social sports, 111

war efforts, support of, 72, 73

softball, 68–69

Warrington House, 10

Soomro, Alia, 43

Wedell, Marsha, 128

Southern Association Report, The, 27

Wedell, Henry, 128

Southern Association of Southern Schools and Colleges, 26

Wellesley College, 4

prekindergarten, addition of, 114 Progressive Education Association, 4, 20 Progressive movement, ix, 20 raising the flag, 63 Reds and Greys, 108 Rembert, Frances, 104 Rendeiro, Remy, v Rhodes, Allie, 105 Rich, Wilmer Shields, 73 Ring Day, 95, 101 Robertson, Bonita, 6 Roh, Margot, 73 SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving), 113 Samuel, Cynthia A., 10–11, 54 Schell, Kinsey, 51 Schlegel, Edna, 104 school colors, 108 School News, 24 School Oath, 69 school song, 95 Schramm, Louise, 104 self-expression, value of, 62 self-government, 60 Senior Internship, 29 senior lunch privileges, 93 senior study, 22, 92, 93 service learning, 77 Shaw, Bob, 123 Shaw, Morgan L., 119 singing on the stairs, 37 Smith, Kathryn, 107, 111

Spangenburg, Gaby, 83, 99–101 Spectator, The, 24, 90, 113 Spectatress, The, 24, 90 Spirit Day, 112 St. Anna’s residence, St. Bernard Project, 76 Stokes, Caroline, 84 Stroker, Mary Ann McLellan, 64 Susan Hackett House, 122 Taylor, Mary Virginia, 104 technology, in the classroom, 32–33

Weston, Elizabeth, 85 Where Love Is, God Is, 48 Wilson, Tippy Pool, 13 Winter Choral Concert, 59 Wohl, Katie, 66 women

equal opportunity for, 11

woman suffrage, 10

women’s colleges, emergence of, 4 Women of the Storm, 79 Wonder Hat, The, 41 wrought iron fence, Prytania Street, 127

Tremaine, Catherine Burns, 57 Thomas, Norman, 10 Thomassie, Tynia, 32, 47 traditions, 86–101 Trapolin, Tim, 34, 43, 52, 58 Travieso, Charlotte Barkerding, 131 Tulane University, 4 Tyler, Doug, 97 Tyler, Hannah, 97 Under the Sea, 35 uniforms, 97 Upper School Choir, 36 Van Wormer, Ashley, 88 Vassar College, 4

P 140

Yancey, Janet Wallace, 38, 54, 57, 94, 95 Young, Bess, 58, 89, 121 Young, Charlotte, 58, 121 Young, George V., 58, 121–23, 126 Young, Marguerite, 123 Young, Sarah Chesser, 58 Young Singers, 53, 59 Zaheri, Becky Curry, 79

Cover photo: Isabelle Merlin, 2024; photography by Kristen Martty Dry, 79

P b

P c