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GoldenGlimpses Autumn 2017
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A Lifetime of Sigma
Contributed with thanks to Marilyn Beiter, Beta Xi and past Golden Violet Coordinator While growing up in the small town of Versailles, MO, Charlotte Smoyer Myklebust had a strong desire to attend college. In 1943, she enrolled at Central Missouri State College in Warrensburg, MO. There she made lots of friends and she also made the decision to join Nu Chapter. In 74 years, Charlotte, now 92, has been a member of Northern Virginia, California Long Beach, Denver, Colorado and St. Louis alumnae chapters. She is presently a beloved member of the St. Louis Alumnae Chapter. They love to hear her many stories and experiences. Charlotte’s college years were during WWII so there weren’t many activities her chapter participated in. Social activities were curtailed because someone’s loved one was always going off to war. Rationing and blackouts were facts of life. She needed a job to help pay for sorority, and worked at a pharmacy owned by the husband of a Sigma sister. Charlotte met her first husband, Richard, during a blackout while in school. He offered to walk her back to the sorority house after work. He was a Navy pilot so flight school in Pensacola, FL followed, but he came back to Warrensburg to propose marriage. Charlotte eventually received a three-year teaching certificate, finishing her degree through correspondence courses. Charlotte’s first teaching job was grades one through seven in a small town of Fortuna, MO, population 120. It was a near one-room school house. She would receive her Master’s degree in social work by attending universities in Colorado, Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Virginia. Being the wife of a Navy pilot required several upheavals and moves. They had one daughter, Tana. Although marriage to Richard ended in divorce, Charlotte eventually remarried, and moved several times. During her travels, she worked as a principal of the Red Feather School for Retarded Children in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She then taught in Alexandria, VA at the Arlington Special Needs Education School. After finally retiring in Ft. Garland, CO, she volunteered at the museum there, establishing their tour program and writing the script for the docents. Throughout her moves, Charlotte remained faithful to Tri Sigma, holding various offices in the many alumnae chapters to which she belonged. She was awarded the Golden Violet designation in 1993. A fond memory of her Sigma years living in Denver was becoming good friends with Helen Cartwright. She counts Mabel Lee Walton, Margaret Freeman Dixon Everett and Santee Dunham among her wonderful friends. While living in the D.C. area, Charlotte and her husband Mike liked to visit National Headquarters in Woodstock, VA. Men are not allowed in certain areas of the house, but Mabel Lee liked Mike, and he was “okayed” to go visit those areas. Charlotte has attended a half dozen National Conventions, first one was in Estes Park, CO where she met Mary Hastings Holloway Page Lovejoy. She attended the Centennial Convention in 1998 as well. She says she is grateful for the chance she has had to travel, meeting Sigma sisters who became life-long friends.