My Senior year began with a BSU pre-school retreat. It was there that I really became friends with Barbara Corrington (now Mrs. Jack Tolar, Jr.) Our friendship was to deepen with many experiences shared throughout the year. I had been elected President of the campus YWA and that year was filled with activities related to the office. We had a successful Big Sister-Little Sister party at the beginning of the year. We also sponsored the Lottie Moon Week of Prayer and Offering on the campus. This was a most rewarding experience, although it was not as successful as I had prayed that it might be. My mistakes, which were numerous gave me a more realistic self-concept. It was in November of that year at the BSU state convention in Hot Springs that I became convinced that God was calling me to prepare for overseas mission service. I made my decision public in the final service of the convention and wrote to Miss Dawkins of the Foreign Mission Board after I returned to the campus informing her of my decision.
Dormitory life was an important factor in the process of my education. I enjoyed it although I was not always blessed with the ideal roommates or neighbors. Even then I thought it was just possible that I was not the ideal roommate or neighbor. Our room somehow became the gathering place for whatever floor or wing we were living on. I like to think that the handy half gallon of peanut butter which we always kept on hand had nothing to do with our popularity.
During my Senior year my roommate, Lillie McKnight was President of the Women’s Student Government and I was Secretary of the same group. This really frustrated our Resident Counselor because she didn’t know who to bring us up before when we had midnight pizza parties in the basement kitchen or moved the giant Christmas tree from the first floor parlor to the third floor. I was grateful that the Dean of Students had a sense of humor.
One of my responsibilities in WSG was to plan and direct the receptions following student recitals. At the end of the year I could have written a book on making punch. My favorite was the one to which I forgot to add sugar. Had it been the Religion faculty instead of the Music faculty I probably would have been dismissed from school for spiking the punch.
My student employment was as secretary in the Student Senate office., Dick Norton had been elected President of the Student Body and I was looking forward to working with him again. However, he was stricken with meningitis in the early weeks of school and we had to hold another election. Unfortunately, I served as a campaign manager for the loser (again) and working with his opposition was not the most pleasant task I have every had. Happily, at our last meeting we had a good laugh about our differences and parted friends.
Our BSU director that year was Linda Day, who had graduated from Ouachita the year before. We had become fairly close friends during my Junior year, even though she always managed to start dating everyone I expressed an interest in. I had attended the Missions Conference at Southwestern Seminary again, and came away convinced that I should serve as a BSU Summer Missionary. At the Council meeting where we were to elect the nominees from our campus, there was almost unanimous agreement that I should be one of those selected. I say almost because Linda Day was not of the same persuasion, and of course those whom she suggested were chosen.. this probable was one of my greatest disappointments. I did feel much better about it when the boys from our campus were selected and served so well.
This must have been my year of “pert nigh but not plumb,” as we say in Arkansas. I was nominated for Who’s Who, but missed it by one point. I was selected to represent our class in the competition for Queen of Play Day. The queen was chosen on the basis of the number of points her class accumulated in the activities during the day. We tied with the Junior Class and I had to share the “honor” with their representative.
As graduation neared I began to wish that I had the security of a teaching certificate. I knew that I needed to work for a year or two before going to seminary. Since Ouachita offered only a few very general courses in Religious Education, I was not very well prepared to assume a position in a church. However, I did go to a Baptist Church in Texarkana as part of a revival team with the possibility of being called as youth director. The committee seemed interested and contacted me several times after that weekend. It seemed fairly certain that they would call me, but at graduation time, I had not heard from them. The same church was considering my roommate Lillie, as organist, and she was having the same experience with them as I was having. I received a phone call from the chairman of the committee about three or four weeks after graduation. After I assured him that I definitely would not be going to seminary in the Fall, he assured me that it was all but settled. I never heard from them again. I finally took a secretarial job with the Arkansas Fair and Livestock Show and later started working at Kempner’s, one of the better stores in Little Rock. I had worked there during the Christmas holidays for several years and my sister had been with them for almost twenty years.
I continued to live with my sister and attend Calvary Baptist Church. I worked with the GA’s, taught a class of Junior girls, was director of a Primary Training Union Department, and sang in the choir. In my spare time I dated a boy who also worked at Kempner’s Department Store.