Pryor Scrapbook Clippings, 1955-1980

~ OF. THE MAY' FETE-_ Miss Kirsten Christensen was powned. Jut Saturday affen:aooia by Dr. Joe Pryor m the aanual ~ directed and spomored by the Ju!Go~u "– men'• soaal club. Runnen-up for -the honor were Miss Virginia o,pa, and Mn. Edna Lamberson Cloact Kirsten, nominee of J(appa Phi IIOCial club, is a junior home economics major from llkchcoek, S. b. ft.is year she is juni_gr re~tative to the ......t eoaneil. ~ ' t (oo .. l\lrs. Florence M. Cathcart, dean emerita of women at Harding 1 \ Coll.ege, die<1'early Tuesday morn- ing at a Searcy hospital. Her death at 84 years of age ended a career in Arkansas education ' that spanned a period of ?6 · varied and active years. When a chapter of the Future Teachers of America, the NEA affiiiate for students, was estab– lished at Harding, the organiza– tion was named ''The Florence Cathcart Chapter" and she was made honorary sponsor. As instructor of elementary edu– cation from 1939 until n~r retire– ment from part-time teaching only I three years ago, as dean of wo– men from 1939 to 1947, an d earlier as an elementary school instructor for more than 20 years Mrs. Cathcart touched the lives Qf thousands of stl!dents, . ho~ eel-~ el4ifue~, - She came in 1924 from Harper, Kansas as a student to Hardir.lg College' < then at Moqiltoh >. Socn· she . was serving the college as 1 primary teacher in its elementary training school, a positi~n she retai~d until 1947, helping as critic teacher to train many scores I of Arkansas public · school teach– ers. Meanwhile she became the college's dean of women as well as instructor of elermntary · education. Author of the words of Hard– ing's "Alma ' Mater," Mrs. Cath– was a significant influence on the campus ~her days as a stu<lent~ in 1924, the year in which the song was writ- Even after becoming dean of women, she maintained an in– terest in the elementary school, continuing to direct and supervise a "Rhythm Band" for first · and second graders at the };larding EJ,9mentary School. Mrs. Cathcart was active in many cormnunity affairs and ci– vic projects. During World War I she . joined volunteers and gave first aid instruction in first· aid at Mulvane, Kansas, where she lived at that time. In Searcy she was particularly active in the Searcy Garden Club and the Hard– ing Elementary PTA. On campus she helped direct the Alpha Honor 1 Society (now Alpha Chi) and the dramatics fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega. She was herseH active in dramatics, being a mem~r of the earlier group, the Camptis Players. ten. Stie h~rself was a graduate 1 ol the institution, completing her ' l3.A. degree in 1932. The college recognized her life and service in 1951 by naming its newest women's dormitory "Cathcart She was a Bible teacher for many years. Among her treas~ ed possessions was a large Bible inscribed from th'? Ladies Bible Class at the church of Christ at Mulvane, Kansas. She was a mem- Hall." ber of the College church of Christ and active in its educa- \ tional program for many years. She was also a member. of the National Education Association, the Arkansas Education Associ– ation, and the National Associa- 1 tion of Deans of .Wo~n. ,Born Mattie Florence . Gwinn on August 7, 1875 at Saline County Missouri she later attended publi~ schools 'm Harper, Kansas. She studied at Kansas Teachers t College__intermittently from 1895 to 1898, then stucli.'<f music edu– cation at Friends University, Wi– chita, and at Southwestern, Win– field, before enrolling at Harding College in 1924. She received her B.A. in 1932, two years before th,9 college came to Searcy. She was married August 12, 1898, to Orien G. Cathcart, who died some years ago. A:. son, Orene Gwinn Cathcart, lives in San Francisco. She is survived also by several nieces and ne– phews, among them Mrs. Dorothy Allen, Lawton, Olahoiba, Mrs. Ed Carnes, Fann~. N e w r Mexico, and Arch.Thompson, Mc– Alester, Oklahoma. · Funeral services \@I be held at the College churcl of Christ on East Race Street Thursday l at 10 a.m., with Harcling's presi– dent, Dr. George S. Benson, in ' charge. Interment will be in Oak I Grove cemetery. , i