BELLES OF ST. MARY’S
March 7,1958
WELCOME
Mrs. Stamey!
The dramatics department of St.
Mary’s is most fortunate to have
Mrs. Nancy Stamey as its director.
Mrs. Stamey was born in Nashville,
Tennessee, and attended Columbia
College of speech and dramatics
in Chicago. After graduating, she
taught dramatics at Sherwood
school for children. Mrs. Stamey
started her teaching career in Wis
consin, and from there she went
to Georgia, North Carolina, and
Houston, Texas.
In Houston Mrs. Stamey was an
active member of the Houston
Little Theater’s studio of speech
and dramatics. There she was a
personal friend of the late Margo
Jones, who was just starting her
dramatic career also (Margo Jones
progressed from director of the
Community Players to Broadway
where she directed Ingrid Bergman
in her part in Joan of Lorrain.
Before she died she had a theater in
Dallas.) Mrs. Stamey has met many
other famous stars of screen and
stage.
Mrs. Stamey has attended many
drama workshops in the following
colleges and universities: Hunter
College in New York, Adephe’ Col
lege in Long Island, the University
of Wisconsin, the University of
Minnesota, the University of Utah,
and Michigan State College. She
has had three seasons of profession
al stage experience playing on
college campuses throughout the
Midwest. The summer before last
she taught acting to the Junior
playmakers at the University of
North Carolina and at the same
time took courses in directing.
Mrs. Stamey has distinguished
herself in her work with children’s
acting groups. She has been a pro
fessional story teller and director
of children’s pagents. She has also
served as the children’s theater
director for nine years in Raleigh.
During this time twenty-five major
children’s programs were produced
and the work was written-up in
five national magazines. One time
four hundred children tried out
for the part of Heidie. Mrs. Stamey
has assisted children’s theater
groups from Maine to California.
Mrs. Stamey is extremely active
in the Raleigh Little Theater,
where she is now in charge of
casting. She played in the follow
ing plays: Snafier, Years Ago, Two
Blind Mice, The Philadelphia Story,
Ring Round the Moon, and Harvey.
In the last play she won an Oscar
as the best actress of the year in
the part Veta Louise. She has
just finished acting in The Solid
Gold Cadillac as the leading lady,
Laura Partriedge. The role was
created by Josephine Hull for
Broadway.
Drama has always been in Mrs.
Stamey’s life. She joined the St.
Mary’s staff in September. She
believes that the theater is in a
healthy stage, especially on College
and University campuses. The
students have such clear wide
awake interest in the many facets
of the theater.
LIFE
At Saint Mary's
“With its customary decorum and
conservatism, Saint Mary’s had
entered the twentieth century,
which during its first half was to
bring two world wars, the en
franchisement of American women
and a revolution in their dress, the
perfection of the automobile, the
airplane, the radio, and the motion
picture, the apotheosis of the gad
get, and a highly accelerated tempo
of life.” The Confederate flag was
“still memorialized in the school
annual as the grandest flag that
ever waved and paid tribute to the
Negro mammies, former slaves,
who had reared most of them and
who with such admirable faithfull-
ness and devotion after their
emancipation had attached them
selves to “their white-folks.”
“Specializing in the education
of daughters of the Southern
Quality, Saint Mary’s was permeat
ed by the conventional atmosphere
surrounding the southern women
of the best class, in which she was
regarded as primarily the charm
ing, modest, religious home-maker.
This was excellent for the develop
ment of character, but otherwise
in education it left something to be
desired. It was a viewpoint, long
prevalent in the South, which had
produced in this region a breed of
women who probably were un
surpassed in charm, grace, personal
purity, and moral rectitude by
those of any other society in the
world, but who in the advance of
women in education, economic in
dependence, and political interest
lagged behind most of their sisters
in the rest of the United States.”
“That comparative backwardness,
however, was of no real concern
at Saint Mary’s at the beginning
of this century. The young ladies
there in their billowing skirts and
high-collared, tight-sleeved waists or
in evening gowns of modest decol-
letage wished, properly enough, to
be womanly above all else. From
afar rumors had reached them of
certain unsexed females who want
ed the ballot and of still others who
had attended those institutions of
higher learning which aped the col
leges for men, such as those estab
lished by Matthew Vassar on the
Hudson River and by Sophia Smith
in the valley of the Connecticut; but
like their mothers, fathers, and
brothers, most Saint Mary’s girls
of that period regarded these pe
culiar females with pitying scorn
and something of horror as dis
pleasing and pathetic anomalies of
the gentler sex. In the minds of
the majority it was hardly less
reprehensible to wish to secure
higher education that to be “fast”
enough to smoke a cigarette.”
This is an expert from the book
Life at Saint Mary’s this exerpt
being written by the late Nell Battle
Lewis.
Keeper of the castle to knight in
shinning amor:” Rosamund isn’t
here anymore
She was devoured by a dragon”
The new Yorker
The first man who went to the
crusades was Robinson Crusoe.
I Encountered A
She-Monster
I came from the land of Lilli-
whiteput. I don’t know how it all
happened, but one morning I woke
up and found myself no longer in
Lilliwhiteput but in'a brick build
ing of tremendous size with a white
columned porch Which had the
foreign word Smedes on it. Yow,
was I amazed ! ! The front door
suddenly opened and there stood
a she-monster twelve times my
size. The girl didn’t even notice me
and I slipped under her feet thru the
door. I was quite relieved to have
escaped that danger and certainly
did hope that I didn’t encounter
another she-monster like that again.
I went into the huge room on the
right and quickly jumped with
fright. The walls were covered with
he-monsters much bigger than the
girl I had just encountered. Besides
these men didn’t move but just
stared at me in a most vindictive
manner. I ran from the room and
up the first steps that I came to.
I do believe it took me two hours
to climb to the top of those stairs.
When I finally did I walked into
the first room I came to. I saw a
large door at the end of the room
so I wandered out the door. Never
have I been so surprised at what
I saw. Thirty of those she-
monsters all stretched out as if
they were dead. They were all
dressed alike with blue bottoms
and strange white tops. Strange
noises were coming out of at least
five different boxes sitting at
various places. None of the she-
monsters seemed to be paying any
attention to these boxes, however,
but just lay in one position with
their eyes tightly closed. Some of
them had black things on their
eyes which made them look very
odd. I decided the best thing would
be for me to leave these red and
brown corpses quickly. I wandered
into another room where much
activity seemed to be going on.
Weird sounds which I guess you
might call music was blaring from
a box. TWO shei-monsters were
holding hands in the middle of
the floor and jerking each other
back and forth. Many more she-
monsters were sitting on the floor
clapping their hands. Two jumping
around in the middle of the room
where making the funniest con
tortions of their bodies that I
have ever seen. They were both
half bent and looked so intent on
what they were doing that I
thought maybe they were in a
trance until all of a sudden one
let out a yell of strange words.
“Go, go, go.” I knew that I wouldn’t
fit in with this wild bunch so,
fearing for my life, I slid down
the banister until I came to the
very bottom of the stairs. My eyes
opened wide. I saw hundreds of
she-monsters marching and yelling
up and down the halls. All these
she-monsters were carrying large
square objects in their hands which
I heard someone call books. I de
cided to follow them to see where
they were going. W’^e left Smedes
building and went into another
building called Cheshire. After we
entered one room all the she-
monsters went to a cabinet and
T-DAYS
The week of March 10th has two
entertaining assembly programs in
store. On Tuesday, March 11th
Becky Walters will introduce a
cellist who will perform for the St.
Mary’s girls. Thursday, March 13,
the students of Mrs. Hague will
play various selections on the
piano.
Novel And
Biography Are
Added To Library
The Edge of Darkness by Mary
Ellen Chase is a new novel. The
story takes place on the coast of
Maine and is concerned with a
group of fishermen and their fami
lies. The story happened on the day
that Sarah Holt, the center of the
community, was buried. Sarah had
lived long and well, and her life
had a great effect on the people of
the small fishing village. When she
died the people saw their own
lives in a new light and never again
were they the same. The book has
much humor, and its setting by the
sea gives it the charm that only
maritime stories have.
The Gallant Mrs. Stonewall by
Harnett T. Kane is a biographical
novel about Anna Jackson, wife of
Stonewall Jackson. Because Anna
was faced with much tragedy and
sadness during her lifetime and
because she met these difficulties
gallantly, she is worthy to be called
gallant. She stood loyally by her
husband and in his times of
triumph, she experienced a great
fulfillment and happiness. The book
is a love story full of faith and
honor.
each got out a strange looking
black object which I later found
out to be called a microscope.
They all started staring intently
into these black things, so I decided
to investigate the room. I bumped
into a big round container. I care
fully opened it and looked in. I
nearly got sick when I saw hun
dreds of long worms almost as large
as I. I ran as fast as I could back
to Smedes again. Wheri I got to
the foot of the stairs, I noticed
many small boxes with white
things in them. She-monsters wei’e
all around the boxes just starring
at them. Once every few minutes
a she-monster would jump up
when she saw a white thing and
scream “He wrote me, he wrote
me!” Then some of the other she-
monsters would gather around her
and hug her— all of them scream
ing at once. This was enough for
me. I ran up the stairs and out
the front door. As I was walking
out the door I tripped and bumped
my head. The next thing I kner'^
I was back in Lilliwhiteput. When
I tried to tell my people about those
huge she-monsters, no one would
believe me. I’m beginning to think
it was all a bad dream too.
Rags make paper
Paper makes money
Money makes banks
Banks make loans
Loans make beggars
Beggars make rags.