Belles
OF ST. MARY’S
Vol, XXIII, No. 14
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
May 27, 1960
Graduation Is Here ! Rev. James McDowell Dick, D.D.
On Saturday, May 28, the
j-ophomore Class Day exercises will
take place and immediately follow
ing will be varied alumnae func
tions including The Rt. Reverend
Richard Henry Baker, D. D. Bish-
tip of North Carolina as the fea-
ured speaker. In the afternoon the
‘-eniors will hold their Class Day
exercises and at 8:30 the St. IMary's
Dlee Club will present a concert.
On Sunday the Bacculaureate
■-ermon will be given by the Rev-
^end .James IMcDowell Dick, D.
t''Jio is rector of The Church
n 1 Oood Shepherd, in Raleigh
nd has just celebrated his 25th
nniversary with that church. Dr.
ichard G. Stone, President of St.
, nry’s, will give a tea in his home
p^ft afternoon for Parents and
'laduating Classes. Another of
traditions of St. Mary’s will
i revail as each class mounts the
^Ps of Smedes Hall and presents
its songs. The girls attired in
white dresses are arranged in such
a manner that the Seniors sing
their farewell and the .Juniors rise
to take their jilaces.
The graduation exercises will be
held in the auditorium and the
graduation speaker is Dr. Cecil
Abernethy who is Dean of the Fac
ulty of Birmingham Southern Col
lege. Dr. Abernethy is an old
friend of St. ^Mary’s in that he was
chairman of the Visiting Commit
tee of the Southern Association of
College and Secondary Schools and
spent several days here in the fall.
IMany of the students conferred
with' him at that time and St.
Mary’s considers it an honor to
have him as the commencement
s])eaker. After the graduation ex
ercise the marshals will gather and
the chief marshal will drop a hand
kerchief signifying the end of
school year 1959-60.
Dr. Abernethy Graduation Speaker
Counselors Chosen For ’60'’61
■ehn girls have been
Tlie-^^ counselors for 1960-61.
Tii appointments were made
m-p Edith Alston,
of Student Government,
Ihll n VTight, Chairman of
will The following people
.Ja„ as senior counselors:
iMnv Eawson, Trudy McGinty,
liom-^ Atkinson, Ini Lii Rid.en-
Dip ’ ‘'^‘'ctha Pat Bell, Susan Poe,
^^>anton, Edith Alston,
i-v Erittain, Anna Cay Hen-
^Eargaret Midyette,
Pip. , Ehnore, Betty Lynch, Clevc
sy p*^ Eorrest Williamson, Pat-
Lippcls, .\rcher Lee
eonu?p ’’ JE'cky Petrca, .Jill Hol-
comk ’ retrca, .im nui-
Eov ®'*cffield Wilson, Dede
•Tnliif*’ Earter McAlister, Trudy
®on, Suzanne Bowles, IMary
Marshall, yiary yJoore, Brandy
McKinley, Hannah Wright, Ann
Osterman, Linda Ramsey, .Jo Ann
Rochow. yJolly Cooper, Helen
Reid, -A.nn Tyler, Amelia Yancey,
Betsy Dunn, and Muff Nabers.
Serving as counselors for the day
students will be Stuart Austin and
.Jean yicKimmon.
It is an honor for these juniors
to have been chosen as counselors.
They will assume their duties a
few‘days before the beginning of
school in Sei)tembcr. Two of their
responsibilities will be the keeping
of order on the halls and also being
around twenty-four hours a d.ay
in order to be ‘available at all times
to someone with a ju-oblem or need.
Congratulations are in order for
the new hall counselors.
Dr. Cecil Abernethy was born in
Charleston, South Carolina, on
April 8, 1908. He is the son of
William Hines Abernethy, of Per
ry County, Alabama, and of Ann
Pierce Rast Abernethy of Loundes
County, Alabama. The youngest
of five sons. Dr. Abernethy receiv
ed his education in the Birming
ham Public Schools and his A. B.
degree from Birmingham-Southern
College, in 1930. He attended the
University of North Carolina in
1930-31 and received his M. A. in
English in 1935. From 1930 until
1935, Dr. Abernethy taught Eng
lish and speech at the West End
High School, Birmingham. From
1935 until 1937, he was a teaching
fellow at Vanderbilt in the Eng
lish Department, and received his
Ph. D., in 1940. His doctoral dis
sertation, “A Critical Edition of
Sidney Lanier’s Tiger Lilies” was
incorporated into the fifth volume,
“Tiger Lilies and the Civil War
Prose,” of The Centennial Edition
of the Complete Works of Sidney
Lanier published by the .Johns
Hopkins University Press. He re
turned in 1939 to his alma mater
as an instructor in English after
having taught for a year and a half
in the Engineering College at the
University of Alabama.
During his twenty years of ser
vice at the college. Dr. Abernethy,
m addition to teaching, directed
tlie college theatre for twelve years.
As a result of a research grant
made available to the • college by
t h c Carnegie Corporation, Dr.
Abernethy began his research in
the Restoration period and more
specifically in the Diary of Samuel
Pepys. A work that began as a
study of the Restoration theatre
devdoped into a ten-year interest
in the full social life of the period.
In IMay, 1953, his article “Mr
Pejiys Goes to the Coronation” ap
peared in the Saturday Review. In
November, 1957 his book, Mr.
Pepys of Seething Lane, was pub
lished by McGraw-Hill,
In September, 1958, upon the
resignation of Dean Henry T.
Shanks, Dr. Abernethy was ap
pointed to the deanship by Presi
dent Stanford. Dean Abernethv is
a meiiAer of Phi Beta Kappa, 0‘mi-
crom Delta Kappa, and Sigma Al-
plia Epsilon social fraternity. He
IS a member of the Independent
Presbyterian Church of Birming
ham. “
Dr. Abernethy married .Janice
Johns of Birmingham in August
1940. They are the parents of a
daughter, Ann Tarver Abernethy,
who was born in 1944.