Westminster Alumna 100th Birthday Brings Surprises

Mary Reed, 1928 graduate of Westminster College, got an unusual surprise at her 100th birthday party.

After living for 15 years at the Redstone Highlands, a senior community in Greensburg, Pa., she found that two 1928 Westminster classmates, Anna Jane (A.J.) Gorton and Kathryn Wylie Hutchinson, were also living there - for at least seven of the same years.

"It was a delightful surprise to meet them," Reed said. "I never knew them at Westminster, even though two of us lived in Hillside. Back then, seven girls lived in one Hillside suite."

"We all just met here at Mary's birthday party in June, but I remember Mary from my college years," said Gorton, who celebrated her 100th birthday this month. "I lived at Hillside for three years. The only buildings on campus then were Old Main, the Science Building, the Music Conservatory, and Hillside. The boys didn't have a dormitory on campus until after I graduated. They had to stay in private homes or in fraternity houses."

Hutchinson, the youngest member of the 1928 trio who celebrated her 96th birthday in May, lived in one of the three small houses that also served as a women's dormitories. "When I was at Westminster, everyone came to Hillside to eat," said Hutchinson. "The food was delicious and was served by the male students to earn extra money."

"We had to clean our own rooms&sweep them with a broom actually," said Reed. "We raised the dust on the weekends. Then we sent our laundry home every two weeks in special packaging provided by the school. It was the size of a small suitcase, and you had to stuff all your clothes and two weeks of sheets into it. We had to get very creative in packing because everything was cotton and bulky. No one had nylon fabric then."

As their birthdays indicate, the three ladies did not all begin college at the same age. Reed worked four years before going to college; Gorton went to college two years, then worked for two years to earn enough money to finish college; and Hutchinson was the only one to start straight out of high school and finish in four years.

When asked why they chose Westminster, they all had different reasons. "My cousin, Helen Wiley Morrison, was a senior when I was a freshman, so I had to go to Westminster," Hutchinson said.

"I was thinking about going to another Christian college in the area, but my high school teachers said that Westminster was rated higher, so I took their advice," said Gorton.

"Another girl from my congregation and I were chosen to go the Missionary Conference at Westminster when I was in high school," Reed said. "I was impressed by the beauty of the campus and chose Westminster right then and there."

Women's athletic opportunities were limited in 1928 even at Westminster College, but Hutchinson remembered a couple of athletic events in which she participated. "I played basketball in gym class. We had one male coach who taught both boys and girls, and he left no doubt that he was not fond of coaching girls. In my senior year, the indoor swimming pool opened, and he wanted me to gain some weight before going into the water."

"What did we do when we weren't in class?" Gorton repeated the question asked of her. "We studied; we did our lessons. There wasn't much time for anything else. In addition to attending classes, we had to go to Chapel every day and Sunday night, too. We heard some masterpiece sermons."

"There was an ice cream place, a general store, a grocery store and a beauty parlor in town, but no one had much money to spend," said Hutchinson. "You could take a walk with your boyfriend, but there were limits how far away from campus you could walk."

"I joined Pi Rho Pi, which was the oldest sorority on campus," said Reed. "We had nice rushing parties. Sometimes we were invited to use the home of Dr. Elizabeth McLaughry, who ran the sanatorium in town."

"I joined Sigma Kappa when I was a junior," said Hutchinson. "Sororities were gaining popularity then. It was a place to socialize."

"I never joined a sorority. I played cards with a group of girls when I had time," said Gorton. "I still like to play bridge. There were free music programs every couple of months, too."

"The Glee Club, which they call a choir now, took most of my free time. One tour was especially memorable" Reed said. " We were traveling in Ohio where we sang in various churches and stayed free at the Firestone brother's home. On the way home, we stopped in one last town to sing. The bus driver dropped us off, but no one was at the church. Seems everyone was at the circus that stopped in town.

"So we gathered our money and went to the movie theater where they had an amateur hour contest during intermission. Well, even before we began singing, we heard a raspberry from the audience. Seems our athletic director, the one who didn't like to coach women, was in the audience. We were upset, and we sang off key. We were awful!"

"I was in drama classes taught my Mrs. McConogha," continued Reed. "She directed the May Day pageant, where we presented small plays, danced around the May Pole, and chose our May Queen, Helen Hastings."

The 1928 alumnae were juniors when fire destroyed Old Main early January 1927. "After the fire, classes started in some professor's homes, the Presbyterian church across the street, the athletic building, and in the basement of the Science Building," said Reed. "I remember one day when class was over in the basement of the Science Building, we couldn't go up the stairs to leave. Some men had the stairs blocked with a huge safe, and it was stuck. We had to climb out the basement windows."

After graduation in 1928, all three women went on to become teachers. "I taught in Elizabeth until my family arrived, and then went back to teach in Clairton School District," said Hutchinson.

"I taught elementary school at South Union Township, which is now named Laurel Highlands," said Gorton.

"I started teaching eighth grade math and science at Indiana (Pa.), even though I majored in the romance languages of Spanish and French," said Reed. "I hated it. When I got the chance I moved to Huntington Township, where I taught high school English for 12 years.

"For several summers, I went to Penn State until I received my master's in French in 1937," continued Reed. "I taught Fred Rogers French in 1944 or 1945. He led the singing and was a good student. It was a small class of all girls, but him. He was a gentleman even then."

"Yes, we all just met here at Mary Reed's birthday party in June, and just started talking," said Gorton.

"And we haven't stopped since," said Reed.