Golden Days: Reminiscences of Alumnae, Mississippi State College for Women

Mary Glynn Williams Lancaster, Class of 1947

JULY 12, 2006 INTERVIEWED BY AMBER KING TRANSCRIBED BY RACHELFORESTER fit/£ARY GLYNN WILLIAMS WAS BORN IN BOLTON, MISSISSIPPI, on July i, 1925, to James Harold Williams and Mary Verdie Noel Williams. She spent a year at Hinds Junior College (now Hinds Community College) before coming to MSCW, where she was a member of the Bach Society, the Glee Club, Sigma Alpha Iota music honorary society, and the Wesley Foundation. She served as a librarian during her senior year. She received a bachelor of arts degree in piano and subsequently taught music in the public school system for thirty-fiveyears. When she graduated in 1947, she was asked to direct the Methodist choir in her hometown, and she remained as the groups director until 1996. In 1950, she married C. D. Lancaster Jr., a school administrator and cattle farmer. She still lives in Bolton and is active in the Jackson Metro Chapter of the MUW Alumnae Association, her garden club, and the United Methodist Women. 139 Class of 1947 Mary Glynn Williams Lancaster m ML: I was an only child. My mother was determined that I was going to college, and she's the one that picked the W for me. I knew nothing about the W at that time except that it wasa girls' school, and thatwas all right with me. But the thing that bothered me was that I had never shared a room; I had never had to share a lot of things with anyone. I knew I was going to have a roommate, and I thought, "I don't know if I'm going to like this business of a roommate,'' so my mother set me down and talked to me verystrongly about sharing and being nice and not letting little things bother me. She was a big help. So when I got to the W and I met my roommate, Mary Ellen Rea,1 from McComb, she and I got along just fine. Of course once in a while, things would get a little rough, and we'd have to sort it out, but as a whole, we really were good for each other and we stayed together the three years that I was up there. We're still big friends, and our husbands are very good friends, too, so we've had a lot of good times since then, traveling together. AK: What was your first impression of the school? ML: When I got to the W, I thought it was the biggest place in the world. I had always gone to one-room type schools, except I did go to Hinds Junior College, and that had a fewbuildings. But I liked the W. I immediately liked the atmosphere, since the students were friendly. Of course we had uniforms, and it wasduring the war and you couldn't get navy blue cloth. All the navy blue went to the navy. My mama spent the whole summer before I went to college dyeing my clothes navy blue and putting those little blue stripes on the white collars and all of that. But I loved the uniform. It was so much fun, just to get up in the morning and not haveto worryabout what you weregoing to wear. You just grabbed a blue dress or a blue skirt and a blue blouse and that was it. I liked a lot of things about the W. It was a good feeling all the way around for me. i. Mary Ellen ReaTaylor, Class of 1947. 140 Classof1947 I started out majoring in music, working on a bachelor's of music. I loved my piano teacher;2 he was just wonderful. He was a single man, and he played with another single man as a piano duo. They had come from Michigan, and they played beautifully together. He talked me into changing my major. He said a bachelors of music didn't mean much and that I needed to get a bachelors of arts with a major in piano. I'm so glad he changed my mind because I found out that that was really what I needed to do. I remember getting on the bus, going to school by myself, because we didn't have the gas to get in the car and drive to Columbus. When I got there, I had to get a taxi. And that was a new experience for me; I had...