In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

8 A Great Lady: Honors and Illness w h e n l o u i s e d i l l i n g h a m ’ s o i l p o r t r a i t p a i n t e d b y t h e mother and grandmother of pupils was unveiled in Red Hall in 1953, alumnae had spoken of the “great intelligence, warmth of heart, breath of mind and vision, and humility of spirit” of Miss D. “Long may she reign over our little kingdom.” Four years later, the school celebrated her twenty-fifth anniversary as headmistress. She was given the Westover Award, which had been established by alumnae a few years earlier. The new president of the board of trustees, Elliott H. Lee, a retired banker from New York City and the husband and father of graduates, effusively praised her qualities of mind and heart as well. In response, Miss D said she was glad to have known Mary Hillard for more than a year before taking her place. She also said that she was grateful for what Westover had given her during the past quarter century, and for what she had been able to do for the school: turn it into a college preparatory school, foster democratic self-government, strengthen the honor system, and establish a policy of admitting pupils without regard to race or religion. That day in May she was given a number of gifts, including a color television set, a monogrammed Steuben glass bowl, and three hundred silver dollars for a painting vacation. She also received a tiny silver chair, which symbolized the gift that probably pleased her most—the establishment of a Louise B. Dillingham Chair (a fund of more than a hundred thousand dollars) to enable her to give a grant to a teacher every year and augment the salaries of the others. 134 ✦ w e s t o v e r Underneath her straitlaced demeanor, something about Louise Dillingham suggested a passionate nature; certainly she had great appetites for good food, cigarettes, caffeine, and cocktails. Her sitting room always reeked of stale tobacco smoke, and, beginning in the middle of the 1950s, students had noticed that their headmistress had a constant, even a “terrible” cough from chain smoking. People also knew that when she rode in an automobile with friends and relatives, as well as at other times, she would often suggest pouring drinks from a basket she always carried with her containing a bottle of liquor, an ice bucket, and little silver cups from South America. It was because of this ritual that she never learned to drive a car. “She didn’t drive because she was a drinker,” a niece explained, since she knew that she was not always sober. Mental depression ran through the Dillingham family, and Louise and a number of her brothers and sisters had started to drink early and heavily as a way to deal with it. By the 1950s if not before, the eldest, Louise, had become an alcoholic. She held her liquor very well, and she was careful never to drink when in residence at Westover. In September of 1958 her health worsened. She was hospitalized for cirrhosis of the liver, and she was also forced to take a long leave of absence from her duties as headmistress. Her doctor, she explained in a letter to the worried alumnae, wanted her to take a rest “to dispel the miserable feeling which then plagued me.” She went on: “Happily I can report to you that he was right, and that now, after a number of weeks without duties or responsibilities, I am indeed a different woman, endowed with new energy and interest in all that goes on.” The first six weeks of her three-month absence were spent, along with her maid, at her sister Dorothy’s home in New Hampshire, where her brotherin -law, Sherwood Smedley, taught chemistry at Exeter School. Miss Dillingham had once asked him to teach science at Westover, but he had not thought it a good idea to work for a relative. While in New Hampshire, she found it “exceedingly interesting” to observe a large boys’ preparatory school, she told the alumnae. “I allow myself to hope, therefore, that my enforced absence from the school will prove to have been a really productive one, not only restorative but rejuvenating.” While she was away, Emma Hibshman, who had been an assistant principal since...

Share