ALPHA UPSILON CHAPTER

Envisioned by Dr. Annie Webb Blanton as a medium through which women leaders in education might gain recognition, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society was founded at the Faculty Women's Club in Austin, Texas, on May 11, 1929.  On August 19 of that year, Texas granted the Chapter and incorporation papers to the central organization in Austin. 

From the beginning Dr. Blanton, the founder, conceived the structure of the society as comprising three levels - the local or chapter, the state, and the national - all loosely integrated and regulated.  When units of Delta Kappa Gamma were organized outside the jurisdiction of the United States, the term International supplemented National.  The word Society now refers to the overall parent, or central organization, and/or the total membership.

FOUNDING MEMBERS

Zeta State in Mississippi became a reality when Dr. Annie Webb Blanton and Miss Norma Smith of Alabama contacted the Mississippi Department of Education asking for names of leading women educators worthy of membership in this new society, Delta Kappa Gamma.  Names were submitted, recommendations made, and invitations sent to teachers who wished to become Mississippi State founders.

On April 21, 1934, the national president of Delta Kappa Gamma, Miss Norma Smith, conducted the initiation of founders and organized Zeta State at a meeting at the Edwards Hotel in Jackson.

ZETA STATE FOUNDING MEMBERS

On May 1, 1982, Dot Rieves, Zeta State President, installed the Alpha Upsilon Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Alpha Upsilon received its charter as an expansion of Psi chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International in Wiggins at the First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall on May 1, 1982.  Mrs. Dot Reives, Zeta State president, and Ms. Barbara Scott, state expansion chairman, presided over the ceremony for the members who resided in the Bay St. Louis-Pass Christian-Long Beach area. Alpha Upsilon was guided during its first year by the following officers:  Katherine Pair, president; Frances McDonald, first vice-president; Undine Thomas, second vice-president; Patricia Zatarain, recording secretary; Dot Lott, corresponding secretary; Phyllis Roberson, treasurer; and Sherrill Haynes, parliamentarian.       

ALPHA UPSILON CHARTER MEMBERS