A Premise Come to Life

"A Premise Come to Life," was written by Nancy Kerbs, coordinator of Institutional Research at Cottey, with contributions from Kay Kuhlmann, director of the Center for Women's Leadership, and Rusalyn Andrews, Ph.D., professor of Speech and Theatre. It was produced at Cottey on Founder's Day 2005 as one of the activities celebrating the inauguration of Judy Robinson Rogers, Ph.D., as Cottey's 11th president. It is based on the play "First Fruits," written by Helen DeRusha Troesch for production on the Founder's Day celebrating Virginia Alice Cottey Stockard's 100th birthday.

A Premise Come to Life

Two members of the Class of 1985 take their places around a "painting" of Virginia Alice Cottey. A third member of the class arranges them and positions herself at an easel.

	Interlude
Susan:	What a day! Even with all the advances in the last 20 years, the trip to Cottey isn't a whole lot faster than it was when we were students!
Beth:	Talk about advances--can you believe the changes to the campus? Two new buildings, and no more parking on the street behind Reeves, Robbie and the Chapel!
Lisa:	Thanks, you guys, for coming back a few days early for Founder's to pose for this painting. I am so excited about the opportunity to paint our class gift for Dr. Rogers! It was nice of the College to let us use this painting of Virginia Alice Cottey that will be in the background, and this space so I can put in the finishing touches.
Beth:	Thanks for asking us. I think she's going to love it. Susan, you look glum. Was the trip really that wearing?
Susan:	I was just thinking about all the changes to campus, and how the students look and dress so different from the way we did. I wonder what they think when the look at us?
Beth:	You know it's funny how little attention you pay to the past when you're going to school here; but when you're an alum, you get a feeling that you belong to that past. I wish I knew more about the women who came before us.
Lisa:	Working on this project has got me thinking about Virginia Alice Cottey. What was she like, the young teacher who had the vision of this school? She certainly must have had some kind of flaming desire to carry her through all it took in those days for a woman to do something so unusual. And at a time when many didn't even believe in educating females.
Susan:	Young ladies is the term.
Beth:	That's what they turned out to be with proper instruction and environment. But it was called a female seminary. I would like to know what her inspiration...
	Virginia Alice Cottey
	I was born in a log cabin on a farm nine miles southeast of the village of Edina in Knox County, Missouri, on March 27, 1848. It was beautiful, rolling prairie country with low hills in the distance and large shade trees along the nearby creek. I was the fifth child, and the third daughter born to Ira and Sarah Eads Cottey, but the first daughter to survive infancy. My parents had followed many members of my mother's family from Bracken County, Kentucky, to Missouri. At about the time my parents were establishing their farm, the Southern Methodist Church was organizing congregations in the same area. Meetings were held in my parents home for many years. These meeting were a source of inspiration and fellowship for our isolated farm families, and were a major influence on my own belief in the power of God in our lives. Education was another important interest in my family. Shortly after the Civil War, my parents began pursuing for their children the educational opportunities that were opening up across the state of Missouri. I was an avid reader, and largely self-taught, but I had the opportunity to attend two boarding schools for girls. When I was a small child I read a book about Mary Lyon, the founder of Mount Holyoke College for Women. It gave me a purpose in life and I devoted all my energy to learning and teaching so that if the time ever came when I could found my own school, I would be ready. I began my teaching career in the district school in Knox County, and continued to study and learn on my own. In 1876, I was offered a teaching position at Central Female College in Lexington, Missouri.
	Interlude
Susan:	Remember the Centennial Celebration when we were students? All the speakers! I remember my mom thought it was so cool that Gail Sheehy spoke at Parents Weekend. She had read her books. And I remember one of the members of the board of trustees speaking on Global Business and the Liberal Arts. As a history major, it sounded so boring, but I still remember some of his ideas, and who knew I'd grow up to be an attorney for a large corporation with interests all over the world?
Lisa:	I was always more into the arts, and I remember the play about Virginia Alice Cottey that Dr. Haynes directed. Remember how perfect Lauralyn Bodle was in her role as the Founder?
Beth:	I've always wondered why and how Virginia Alice Cottey ever picked this particular town. Is it true she passed up Fort Worth, Texas, for Nevada, Missouri?
Susan:	Most colleges were started in little towns so the students wouldn't have anything to do but study, and probably back then one small town seemed about as promising as another. Whatever passed for a Chamber of Commerce here must have really been on the ball.
	Virginia Alice Cottey
	My father died in 1883 when I was thirty-five. He was seventy-three years old, and considered a very old man. I realized that if I planned to start my own school, I had better hurry up because I would soon be an old woman. I spent the summer after he died at home, helping my mother and studying a book on the life of Mary Lyon. It detailed the process she went through to establish Mount Holyoke. With the encouragement of my sisters, Mary and Dora, and armed with $3,000, I decided to take the plunge and work towards opening a school in the fall of 1884. In search of a location, I wrote to Southern Methodist ministers across the state of Missouri. Dora was teaching in Dallas, and she wrote to friends in Texas. In November 1883, Dora came to Lexington and traveled with me to Nevada, Missouri. We were very much pleased with the city, and especially the encouragement we received from the Reverend W.T. McClure and Mr. Harry C. Moore, mayor and owner of the Moore Dry Goods Store. These men realized the opportunity a college would provide for the townspeople. I proposed to them that if they purchased the grounds for the college and donated them to me in a genuine warranty deed, I would proceed at once to erect a three-story building sufficient to accommodate eighty students. They offered six acres of a corn field on the western edge of town where I could build a school.
	Interlude
Lisa:	I remember from the play that she and her sisters had saved used their savings to build this school. It's so amazing what she was able to accomplish.
Susan:	She must have been tired. The success of Cottey in those early years came from a lot of hard work, probably mostly her own.
Beth:	That makes me think of P.E.O.s and all the tours we gave our second year. It seemed like either Trina Krueger or the Golden Key dorm rep were always calling to see if we could meet a group in Main Hall.
Lisa:	Well thank goodness Virginia Alice Cottey became a P.E.O. You know she tried unsuccessfully to raise a large endowment to ensure Cottey's future, and her attempts to give the College to the city of Nevada and the Methodist church were unsuccessful too.
Beth:	She must have been awfully worried about the future of her beloved school...
	Virginia Alice Cottey
	In 1926, I received an invitation to join Chapter DW of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. When I became a member, I was impressed with the aims and purposes of the organization. The educational purpose appealed to me and I thought I might contribute some service from my many years of experience. In November that year, the chapter's education day program revealed the extent of the organization's philanthropic contributions, all dedicated to women. A thought came to me, almost as a revelation “That is where Cottey College belongs.” In 1927, I wrote to Alice H. Scott, president of Supreme Chapter, explaining that I would like to give Cottey College to P.E.O. She sent Edith Proudy Pritchard of Kansas City, a past president of Supreme Chapter to the campus to investigate the offer. Later she sent Hallie A. Newell, president of Missouri State Chapter, on the same mission. Both women reported favorably, and it was decided that the matter would be presented at the 1927 convention in Oklahoma City. On the convention platform on October 5, I presented my life’s work to the Sisterhood. I proposed that P.E.O. accept the deed for the property with no debt against it and agree to raise an Endowment of not less than $200,000, with no time limit for its completion. My proposal was met with shock and surprise. There was extensive discussion, and I answered many questions. It was announced the following morning that a majority of the delegates, realizing the opportunity for greater service, had voted to accept my offer. I recognized the immense courage it took. These were my words on that exciting day: "From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. As I have been sitting here, I have been thinking how strange are the ways of God to man. At the time the P.E.O. Sisterhood was beginning to foster the education of women, in a little town in Missouri I was struggling toward that same goal. As I looked at this bowl of Marguerites tied with yellow and white, I thought of a handful of hopeful young girls years ago meeting in a plain study hall to vote on the school colors and a flower to represent them--they decided on the Marguerite and the yellow and white."
	Interlude
Susan:	Those delegates to the 1927 convention made quite a leap of faith when they accepted Virginia Alice Cottey's gift, but she must have been so relieved that her college would continue educating young women.
Beth:	Something I remember from all the Centennial talk was how long Virginia Alice Cottey lived and participated actively in the life of the College.
Lisa:	That's how this whole Founder's Day thing started, you know. Former students used to return to celebrate her birthday--March 27. Remember that Founder's Day was on Easter weekend our senior year? Not many alums came back that year.
Beth:	I remember a lot of women being here from the class of 1960. They came to see Kelly Smith Tunney receive the distinguished alumnae citation and hear her speak.
Susan:	It's amazing that so many women gather here every spring. And now there's an International Cottey Day on Virginia Alice Cottey's birthday. What do you think she would say about that?
	Virginia Alice Cottey
	After 50 years, What, then?...Fifty years ago, the little square brick house that stood in the midst of the campus was the embodiment of loneliness...The little brick house...has received additions on every side and a story has been added to the top, but it is still there filled with memories of the girls who have passed through its halls. If those walls could unfold the happenings of the last fifty years, what wonderful stories they could tell. Of groups of girls seated here and there, some despondent over the failure of their plans, some bubbling over with enthusiasm as they look forward to the realization of their hopes, little dreaming that they might be now spending their happiest days. I would like to speak a special word to the alumnae. We are glad you are here for this occasion. Twenty-five years ago we celebrated our silver jubilee. I remember that on that day I made a little talk to you emphasizing the fact that the College depended largely upon you, that your efforts could accomplish more perhaps than any other organization. We are proud of you. The readiness with which you respond to the calls of your alma mater is significant of the fact that she holds one of the first places in your hearts. May it ever be so. Again may I say, that with many forces cooperating we shall see at the close of the next fifty years our physical plant expanded to meet the brightest anticipations of our Sisterhood, our campus increased by the addition of many acres, modern buildings erected to meet the demands of our patrons, hundreds of educated young women going out from Cottey's halls annually to enter the battlefield of life to win victories for God and humanity. Then, if I may be permitted to look over the battlements of heaven I will raise a shout that will make the vaulted heavens resound with joy.