Morningside Connect

Not many people in this world can boast that the friends they made at Morningside College nearly 75 years ago….are not only still living ….but remain their “best buddies” to this day.  This is a short story about the “Grammer Girls.”

This summer four of the “Grammer Girls” paid a visit to campus.  They were Annette Gray Carlson, Audrey Hughes Goodrich, Doris Peterson Markland and Ellen Westergaard Jackson.  They wanted to see the changes that have taken place since their days on campus.  To be sure – they were very impressed.

For years I have heard a great deal about these ladies. They shared with me their story.

In the fall of 1942, a group of fourteen young ladies met at Morningside College.  Nothing too unusual about that.  Back then the campus was alive with men and women and as I’m told, Sadie Hawkins Days was a big deal.  Street cars buzzed up and down Morningside Avenue.  There were four buildings – Charles City Hall, Lewis Hall (Old Main), The Library (the Gym) and Dimmitt Hall.  And in the winter of ‘42, the “Grammer Girls” recall slipping and sliding on the sloping sidewalk from Dimmitt Hall. Again, nothing unusual about that!!

The fall of 1943 brought a huge change.  The Army Air Corps cadets took over everything…the dorm…the streets and the sidewalks!  The young ladies were placed in designated housing with a designated teacher/housemother!!  This was all part of the war effort.  Fourteen lively ladies were assigned to live with Miss Lois Grammer – a professor of music education.

As one can imagine, 14 young ladies in one house with a professor brings about special challenges.  In fact, it is said that Miss Grammer after a week of having the girls at her home said with some amusement, “Why me?”

One of the activities that brought the young ladies closer together was their love of music.  As the ladies said, “As many of us were music students, or at least in the choirs, there are special memories of ‘Mr. Mack’ (Dr. Paul MacCollin) – chair of what was then the Music Conservatory.  He was so good but he also had a challenge since so many of our boys went off to war leaving gaping holes in the choir.  The same was true for the orchestra and frankly, the entire college!”

The “Grammer Girls” survived the war years with most graduating in 1946.  In 1944, one left to marry her airman-sweetheart in Tucson, Arizona; another had a Christmas wedding held by the fireplace in Dimmitt Hall.

Husbands and babies were soon added to the group, with the men justly called “The Grammer Guys.”  And in the convening 70 years plus since starting their journey at Morningside, they have not missed getting together.  Early on it was all of the girls and their families.  Their children grew up knowing one another. They too bonded into the “Grammer Girls Family.”

The “Grammer Girls” were not all that different from others on campus. But, there’s something about how they have managed to stay so close.  Certainly their shared war experience, similar backgrounds, and intense zest for life is, perhaps, what has kept them together.  As one of the ladies said, “We were grateful and lucky to have been squeezed into that little house where we borrowed clothes, toothpaste, corsages, shared cadets from the dorm, shared our letters from our servicemen.  Yes, there were tears but oh, so many joys in those war years.”

What a remarkable group of ladies – “The Grammer Girls!”