T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Marion Ferguson # 4700.0236
IDENTIFICATION: [1922 - ] Panhellenic Director for LSU (late 1940s), President of Zeta Tau Alpha House Corporation Board (1960s)
INTERVIEWER: Melisse Campbell
PROJECT: LSU History -- Sororities
DATES: 10 March 1993; 7 April 1993 FOCUS DATES: 1958 - 1973
ABSTRACT:
T354
Family history; attending Centenary College; joining Zeta Tau Alpha, role of sororities at Centenary
in the Greek system; Panhellenic Director at LSU; Greek life at Centenary; sorority lodges at Centenary;
costs of belonging to a sorority during the Depression; serving as state membership chairman for Zeta
Tau Alpha; recommendations for sorority membership; defines legacy for a Zeta; establishing the Zeta
chapter at LSU; sorority rooms in the Panhellenic Building; decision to build sorority houses; raising
house building fund; member input in designing the house; problems with the lot they were assigned;
Dean of the School of Architecture O. J. Baker designed the house; drawing for lots at the Board of
Supervisors meeting; serving as president of the House Corporation; university specifications for
houses; serving as province president for Zeta Tau Alpha; Dean of Women Helen Gordon's role in
building sorority houses; parents' view of sorority houses; housemother Adrienne Roy; formal dinners
at sorority house; describes other members of the House Corporation; financing Zeta Tau Alpha House;
lists women active in other house corporations; brown-outs burning light bulbs in sorority houses;
Hurricane Betsy destroys Zeta Tau Alpha; finding homes for sorority members displaced by the
hurricane; supervising the builders of the Zeta Tau Alpha house
T362
Hiring Adrienne Roy for the position of housemother; Roy's competence as housemother; sorority
house rules; locking kitchen; sorority house bus boys, cooks, and maids; Dean of Women Margaret
Jameson; dedication of house; rush in the Panhellenic Building; first rush in the ZTA House; rush the
year Betsy destroyed the ZTA House; becoming director of Dean Helen Gordon's Building Committee;
describes Helen Gordon; outlines involvement with ZTA; importance of Greek letter life; concerns for
future of higher education in Louisiana; T. Harry Williams; image of ZTAs;
TAPES: T354; T362 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 2 hours
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT/INDEX: 74 trans./18 Index
RESTRICTIONS: None