Mary Ellen Weathersby Pope (April 14, 1905 March 28, 2007) was a reformist and home economics educator who worked at Mississippi State College for Women (MSCW, later renamed to Mississippi University for Women and commonly referred to as "The W"), which was the first public college for women in the United States.Pieschel (2008), pp. 3–30. She was a graduate of MSCW's home economics program (the first in Mississippi) and, according to Jolly, embodied the reformist spirit of the home economics movement by advancing women's entry into positions of educational leadership, the inclusion and equal treatment of black Mississippians, and vocational adult education to improve the lives of the rural poor.Jolly (1995), pp. 162–166.
Weathersby Pope earned an honorary doctorate from Mississippi University for Women (MUW) in 2004; she was also the recipient of MUW's Medal of Excellence, an Alumnae Achievement Award, and a Celebration of Service Award from the Lowndes County Chapter of the MUW Alumni Association.Pieschel (2008), p. 4. She and her sister endowed the Weathersby Centennial Scholarship (The W's most prestigious scholarship), and MUW's Pope Banquet Hall bears her name.
Early life and family
Mary Ellen Weathersby was born to Robert Lodwic Weathersby and Ellen Harrell Weathersby on April 14, 1905, in Liberty, Mississippi.Jolly (1995), pp. 126–147. At the time she was born, the Weathersbys already had two sons (Van Huff and Charles Harrell), and two daughters (Nema and Anna Marguerite); two more daughters were also to follow.United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. Census Place: Beat 1, Amite, Mississippi; Roll: 799; Page: 2; Enumeration District: 0018; FHL microfilm: 1240799. In Liberty, her father ran a general store with his brothers, selling "everything ... from potatoes to women's clothes."Jolly (1995), p. 128. The business was a success; however, Robert contracted typhoid fever when Mary Ellen was around three years old and never fully recovered. With Robert physically unable to work, the family moved one county eastto Magnolia, Mississippiand purchased the Victoria Hotel in 1912.Jolly (1995), pp. 128–129. Ellen Harrell managed the hotel and, before his death at age 55 on March 16, 1918, Robert kept the books.
Mary Ellen's mother, Ellen Weathersby, influenced her daughter's worldview by demonstrating that a woman could balance motherhood with a career and positions of leadership in her community.Jolly (1995), p. 129. Late in life, she remembered watching her mother supervise male employees and took note of how "Mrs. Weathersby's hotel" developed a reputation for cleanliness and good food that made it a popular stop for salesmen traveling along the Illinois Central Railroad. For Mary Ellen, there was no question that domestic industry was socially and economically important, and her mother insisted that she had a knack for the work, encouraging her to pursue a career teaching home economics.
Education and career
Education
Weathersby's mother instilled in her a belief in the importance of education and financial security, and she was insistent that each girl would earn a degree, become a teacher, and enjoy financial independence. The boys, her mother said, would be able to make it on their own, but the girls needed an education so they could support themselves.Pieschel (2008), p. 5. As Weathersby and her sisters grew up, she witnessed how her mother carefully managed the family's finances to ensure they could attend MSCW, whose status as a public college for women made it an affordable choice.Pieschel (2008), pp. 5–6.
Mary Ellen Weathersby entered college in 1922 when she was fifteen years old.Jolly (1995), p. 130. Weathersby began attending MSCW at such a young age because her mother staggered the entry of her and her sisters to reduce the financial strain placed on the family at any single point in time. At MSCW, Weathersby appreciated the difficult chemistry coursework she completed and her experience of living with six other home economics students in a demonstration home on campus in their senior year. In the demonstration home, the seniors raised chickens, grew a garden, and practiced the budgeting and conservation skills that would become essential to her work during WWII and the Great Depression.Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, University of Southern Mississippi, "An Oral History with Mary Ellen Weathersby Pope," in Mississippi Oral History Project, 2007.
Early career Over the next several years, Weathersby taught high school home economics and spent her summers beginning graduate coursework at Columbia University in New York, attending workshops at Mississippi colleges, and conducting camps for the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA).
Her first teaching position was in Anguilla, Mississippi, and she was there to witness the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.Sloan (2008), p. 183. After the flood, she taught in Canton, where she developed a close relationship with Esther Rogers, State Supervisor of Home Economics in the Mississippi Department of Education. While in this position, the Great Depression began, and Weathersby experienced the failure of her bank and the loss of funding for her home economics program. Like many others in the home economics movement, she turned instruction toward conservation and self-sufficiency. She had her class plant a garden and taught them to prepare meals with whatever it yielded. Students brought old clothes from home and learned to remodel them.
Similarly, after she had begun teaching in Vicksburg, she taught adult women to make clothing for their children during a summer workshop at Mississippi Southern College in Hattiesburg (now the University of Southern Mississippi). She forfeited a registration fee at the University of Iowa to participate in the workshop at the urging of State Supervisor Rogers, and it ended up marking the beginning of efforts to teach adults through Mississippi's tertiary vocational programs. She immediately put the lessons into practice, teaching an evening nutrition class to nurses in Vicksburg for the next two years.
First tenure at The W In 1935, Weathersby returned to teach at The W and would go on to teach there, off and on, until her retirement in 1974. In her first tenure as a home economics professor, she worked with Mary Wilson to make adult education classes and teaching demonstrations part of the curriculum. During the summers and across a year-long leave of absence, she completed a master's degree in home economics from the University of Minnesota.
In 1940, President B. L. Parkinson created a new position for her: Assistant Dean of Students. In this role, she became the first student counselor and, together with President Parkinson and his wife, Dera Dry Parkinson (who was one of the first women to earn a PhD in psychology), they created the first counseling program at MSCW.Pieschel (2008). However, Weathersby soon recognized that the position required more knowledge of psychology and counseling than she had. In addition, she chafed at the old-fashioned beliefs of the Parkinsons, who tried to limit the topics she covered in a sex education class, and they also wanted her to measure the distance between couples at school dances and to create and teach a curriculum on etiquette.
Mid-career experiences In 1942, she decided to leave The W for the chance to help develop a vocational curriculum for the department of home economics at George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tennessee. She served as the head of the department in her second year, but because the department had largely turned away from the social welfare and social feminist heritage of the discipline, Weathersby felt that her progressive views were a poor match for the institute.Jolly (1995), p. 140.Hoffschwelle (1991), pp. 676, 678.
In 1943, she returned to Mississippi, this time as assistant state supervisor of home economics for the state Department of Education. Her position with the Mississippi Department of Education allowed her to partner with professors of agriculture for team teaching at Mississippi Southern College (now the University of Southern Mississippi). In addition to classes at the college, they offered adults lessons in producing, harvesting, and canning to improve self-sufficiency and food safety. By 1944, she helped bring together roughly twenty vocational institutionsincluding Mississippi State College (later renamed Mississippi State University), The W, and the Mississippi Department of Educationtogether to offer the North Mississippi Canning and Food Processing Demonstration School. Adults were taught to can and process different varieties of fruits and vegetables, then samples were sent to MSC's chemistry lab for analysis during a second training event. The results were used to generate state policies for food processing plants.
With the end of World War II in 1945, Weathersby decided to take a position training home economics teachers at Louisiana State University, but she was back in Mississippi by the end of 1946. This time, MSC and The W brought her in to build and coordinate a joint graduate program in home economics at the two colleges. Officially, she served as head of the home economics division and worked alongside the dean of the school of agriculture. Besides teaching and curriculum development, the two traveled to Alcorn College (the first black land grant college in the nation) to review the agriculture and home economics programs there. They issued a report and worked with Alcorn's president to lobby the General Education Board for additional funding and training programs at Alcorn.
In addition, Weathersby served as president of the Mississippi Home Economics Association and worked with MSC President Fred T. Mitchell to develop the curriculum for a planned undergraduate program in home economics, since female enrollment was growing. Returning to a subject that had caused friction with the Parkinsons at MSCW, she also joined a summer workshop to create draft curricula on family life and sex education at MSC.
Marriage and return to The W On October 11, 1949, Weathersby married Willis Pope, a widower and president of a local bank with one adult son. In mid-1950, Weathersby Pope left the paid workforce at her husband's behest and devoted her time to family and becoming more involved in the First Presbyterian Church and the local gardening club. In 1959, Willis died, and Weathersby Pope again returned to work for the Mississippi Department of Education. This time, she worked as a researcher, partnering with a sociologist at MSC to study the home and familial responsibilities of home economics students. Despite her marriage, she was affectionately known as "Miss Weathersby" by many.
The next year, with her report for the Department of Education complete, Weathersby Pope returned to teach home economics at The W–this time, for good. She taught traditional classes to undergraduate and graduate students as well as vocational workshops for adult learners. She taught the first racially integrated class at The W and pioneered the home economics partnership with new War on Poverty programs, such as Head Start. Many of her students were the first to complete MSCW's master's degree in home economics and went on to influence the discipline at The W and throughout the state.Jolly (1995), pp. 143–144.
Weathersby Pope retired from The W in 1974, the very year it adopted the name Mississippi University for Women.
Death and legacy