Editors note: This story has been updated to fix a source attribution.
Previous acrobats, professors, politicians and more color the history of Ball State University’s first ladies.
Hosted at Bracken House, the First Ladies of Ball State panel consisted of four community members involved in facets of the historical sector of Delaware County.
Supervisor of the map collection at the Ball State University Libraries Melissa Gentry, Karen Vincent from the Delaware County Historical Society, Archives Manager for the Muncie Public Library Sara McKinley and Head of Education, Music and Media at the Ball State University Libraries Lisa Jarrell.
This panel is part of a larger project that has been in the works since 2018, The Notable Women of Muncie and Delaware County. This focuses on the first ladies of the university as well as many other women who have impacted Muncie and Delaware County.
According to its website, a woman described as ‘notable’ means “she is a representative part of Muncie and Delaware County and Indiana history. Her story is one to behold, to bewilder, to bemoan, but mostly to be heard.”
Four of the university’s prior first ladies' stories were told by the panel, full of photographs, newspaper articles, maps and other information found in the various archives to kick off Ball State’s Women’s Week.
Vincent highlighted their impact and importance.
“The women, the first ladies all found their place at Ball State and in the community,” Vincent said. “Every one of them has made some kind of contribution.”
The audience was capped at 24 attendees, multiple of whom were from the League of Women Voters (LWV) of Muncie and Delaware County. Nan Barber, who is on the leadership team at LWV, has a personal connection that led her to attend the event.
“My husband was a professor here from the 1960s on until he retired,” Barber said. “I’ve seen their careers and it was very interesting getting more information on these women who have been very influential.”
Following the panel discussion, First Lady Jennifer Mearns led a tour of Bracken House.
“All of these women made an impact on the university and the community, but they were all so accomplished in their own right,” Mearns said. “Some of them had really fun personalities and different histories. The fact that they all served in the same role, it’s really interesting to see and I thought they did a really good job of pulling that thread through.”
Contact Madelyn Bracken with comments at madelyn.bracken@bsu.edu.
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