Nancy, Jan, Dolle, and Patti
Dolle Nichols
Dolle initiated into Iota Chapter at the University of Illinois on March 5, 1944. This was during WWII, and she was the class ahead of Peg Crawford. Someone told Dolle’s mom “Go through rush. They live in nicer places.” According to Dolle, it was fun to be a pledge. They did silly things that no one considered hazing back then. They did service for their sisters, and they had to write poems for them, too. They took turns doing “phone duty” and “wake duty.” Dolle also served Iota as secretary and corresponding secretary.
Their housemother was called Mother Mac, and Dolle remembers her being very “crotchety.” They had to be in the house at 12:00am. Pledges were expected to be in by 7:00pm during the week. Every sorority had a table assigned to them in the university library. Between 9:00am and 3:00pm, if you were not in class, you were expected to be at the AOII table in the library studying.
But never fear! They had a lot of fun, too. They went out every Friday and Saturday night. Kam’s was around back then, too!
There was a lot of singing going on. They sang for everything. They were serenaded by fraternities every weekend, often 3-5 serenades a night. When a girl was serenaded for a pinning, she sang a solo back to them. Dolle even wrote her own “Sweetheart Song.” They sang after every meal and had “song practice” a couple of nights a week. They wrote songs all the time. This explains why we have so many songs in our AOII songbooks.
Dolle appreciates the many close friendships that began in Iota Chapter. She and twelve of her Iota sisters went to New York for AOII’s centennial convention. Dolle and her sisters friends are a shining example of AOII friendships lasting a lifetime. Dolle, thank you for being a wonderful sister and letting your light shine for 70 years!! Congratulations!!
Judy and Kathy
Nancy, Jan, Dolle, and Patti
Kathy Shaw, Jan Skeldon, and Judy Sumka
Kathy, Jan, and Judy
initiated together into Nu Iota Chapter at Northern Illinois University on
January 12, 1964. Judy was their Pledge
Class President and Rush Chair, and Kathy was a Panhellenic Rep. Back then you
couldn’t pledge until the spring of your freshman year because you “had to make
grades.”
It was a lot of fun to be a
Nu Iota. While they were in college, Nu
Iota got a new house. They were given a
budget and had a lot of fun picking out all of the furniture. They did various service projects, pageants,
and variety shows. There was a lot of
singing, and they loved being serenaded.
You couldn’t wear your badge
if you were wearing pants or smoking.
Badge-wearing or not, there was no walking and smoking at the same
time! Other sororities pledges wore
beanies, but not AOII. AOII thought the
beanies were ostentatious. They wore
stirrup pants which Kathy wishes she still had every time she wears boots. They had to wear rubber girdles and stockings
which were “the ultimate spanx.” You
almost needed baby powder to get in and out of them.
Their housemother was Mrs.
Saia. She was not everyone’s favorite
person. She had a cat the girls named,
Perry, who used to hang out in the clothesdryer and tear everyone’s pantyhose
to shreds.
During rush, they were asked
to wear white gloves. Back then,
etiquette dictated that if you wore gloves, you also had to wear a hat. Judy remembers showing up for rush in a fabulous
turquoise hat. The only problem was that
she was the only one who wore a hat.
They called her “the hat” for the rest of rush!
Judy also remembers a time
when they had a power outage. She was in
the shower when it happened, and she stayed there until the lights came back
on. People were running through the
house. When the power came back on, they
discovered that one of the AOII rooms had underwear stolen from it. Well….that was Judy’s underwear. And if that’s not bad enough, Judy recalls
that before leaving for college, her mother had her name stamped on
everything….like she was going to camp!
Kathy, Jan, and Judy are
still sisterfriends to this day, enjoying their time as alumnae. Jan grew up as an only-child and appreciated
having her Nu Iota sisters as part of her family! We
celebrate you and your 50th anniversary of sisterhood. Congratulations!
Kate, Julie, and Patti
Kate Fleming
Kate Fleming initiated into
Upsilon Alpha Chapter at the University of Arizona on April 22, 1989. She is an artist and a mom. She has been a dedicated member of our
alumnae chapter for a very long time. She
has been a very active member of our rekindled book club, and we are thrilled
to get to visit with her every month. We
congratulate Kate on her 25th anniversary in AOII!
