Stephens: A Look Back: Stephens: A Look Back

It’s 1926 and Stephens College has a new radio station, KFRU.

We’re not told much about it, other than it’s “Where Friendliness is broadcasted daily!” Student musicians apparently can play over the airwaves, including the Glee Club, which we’re told is the first to enter into the new Stephens addition.

Today, of course, KFRU is a local news station. Stephens still has a radio station, Sweet 90.5 FM, and has expanded to Internet radio. (Listen here!)

This is also the year the Prince of Wales riding club is founded, although we find only vague reference to it in the yearbook.

We know from other sources that the club was chartered that fall and is named after Prince Edward VIII, who had a reputation for falling off of his horse. The only reference to it in the Stephensophia, however, is in a fictional account of “Miss Pemberton’s diary” when she returns to Columbia for the 1936 World’s Fair (10 years in the future). She’s reflecting on the impact the Class of 1926 had on Stephens.

During the fair, we’re told Miss Pemberton has dinner with the Prince of Wales at the College. “They say he spends most of his time here now. He’s taken over Harris’s orchestra and practically runs Stephens athletics. Miss Haynes and two of the class of ’26 have just come back from Switzerland where they gave tourists lessons in riding goats up the hills. They put on a pageant to-night with the aid of some other talented classmates…but then they are a new kind invited by a ‘26er’ and in the spring they won’t fall, and vice-versa. They work on the power of suggestion.”

"Fall" in this case also refers to the club's requirement - to be a member, one must have fallen off her horse at least once.

Also during this world’s fair/reunion of sorts, Miss Pemberton ponders: ‘The only trouble is that there’s not much more progress to make—we have such wonders. But time will tell whether or not the brilliant winds of the class of ’26 shall ever be exhausted.”

The Prince of Wales Club, by the way, not only still exists, it’s the oldest continuously operated riding club in the country.

The president of the Civic Association this year is Lewine Hoefer. A little extra research shows she would go on to earn a Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago and became quite a philanthropist.

Students apparently didn’t get a week off for Thanksgiving like they’re enjoying this week. We’re told the junior class fixed breakfast for seniors Thanksgiving of 1925 after which the classes competed in a Thanksgiving Day hockey game. They tied.

There’s a new book club sponsored by Louise Dudley. Members have to have taken English literature and make a formal application for membership. They’re also required to give a book approved by a club committee for the club’s library, and the book is then reviewed by the club.

Alumnae who give a book annually for 10 years become life members.