Florence Hood Miner

Class of 1929

Florence Mary Hood grew up in the Chicago area, the daughter of an alumnus of the UI medical school.  Florence always wanted to go to the University of Illinois.  However, upon graduation from Morton High School in Cicero, Illinois, her parents planned for her to attend the local junior college.  A friend and the friend's family persuaded Dr. Hood to allow Florence to enroll with the friend at UI.  She remembers: 

"I went at the last minute... a friend of one of my classmates was going and she persuaded me and her family persuaded my father to let me go.  So we just sort of went... without any clothes, without anything.  We had to go down and register at the last minute ... I took... 20 hours my first [semester], my freshman year.  I thought I was pretty smart.  Well, I discovered that everybody who came there thought they were pretty smart."

Florence boarded at a local residence during her first year at school.  In the Spring, she joined the Delta Zeta sorority on Third Street in Champaign, where she resided during her remaining three years. 

"In my gym class, there were two darling Delta Zeta's and we had more fun.  They invited me over and I was rushed informally.  So I joined.  In those days you couldn't sign up for anything, they had to find you...  But even in those days, the only reason you weren't in a sorority was because, one, you couldn't afford it or two, you hadn't been asked.  Because we had 40 sororities there at the time, would you believe it?  And over 100 fraternities when I was in school." 

"We were one of the bigger houses but we only had 40 in our chapter... [The rooms] were small.  You would sleep together to keep warm in the winter .. and you would put your coats all over as covers too to keep warm.  I always remember the chimes because that's how you could tell what time it was in the middle of the night." 

Fraternity and sorority dances were big social events for members:

"Every Friday or Saturday night you could go to a fraternity or sorority dance, and you went not only to your own, you'd go to your date's and you'd have friends and they'd invite [you].  The dances were the big thing.  If you were lucky, you got to go to dances Friday and Saturday night." 

"In those days, you were allowed to have 4 dances a semester.  You had to go through the Dean's office and register them, and register the chaperones, all very perfect you see.  I was social chairman [for Delta Zeta], and the only reason you couldn't have 4 was because you couldn't afford it.  So the big expense was always hiring an orchestra and luckily one of the boys on the Illini had a small combo and he wasn't very expensive, so I got him to play for all but our regular formal." 

"You weren't 'in' unless you had a raccoon coat ... the men wore them too.  My date had one and when you got in the back seat of a car, you filled it up, I can tell you, with two raccoon coats...  I can remember going to classes in a silk dress and high healed shoes.  Imagine walking along the campus in high healed shoes and a hat!" 

Student Activities

Florence was involved in a number of student activities on campus: 

Daily Illini (newspaper)

"I started [on the Illini staff] my sophomore year just as a reporter.  If you were a sophomore and they picked you to be junior assistant then that was great--- that got me into Torch because all the junior assistants also made Torch.  That was the year you did your junior year.  Then your senior year you got one of the top jobs.  I was the women's [editor].  In those days, the women had one side [genre of articles] and the men did another.  The women got to do society news and church news and women's activities and never the twain shall meet.  And the men got all the big jobs.  You all worked in the same office and you all did thing together, you just wrote different things.  Except once in a while, they'd let the women do features and then you'd get on the front page with a byline." 

"It was always a joke that I was the fashion editor and any time there was anything to be done about fashions, why then I'd write those.  One time I got this brain wave... there were all these cute men on campus and I made out a questionnaire and took it around to the different sorority houses and they would fill it out:  who was their dream man and who was the handsomest, and who would they like to date?  And then I compiled them all and wrote these up.  Of course some of the men were very flattered and the ones that were left off were not flattered, and some of them were embarrassed [laughter], but it was fun." 

Woman's League

"Every woman [student] belonged to the Woman's League, and you just belonged, but a lot of people didn't go.  Freshman [in the League] had Orange and Blue Feathers, sophomores had Gold Feathers [social groups], and you just met.  You'd have programs but mostly it was to get acquainted-- another one of [Dean of Women] Maria Leonard's ideas."

In the upper parlors [of the Women's Building, now the English Building], every Wednesday was open house and they had Woman's League teas, and they had the different groups take turns being hostesses.  You served tea and cookies.  Everybody was invited to come and the Deans were always there and all the officers of the Woman's League.  It was a very pleasant thing, especially in the bad weather because you could go in in the afternoon and have a nice hot cup of tea and see all your friends and you just went.  If you were a member of Torch, which I was from the Illini job I had, you had a scarf and you wore it only on Wednesday afternoons.  I remember I had to go home and buy a couple of dresses that would go with the orange and blue scarf because it was pretty gaudy. You wore that on Wednesday up to these teas because you were sort of hostesses too." 

May Fetes

May Fete was an annual program of dance performances put on by the Woman's Athletic Association around Mother's Day.  "You had try-outs to be part of it because every year they had a different theme.  We did A Midsummer's Night Dream  [1928] ... so we had all of the little fairies and the bucks and everything and the costumes were a little weird because everyone had to make their own... I was chosen as Obran.  I knew I'd never seen A Midsummer's Night Dream, I didn't have any idea.  Our costumes were not right because I had a king's costume and of course I didn't know that Obran was practically nude and Titanya was in a ballet tu-tu.  But it was nice.  It was Mother's Day of course, and it was at the Stadium.  So you all took your mothers to that.  That's about all that went.  I don't think any of the men were caught dead there." 

Ax Grinder's Ball

"The Ax Grinder's Ball was given by Sigma Delta Chi [journalism honorary], and they invited only prominent people on campus.  It was quite a thing to be invited.  If you were a member...  I know I had all sorts of boys wanting me to be their date so they'd get to go.  And the same way with the boys, they could have no trouble getting dates for that because everybody wanted to go.  It was a fun thing, and they put crazy skits on and they called people up and had you do crazy things... as I say, it was a very prestigious thing.  Even though the whole thing was a joke when you got there.  I can remember one time I went as a tattooed lady and I had a spanglely costume and they drew pictures on my arms and my legs." 

After University of Illinois

Florence Hood Miner graduated from the University of Illinois in 1929 as a member of the second graduating class of the UI School of Journalism.  She has worked as a fashion coordinator and buyer at Saks 5th Avenue in Detroit, Michigan; taught fashion classes at Wayne State University in Detroit; and has served as a national officer in and historian for the Delta Zeta sorority.  She also has held positions in the National Panhellenic Conference.  Miner's book,  Delta Zeta Sorority, 1902-1982, is held by the Student Life and Culture Archives.  She is married and has two children. 

Mrs. Miner graciously has donated memorabilia and news clippings from her college scrapbook to the Student Life and Culture Archives (see RS 41/20/134 in the Archives database). 

 

The tapes and complete transcript of this interview, conducted on November 6th, 2000,   are available for research use in the Student Life and Culture Archives.

 

 

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