Dolores Phelan Lescure interviewed by Lisa Riley, 2005

Creator:

Lescure, Dolores Phelan, 1916-2006 and Riley, Lisa

Scope and content:

Records the reminiscences of Dolores Lescure Phelan, a graduate of Harrisonburg State Teachers College, (which became Madison College, and later, James Madison University), Class of 1938. Discusses her experiences as a student at the college during the latter years of the Great Depression. Comments on campus life including dorm rules, dances, curfews, mandatory chapel attendance, and the institution's name change in 1938. Recalls studying journalism under Dr. Edna Frederikson, serving as editor of the college newspaper, The Breeze, and an opportunity to interview famed aviator Amelia Earhart in 1937. Discusses her work as a teacher in Nottoway County, an editor for the Richmond News Leader, a teacher and information officer at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, as well as serving as a president of the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, (renamed the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in 2004), for more than twenty years. In 2001 the museum at the Presidential Library was renamed in honor of Mrs. Lescure.

Names:

Lescure, Dolores Phelan, 1916-2006
Riley, Lisa

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