Kathleen Monahan – NC Miscellany

50 Years Ago: 1964 Election

With the 2014 election right around the corner, I thought I would look back to see what North Carolina was up to 50 years ago with the 1964 election. Nationally, Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat) was running against Barry Goldwater (Republican) for president, and the Civil Rights Act. Edward McCauley, a former photographer for Burlington Times-News who donated his collection to the North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, captured the opening of Goldwater’s campaign office in Burlington and Lady Bird Johnson speaking at Burlington at a whistle stop campaign event.

http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mccauley/id/1023/rec/21 — 1964 U.S. presidential election: U.S. First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, appearing on behalf of her husband at a “whistle stop” campaign event at the Burlington, N.C. train station
Edward J. McCauley Photographs (P0082)

http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/mccauley/id/1148/rec/5 — 1964 U.S. presidential campaign: Opening of U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater presidential campaign office in Burlington, N.C.
Edward J. McCauley Photographs (P0082)

Here in North Carolina, Dan Moore (Democrat) and Robert Gavin (Republican) were running for governor. NCC has some campaign literature from that election (see a campaign flier for Dan Moore below) .

http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb3398688 — Dan Moore campaign flier.

Statesville Recorder. Wednesday, Nov 4, 1964.

Dan Moore won by 171,857 votes, according to the Statesville Recorder.

Jesse Helms had not started his Senate career yet. He was vice-president of news and public affairs programming at WRAL-TV and shared his views on politics and other issues through his “Viewpoint” commentaries on the evening news. Here’s a transcript of his editorial on the election.

http://search.lib.unc.edu/search?R=UNCb4222760 — Viewpoint editorial. Nov 4, 1964.

1,424,983 North Carolinians voted in the 1964 election. Don’t forget to cast your vote on Tuesday.

100 Years since UNC’s first female med student

Cora Corpening with Second Year Medical Class, 1916 Yackety Yack

The Class of 2018 began its studies at the UNC School of Medicine earlier this month. The class of 180 doctors-to-be is 48 percent female. That’s a far cry from 100 years ago, when Cora Corpening became UNC-CH’s first female med student. According to Gladys Hall Coates’ Seventy-fifth anniversary of the coming of women to the University of North Carolina, the student body voted against admitting her to the school. But Corpening attended classes anyway. And after about a month, she was formally admitted. According to a profile of the Corpening family in the July 17, 1940 edition of The Robesonian, Corpening finished the two-year program at UNC in spring of 1916 and then completed her medical studies at Tulane University, where she was one of the top students. “After completing her medical course, she located at Suffolk, Va. and did the work formerly done by eight physicians during World war times,” The Robesonian reported. After serving at Lakeview Hospital in Suffolk, Corpening moved to Virginia Beach, where she worked in private practice. She died in 1984.

Georgia O’Keeffe’s sister called NC home

Earlier this week, we ran across a New York Times article about Ida O’Keeffe, the younger sister of artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Intrigued by the mention of some time spent teaching in North Carolina, we did some investigating of our own. O’Keeffe taught art at Pembroke State College (now University of North Carolina at Pembroke) during the 1941-1942 school year.

A course catalog suggests O’Keeffe taught not only drawing and painting but also weaving, basketry, and art appreciation. She’s featured in the 1942 yearbook Lumbee Tattler as the art professor and as advisor of the art club. We don’t know exactly how long O’Keeffe was at Pembroke, but by 1945 a different art professor is listed.