Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd

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Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd
Born(1876-11-13)November 13, 1876
Athol, Massachusetts
DiedSeptember 4, 1962(1962-09-04) (aged 85)
Pippa Passes, Kentucky
Education
Radcliffe College
OccupationSocial reformer, journalist, educator
Spouse(s)Arthur Lloyd
Parent(s)William E. Geddes
Ella (Ainsworth) Geddes

Alice Spencer Geddes Lloyd (November 13, 1876 – September 4, 1962) was an American social reformer who founded Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. She worked as a writer, editor, and educator. She supported women's suffrage and was a freethinker.[1]

Biography[]

Alice Spencer Geddes was born in Athol, Massachusetts, on November 13, 1876, and later studied at Radcliffe College.[2][3] In her early career in Boston, Alice Geddes worked as a journalist. In 1902, she was publisher and editor of The Cambridge Press, the first United States publication to have an all-female staff.[4][5]

In 1915 Alice Geddes Lloyd and her husband Arthur Lloyd moved to Knott County, Kentucky, with the goal of improving social and economic conditions,[3][6] living at first in . Their initial work involved provision of health care, educational services, and agricultural improvements to the Appalachian region, funded by donations from East Coast states.[5] In 1917 Alice Lloyd and her mother moved to Caney Creek, where she had been offered land for a school.[5] She separated from her husband in 1918 and remained in Knott County.[3] She named her Caney Creek home "Pippa Passes" after a poem by Robert Browning[3] and in honor of donors from the New England Browning Society.[7]

Together with June Buchanan, a native of Syracuse, New York,[5] who joined her in Kentucky in 1919, Lloyd founded 100 elementary schools throughout eastern Kentucky and opened Caney Junior College in 1923.[6] The college offered a free education to mountain youth, who were required to promise to remain in the region or return after completing their education.[3][7] There was a long waiting list for admission. Lloyd imposed strict rules on the students, including no jewelry, cosmetics, slang, or high-heeled shoes for girls and no tobacco, gambling, liquor, guns or "unauthorized meetings with the opposite sex" for boys.[7]

Both Lloyd and Buchanan worked without pay at both education and fund-raising. Lloyd is said to have raised some $2.5 million for the college, mainly by typing and mailing fund-raising appeals.[6] On December 7, 1955, Lloyd appeared on the This is Your Life television show,[8] whose host Ralph Edwards made a direct fund-raising plea on her school's behalf, resulting in a large influx of donations which totaled nearly $250,000.[9] In 1997, the college's director of marketing and communications at the time, Stephen Reed, told a journalist, "We've still got people on our mailing and donor list who saw the show."[6]

Lloyd served the college until her death on September 4, 1962.[2] After her death, the college was renamed in her honor.[6] Miss Buchanan served at Alice Lloyd College until 1988, when she died at the age of 100,[5] having lived to see the 1984 opening of the June Buchanan School, a K-12 school on the Alice Lloyd College campus named in her honor.[10] A statue of Lloyd was dedicated on October 10, 2009, during a ceremony at the college.[11][12]

Lloyd is portrayed as a Chautauqua character in a one-woman dramatization called "Stay On, Stranger."[citation needed]

References[]

  1. ^ Leonard, John W., ed. (1914). Woman's Who's who of America. New York: The American Commonwealth Company. p. 320.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Kleber, John E., ed. (1992). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Jennings, Judith (1996). "A College for Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek by P. David Searles". The Journal of Southern History. Southern Historical Association. 62 (3): 608–9. doi:10.2307/2211546. ISSN 0022-4642. JSTOR 2211546.
  4. ^ Spotlight: Alice Lloyd College, Foundation Center
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Our History, Alice Lloyd College website (accessed June 18, 2009, and August 10, 2013)
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Carl Hoffman, Appalachian Scene: Building Character on Campus Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine, Appalachia Magazine, September–December 1997, published by the Appalachian Regional Commission
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c School in Caney Valley, Time magazine, April 8, 1940
  8. ^ "This Is Your Life: Radio and TV Episode List". Classic TV Info. Archived from the original on 24 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  9. ^ Reed, Stephen (2009-11-03). "Hope Knows No Recession". Breakpoint.org. Archived from the original on 2009-11-13. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  10. ^ "The June Buchanan School". June Buchanan School. Archived from the original on 2010-09-06. Retrieved 2009-06-18.
  11. ^ "Commodore Slone Building and Alice Lloyd Statue Celebration". Alice Lloyd College. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
  12. ^ "Alice Lloyd Statue Unveiling". Alice Lloyd College. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2009-10-28.[permanent dead link]

Further reading[]

  • A College for Appalachia: Alice Lloyd on Caney Creek. By P. David Searles (1995). Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-1883-2
  • Miracle on Caney Creek. By Jerry C. Davis (1982). Pippa Passes, KY: Caney Creek Community Center, Inc.
  • "Stay On Stranger! An Extraordinary Story of the Kentucky Mountains", by William S. Dutton; Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954

External links[]

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