(2) A Challenging Childhood

Miss Dee was born in troubled times in Alabama.  She arrived on January 23, 1881 in rural Macon County in a community that was known back then as La Place. It is now considered a part of the Shorter community, but is not in the town limits of the recently...

(3) Family and Community Connections

In the Southern United States, questions like, “Who are her folks?” have always been popular. Such questions are often used jokingly now, as satire of the Old South. But the truth is that family—extended family—was an important part of the structure of culture....

(4) A Natural Teacher

In a 1960 article in the Alabama Journal, a Montgomery Newspaper, writer Katherine Tyson described Miss Dee as “a natural teacher.” Her assessment is borne out by a letter that Merton Robertson had written to Miss Dee two years earlier, in 1958 "Dear Miss Mary,  64...

(5) A Gifted Student

The following is a chronological listing of Miss Dee’s academic career that I have been able to piece together.  There may be more.  But this timeline shows Miss Dee’s lifelong commitment to learning: 1895 Completed high school in Montgomery. 1898 Completed two years...

(7) One of Miss Jule’s Girls

For Miss Dee, getting admitted to the University of Alabama in 1898 was not just a matter of completing her work at Alabama Normal School, getting the necessary forms and applying for admission to the University.  She was a member of first class the first female...

(8) YWCA and a Call to Missionary Work

I believe that Miss Dee affiliated with the Young Women’s Christian Association as fully as possible, throughout her career.  In those days, many college campuses with female students had YWCA Chapters.  There may have been a chapter in Tuscaloosa at the time she was...

(9) Columbia University Teachers College

With the backing and encouragement of Julia Tutwiler, Miss Dee was one of the ten women from Alabama Normal School to live on campus at the University of Alabama.  She graduated summa cum laude, in 1901.  She returned to Alabama Normal School at Livingston and taught...

(10) Teaching in Macon County

 For Mary Christine De Bardeleben, Macon County was always home.  She returned there again and again.  That pattern began early in her career.  After completing her teacher’s degree at Columbia Teachers College, Miss Dee returned to Macon County to teach in the one...

(11) Miss Dee was a Methodist

In her 1960 Montgomery Advertiser article, reporter Katherine Tyson stated, “’Miss Mary’ is first last and always a Methodist.” That is likely a quote from a personal interview. The life work of Miss Dee bears out its truth. She was trained as a Methodist missionary,...

(12) Methodist Training School

As I have described in other essays, Mary Christine De Bardeleben felt a call to missionary work.  The call apparently came while she was teaching with Julia Tutwiler at Alabama Normal School in 1901-1902, after she had completed her work at the University of...

(13) Sara Estelle Haskin

Julia Tutwiler appears to have deeply influenced Miss Dee during some of her most formative years.  But Sara Estelle Haskin was probably her most ardent advocate and mentor in her chosen mission work.  She was the pioneer in the settlement house mission...

(14) The Bethlehem Center

The thing that is remarkable about Miss Christine De Bardebelen is not that she attended The Methodist Training School and was trained for missionary work in 1910, but how she used that training.  All accounts give Miss Dee credit for establishing the very first...

(15) Paine College

The Women’s Missionary Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS) chose Augusta Georgia for Miss Dee’s missionary work among the Blacks.  Clearly, that location was chosen because Paine College was located there. Paine College had been founded in...

(16) Charles G. Gomillion

I began my detailed investigation of the life and works of Mary Christine De Bardeleben in 2018, almost fifty years after her death in 1970.  First there was conversations with family members.  The family vaguely remembered of hearing that from time to time...

(19) Oklahoma University

After completing her work at Peabody, Miss Dee taught Bible and religion at Oklahoma University. Her work was commissioned by the Women’s Missionary Council I have included this post, although incomplete, in order to describe the broad outline of the life of Mary...

(21) Miss Dee’s European Tour

In 1925, Miss Dee toured Europe as a faculty member on a trip called the “Women’s Student Pilgrimage to Europe,” sponsored by the World Student Christian Federation, and the YWCA.  Marion Vera Cuthbert was also a faculty member.  Miss Dee’s “box” contained a great...

(22) Talks

Miss Dee was very active in the YWCA. She was very active in the work of women in the Methodist Church, and active in the Church everywhere she went. She was called on from time to time to give talks in these various capacities. We discussed earlier her presentation...

(24) Teaching at Texas Tech

The 1960 Kathrine Tyson article mentioned that Miss Dee taught at Texas Tech for 4 YEARS. When I found that article in Miss Dee’s Box, it was the first I ever knew of her teaching at Texas Tech. The Box had little additional content about Miss Dee’s years at Texas...

(25) Miss Dee’s Writing

While she was teaching at Texas Tech and afterwards, Miss Dee wrote books for Bible study by Methodist women. I have three of them, but believe that she wrote two more.  A number of articles that she wrote over the years were published in various places.  I have...