
(1) Introduction to Mary Christine DeBardeleben
by Dale | Nov 30, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
'my my a dy that we knew as Miss Dee was born in 1881—in a rural community in Macon County, Alabama, that was named La Place. That was the same year that Booker T. Washington came from Hampton Virginia to nearby Tuskegee, also in Macon County, Alabama, to...
(2) A Challenging Childhood
by Dale | Nov 29, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 28, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 27, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 26, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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...
(6) Alabama Normal School and Julia Tutwiler
by Dale | Nov 26, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
ry Christine De Bardeleben completed high school in Montgomery in 1895, according to documents that I obtained from Columbia University that dealt with her admission there. She would have been only 14 years old at the time. She was admitted to Alabama Normal School...
(7) One of Miss Jule’s Girls
by Dale | Nov 25, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 25, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 24, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 23, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 22, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 20, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 18, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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
by Dale | Nov 17, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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
by Dale | Nov 16, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben
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
by Dale | Nov 15, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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...
(18) A Master’s at Peabody College
by Dale | Nov 13, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
Miss Dee enrolled for a Master's Degree in Peabody College in Nashville in the summer of 2016. Her studies continued into the 1917-1918 school year. In 1918-19, there was the mysterious interlude in Savannah that I have not figured out. The record in Miss Dee’s...
(19) Oklahoma University
by Dale | Nov 12, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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...
(20) University of Chicago School of Theology
by Dale | Nov 11, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
After completing her Master’s Degree at Peabody, and beginning her teaching career at Oklahoma University, Miss Dee attended the School of Theology at the University of Chicago in the summer or 1923.I have included this post, although incomplete, in order to describe...
(21) Miss Dee’s European Tour
by Dale | Nov 10, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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
by Dale | Nov 9, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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...
(23) Miss Dee at Boston University
by Dale | Nov 8, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
Miss Dee enrolled in the Boston University School of Religious Education in the fall of 1928. She was enrolled as a graduate student as a candidate for the MRE degree. The box contains records only for 1928-1929. It included a photo depicting a “group of girls at...
(24) Teaching at Texas Tech
by Dale | Nov 7, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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
by Dale | Nov 6, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
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...
(26) An Interim return to Shorter to Teach?
by Dale | Nov 5, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
There is a bit of a hiatus in my chronology of Miss Dee’s Career in the mid 1930’s. She taught at Texas Tech for four years after leaving Boston University. She was back in Oklahoma in 1939, but I am not certain what all she was doing there. She took a course, but...
(27) Emory University and Gammon Theological Seminary
by Dale | Nov 4, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
Miss Dee took a course in pastoral psychology at Emory University in 1943. There may be evidence that she was teaching there. There also may be evidence that she taught at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta. I am still investigating these possibilities, and...
(28) Miss Dee’s Final Mission
by Dale | Nov 3, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Uncategorized
Finally, after a stellar career as a pioneer in women’s rights and progressive rights for Blacks, Miss Dee returned to the public school at Shorter to teach.I have included this post, although incomplete, in order to describe the broad outline of the life of Mary...
1.33 A Story About Schools
by Dale | Aug 31, 2020 | Mary Christine DeBardeleben, Miscellaneous Topics, Shorter High School
Public education was and is the great American dream. Nevertheless, since the 1950s, we have seen a broad-based movement toward the privatization of education. It is against this background that I tell my story. Stephen Covey who wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective...