Blount Library Blog

Archival Display, November 2023: World War II Veterans at Averett

In honor of Veterans Day (November 11th), Blount Library presents a display focused on Averett's veteran students of yesteryear: World War II vets who attended Averett (mostly on the G.I. Bill) in the late 1940s.

Prior to the permanent shift to co-education in the late 1960s, Averett's largest daliance with male students occurred as part of a national movement in the wake of World War II.  After the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (colloquially known as the "G.I. Bill"), and local rabble-rousing by Virginia Governor William Tuck in 1946, dozens of male veterans - as well as eleven women who also qualified for G.I. Bill benefits - enrolled at Averett College.

Their brief time at what was, at that point, a women's college went roughly as one might expect; interspersed with their studies they started a fraternity, played sports, and generally rendered the rest of the student body 'boy crazy.'  At multiple points they even had their own columns in the student-run Chanticleer newspaper: "Those Versatile Vets" (about a fictional veteran student they named 'Roquefort McTwerp.') and "Male Call" (a tongue-in-cheek social column).

In the image on the right are likely several of the men connected with the "Those Versatile Vets" column published during the academic year of 1947-48.  The two men in dark jackets are Charles Williams (seated) and Sam Patterson (standing).  Patterson - an accomplished enough writer that he would publish a novel in 1966 - was almost certainly one of the column's primary authors.  Additionally, the fact that Williams and Patterson are also the first two characters that McTwerp meets in the first "Versatile Vets" column seems evidence enough of their participation.  The other pictured men - due to the difficulty of matching the posed smiles of yearbook photos to the casual expressions of group shots - are currently unidentified.

Faculty, staff, students, and the general public are all welcome to visit Blount Library and see a display of articles and photos by, about, and featuring Averett's World War II vets.

And, if you are able to assist in identifying some of these faces (or would like to volunteer your time to do some identification work on extant photos from your own time at Averett), do please contact the Averett archivist at archives@averett.edu.  He is always happy for the help, and enjoys living vicariously via your walk down memory lane.