SHARE YOUR STORY: STUDENT LIFE AT MUNDELEIN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Marge (Marguerite) Phillips Britton’s Oral History
Women and Leadership Archives Loyola University Chicago 2020
PREFACE The following oral history is the result of a recorded interview with Marge (Marguerite) Phillips Britton conducted by Scarlett Andes on July 15, 2020. This interview is part of the Share Your Story: Student Life at Mundelein project, an oral history project to expand and enrich the Women and Leadership Archives’ (WLA) records of Mundelein College’s history through interviews with alumnae on student life. Readers are asked to bear in mind that they are reading a transcript of the spoken word, rather than written prose. The following transcript has been reviewed, edited, and approved by the narrator. Timestamps are provided every five minutes, within a few seconds of that exact point in the audio. Sounds such as laughter and actions are in parentheses and notes added for context are in brackets.
Transcriptionist: Scarlett Andes Session: 1/1
Interviewee: Marge (Marguerite) Phillips Locations: Chicago, IL and Vernon Hills, IL via Britton Zoom
Interviewer: Scarlett Andes Date: July 15, 2020
[BEGINNING OF INTERVIEW] [0:00] Q: Alright, so, for the record, my name is Scarlett Andes, I’m a Sesquicentennial Scholar at the Women and Leadership Archives. I’m interviewing Marge Britton, class of 1959, on July 21st, 2020 for [the] Share Your Story: Student Life at Mundelein Project via Zoom. I’m in Vernon Hills, Illinois, and Marge is in Chicago, Illinois. So, just to double-check, you give your consent to record this interview?
Britton: Yes.
Q: Fabulous. Alright so, to start us off, could you tell me a little about yourself and your family, like where you were born and where you were raised?
Britton: I was born and raised in Chicago. I still live in the same neighborhood—it's about a mile from Mundelein. I had six children, but I did a lot of other things. I was a reporter, a writer for newspapers, I even did a newsletter for Mundelein. And I think I sent all the copies there [to the Women and Leadership Archives]. (both laugh) And I—eventually I got interested in politics and I helped get some very good people elected. And I raised my six kids.
S: That’s very impressive. Let’s see... So—and I’ll go back to things as well, but um, fabulous. Could you tell me a bit about why you chose to go to Mundelein?
Britton: Well, in the first place, we could afford it. Cause even in those days—I know college now is much more expensive—but it was kind of expensive then. And my mom was a widow; we didn’t have a lot of money, and Mundelein was a good school, it was nearby, and it wasn’t that expensive.
Q: Did your mom work?
Britton: No. No, she didn’t. She took care of my grandma.
Q: Oh wow. Did your grandma also live in the area?
Britton: She lived in the same building.
Q: Oh my goodness.
Britton: And I had a younger sister who went to St. Francis in Joliet [Illinois]. (laughs)
Q: When you went to Mundelein, how—you said you majored in English and journalism. How did you choose what to major in?
Britton: Well I was always interested in journalism. And English. And I—that was, you know, a natural thing for me to do. I minored in history, which I also liked, and I had some fabulous teachers.
Q: I have some questions about your teachers later, so we’ll definitely get back to that. Let’s see—so what were your courses like?
Britton: (laughs) Well, the classes weren’t real big, because the school wasn’t real big. A lot of them were in a classroom. I didn’t have any big classes in an auditorium or anything like that. But, you know, we managed okay (laughs). As I said, some of the teachers were amazing, so I enjoyed my classes a lot. I don’t know (laughs). And it equipped me to do what I wanted to do when I got out of college.
Q: Mm-hm. What kind of—do you remember like what your assignments were like, in school, that prepared you?
Britton: Oh boy (laughs). Well, in journalism it was kind of eclectic. We had a professor from Northwestern [University] who used to come in, and some of the assignments we would have would be things like—what? I’m trying to think. It’s a long time ago.
Q: (laughs)
Britton: I know we had to write a radio script. And we had to write articles for, you know, pretend articles for newspapers.
Q: Mm-hm.
[5:00] Britton: And, I don’t know. It was just, you know, like I said—it was kind of eclectic, but it was fun. For English, all the usual stuff, you know? Shakespeare, different eras of English, you know—we had, again, it was some excellent teachers, so...
Q: So tell me about your teachers.
Britton: Okay (laughs). I think the thing that was the most unique for me about Mundelein at that time was the fact that the people teaching us—a lot of the nuns—were very professional women. There was Sister Liguori [Sister Mary Liguori Brophy, BVM], and she was a lawyer. There was another nun who was well-known in the field of astronomy. There was a telescope on Mundelein, on one of the roofs or in the solarium or something.
Q: I’ve read about that, yeah.
Britton: There was this big pendulum that hung in one of the elevator shafts, and that was there. So, the people we had teaching us were very often, as I said, professional women with amazing college degrees and, you know, very, very educated. So, I guess, you know, that was really lucky for me to have that opportunity. As I said, we had a professor from Northwestern, and we also had priests who were teachers there. It was very interesting—one of them became a bishop, Bishop Dempsey. And the other one was beloved by everybody—Father Clark. And I think there may be people who still remember him. He was out at Mary, Seat of Wisdom—no, he was at—oh what’s the church in Park Ridge? [Ed. Note: Mary, Seat of Wisdom Parish is in Park Ridge, IL] I don’t know. Anyway, he was in Park Ridge for a while, and I think he was pastor there. But he used (laughs) he used to do things we weren’t allowed to do, like he would take a bunch of people over to Hamilton’s. It was off bounds—we couldn’t go there. (both laugh)
Q: What was Hamilton’s, though?
Britton: Hamilton’s was a bar on Broadway. (laughs) It was the college hangout at that time, for Loyola and for Mundelein, although we weren’t supposed to be there. (laughs) So, that was fun.
S: What were the other places that you socialized, or weren’t supposed to socialize?
Britton: Loyola’s Union.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: They had a building on campus that was the place where everybody hung out. So, you know, we could go over there for lunch, or we could go after classes, you know. It was a good place to meet people and have fun.
Q: So you socialized a lot with the Loyola students, it sounds like.
Britton: Pretty much, yeah. Mm-hm. Yeah. But we had, like I said, I had some wonderful classmates and we—in fact, my classmates have had reunions even after the fiftieth.
Q: Oh, really?
Britton: I wasn’t able to go, but I thought it was great that they did it. (laughs)
Q: Mm-hm. That’s great to know that they’re still very connected.
Britton: Right.
Q: Let’s see, so, did you have any favorite places at Mundelein? Like any parts of the campus that you liked to be?
Britton: Yes. I forget what they call it now—is it Piper Hall?
Q: Yes!
Britton: The building on the lake? [ed. note: Lake Michigan]
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: That was my place. It used to be the—it was the library when I was there. And there was—I just used to love to go and sit on the stairs near the lake and study.
Q: It’s a beautiful spot.
Britton: It’s beautiful. I love it. (laughs)
Q: What was it like when it was a library inside?
Britton: Hm, well not too much on the first floor. When you got to the second and even the third floor, it looked like a library. The rooms were still there but they were full of books.
[10:00] Q: That’s really cool—I know it today as offices, so I love hearing about it in its library days.
Britton: Well. (laughs) Yeah, it was a library. It’s been a lot of things. Luckily, they’ve left the first floor as it was.
Q: Mh-mm.
Britton: And the stained-glass window on the stairs is so gorgeous. I love it. (laughs)
Q: Do you happen to recall if the basement was open? I’ve heard at some points it was, like, a coffee shop?
Britton: I don’t remember that, no.
Q: Okay. Yeah, I think it was a little later.
Britton: Yeah, the only coffee shop we had was in the Union.
Q: The Loyola Union?
Britton: Yeah. (laughs) It wasn’t really a coffee shop, but you could get coffee there.
Q: (laughs) If—let's see. Yeah. You mentioned that you were on the staff of the Skyscraper newspaper.
Britton: Mm-hm.
Q: Could you talk about what it was and how you got involved?
Britton: Oh gosh. It was the Mundelein student newspaper. And I guess I got involved because I wanted to. (both laugh) We had a lot of fun—there were some great people working on it. And, you know, I learned a little bit about journalism, and we published some interesting articles. One got published in the Loyola newspaper. I forget what it was about, but I wrote it, and it’s probably still around somewhere (laughs).
Q: If you remember what the topic was, I’d love to go looking for it sometime.
Britton: I [inaudible] to know. I can’t remember but it caused a lot of controversy. (both laugh)
Q: Ooh. You mentioned some of the people you worked with. How many big was the staff of the newspaper?
Britton: Maybe five?
Q: Okay. And was there any faculty involved?
Britton: Yes, there was. There was a wonderful nun—I wish I could remember her name (laughs). [Britton note 10/20/2020: Her name was Sister Donates, Mary De Cook.] Yeah, we had an office on the fourth floor. Right when you come up the stairs, there was an office. And that’s where we used to hang out.
Q: Did you print the papers yourself?
Britton: No, we had them printed.
Q: Okay.
Britton: Yeah.
Q: I’ve seen at some points there were pets in the Skyscraper office. Did you have any office pets?
Britton: (smiling) No. (laughs)
Q: Aw. Okay. What was it like working on the paper? Like how much time did it take, each issue? How did you do your research for the articles?
Britton: Well, it took time, but I did two things in college that were a little bit—what should I say—time-consuming? One was the newspaper. The other one was I was on Mundelein’s first— and I think maybe for a long time only—debate team. And we debated people from all over the country. And my debate partner was Alice Bourke Hayes, who is the former president of San Diego University. She’s retired now. So Alice and I would travel around the country, and for some strange reason—she was Irish, we’d always meet her Irish cousins (both laugh). No matter where we were (both laugh). So we had a lot of fun together. And debating—it was time- consuming. As I say, we traveled, we had debate contests that we went to, we debated at schools—you know, other teams. But it was fun. And so was the newspaper. I think I learned more outside the classroom than I did in it (both laugh). Especially with debating. You get immersed in research. You know, I know kids are still doing debating. You have to research the topics. And that really taught me how to do research.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: You’d get assigned a topic and we’d have to dig into it. Sometimes we’d have to do both the affirmative and the negative, both sides. [15:00] And it was—you know, it was work, it was time-consuming, but it was very interesting.
Q: Could you give a few examples of like, the kinds of topics that you would have to research?
Britton: Do you know, they’re still debating them?
Q: (laughs)
Britton: One of them was the electoral college.
Q: (laughs) Oh, I’m not surprised. (both laugh) Wow.
Britton: Yes. Fifty years ago, we were debating the electoral college, and I hear today it’s like “Oh, sure.” (both laugh)
Q: You’re like, “I’ve already figured out—you know, I've already dealt with every angle of that argument.”
Britton: Right. (laughs)
Q: Wow. So when you were on debate, was it just the two of you traveling around, or were there more, like more pairs--?
Britton: There were two more. Unfortunately, they both passed away.
Q: Aw.
Melody: They were brilliant. One was a—was she a Rhodes Scholar after college? I don’t remember, but anyway, the other one became a lawyer. But as I say, they passed away a while ago. But we, you know—they were very, very good. We had a good time together.
Q: And did you... I’m trying to figure out exactly how I want to [ask]... When you traveled, what form of travel did you take? And how long were your trips?
Britton: We were usually on a train or driving. (laughs) The trips were, you know, mostly just a weekend. They weren’t real long ‘cause we were in school. Let’s see—what did you ask? You asked how we traveled and how long. It was funny—our debate coach, the sister who went with us—everywhere we went they called her Sister Mary. That wasn’t her name. [Britton note 10/20/2020: Her name was Sister Antonia.] But they called her Sister Mary. And that one time, we were with—oh, what was his—Hubert Humphrey? He was—later wanted to run for President.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And he met us, and he said, “Oh, you girls are very, very good. And so good that you have Sister Mary to come with you.” (laughs) So she was Sister Mary to everybody.
Q: How did she react to that?
Britton: Fine. (laughs) Yeah, she was fine.
Q: Mm-hm. Did you—As representatives of an all-girls' school, did you feel like you were treated any differently at other colleges?
Britton: Actually, in the beginning, yes. But we earned their respect. I mean, Alice and I, we were really good. We had so many trophies and awards—you know, we beat West Point and Northwestern and Notre Dame and so they began to respect us. And after a while, you know, it didn’t seem to matter if we were, you know (laughs). It didn’t seem to matter if we were girls or boys but we could handle the situation and we did.
Q: Absolutely, that’s fantastic. Let’s see... So, speaking of travel still a little bit, you said you commuted to campus.
Britton: I did.
Q: What was your commute like? You said you lived about a mile away?
Britton: Yeah, I could take the El [ed. note: Chicago’s elevated public transit system], I could take the bus, or I could walk. (laughs)
Q: Did you—How did you decide which way to go?
Britton: Partly depended on the weather.
Q: Absolutely.
Britton: Mm-hm.
Q: How do you think that affected your experience at Mundelein?
Britton: Oh, I’m sure it was a little different. You know, they called us dayhops.
Q: Dayhops?
Britton: Dayhops. And there were girls who stayed at the school. And there was a building that they used—not like now. It was an old mansion on Winthrop, I think? I don’t know. But we still—we mingled and, you know, we had a good time together.
[20:00] Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: But a lot of us at Mundelein at that time were what they called dayhops.
Q: So you weren’t a small number.
Britton: Ah, the school wasn’t that big. (both laugh)
Q: That’s fair, that’s fair.
Britton: We were a pretty substantial number. There were more of us than the people who lived there.
Q: Did anybody going to Mundelein with you—did you know them from earlier grades?
Britton: Well, my debate partner Alice—we went to high school together, and we debated in high school.
Q: Oh wow.
Britton: And when we got to Mundelein, there was no debate team. So we talked to people and we finally got them to put together a debate team. And as I said, you know, we did very well with that. But when we got there, there was no debate team, so we decided to start one! (laughs)
Q: That’s fantastic. Let’s see... Were there—I guess sort of similar to my last question so if it’s the same answer, that’s fine. Were there any challenges to living off campus, or benefits to living off campus?
Britton: Well, in a way, I think the benefit was less distraction, ‘cause I wasn’t living on campus, I was home, you know?
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: But I don’t know. I think, you know, we got an equally good education, and that’s what we were there for.
Q: Mm-hm. Let’s see—(to self) I sort of already asked that. (to Britton) So your class—the class of 59—did your class have any particular traditions? Or, I’ve heard of Class Days?
Britton: Not really that I can remember. I remember graduation, you know.
Q: What was that like?
Britton: Oh, we were in the auditorium. And I don’t remember who passed out the diplomas, but, you know, when I was there, the people I’m reading about today, like Sister Ann Ida Gannon, she was on the faculty.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: Sister Carol Frances Jegen, she was on the faculty, you know. Wonderful, wonderful people. Such good examples. (The Zoom connection freezes momentarily) Hello?
Q: I think we’re frozen—oh! Are we back?
Britton: Yeah.
Q: Okay. I think we were frozen for a second there. So, did your relatives attend the graduation?
Britton: I think so. (laughs) I think they did.
Q: Looking at my list here. Let’s see—what sorts of—could you share a little about like what books and movies were popular when you were at college? Or did you go to see movies when you were in school?
Britton: Ah, not so many. Perry Como? [ed. note: American singer and actor] (laughs) I don’t know, you know—that wasn’t so much my thing. I guess I was more (jokingly serious) serious. (both laugh)
Q: Absolutely. And... yeah, I think that covered that already. I’ve been reading about some other traditions at Mundelein, so some of the religious traditions like the Christmas Candlelighting, or the May Crowning. Could you talk a bit about some of those things?
Britton: Oh yeah, I remember them. The Candlelighting was always lovely. And May Crowning was too. May Crowning—in those days, some of the—I don’t remember if they wore caps and gowns or if they wore fancy dresses, but I remember the May Crownings, yes. Mm-hm.
[25:00] Q: Was religion, like, a large part of the student experience, or...?
Britton: Kind of, you know? I mean, it was a Catholic girls’ school, it was the way they identified. And we didn’t —you know, the chapel was too small to have much in the way of masses. But we’d go over to Loyola to the chapel on the lake [Madonna Della Strada].
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And that was nice. I mean, it was kind of an individual thing—it wasn’t a school- organized thing.
Q: Okay, sure. And I guess a very different topic: I have also run across some news articles in the Skyscraper about annual turtle derbies.
Britton: Don’t remember that at all.
Q: No?
Britton: No.
Q: I’ve seen some in the fifties—I was kinda hoping. Oh well.
Britton: Sounds like fun. (both laugh)
Q: Exactly. So—gosh, let’s see. Were there—Sorry, I realized I got through most of my questions here. You talked about the BVM [Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary] nuns already. You mentioned in the form [the application for Share Your Story] that they really impressed you. Were there any other memories about them that stand out?
Britton: Hmm (laughs). I don’t know. I mean, like I say, some of them were very, very well- known people, very renowned for what they’ve done, and that was very much a part of my Mundelein experience, you know. These ladies you looked up to—Sister Cecilia in Biology, you know. I mean all of them. There were lay teachers who were very good, and I wasn’t the most spectacular French student in the world, but we had a nice teacher. (both laugh) And ah, let’s see. One of my favorite people—and I’m sure he’s gone now, but—was a guy named Dan Cahill. And Dan was hired as sort of an assistant to the President, kind of—mostly public relations and that stuff. It was when I would’ve been a junior or a senior. And a crazy thing happened. I was applying to newspapers for a summer job, okay? And I got offers from two of them. And I talked to Dan about it, ‘cause he knew all about newspapers and stuff, so I decided to go with a newspaper in Skokie. However, the guy who ran it was (lowers voice) crazy. And (both laugh) not only did he interview me sitting on the desk with his feet on the chair, but he told me that I would have a couple of weeks to prove myself. And if I was a good reporter, he’d hire me. In the meantime, I would work for twenty dollars an hour. So, you know, twenty dollars an hour—oh— no, it was twenty dollars a week. That was it—twenty dollars a week. And I’m thinking, “I couldn’t go back to college if I made that.” So, I went in to talk to Dan, and I said, you know, “I want your advice.” And he said, “What do you want to do?” And I had this other offer from another newspaper. And I said, “I’d like to take it.” So, I did, and I worked there five, six years. I did everything—I was a photographer, I was a writer, I did the obituaries, I did the weddings, I did the—you know, the news, whatever. It was a really good way to learn. But I think that I— you know, because of Dan Cahill, I think I was helped to make a decision that ended up to be right for me. And, you know, I worked in Skokie for quite a while. [30:00] Then I had my first kid. And after you have your first kid, you don t— you didn’t work anymore. But the I got an offer to do the Mundelein alumni paper.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: So I took it. So I used to—you know, I had all these kids—in those days, we had to lay the paper out and cut the columns out and paste them down on the page. So I would do that, and I’d be having—you know—I even did it in the hospital when I had kids (laughs). I had a kid and I had to get a paper out, so I did it, I just laid it out on the bed (both laugh). So, my career in journalism. But, you know, it was fun. I worked for the Lerner Newspapers. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of them, but—
Q: No.
Britton: They were a large chain that covered the whole North Side [of Chicago]. And the guy who I worked with, and I worked with him for a while in Skokie, he called me up and he says “Well, why don’t you come and work for me?” So, I went to work for the Lerner papers. Anybody on the North Side who’s around my age is going to remember them. And I worked for them, was it 12 years? I don’t know. Not full time—I’d get assignments and I’d go out and I’d do the assignment. And it was so much fun, I loved it. And then after a while, it seemed like I had interviewed—talk about interviews [referring to this interview] —everybody on the north side.
Q: (laughs)
Britton: So I decided, “Okay, maybe it’s time to change gears.” So I started doing public relations.
Q: Mh-mm.
Britton: And my first client was the North Side Real Estate Board. And they came to me and asked me, would I work for them? And I said, (pensively) “Mm, okay.” (laughs) So I worked for the North Side Real Estate Board, which later became the Chicago Association of Realtors. And I had a lot of fun with that job too—I met such wonderful people and we had so much fun, and I did that for—I don’t know, quite a few years. (laughs) And this is while raising six kids. (laughs)
Q: Wow. So did any of your kids follow you into journalism and PR?
Britton: (shakes head) No.
Q: No?
Britton: Well, a bunch—some of them are techies.
Q: Mm, okay.
Britton: My youngest daughter is a vice president of a global digital education company. She— you know, it’s complicated work. They prepare—I don’t think Mundelein’s involved in this— Loyola might be, I don’t know. But they prepare courses for professors to do online, and she’s been with them for a few years. Another kid is—he is the Director of Human Resources for District 211. It’s the largest school district in Illinois, I think.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: He got his master's degree in Education, so he’s doing well. Not a master’s: a PhD! He got his PhD. So, let’s see. Another kid is a new father. He lost his job but he’s not unhappy because he can be with the baby. Who else? I have a daughter who is very smart, very pretty, has three kids. She took a job with a small school in Glencoe, I think—no, Winnetka—because she wanted the benefits. So, though she’s way underpaid (laughs) for her talent, she’s happy with the benefits. All of them are married.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And my sons- and daughters-in-law are great people.
Q: Excellent.
Britton: And I have ten grandchildren.
Q: Oh my goodness! Well, congratulations.
Britton: Thank you.
Q: Do they all live locally, or are they spread out?
Britton: I’m so lucky. They all live locally.
[35:00] Q: Very nice.
Britton: Nobody’s, you know, in another state. Everybody’s around, in a suburb or something, and it works out fine because I get to see them.
Q: Absolutely. Let’s see—I’m trying to think. So, were you married? And if so, did you meet your husband while in college or after?
Britton: Right after. For a little while he was a student at Loyola, but I didn’t know him then. He had been—he was in the seminary, he was in the Air Force, then he came to Chicago. He grew up in Indiana. He came to Chicago and he first was at Loyola and then he decided he’d go to law school and his professor at Loyola said, (in a low voice) “If you can get into Northwestern, go there.” So he did. (both laugh) He graduated from Northwestern Law School and he was a corporate attorney. He did a lot of work with the environment and that kind of thing.
Q: Hm.
Britton: And I miss him terribly. But he was a good husband, a good dad, and I think he was a good lawyer. (both laugh) He retired before he passed away so we had a lot of years with him. He worked for R.R. Donnelley, the printer?
Q: Uh-huh.
Britton: So he worked there for seventeen years.
Q: Wow.
Britton: But he did go to Loyola, and believe it or not, I met him—I had just graduated, and we were at a place across from Lewis Tower—from the downtown campus?
Q: Mm-hm.
That was kind of a hangout. I can’t remember the name—but I was over there with my girlfriends, and he came in—he was there with his boyfriends. So that’s where I met him. And we—let's see, we went to another place up near Loyola and then he drove me home. And he asked me out again. And the reason was we had the same birthday.
Q: Ah! (both laugh)
Britton: So we made a date for our birthday to go out, and believe it or not, here’s the funny part: I had a son, John, who was born on our birthday. So we had three birthdays on the same day.
Q: Oh my goodness! (both laugh)
Britton: So it all started with a gathering from Loyola. (laughs)
Q: That’s fantastic. I think—let's see—I want to make sure there’s nothing I’ve left off. Were there any other things about your time at Mundelein that we haven’t covered? (Zoom freezes momentarily) I think we might be frozen. Alright, I think we got frozen again.
Britton: We did.
Q: We did? Okay. Is there anything else from your time at Mundelein that you think of now that we haven’t covered?
Britton: No, not really, you know. There’s so many memories—you know, we used to call it the Tea Room, not the cafeteria. And it was so much fun to go there and meet with friends and sit around the tables. As I said, we used to enjoy the student union at Loyola. That was fun. And Mundelein, you know, in that day, Mundelein was doing things that not everybody did. For instance, there was an excellent swimming team.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: There was a pool in the building. I think it’s there still?
Q: I think so.
[40:00] Britton: Yeah. So there was a swimming team, and they did competitions. And they also did shows, where, you know, like (laughs) where they’d all synchronize-swim and all that (gesturing swimming). So yeah that was interesting. Let’s see, I told you about debating, which was a first for Mundelein. Ah... People when I was in school—it was in the years of the Civil Rights Movement. And some of the kids and some of the nuns went to some of the demonstrations down South. And we would hear about that, and of course we were very supportive. And I look at what’s going on today [peaceful protests and rioting following the death of George Floyd in May, 2020], and I think, well we never had riots, but we did have demonstrations. And Mundelein was very often part of them. And that goes back to 1955, ‘56, ‘57—you know, up to ‘59, there were things going on. And like I said, sometimes some of the students and some of the nuns would travel to where this was happening.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: So, I think that was unusual for a women’s--you know, a North Side Catholic women’s college. But it was, you know, it was the students and it was the nuns who were doing that, you know? And although I didn’t go, like I say, everybody was—we were very supportive, you know. Selma? (raises fist in celebration) Yay! (laughs) So...
Q: Did you every cover any of their activities for the Skyscraper?
Britton: A little, not so much, but we did, you know, to some degree.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: We didn’t want to get too far into it in the Skyscraper ‘cause, you know, we didn’t want anybody’s reputation ruined or anything like that, so (laughs). But we did talk about it. You know, I had a bunch of Skyscrapers I think I sent to Mundelein, and I did send the copies of the alumni newspaper, I’m sure.
Q: Mm-hm. It’s kind of funny with how remote we are right now [WLA staff began working remotely due to COVID-19 starting in March 2020], we don’t have access, but we luckily have all of them digitized.
Britton: That’s wonderful—I'm so happy to hear that.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: Well if you want to look up interesting people, I mentioned my debate partner, Alice Bourke Hayes.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: She’s maybe in there already. She was the president of San Diego University.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And a brilliant, brilliant woman. But so much fun. And we’re still in close touch, we’re still good friends, after being debate partners for eight years, and then, you know (laughs) But I still talk to Alice and see her, so it’s great. She’s a person to look up.
Q: Mm-hm, absolutely. Well, I think—you know, I think that’s all we have. If you think of anything, we’re always happy to do a follow-up interview. But if there’s anything else that you—any other stories you want to share today, feel free.
Britton: Well, I’ll tell you one about Alice. And this refers to the Mundelein building. Alice was—she was a Biology major. Okay?
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And she kind of appropriated—there was a greenhouse, I don’t know if it’s still there. But she kind of appropriated it—the greenhouse, okay?
Q: Uh-huh.
Britton: One of her projects, she had to—she had to plant mushrooms. And the mushrooms grow in what we might politely call fertilizer.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: So, Alice had—you know, she had a few boyfriends, we all did. So, she recruited a boyfriend to bring the fertilizer up to the—we called it the Solarium—so she could plant her mushrooms. Well, he did. But he got in the elevator, and people were going— (looks to the side in confusion and disgust) “What’s that?” (both laugh) I think it was the small elevator near the cafeteria. “What’s that?” (laughs) [45:00] And Alice says, “Oh, that’s just stuff to plant my mushrooms in.” (both laugh) So that was just one of the funny stories that I remember, ‘cause like I say, Alice was one of my best friends, and there she was, trekking fertilizer into the building. (laughs)
Q: Oh, that’s amazing. The elevators at the time, were they manual, perchance? Did someone have to operate them, still?
Britton: The big elevators, yes. But the small elevator, which we were allowed to use occasionally—the kids who lived there took that—
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: But those of us who didn’t, took the other ones. But that one was manual—you'd punch the buttons and it’d take you where you were going. And of course, there were always nuns on that one.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: Mm-hm. So they would ask us questions on the way up. (laughs) Like I remember very well one of them—it was right before graduation, and I got on the elevator with Sister I-don't- know-who. I think it was Sister Cecilia. But anyway, she grabbed my hand and she looked at my ring finger and she said, “Nothing there, good. Get out and work a while.” (raises eyebrows, both laugh) So I did!
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: Well, I met my husband after graduation and we went to—you know, I started seeing him, but we weren’t engaged or anything.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And we dated for like three years, and then we got engaged, and then, eventually we got married. But she was right. You know, I went out, I had my job, and I was doing stuff and I was very happy. (laughs) So that was—you know. We were always encouraged—I think that’s what impressed me most about Mundelein in those days and I hope it’s true at Loyola—that we were always encouraged to try to do things. It was like there was nothing we couldn’t do. If we wanted to do it, we could. You know? And I think that that was very important. And the people I’ve known who’ve gone to Mundelein, I think they’ve carried that tradition on. You know?
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: There are people who I went to school with who did amazing, wonderful things, and I think that that goes on today. So, you know, you don’t say, “I can’t do that.” You know? “I’m a woman, I don’t have enough education, I don’t this, that, the other thing?” It’s not true. You know? And in those days, that was very much the tendency. I was one of the first people in my family to go to college. And so were a lot of my friends. And, you know, we all ended up doing pretty good stuff! (laughs)
Q: Uh huh.
Britton: So I think that was, you know, part of the tradition and I hope that still goes on today. I’m pretty sure it does.
Q: I think so, yeah. Yeah, I mean—for me as a grad student it’s hard to say, but absolutely. It’s something I’ve sort of heard inferred about the BVMs, but I’m glad to hear straight from you that that’s the sort of message they tried to instill in their students.
Britton: Definitely. Yeah. And as I say, you know, you’re a grad student. You know, in my day, that was unusual.
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: People could be—they all thought I was nuts ‘cause I wanted to go into journalism. You could be a teacher, you could be a nurse, you know, you could be a mother, but the options weren’t there. So, a lot of us—some of us chose options. And we were encouraged to do that. [50:00] I think today, you know—well, for instance, my friend Alice again, she went on, she got her PhD. Okay?
Q: Mm-hm.
Britton: And she’s “doctor” today. And I think that wasn’t too usual for people in my generation. I never went back to school. I didn’t get my master’s. I wish I had. But I decided when I graduated from Mundelein that there were holes in my education and that if I was going to be a journalist, I should fill them. So I took more history, I took economics at Loyola, I took various courses that I thought would help me understand the world better and help me with my career in journalism. So I did that.
Q: That’s really cool. Yeah, I kinda had the same thing. That’s sort of why I’m in grad school now. I realized there were gaps in my undergrad and worked a little and decided—you know what? I need to go back. So, absolutely. But at the same time, working is its own education.
Britton: Oh yeah. Mm-hm, absolutely. (laughs) What did you do?
Q: I worked in museums.
Britton: Oh, really?
Q: Yes, so that’s my goal. We’ll see though. I might end up in education, something like that. I think they’re all pretty much connected in some way.
Britton: Yeah, Mm-hm.
Q: So yeah, I think that’s it for now. If you do think of anything, I’m happy to schedule a follow- up interview sometime.
Britton: Okay.
Q: And I can stop the recording here unless there’s anything you’d like to add?
Britton: No.
Q: Alright.
Britton: And if you think of anything you want to know from me, just—you know, give me a call, give me a Zoom, whatever.
Q: Absolutely. I’m going to stop recording now but we’ll stay on the call. So— [52:10] [END OF INTERVIEW]