I Remember ~

Edith I. Bagwell Balkcom
I arrived on the campus of MBS on September 13, 1947 and was in the girl’s dormitory which was the two story dwelling next to Brother Rex Turner’s house. Other girl’s came in that day also (one of which was Florence Sellers). Roy Balkcom lived in the boy’s dorm next to James Turner’s house and close to Brother Baker’s store. Roy and Harvey Jones came to the dorm and asked us to come over to the window so they could see us. There were eight of us girls in the dorm and Martha McCoy was our dorm mother. Two clubs, Philosophian and Zetalethian were on campus and I was a member of the Philosophians.

At the back of the dormitory, between the dormitory and kitchen and biology room, lived Bernice and Thomas Weaver. Sister Weaver was our music teacher. She was a wonderful teacher, who had the chorus and quartet, who were also wonderful.

Frankie Mason was in charge of the kitchen and I worked there my first year to pay my way through college. The second and third year I was in charge of the laundry, which was downstairs in the girl’s dorm.

The administration building was where Brother Turner and Brother Johnson had their offices. Truman Boyd was the Bursar who taught accounting; Eulie Brannon was the Dean and taught high school social studies. The administration building also held the library and two class rooms. Brother Curtis Duke taught classes in the administration building as well as the biology lab next to the kitchen. I loved all the classes – Bible, typing, accounting, biology, English, history and many more.

Brother Ed Holt was a Bible teacher and he and his family lived on Ann Street across from the Administration building. Sister Holt taught college girl’s home economics. Sister Johnson & Sister Turner taught home economics for the other girls.

The boy’s dormitory had two stories. The boy’s lived upstairs and was supervised by L.E. Wishum. The married couples lived downstairs. Later, when the kindergarten through junior high school began, their building was across the clay road and further down the boy’s dormitory and offices were built by Coleman Boyd. This building became apartments to be rented when the Faulkner University moved to the Atlanta Highway .

Down the hill in back of the dining room was the barn. Animals were in the field and a little pond. Roy Balkcom milked the cow, which gave us milk for breakfast.

I began working for Brother Elmer Tallant in the automobile and fire insurance companies. This was my job for three years until Roy and I moved to Birmingham where he worked as a conscientious objector for two years and preached on Sundays.