1922 Salutatorian

    In 1922, President Warren Harding introduced radio to the White House, the United States was in the  midst of  prohibition, and a Ford Model T was within the reach of most families (although a starter was a $75 option on Ford's open cars.) That same year, twelve young ladies comprised the  graduating class of Mount Mercy Academy in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were accomplished, well-educated and musically inclined. However women's liberties were rapidly increasing and they must have been quick to adapt to shorter skirts, shorter hair, cigarettes, cosmetics and bathtub gin parties

     My grandmother, Phyllis (top row, second from left and salutatorian of her class) adored singing and became a member of a barbershop quartet. She married, had a child and soon thereafter divorced her husband, (divorces increased in the 1920's as women asserted their independence). Phyllis never remarried and worked full time in retail clothing for the rest of her life. She has been gone eighteen years but I like to think of her as the carefree teenager pictured here.

postcard of Mount Mercy Academy