Born March 22, 1850, Mary Low was the first woman to attend Colby College, the first name on the roll of Sigma Kappa, the first to preside at an initiation and the first woman invited to become a member of Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society. She was a brilliant student who studied all her life. She graduated in July 1875 when she was 25 years old. As prescribed by the college administration, her graduation dress was black with a high, boned collar, long sleeves covering the hand, and skirts to the ground very modest! Although highest in rank, it was not customary for a woman to give either the valedictory or the salutatory address. However, Mary was permitted to give the Class Prophecy, in Latin, of course.

After graduation from Colby, she married Leonard D. Carver and taught school. Her daughter, Ruby, was initiated into Alpha chapter. Ruby Carver Emerson was National President of Sigma Kappa in 193536. Mary was always interested in the future of Sigma Kappa. The chapter minutes of the 1880s and 1890s frequently refer to the choosing of delegates to travel to the town of Augusta to consult Mrs. Carver on everything from the selection of furniture to the decision to extend Sigma Kappa beyond Colby's walls.

Later in life, she lived with her daughter in Cambridge and delighted the Boston Sigma Kappas with her wit. She offered wonderful toasts at the joint Delta/Omicron chapter initiation banquets. Mary was hearing impaired, but she read lips so quickly that few recognized her deafness. Her dark eyes sparkled with humor, and her curly, white hair framed a serene and lovely face. Mary Low Carver died March 4, 1926, at the age of 76.

Elizabeth was an only child, happy and joyous, who wrote artistic and musical plays. She lived with her widowed mother and her Quaker grandmother, who frequently found it necessary to say, "Thee talks too much, Elizabeth." Since Elizabeth's mother was the organist for the village church, Mary Low knew her. She was a slender, delicate girl with a pale face, dark curly hair, and brilliant dark eyes.

Born in 1857, she was 17 when she entered Colby College. She was a conscientious student who loved languages and literature but found math to be drudgery. She literally had to memorize her textbooks on that subject. Elizabeth designed the first Sigma Kappa emblem.

Elizabeth had what we now know as tuberculosis and, during the winter of her sophomore year, grew more and more frail. The women knew she would not live long and worked hard to prepare for their first initiation on February 17, 1875 so Elizabeth could see her cousin, Emily Peace Meader, initiated. (Emily wrote much of our initiation music.) Late in March, Louise Coburn received this little note: "Adored Goody, I've gin' out. I shan't brighten our pleasant retirement with my presence this week anyway." It was signed, "An Imp still." She lingered through the Spring and died June 8, 1875, at the age of 18. Elizabeth was mourned not only by her sisters, but also by her whole class. They voted to wear mourning bands until the end of the school term in July.

Ida May Fuller was about 20 years old when she decided to go to Colby College Her brother, Blin, declared that if she went there, he would go somewhere else. Although it had always been traditional for Fuller men to go to Colby, Blin went to Bowdoin. Ida was a dynamic, inquiring, social minded woman, refusing to, in her own words, "accept her sex as irrefutable condemnation to a subordinate position in life."

Ida was the practical voice in the early planning of Sigma Kappa. When the dreamers got too dreamy, she promptly brought them down to earth. Ida May left college in her junior year and went to Kansas looking for a drier climate. In Kansas, she met and married Dr. Pierce. In later years, after his death, she became a successful business woman, founded a hotel for girls in Kansas City, and was vice-president of a bank.

Ida May's interests were wide, but she always included Sigma Kappa in her life. Blin must have forgiven her and followed her to Kansas because his daughters both went to the University of Kansas. Ida May not only helped Abby Fuller found Xi chapter there, but she also served as housemother for several years. A Confirmed Conventionite, Ida May was always willing to travel to Sigma Kappa functions and was present at the 1924 Golden Jubilee Convention. She died September 26, 1933.

Louise Helen Coburn was a scholar, writer, and poet. She was the second woman to graduate from Colby and the second Sigma Kappa to attain Phi Beta Kappa. She was 18 when she entered college and developed a strong belief that Sigma Kappa was destined to live and grow. She wrote much of the initiation ceremony.

Louise had the pleasure of seeing Sigma Kappa grow beyond her dreams. Her sister, Grace Coburn Smith, Alpha, was National President of Sigma Kappa. Two of her nieces, Louise Coburn Smith Velten and Helen Coburn Smith Fawcett are Alpha chapter initiates. Joseph Coburn Smith, her nephew, married Ervena Goodale, Alpha. Apparently, Louise's family approved of her sorority!

Later in life, Louise lived in Skowhegen, Maine, and welcomed visitors to her home as her strength allowed. She became completely bedridden but remained mentally alert reading often and singing hymns when reading tired her. One of her letters to her Sigma Kappa sisters ended, "May the loving spirit of Sigma Kappa continue to guide you." She was 93 when she died February 7, 1949.

Frances Hall had been a high school teacher in Rockport, Massachusetts before she entered Colby College. She felt she needed better training for her profession. Frances was slightly older than the other girls but was still in her early 20s.

Having to go to chapel to get a mark, Frances was late one day and had to wait for all the men to come out. It was an embarrassing moment. Frances said afterwards, all she saw was the floor, but all one young man, George Washington Hall, saw was Frances. When his friends asked him what ailed him, he replied, "I've just seen my wife." Frances, too, had to leave college her junior year because of astigmatic headaches. She married George, and they went teaching together. Frances was very proud to be the first Sigma Kappa married.

Frances attended the 1928 Convention in Washington, D.C. and the Saranac Convention in 1933. At Saranac, she was a faithful attendant at all functions, even the Mission program which began at midnight. Frances was very proud of Sigma Kappa. Her last message was, "Take my love to all the chapters. God bless them." She died February 6, 1935.