Delta Sigma Theta Interviews

Search more than 1,000 interviews in more than a dozen oral history collections. Search by collection name or interviewee name.

Take me back to the Oral History landing page.


Delta Sigma Theta Interviews

Mildred Louise Bond - Delta Sigma Theta

Mildred Bond was born and raised in Brownsville, Tennessee, and attended Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, where she pledged with the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. After earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1955, Ms. Bond began a long and successful teaching career in the Decatur, Illinois school district, garnering a reputation as an outstanding teacher. In 1976 she felt the time was right for a chapter of Delta Sigma Theta alums to be formed when another sorority sister/educator in Decatur presented the chartering idea to Mildred.

Thelma Bonds - Delta Sigma Theta

In 1972, while a nursing student at Eastern Illinois University, Ms. Thelma Bonds pledged with the school's Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Theta Zeta Chapter. In 1974, she graduated from the university with a BS in Business, with a marketing major and a management minor. She is now retired from Illinois Power, and is a charter member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Springfield-Decatur Area Alumni Chapter.

Deborah B Cole - Delta Sigma Theta

Deborah Cole helped launch a Delta Sigma Theta sorority chapter while a student at Bradley University from 1968-1972, and while in Springfield, Illinois she also encouraged former members of the sorority to consider forming an alumnae chapter. Therefore, she is one of the charter members of the Springfield-Decatur area Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Alumnae chapter. She was instrumental in gathering enough sorority members, eighteen to be exact, to form a chapter covering both Springfield and Decatur.

Edyth Cole - Delta Sigma Theta

Edith Cole, a retired Illinois State Board of Education member, is also a charter member of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Edyth attended Wilberforce University in Wilberforce, Ohio in the late 1960s, where she pledged with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Beta Chapter. Years later, after a successful career in education, she helped charter the Springfield-Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, and served in leadership roles with that organization.

Norma Hollin - Delta Sigma Theta

Norma Hollin was born in Sedalia, Missouri in 1933 to David Cochran and Juanita Griffin (Cochran). While at Lincoln University in Jefferson City in 1951, she pledged with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She went on to a long and successful career in the Engineering Department at Illinois Bell. She was also a chartering member of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc.

Doris Reynolds Lewis - Delta Sigma Theta

While at Tennessee State University in the mid-1960s, Doris Reynolds Lewis pledged with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Alpha Chi chapter. For the next several decades Mrs. Lewis worked as a teacher, and later a counselor at several school. From 1967 to 2003 she worked in the Decatur school system, finishing her career as a student counselor at Decatur's Eisenhower High School. She is also a member of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.

Dr. Priscilla Palmer - Delta Sigma Theta

Dr. Priscilla Palmer has spent her life as an educator, and is also a proud charter member of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter (SDAAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. While at Eastern Illinois University in the 1970s she pledged with the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Theta Zeta Chapter. She went on to earn her doctoral degree in educational organization and leadership from the University of Illinois. Since the chartering of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter, Dr. Palmer has played a significant role in helping meet the mission and goals of the chapter, including a term as its president from 1993-1995.

Gloria Riddick - Delta Sigma Theta

Gloria (Foster) Riddick was born and raised in Arkansas, and following high school graduation in 1965, she attended Arkansas AM

Bobbie Wanzo - Delta Sigma Theta

Bobbie Wanzo became a member of the Theta Delta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. in May of 1973 while a student at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. She began her long career in Illinois state government following graduation. Bobbie worked for the state of Illinois for the next forty years, holding a variety of administrative and management positions. In 2010, she received the Chicago Defender Women Excellence Award. She is a charter member of Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter (SDAAC).

Clemmie Webster - Delta Sigma Theta

Clemmie (Jackson) Webster was born in Gadsden, Tennessee in 1925, and two years later the family moved to Decatur, Illinois as part of the great migration of southern blacks to northern cities. She graduated from Decatur High School in 1942 and attended the University of Louisville for the next two years, where she joined the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She earned a Bachelors Degree in Education from Sangamon State University in the 1970s. Webster, as a charter member of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, has been an active member of the chapter since its inception.

LaVon Wilson - Delta Sigma Theta

LaVon (Woodson) Wilson grew up in Springfield, Illinois and attended Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. Following her graduation in 1955 she returned to Springfield and taught music, traveling between all of the elementary school in the district. LaVon was instrumental in the chartering of the Springfield Decatur Area Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, and served as the newly formed chapter’s first president.

  • 1



Social Links