Edith Fultx Fletcher

is honored with a Large Paver from Meridith Noble Appling, Carolyn M. Beckett, Mrs. H.I. Brammer, Mrs. Lloyd R. Bump, Mrs. Leslie J. Carson, Marjorie P. Christian, Lura L. Cook, Hazel T. Gavitt, Geraldine Hammond, Peggy Hartman, Jo Miller Hiebert, Melba V. Hughes, Lynda P. Ireland, Geraldine T. Johnson, Sue A. Johnston, Elizabeth Jane Lester, Carol Catherine McEwen, B.L. Miles, Mary C. Miller, Joyce Price, Kathryn B. Pruessner, Betty Jean Purchell, Katharine Bowdish Schacht, Gwendolyn Shidler, Vera Siemens, Mrs. Lyle G. Sturdy, Marjorie Lee Taylor, and Virginia Wise.

1894 - 1976

Edith Fultz Fletcher was born in Wellington, KS, to George R. and Iva Mae Fultz on January 28, 1894, and the family moved to Wichita around the turn of the century. She displayed her approval of the feminist movement even then, by attending Western College for Women in Oxford, OH, and was graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1917 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics.

Edith secured a position teaching Home Economics at Fairmount College (now Wichita State University) where she met and married Dr. Worth A. Fletcher, a professor of Chemistry and later the Registrar of the school. A daughter, Carolyn (Mrs. Loren Newton), was born in 1935 and was ultimately the ninth initiate into Phi XI Chapter of Delta Delta Delta, a national organization on the Wichita State University campus.

While Mrs. Fletcher was at the University, she met and began to work with Flora Clough, the founder of Sorosis, because she, too, was interested in associating with and helping young women. When Dr. Clough retired, Edith became the sorority faculty advisor--a position that she held until the sorority became a chapter of Tri Delt. She helped them survive some hard times through the Depression and several different meeting places until, finally, she convinced the University that some property should be set aside for the use of the sororities for houses which was to become Clough Place. This was northwest of the Plaza of Heroines approximately where Jabara Hall now stands.

Sorosis Sorority was the first to select a building site and, through the untiring efforts of women like Edith Fletcher, was also the first to build its own house. This was quite an accomplishment considering the times (1940) and the size of the group. Not only were they able to raise money to start building the house, but they were also able to borrow enough to complete it. Mrs. Fletcher worked as hard as the construction crew supervising each and every brick. Plans were underway to add a chapter room to the house in 1957 when national sororities came on the campus, and soon after the University acquired more land and began to plan for major expansion which would include the relocation of sorority and fraternity houses.

Both Dr. Fletcher and his wife were extremely interested and active in actually working with the students. While she sponsored Sorosis, he was the faculty advisor for Alpha Gamma Gamma Fraternity (now Beta) and they never faltered in their devotion to the young people all during the time that they were teachers and parents raising a family.

A letter from Carolyn Fletcher Newton to the Sorosis Alumnae thanking them for this memorial to her mother says, "she took pride in each of the young women who passed through the doors of the Sorority - and she was so proud that you all chose to call her 'Mother Fletcher'."

September 16, 1998