![So, did she have to stand in her bra and underwear in front of everyone while her sisters circled with a Sharpie everything that was wrong with her body?
thedailywhat:
Senior Sorority Sister of the Day: It may have taken nearly three-quarters of a century, but 90-year-old Bertie McConnell has finally realized her dream of joining the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at Washburn University.
The Topeka resident nearly became a member in 1941, having attended several Zeta rush parties, but then World War II happened.
McConnell left school shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to help support the war effort by working at the Sunflower Ammunition Plant near Lawrence. After the war she married her naval aviator boyfriend and never got the chance to resume her studies.
“She told me her one regret in life was that she never became a Zeta,” McConnell’s daughter, Judith McConnell-Farmer, told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
As it happens, McConnell-Farmer is interim chairwoman of Washburn’s department of education, and after she shared her mother’s story with Washburn students, Zeta members reached out to the sorority’s national council, and secured a membership for the nonagenarian.
“I was just hoping the girls might send her a birthday card,” said McConnell-Farmer. “Now we’ll be searching Ripley’s (Believe It or Not) to see if there’s ever been a 90-year-old sorority pledge.”
[cjonline / photo: ljworld.]](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lt6ct2J3tD1qzpwi0o1_400.jpg)
So, did she have to stand in her bra and underwear in front of everyone while her sisters circled with a Sharpie everything that was wrong with her body?
Senior Sorority Sister of the Day: It may have taken nearly three-quarters of a century, but 90-year-old Bertie McConnell has finally realized her dream of joining the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority at Washburn University.
The Topeka resident nearly became a member in 1941, having attended several Zeta rush parties, but then World War II happened.
McConnell left school shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to help support the war effort by working at the Sunflower Ammunition Plant near Lawrence. After the war she married her naval aviator boyfriend and never got the chance to resume her studies.
“She told me her one regret in life was that she never became a Zeta,” McConnell’s daughter, Judith McConnell-Farmer, told the Topeka Capital-Journal.
As it happens, McConnell-Farmer is interim chairwoman of Washburn’s department of education, and after she shared her mother’s story with Washburn students, Zeta members reached out to the sorority’s national council, and secured a membership for the nonagenarian.
“I was just hoping the girls might send her a birthday card,” said McConnell-Farmer. “Now we’ll be searching Ripley’s (Believe It or Not) to see if there’s ever been a 90-year-old sorority pledge.”
