On Saturday, Oct. 2, a group of close to 100 alumnae from Ward-Belmont School gathered in the Belmont Mansion on the campus of Belmont University for their annual reunion luncheon.
Ward Belmont served as a high school and junior college for women for 37 years (1913-1951) on what is now the Belmont campus. Ward-Belmont was the first junior college in the South to become fully accredited. Enrollment totaled more than 1,200 in the 1920s.
The alumnae gathered on Saturday for a luncheon served on the china the ladies used as students and a music program from Belmont School of music faculty and students. The women were also updated on the status of the Belmont Mansion and bell tower, the oldest, privately owned structure of its kind in the United States and were invited to join in Belmont’s efforts to restore the mansion and bell tower.
Notable alumnae of Ward-Belmont include Lila Acheson Wallace, co-founder of Reader’s Digest, Mary Martin of Broadway fame, Mrs. Douglas MacArthur, editor and playwright Clair Booth Luce and Sarah Cannon, better known as Minnie Pearl.
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