Person:Elizabeth Anderson (75)

Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC) July 11, 1999 Elizabeth Anderson Persons

  DURHAM - Elizabeth Anderson Persons, 97, wife of Walter Scott (Jack) Persons, Jr.., of the Forest at Duke, 2701 Pickett Rd., died Thursday afternoon, July 8, at the Olsen Center.
  Duke University and her family were her life. Born on Valentine's Day in 1902, women of her generation stayed home. No so ``Libba. In 1917, she left her mother and father, Mary Banks and William Holt Anderson, in Haw River and went off to Peace College in Raleigh. The Peace Lotus of 1920 reported, ``She has been a leader among us since the day she came to us, a little girl of fifteen. . . . She has won honors galore and is now our own dear president.
  From Peace, she went to Trinity College, now known as Duke University, graduating in 1922. After earning tuition money teaching in Burlington and High Point, she returned to Duke for a master of arts in history, awarded in 1928. During 1927 and 1928, she also taught at Carr Junior High School. In 1929, she received a fellowship for study at the University of Pennsylvania, returning to Duke as a house counselor in 1930. She was successively appointed assistant to the dean of the women's college, dean of freshmen, and secretary of the committee on admissions of the women's college. In 1939, she married Jack Persons, of the department of athletics at Duke University, and in 1945, their son, Walter Scott Persons, III, was born. This same year she was named director of admissions of the women's college. In this post she traveled widely, ably presenting the advantages of a Duke education to secondary school women and their teachers. She also represented Duke on the College Entrance Examination Board. She served Duke University and Duke women for 41 years, retiring in 1971. Her son, Scott, is a graduate of Duke University, and her brother, W. Banks Anderson, Sr., was the first professor of ophthalmology at the Duke Medical Center.
  Elizabeth was active in the churchwomen of the First Presbyterian Church and devoted to her book club, the Folio. She is survived by her husband, Jack, of the Forest at Duke; her son, Scott and his wife, Susan Persons; a grandson, Walter Scott Persons, IV, of Tuckasegee; and nephews, W. Banks Anderson, Jr.., M.D., E. Everett Anderson, M.D., Charles A. Anderson, and W. Holt Anderson, all of Durham.
  On Saturday, July 17, a service of interment will be held at 10 a.m. at the family plot north of Mebane at Cross Roads Presbyterian Church. This will be followed at 12 noon by a service of celebration and remembrance at the First Presbyterian Church.
  Memorial gifts may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, 305 E. Main St., Durham 27701; or to the Duke University Women's Studies Program, Duke University, Box 90760, Durham 27708.

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