Sewanee, Tenn.---Services for Mrs. Mary Carroll Brooks Kirby-Smith, 88, of Atlanta, formerly a dormitory matron at the University of the South here, will be at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow at the University's All Saints Chapel.
Burial in the family plot in the University Cemetery.
Mrs. Kirby-Smith died Friday in an Atlanta nursing home.
A native of Sewanee, Mrs. Kirby-Smith was the daughter of Preston Smith Brooks, Jr., a merchant here, and Maria Gaillard Brooks. Her grandfather, Preston Smith Brooks, Sr., was the Southern Congressman whose violent altercation with Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the floor of the House inflamed emotions, both North and South, on the eve of the Civil War.
In 1907, she married Ephraim Kirby-Smith, the youngest son of Confederate General Edmund Kirby-Smith, who taught mathematics at the University here. The couple lived in Mexico, Cuba and Louisiana, where he was engaged in the silver-mining and sugar industries.
After the death of her husband in 1938, Mrs. Kirby-Smith retired here to become one of the most famous of the Sewanee matrons. As Chief of Chaperons for dances, she always knew whose date was whose, even when they changed during the weekends, students recalled.
For three decades, she presided at Hoffman and Gailor Halls, becoming indignant when it was suggested that an octogenarian should retire. She left her post in 1968 and moved later to Atlanta, the home of a daughter, Mrs. Louis W. Rice.
Survivors, in addition to Mrs. Rice, include two other daughters, Mrs. Mary Brooks Kirby-Smith, Waco, Texas; and Mrs. Catherine Porcher Kirby-Smith, Pahrump, Nevada; a son, retired Marine Colonel Ephraim Kirby-Smith, Jr., Newport Beach, Calif.; a sister, Mrs. Amy Brooks Eggleston, Cleveland, Tenn.
