Alma mater memories - SEMO's oldest alumna is 108

SEMO's oldest graduate is 108

By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

When Julia Townsend Albrecht attended Southeast Missouri State University 86 years ago, it was a rural teachers college with a hitching post next to Academic Hall to tie up students' horses.

The Long Beach, Calif., woman, who turned 108 on May 20, is the oldest living alumna of Southeast, which will be celebrating its homecoming this weekend.

The celebration is an event that Albrecht couldn't have imagined when she was a student in 1916 and the campus had few student activities.

Albrecht won't be on hand for this weekend's homecoming festivities. Her age and health prevent it, said her son and retired insurance agent Ivan Albrecht, who has taken care of her for about 50 years. When asked his age, Ivan Albrecht declined to say, noting it is a sensitive subject for him.

The two share an apartment overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Coming of homecomings

Julia Albrecht wouldn't have witnessed homecoming celebrations when she was a student at the school. Such activities didn't surface at American colleges until the 1920s, said university historian Dr. Frank Nickell.

There were no organized, student activities at the teachers college in its early days. Founded in 1873, the school prohibited student activities until the late 1890s, school records show.

The first student activity to be approved by faculty was a marshmallow roast.

Graduating students didn't begin wearing caps and gowns at commencement until 1904, 31 years after the school's founding.

Albrecht, who grew up on a farm in Belgrade, Mo., attended Southeast when the school was called Southeast Missouri State Teachers College. Back then, most of its students were women looking to get training to teach in one-room schools.

"I was just an average student," Albrecht said. "I wasn't a brain."

She took courses in cooking, sewing and literature, following in the footsteps of two sisters who attended the school in 1909.

She stayed in the home of one of her older sisters in Cape Girardeau while attending school. The college had no dorms.

Albrecht remembers making the journey from her farm to Cape Girardeau by horse and carriage.

"The streets were not really passable," said Nickell, explaining that roads weren't paved which made automobile traffic less desirable.

"People rode horses and walked," he said. Automobiles were rare. "It was after World War I before cars became widely used in town," Nickell said.

Students kept to wooden sidewalks at the college, where the grounds were often muddy, Nickell said.

Albrecht -- whose father fought for the confederacy in the Civil War -- has failing eyesight and trouble hearing. She has difficulty remembering much about her college days.

"I am getting old and I can't remember everything," she said Wednesday from her Long Beach apartment.

Proud of school

Ivan Albrecht said his mother used to talk a lot about her schooling at Southeast. "She is very proud of going to school," he said.

"Her father was a poor farmer and really sacrificed to send her and her sisters to college. Her favorite classes at Southeast were the home economics courses," he said.

"I always said she was a good cook and homemaker and I am sure this is a good reason why," Ivan Albrecht said.

His mother enrolled in college to get a teaching degree. "Unfortunately, money was tight and mother was unable to complete a degree," he said.

Nickell said the college was known as the "old maids school" because only unmarried women could be school teachers.

Dr. Georganne Syler, a professor in the human environmental studies department, formerly home economics, said women had few opportunities outside the home.

"You must remember these were the times when women couldn't vote or work after marriage," she said. "Consequently, taking classes in home economics made perfect sense."

Back then, all food was prepared in the home. "No food was bought ready to eat," Syler said.

In 1916, the teachers college had 310 students and 37 faculty and staff. Today, the university has over 9,500 students and about 1,000 employees including 400 faculty.

In Julia Albrecht's time as a student, chaperones were required on dates.

She was born in 1894 as the youngest of 11 siblings. During her life, the United States has had 20 presidents and fought two world wars.

She married George Albrecht in 1927. They moved to California in 1943 during World War II. Her husband died in 1971.

Julia Albrecht doesn't claim any credit for living so long. "I think it is all God," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123