Of course Phi Psi's original colours were lavendar and pink. They were changed in 1918 to Cardinal Red and Hunter Green.
When Woodrow Wilson died the original colors, pink and lavendar, were the only colors of flowers on his casket.
Quote:
George Smart in the Spring 1924 issue of The Shield wrote:
The New York Times, in its description of the funeral services of Woodrow Wilson, states that the casket was unornamented but on its top lay a spray of lavender orchids sent by men who had served in France during the war and placed there by Mrs. Wilson. The account also states that, as he passed the casket, the Reverend Robert E. Browning laid near the orchids two pink roses.
I wonder whether the men who sent the lavender flowers were Phi Psis. Perhaps not. The rector who placed the pink roses on the casket is not a Phi Psi. Doubtless this combination of the old colors, so dear to thousands of us, was purely accidental. However that may be, it was eminently fitting that the lavender and pink, which were the fraternity colors throughout almost the entire period of his membership, should be the only flowers to grace the casket of the great Phi Psi. That fact adds new glory to the history of lavender and pink in Phi Kappa Psi.
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