Kappa Alpha Theta sister sorority

[phigamucsb]

i was wondering how many FIJI brothers know that Kappa Alpha Theta is our sister sorority nationally. Theta was founded with the help of some of our brothers at DePaw University. Betty Locke had a brother and a father that were FIJI's that encouraged and helped her to found the fraternity known as Kappa Alpha Theta. We also designed their badge (see the similarity in the black diamond).

[fijijr]

How many knew that they have an item in which the fraternity presented to them with our greek letters on it, a cake basket, that is still housed at their national headquarters.

[Greekgrrl]

Hi guys, sorry to crash your board, but just wanted to put in my 2 cents on this issue dear to my heart

Although no Theta would deny the special relationship we have with Phi Gamma Delta, y'all aren't our official brother fraternity -- none of the NPC sororities have a brother fraternity 'nationally'.

Also, our founder Bettie Locke Hamilton did have a brother who was a Fiji, but her father was a Beta Theta Pi.

From the University of Delaware Theta chapter website:
Bettie Locke had been exposed to fraternity life, as her father was a Beta Theta Pi and her brother was a Phi Gamma Delta. When her friends in the Phi Gamma Delta chapter at Asbury asked her to wear their fraternity badge as a token of friendship, she declined, saying that she couldn't wear the letters unless she knew the secrets and meanings behind them. Instead, with encouragement from her father, she set out to form a fraternity for women.

She told her friend, Alice Allen, of the idea and together they wrote the constitution and by-laws, planned the ceremonies, designed a badge, and sought other women on the campus worthy to belong to the new Kappa Alpha Theta.
--
Now, I agree that there are similarities in the Fiji badge and the Theta badge -- and I'm' sure they're not coincidental! But Kappa Alpha Theta was founded by women, for women.

No offense meant, of course, but I wanted to make sure no-one got their stories switched!

Theta love and mine

Greekgrrl

[fijijr]

From FIJI's records

At any rate, Bettie Locke contended that, if she were to wear the proffered badge, she would have to become a Phi Gamma Delta member whole and complete, or not at all. The Lambda lads finally admitted their inability to establish a precedent by initiating a woman member; so was the issue drawn. Viola! And since neither party knew of women becoming members of Beta Theta Pi and Phi Delta Theta, the Theta historian was enabled to write in1930: ". . . . fortunately for Kappa Alpha Theta, she was not initiated into Phi Gamma Delta. The young men compromised by presenting Bettie a handsome silver cake-basket with the Greek letters, Phi Gamma Delta

Fijis soon suggested, as their "measure of respect and appreciation," a coalition of the two societies to create a brother and sister order. Thus doth politics make hypocrites of us all. This suggestion, like the Fijis' first proposal to Bettie Locke, was considered and declined.


From Dr. Locke and the eminent Fiji historian, Dr. John Clark Ridpath (DePauw '63), the two planners extracted numerous suggestions. One of the latter's 'sisters, Martha Ridpath, who later became a Theta, "told how the girls spent one morning in the large, warm kitchen of the Ridpath home, and that Mrs. Ridpath in after years reported they had 'cut up enough paper to fill a woodbox, trying to decide on a shape for their badge.

Most interesting of all was the story of his father and John C. Ridpath (DePauw 1863). Joseph Dobell and the eminent historian were connected with the founding of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, the two of them writing the Theta initiation ritual.

[rocketaxid]

Originally posted by Greekgrrl
Hi guys, sorry to crash your board, but just wanted to put in my 2 cents on this issue dear to my heart

Although no Theta would deny the special relationship we have with Phi Gamma Delta, y'all aren't our official brother fraternity -- none of the NPC sororities have a brother fraternity 'nationally'.

I'm an Alpha Xi Delta and we have a brother fraturnity nationally and it's Sigma Nu.