New Mexico chapters of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.

Delta Kappa Gamma was founded as an organization for women educators in Austin, Texas, in 1929. Dr. Webb Blanton was inspired by comments criticizing the ability of women to "stand together" for a common cause; she subsequently accumulated a team of outstanding teachers and laid the foundation for what is now an international organization. The seven main purposes as set down in 1929 are 1) to unite women educators of the world in a genuine spirit of fellowship; 2) to honor women who have given distinctive service in any field of education; 3) to protect the professional interests of women in education and eliminate unjust discrimination; 4) to sponsor and support desirable educational legislation and initiate legislation in the interests of women educators; 5) to endow scholarships to aid outstanding women teachers in pursuing graduate study; 6) to initiate and develop a continuous program of teacher welfare designed to improve the economic, social, and political status of women; and, 7) to inform the membership of current economic, social, political, and educational issues to the end that they may become intelligent functioning members of a world society. These goals have been vigorously upheld in the numerous state and international chapters that have developed since that first initiation at the University of Texas on May 11, 1929. (1)

Theta State, the New Mexico chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, began on November 2, 1934. Miss Birdie Adams, who began her career as a kindergarten teacher in Pueblo, Colorado at the age of seventeen, organized Theta State. She helped to secure the Kindergarten Law in the New Mexico School Code, which ensured minimum standards for early childhood education in the state by the 1930s. (2) Ms. Adams was the first woman teacher in New Mexico to receive the Administrative Life Certificate. She was Theta State's first president, serving from 1934 to 1938, and received various local and national, awards and citations. A scholarship fund is named in her honor.

The local Delta Kappa Gamma chapter, Iota, was also organized by Miss Birdie Adams and began in the Las Cruces home of the first president, Mrs. Onna Butts, on May 4, 1938. The first meeting of the chapter took place on May 15, 1938, also in the home of Mrs. Butts. The first Secretary was Eulalia Lewis, and the first Treasurer was Mabel Hawthorne. The chapter still exists and is comprised of women educators from Doña Ana and Sierra Counties.

As the organization's Internet site states, "Delta Kappa Gamma is an international honor society of over 150,000 key woman educators in fourteen countries. The Delta Kappa Gamma Society International promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education." The content of the Delta Kappa Gamma Records verifies the honor society's long-standing dedication to betterment through learning. More information about contemporary activities of the Delta Kappa Gamma organization can be found by visiting the organization's web site.

1. Delta Kappa Gamma International website, http://www.deltakappagamma.org/International. 2. Charles L. Rose, State of New Mexico Public School Code 1949 (Santa Fe: New Mexico Legislative Reference Bureau, 1949), 147.

From the guide to the New Mexico Delta Kappa Gamma records, 1934-2002, (New Mexico State University. Archives and Special Collections Department.)