Tennant, Mary Jones

Mary Jones Tennant (Alpha, DePauw University) became just the 15th member of Alpha Chi Omega. Early on, Mary understood and valued the work that had gone into establishing the Fraternity. She quickly became involved in cultivating the Alpha Chi Omega experience and expanding the Fraternity’s reach to more women. Mary assisted Founder Estelle Leonard in creating the first charter and suggesting the first open motto to be adopted by the Fraternity, “Ye Daughters of Music Come Up Higher.” In 1887, Mary participated in the installation of the Beta chapter (Albion College).

Following her studies at DePauw, Mary became the first Alpha Chi Omega inspector, an office which was created at the 1904 convention in Meadville, Pennsylvania. The purpose was to increase cooperation between the national organization and the collegiate chapters. Mary did this by visiting all active chapters during the two years between conventions, meeting with campus professionals and alumnae advisors, getting to know chapter members, inspecting records and reviewing minutes.

The office of inspector was not always easy and required a sacrifice of personal time for the sake of the Fraternity. To show their appreciation, the Grand Council presented Mary with the honor pin at the Grand Council Meeting in 1911. Mary was one of the first five recipients of this recognition, which was adopted at the 1910 convention to recognize former Grand Officers.

The Intersorority Conference, later renamed the National Panhellenic Conference, was founded in 1902. Alpha Chi Omega joined the conference in 1903. As inspector, Mary also served as Alpha Chi Omega’s official delegate to the newly created Intersorority Conference.

Mary Jones Tennant died on December 20, 1926. Underscoring the profound impact she had on Alpha Chi Omega and on so many of its members, Founder Olive Burnett Clark wrote this upon her passing, “No better or more loyal Alpha Chi ever lived – faithful to every trust, to every duty. She was safe in judgement ... whatever she had to say was always listened to with the utmost respect – that was one of the outstanding demands of her personality that she was probably not fully aware of, for she was absolutely free from ostentation or egotism.”