Ethel Hedgeman Lyle

        Ethel Hedgeman was born in 1885 in St, Louis, Missouri.  Her 
father, Albert Hedgeman, worked for the YMCA and her mother, Maria 
Hubbard Hedgeman, cared for Ethel and her two sisters, Iota and Thelma.
Ethel Hedgeman attended public schools in St. Louis and graduated 
with honors from Sumner High School in 1904 with a scholarship to Howard
University.
        She entered the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University
in 1904, but had to withdraw for one term after her second year because
of illness.  She was a member of the university choir, YWCA, and 
Christian Endeavor.  She was also an active member of student dramatic 
productions.  College associates have described her as a lively, charming,
bubbling young woman, full of life and laughter, although somewhat 
delicate in health.
        When Ethel Hedgeman returned from her summer vacation in 1907,
she was very eager to start a sorority.  Perhaps this was partly the 
result of discussions with her childhood sweetheart, George Lyle, a 
member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.  But she minimized this influence
and at one time stated that it was the encouragement of two faculty 
members, Miss Ethel Aremain Robinson and Miss Elizabeth Appa Cook that 
stimulated her interest in the establishment of a sorority Through the 
fall months, she discussed her ideas with her fellow students, especially
with her special friends, the Burke sisters.  Eight young women, Beulah 
and Lillie Burke, Margaret Flagg (Holmes), Lavinia Norman, Lucy Slowe, 
Anna Brown, Marie Woolfolk (Taylor), and Marjorie Hill joined Ethel 
Hedgeman, January 15, 1908, and began the planning which culminated in 
the establishment of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
        Though Ethel Hedgeman was the natural choice for first president,
she could not be elected according to the newly accepted constitution 
because she was a junior. in the fall semester of her senior year, Ethel 
Hedgeman was elected the second basileus of the first chapter of Alpha 
Kappa Alpha Sorority.
        After graduating in 1909 with a B.A. in liberal arts, Ethel 
Hedgeman went to Enfala, Oklahoma.  That summer she taught music in the 
Summer Normal School and continued to teach in the public school of 
Enfala until 19 1 0. She was the first Black woman college graduate to 
teach in a normal school in Oklahoma and the first to receive a Teacher's
Life Certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Education.  During
the school year 1910-1911 she taught in the public schools of Centralia, 
Illinois.
        After teaching in Centralia, Ethel Hedgeman married her high 
school and college sweetheart, George Lyle, in New York on June 21, 1911,
and established residence in Philadelphia where their only child, George,
Jr., was born.
        Mrs. Lyle resumed her career in Philadelphia in 1922 teaching
English at the Thomas Purham School and then at the Arthur School, from 
which she retired in 1948.  Her husband was also a teacher and later 
became the principal of the Walter George Smith School.
        Ethel Lyle was a charter member of both the Mu Chapter, established
in Philadelphia in 1922, and the Omega Omega Chapter, chartered in 1926.
In 1923, she was elected supreme tamiouchos, the office she held until 
1946.  She also served as basileus of the Omega Omega Chapter.  In 
recognition of her role as founder of the sorority, she was named Honorary
Basileus at the 1926 Boule and carried that title until her death.  
No other member of the sorority has been so designated.
        Mrs. Lyle was active in church and civic affairs in Philadelphia.  
She was founder of the Mother's Club of the City,charter member of the West 
Philadelphia League of Women Voters, and a member of the Republican 
Women's Committee of Ward 40.  In 1937, she was appointed chairman of 
the Mayor's Committee of One Hundred Women, organized to assist in planning 
for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the adoption of the constitution.  
Mrs. Lyle was an avid reader.  She loved to do crossword puzzles and enjoyed 
playing bridge.
        Ethel Hedgeman Lyle died on November 28, 1950 in Philadelphia
and was buried there.  In addition to her husband and her son, Mrs. Lyle 
was survived by two granddaughters, Muriel Jean and Andrea Joan.  The 
sorority voted that scholarships of one thousand dollars be awarded to the
granddaughters so that they could attend the college of their choice.  
The scholarships were presented at the Golden Anniversary Boule in 
Washington, D.C. in 1958.
        The Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Endowment Fund perpetuated the name of
the charming and gracious woman who founded the Alpha Kappa Alpha 
Sorority over 85 years ago.