Ethel Jones Mowbray
Ethel Jones Mowbray

Ethel Jones was born in Baltimore, Maryland to Mr. and Mrs. George
Jones. Her mother died when she was an infant, and her father reared her
until she was ten years of age. He then placed her in a foster home with the
Myers family, where she lived until she left for college.
Her early schooling was completed in the Baltimore public schools.
She graduated from high school with honors and in 1906 enrolled in the
College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University Ethel was one of the seven
honor students of the class of 1910 who was added without initiation to the
Alpha Kappa Alpha founding group in late February 1908, thus becoming one of
the charter members.
On May 25, 1909, the date of the first ivy Day celebration, she was
among the group of young Alpha Kappa Alpha women who planted ivy at the south
end of Miner Hall. Her future husband, George Mowbray, assisted her and the
other girls in the historic occasion, Beautiful ivy graces many significant
locations on the Howard campus, recalling that first and subsequent Ivy Day
celebrations.
In 1909, Ethel Jones was elected to be the first vice-president of
Alpha Kappa Alpha and in March 19 1 0, she became basileus during the last
semester of her senior year.
She graduated from Howard University with a major in mathematics and
a minor in education. She returned to Baltimore and taught mathematics in
the public schools. She remained there for two years while George Mowbray
completed his undergraduate studies at Howard University In 1913, he
graduated from Howard University and went to Chicago to begin graduate
studies at the University of Chicago. That summer Ethel married George
Mowbray and moved to Chicago.
After a summer in Chicago, the Mowbrays moved to Kansas City, Kansas,
where he was employed by the Kansas City Board of Education as a teacher, and
she became a caterer. Her love of the culinary arts along with hard work
brought Mrs. Mowbray success in the catering business, which she enjoyed.
She also was an avid bridge player and belonged to three different bridge
clubs.
Mrs. Mowbray was an involved Alpha Kappa Alpha soror all of her life.
She was active during the period of incorporation, although she had graduated
from Howard University by that time, and she was an initiator of the
expansion programs which followed incorporation. In Kansas City, Kansas,
after Mu Omega Chapter was established, she continued her sorority activities
on the local level, She also worked with the PTA organization on the junior
high school level where she was a room mother.
The Mowbrays had two children, Helen Henry Mowbray and Dr. Geraldine
Mowbray Arnette. Dr. Arnette, a practicing physician, is also an Alpha Kappa
Alpha woman and now lives in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Ethel Jones Mowbray lived and worked in Kansas until her death on
November 25, 1948.
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