Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Martha Helen Swain of Starkville learned life lessons and the historian's craft from two well-known 20th century faculty members at Mississippi State.
A memorial gift from the retired history professor recently established the Glover Moore-John K. Bettersworth Endowed Scholarship for undergraduate history majors in the university's College of Arts and Sciences.
"The scholarship honors two distinguished veteran professors and also recognizes one of our most accomplished alumni," said department head Alan I. Marcus. "It also demonstrates how important an undergraduate education can be as the basis for a career.
"Dr. Swain fondly remembers her experience at Mississippi State and only a truly honorable person such as she would consider supporting the university in this manner," he added.
While pursuing a bachelor's degree at MSU, Swain apprenticed in the department under Bettersworth and Moore. After graduation, she attended Vanderbilt University on a full scholarship based, in part, on recommendations by the two men.
Swain, who graduated from the Nashville institution in 1954, said her advanced studies would not have been possible without the recommendations of Bettersworth and Moore, the latter a VU doctoral graduate. Among her treasured possessions is a letter from Vanderbilt history department head William C. Binkley, saying he would accept anyone with a recommendation from the two MSU colleagues.
"I learned the historian's craft of writing, research and publishing by working in the history department at Mississippi State," Swain explained. "I wanted to honor my major professors by giving back in a way that would allow the university's history department to mold other students with potential."
After Vanderbilt, Swain taught 16 years at various institutions before returning to VU to earn her doctorate. She also was a 21-year member of the faculty at Texas Woman's University in Denton, where she continues to hold emerita status.
In addition to teaching students, Bettersworth was MSU's longtime vice president for academic affairs and the institution's official historian. He completed "The People's University: A Centennial History of Mississippi State" in 1978 to update his 1953 original version, "The People's College." He also authored the Mississippi history textbook used for many years in the state's secondary schools.
Moore joined the MSU history faculty in 1936 as the first departmental member with a doctoral degree. Before retiring in 1977, he was honored with selection as a 1970 Outstanding Educator of America and election as president of the Mississippi Historical Society. His most well-known book was "The Missouri Controversy, 1819-1821."
Swain is the author of three books on Mississippians in Washington during President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal era. She also is co-editor of two volumes of essays on Mississippi women and an associate editor of the Mississippi Encyclopedia.
After retiring in Texas, Swain served 1995-2004 as an adjunct member of the MSU history faculty. Over her entire professional career, she has been honored with a TWU distinguished senior faculty award, Eudora Welty book prize from Mississippi University for Women and the Mississippi Historical Society's Dunbar Rowland Award for lifetime contributions to state history, among other recognitions. She is a past president of the state historical society and Southern Association of Women Historians.
Swain, and her sisters, Margaret and Mary Elizabeth, earlier endowed another MSU scholarship to honor their late father, Jim Henry Swain, a Union County native and 1913 Mississippi A&M College graduate. That award supports civil engineering majors.
Margaret Swain, known to most as "Margo," was a member of MSU's faculty 1969-1994, when she retired as director of the social work academic program. Mary Elizabeth Swain Bacon briefly taught political science at Mississippi State and was a longtime faculty member at Kent State University.
NEWS EDITORS/DIRECTORS: For more information, contact Amy Cagle at 662-325-1006 or acagle@advservices.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.