Alumni
RE Log Magazine
A Happy Reunion: The founding students of the Everglades School for Girls
It’s 9 p.m. in Asheville, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 17, 2022, and nine women are sitting around a firepit at the home of Bebe Ferrell McClain ’62. They have traveled from as far as New Hampshire and as near as the other side of Asheville. They are alumnae from the original classes of the Everglades School for Girls.
These women have gathered on this gorgeous autumn weekend to celebrate their 60th reunion. Some of them haven’t seen each other since they left Everglades in the early 1960s, yet they feel like they haven’t been apart any time at all. The friendships they forged as girls at Everglades haven’t faded. Sitting together around the firepit, they reminisce about their favorite teachers and the classmates they’ve lost. Memories that still sparkle in their minds like the lights strung above them on the outside deck.
McClain and her husband, Bill McClain, are hosting the Everglades Classes of 1960-63 in their home in Asheville. McClain has worked tirelessly with Jourdan Moore Houston ’62 to ensure an incredible weekend is had by all. Several other husbands are here, and an impromptu “boys’ table” is set up where they return to eat and talk throughout the weekend.
Gathered around the firepit are Mary Babcock ’61, who attended Everglades through tenth grade; Andrea Lynch Cole ’61, who attended for seventh and eighth grades along with her twin sister, Linda Lynch Smoak ’61; Bryan Hector Commander ’61, who attended for seventh and eighth grades; Alice Hector ’63, who attended for several years; Houston, the mastermind behind the Asheville reunion; Katherine “Kaki” Swenson Kahan ’61, who was at Everglades the first year it opened in 1955 until graduation; McClain, who started at Everglades in the tenth grade and remained through graduation; and Linda Morris McKillop ’62 and Judy Golden Powers ’62, who attended Everglades from the seventh grade on. Their reminiscences range from the school’s founding to their most memorable moments on campus.
Jourdan: “A number of our parents who knew each other in the northeast moved to Miami in the late ’40s and there was a school called Ransom, but no school for girls. Our mothers wanted an alternative to boarding schools for us. They were inspired to create a counterpart to Ransom, to which many of our brothers went – I had three who attended Ransom – so they decided, with the help of the Swensons in particular, to start Everglades School for Girls. My father and mother were involved in the zoning issues because this was a residential area in Coconut Grove and they needed to be allowed to put the school there, which was not easy. All the parents contributed a great deal and a lot of these women who are here in Asheville today had parents who were part of making the school happen.”
“It was a beautiful place, physically beautiful. The Dell was the soul home of everybody, this enchanting place where all our plays were performed.”
Katherine "Kaki" Swenson Kahan '61
Jourdan: “A number of our parents who knew each other in the northeast moved to Miami in the late ’40s and there was a school called Ransom, but no school for girls. Our mothers wanted an alternative to boarding schools for us. They were inspired to create a counterpart to Ransom, to which many of our brothers went – I had three who attended Ransom – so they decided, with the help of the Swensons in particular, to start Everglades School for Girls. My father and mother were involved in the zoning issues because this was a residential area in Coconut Grove and they needed to be allowed to put the school there, which was not easy. All the parents contributed a great deal and a lot of these women who are here in Asheville today had parents who were part of making the school happen.”
Kaki: “From 1955-1961 there were so few of us. We were 24 students in grades 7-12, with four teachers and four classrooms and Gertrude Peirce as Head Mistress. My parents, Ed and Marie Swenson, and my brother and I had moved to Miami from Greenwich, Conn., in 1951. I was happy at The Cushman School for the years I attended. They knew I’d have to go on and they didn’t feel there was a good secondary school for girls in Miami so that gave them the idea to create one. They really were dedicated to this.”
Jourdan: “I remember having assembly every morning and someone had to get up and read something they’d chosen. A poem or something. It really taught us public speaking because we had to keep doing it throughout the year because there were so few of us and your time came up again. Or we would sing. Our classes weren’t lectures, but more like discussions, total interactions.”
Andrea: “My parents were also involved with Everglades School for Girls at its inception. My mother was a Wellesley College graduate, and she knew and liked Marguerite Hersey, who was the headmistress at Abbot Academy in Andover, Mass. Abbot was one of the first boarding prep schools educating young women in New England in grades 9–12. Miss Hersey came down to Miami to discuss the founding of Everglades with my parents and the Swensons.”
Kaki: “I think about how really young my parents were at the time. They found land located in a residential neighborhood in Coconut Grove and a wonderful board was created with architects and lawyers and financial advisors and – after quite a bit of zoning work – the school was born! The first four original teachers were terrific people. As students we were all very much included in making decisions about how the school would be. We were part of the decision-making processes, everything from designing the uniforms to creating clubs and publications.
“The Everglades spirit was ‘Drop the mop and pick up the broom,’ types of things where everyone was involved. We all had a chance to participate in so many activities – plays and musicals, publications. The new classes were developing and growing, and seeing the faculty arrive and develop was incredible.”
“There was this special kind of energy, and everyone had to pitch in together including teachers. We were such a small group in our class and we were all friends.”
Jourdan Moore Houston '62
Jourdan: “I remember having assembly every morning and someone had to get up and read something they’d chosen. A poem or something. It really taught us public speaking because we had to keep doing it throughout the year because there were so few of us and your time came up again. Or we would sing. Our classes weren’t lectures, but more like discussions, total interactions.”
Bebe: “We had morning assembly, then class, a break with healthy snacks, another class, then lunch, followed by afternoon choices (typing, Brownie and Girl Scout group meetings or sports). The auditorium was also the lunchroom.”
Jourdan: “In the first few years, all sports were done just beyond the Dell (where Swenson Hall is today). Later we would cross Bayshore Drive to a field for soccer and field hockey. There were tennis courts and a small concrete building with lockers for our stuff. White jump suits with shorts were our uniform for PE. I remember the field went all the way down to the water.”
Jourdan: “In the first few years, all sports were done just beyond the Dell (where Swenson Hall is today). Later we would cross Bayshore Drive to a field for soccer and field hockey. There were tennis courts and a small concrete building with lockers for our stuff. White jump suits with shorts were our uniform for PE. I remember the field went all the way down to the water.”
Bebe: “The classrooms had no air conditioners or heaters. There were jalousie windows open so the breeze could go through. We had a lot of classes outside; we were always outside.”
Judy: “The school divided us into two teams and every student was either an Egret or an Ibis. We spent the entire year working on a point system. It wasn’t just sports, though sports was a big part of it. We had different projects, including community service projects. In my junior year I was captain of the Egret team and my classmate Jourdan Moore was captain of the Ibis team, and we were very much rivals. It was a friendly competition, though, and we loved putting on skits. And Jourdan of course won ... the Ibis team won. But I forgave her.”
Bryan: “I particularly remember the drama productions in the Dell. They performed outdoor theater, every year. There would be one big production that everyone had a part in.”
Kaki: “We were shown pictures of a uniform design and we came up with that little jumper. We had certain rules like we could only wear college shirts and couldn’t wear Capezio ballet shoes. The uniform came in a wonderful variety of pastel colors which we could all individualize with belts and sweaters.
Linda: “We did complain about having to wear the Oxford shoes, but the uniforms were great – I didn’t have to think about what I was wearing.”
“We were very lucky to be a part of that group of gals, very smart with so many different kinds of talents. I never found anything like it again.”
Judy Golden Powers ’62
Bryan: “I particularly remember the drama productions in the Dell. They performed outdoor theater, every year. There would be one big production that everyone had a part in.”
Kaki: “It was a beautiful place, physically beautiful. The Dell was the soul home of everybody, this enchanting place where all our plays were performed. I remember we put on ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Androcles and the Lion,’ and every girl had a role. We created a literary magazine called the Sandpiper and a newsletter called the Everglades Echo, which we had to mimeograph in those days. We created a student government and named the sports teams, the Egrets and the Ibis. One tradition we began was to wear white graduation dresses and carry red roses, and I’m so pleased the students still do that to this day.”
Jourdan: “There was this special kind of energy, and everyone had to pitch in together including teachers. We were such a small group in our class and we were all friends. As I look back on it, I remember the teachers collectively as this young, independent-thinking group. They were all very original, and they had their own thoughts and were tremendously enthusiastic about teaching.”
Bebe: “We loved and respected the teachers so much and joked around with them; we were like pals. Our teachers loved their subjects and were so good at teaching them that we loved learning the subjects.”
Linda: “The girls were great, they were kind to each other, and we all spent time together outside school at each other’s houses.”
Judy: “We were very lucky to be a part of that group of gals, very smart with so many different kinds of talents. I never found anything like it again.”
Bebe: “I loved Everglades, everything about it. My experiences, the teachers, the education.”
Jourdan: “There is a bond among those of us who were there, and it’s really special.”
It’s 1 p.m., on Sunday, Sept. 18, at the home of the McClains. Brunch is over and nine Everglades founding classes members are getting ready to depart for their drives and flights home. One thing is clear: not one of the Everglades girls wants the weekend to end. As they depart, they all agree that they can’t wait for their next reunion!
Middle School
2045 South Bayshore Drive, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 250 6850
Upper School
3575 Main Highway, Coconut Grove, FL 33133Phone: 305 460 8800
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.