Woman’s College Alumna Watches Granddaughter Graduate This Spring
Things were different around here when Sarah Lewis Morgan ’50 came down the mountain from Rutherford County for college in Greensboro. It was 1946, and UNC Greensboro was still known as the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina. Though its halls were full of women working towards their degrees, it was rare for women to go to college in the 1940s.
By the time her granddaughter, Truly Ruby Ann Morgan ’25 arrived in 2021 to study psychology, men had been a part of the student body for nearly 60 years. Student life, academics, the campus, and the city of Greensboro had transformed in the 75 years between their commencement dates. Doubtless, these changes – and the similarities between her time and her granddaughter’s – will be on Sarah’s mind this week as she watches Truly finish out her undergraduate career.
How they got here
Sarah wanted to be a teacher of home economics. “There were only three major high schools in Rutherford County,” she explains, “and a home ec teacher was usually there for the long haul.” With a background set by the local 4-H club, she moved into Coit Residence Hall and started studying. “Food preparation, sewing, canning, freezing,” she says. “Things like that.”
Truly was unaware of the connection with her grandmother when she chose UNCG. “I didn’t know she went here when I applied,” Truly says. “But UNCG was definitely on my radar because it’s the middle point between where I grew up, in Chapel Hill and Black Mountain. When I applied and got in, my dad said, ‘Oh, that’s great because Mama Sarah went there.’ And I was like, ‘That’s amazing!’ That’s just so cool to me.”
Truly, a musician, found UNCG because of its music program, but one class inspired her major: “I took the Psychology 101 course, and I really clicked with it,” she says. “I chose creative writing as my minor.”
Some things change…
In her first year, Sarah says, she was ready to go home way before Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t allowed. “You didn’t run home every weekend because none of the girls back then had cars,” she remembers. “So we didn’t come home except for special holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.” On holidays, buses would line College Avenue to take the women home. “There would be buses going to Charlotte, buses going to Raleigh, buses going to Fayetteville, different places, and that’s how everybody went home. I would ride that bus to Charlotte. And then I’d have to change and catch a bus going toward Asheville.”
Dorm life was different, too.
“We had no freedom,” Sarah says with a laugh. “You had to sign out if you went to the library, you had to sign out if you went uptown, you had to sign out just to leave the dorm, and then you had to be sure you signed back in. If not, you would have a conference with the House Mother.”
Every night in the dorms, the hours from 7-10 p.m. were designated as “quiet study.” Leaving their room during that time could also earn a scolding from the House Mother. A phone booth just outside was the only telephone available for the students to use.
Now, Truly has her own personal phone, a car, and an off-campus apartment.
“I moved off campus kind of early,” she says, “and having that freedom while still being so close by, having my own space is very nice. I’m so grateful that I can have the opportunity to do that and have the freedom to go off campus and explore the city.”
Some remain the same
Both women worked on-campus jobs while they attended school. Sarah worked in the cafeteria. Truly is a lifeguard at the Kaplan Center natatorium. “I love it,” she says. “I’m friends with everybody I work with. My bosses are great, and they allow time to do homework. I’m very grateful that I found a job through UNCG that’s so accommodating.”
Both made lifelong friends. Sarah would keep in touch with letters and regular visits. Truly found her people while hanging out by the fountain on Moran Commons. “We would sit there and talk for hours,” she says, “And then we just became really good friends after that.”
And both left the University prepared for what comes next.
“My livelihood came from my education at Woman’s College,” Sarah says. “In home economics, you had to take so much science. And so, you lived in the Home Management House, you did your practice teaching off campus, and it got you started off on a way to make your livelihood.”
Truly feels ready for the next steps: a gap year followed by grad school.
She says, “I know I can always rely on the people I’ve met here and, I’ve felt very supported at UNCG, and that definitely raises my confidence to go into the future knowing that I have these professors, these connections from UNCG to fall back on and help me grow going forward.”
The UNCG legacy
I always think about how I’m walking the same streets she did,” Truly says. “That, to me, is so empowering because I have a lot more freedom and I have a lot more rights now than she did when she was a student here. Of course, the campus has totally changed from 75 years ago, but I still feel like it’s a very similar core experience—this is the same environment that she grew up in and that I’m growing up in.
“I’ve always looked up to her since I was younger,” she continues. “She just had so much ambition. She really inspires me to work as hard as I can and do as well as I can, so I can make her proud. And I want to make her proud. I want her to be like, ‘That’s my granddaughter!’”
CELEBRATE OUR GRADS!
Graduates and their families are encouraged to share their accomplishments on social media by tagging the University accounts and using the hashtag #UNCGGrad. Visit UNCG’s digital swag page for Commencement-themed graphics and templates.
Mention @UNCG in celebratory posts on Instagram and X and @uncgreensboro on TikTok.
