The vintage photo of Barbara Dennison Deegan, ’64, Maxine Wynn Robbins, ’62, Sharon Sasaki Hewitt, ’63, and I was taken at our dorm before we attended JHop with our dates. We four coeds bonded while we lived at Mosher-Jordan. Maxine and I had been best friends in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where we grew up and where we attended junior and senior high schools together. Maxine started college elsewhere and transferred to the University of Michigan as a junior. I began at U-M as a freshman.
Barbara and I were roommates, and we knew Sharon who lived in MoJo, too. A few years ago I learned that Barbara’s mother had received a letter from the then dean of women, Deborah Bacon, after Barbara was accepted and assigned a room at Mosher-Jordan. The letter informed Barbara’s mother that Barbara had been assigned to share a room with a “Negro” roommate, and if that was not acceptable, other arrangements could be made.
Barbara’s dear mother, not being a bigot, scoffed at and disparaged the missive that she shared with Barbara. I am certain that my mother did not receive any such nonsense warning her that I would be sharing a room with a white roommate and giving the option to opt-out.
At the time I was the only Black coed living at Mosher-Jordan. Barbara and I became fast friends. We both worked in the dining room kitchen of our dorm to earn money to supplement our allowances. As I recall, Barbara had injured her back in a fall from her horse shortly before she came to the University. She appreciated that I made the effort to help her because of her injury.
When Maxine and Sharon joined us, the four of us became good friends. I think it was because we are all loving and quite lovable.
After our graduations, we went our separate ways but stayed in touch and we remained friends. Barbara and her husband, Phil, ’63, lived in Clarkston, Michigan, where the Renaissance festivals occur annually. They invited us to attend that event. Sharon and her family lived in Baltimore, Maryland, where we visited her and attended the wonderful Fourth of July celebration, and also visited art museums and historical sites together.
We joyfully celebrated Sharon’s mother’s 90th birthday together at a music-filled party in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and we attended Barbara’s daughter’s weddings — one in Detroit and the other in Massachusetts. We have consoled and mourned our losses together. We have shared our many joys.
Sharon and I, who both live in Michigan, began a tradition of seeing the University Music Society’s “Messiah” at Christmastime. This was interrupted by COVID-19, but it resumed last year. Many years ago, Maxine Robbins, who lives in Ontario, initiated our annual get-together attending the Stratford Theater Festival in Ontario, Canada. We are joined now by our daughters, sometimes by granddaughters as well as sisters-in-law, and once by a very young grandson.
Sixty-five years pass by very quickly when you are sharing them with dearly treasured friends from your youth. In these years we have spent time together in Michigan, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, D.C, and Ontario, Canada.
We still bleed Maize and Blue, a legacy we share with many of our children, including my son and daughter and two of my grandsons, not to mention their spouses.
Our bond was originally forged in Ann Arbor. We are so happy that it did not end there. With great pride, we are U-M graduates who will Go Blue forever.
Edda Whitfield Dickerson, ’63, hails from Detroit.
