Evening star., 1939-03-26
Mrs. Stanley Hornbeck Knows
Achievements Under Stress
Junior Lacquer
Won loureIs in
Flood Disaster
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
Slender, blond, essentially femi-
nine, Mrs. Stanley Hornbeck, wife
of the political adviser to the State
Department, who was Colorados
first Rhodes scholar, is a lady of
achievement in her own right.
This charter member of Denvers
Junior League has a background of
outstanding distinction in national
welfare and educational work, al
though you mightn't guess it, for
there is absolutely nothing of the
traditional womans college blue
stocking about her.
Ever since her college days at
Sweet Briar, Va, her alma mater.
which she has since served as its
first alumna secretary. she has been
doing wide variety of things.
Their amazing range is from the
carloads of mules she ordered dur
ing the Mississippi Valley food re-
lief of 1927 to 1923 to her elec-
tion as the second woman presi-
dent of the American Alumni
Council.
She has gone places, too. in the
efficient execution of the things
that she has done, with her friendly,
winning smile the keynote to a per-
sonality that has been endowed with
the gift of humor, and is as capable
as it Is gracious.
Caught in the 1926 Miami hurri-
cane, the petite little Junior Lacquer
of those days, whose only previous
practical experience had been a re-
search and secretarial one in the
Barnes Hospital in st. Louis
promptly volunteered as Red
Cross worker.
Requisitioned for Flood Work.
So effective did she prove that
after six months she was reousi-
toned for service under Herbert
Hoover in the Mississippi Valley
flood relief program.
AS an ltlnerant registrar, she not
only flew daily over the flooded
areas, warning the river imprisoned
families of the impending breaks in
the levees. but checking the sup
plies issued to them as part of the
$l7,O00,o0O expenditure of United
States funds for this relief work.
Not the least of her duties was
to be able to tell the Negroes when
to seattle up" This consisted of
placing all of your most cherished
belongings on a board and suspend
ing this board as high as possible
from the peak of your cabin, so as
to prevent the treacherous waters
of "Ole Man River" from creeping
up on them.
At one time during this period of
her life the rear end of the house
in which she was working was swept
away without her realizing it, so
great was her absorption in the
task of the moment and so tre-
mendous was the roar and confusion
of the swirling flood of waters about
her. Almost before she realized what
was happening, her position had been
reversed from an individual attempt
ing to function as part of a rescue
unit to one very much in need of
rescue herself.
Directs Relief Office.
AS the people of the lower Missis-
sippi gradually were restored to their
former homestead clearings and the
reconstruction work proceeded, this
tiny socialite was made a director
of the relief Office which was estab-
lished at Greenville, Miss, then a
place of some $4,000 people. Here
she handled all of the relief supplies
for this district. often being re-
sponsible for the daily feeding of
5000 persons.
Next, she was moved into Arkan-
sas for the spring planting, and as
most of the mules in this vicinity
had died of anthrax, she bought the
first and all of the subsequent car
loads of mules for that vicinity, sit
ting up all one night to check over
the bids for their purchase.
With four senior statisticians of
the Red Cross she subsequently wrote
the history of this flood in figures,
going into every county in the inun-
AouCA 0A Co dllS NAA OAAS4AA6 VIC NOA1-
ditions found and remedied, the
type of flood. the type of loss, as
well as checking and accounting for
the expenditure on is counts, such
as household furniture, farm tools
and supplies, or the fight on pei
lagra. This was my Phi. D. thesis,
as it were, written in one-night
stands over a period of the most
intensive four months I shall ex-
perience in my life" she said.
Play and Rest Follows.
Then came year of play and rest
before this delightful little lady OF
contrasts returned to Sweet Briar
to launch its alumna activities as
its first alumna secretary.
In q remodeled, white-washed
slave cabin dating back to 1920 she
established her headquarters, hos
pitality and resourcefulness in the
development of an intensive alumna
program for her beloved college.
The Inauguration of Sweet Briar's
quarterly alumna magazine, its sale
Of distinctive china and glass that
has achieved national proportions,
the expansion Of Ito regional altmna