Union College - Stespean Yearbook (Barbourville, KY)

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At the same time that history was being made at a small college in Barbourville, Kentucky, world events were taking place that would stir our emotions and change our lives. When we returned to the campus in September we were full of election year arguments. The con- troversy ranged from right to left, forward and backward, but before we had settled down the Russians temporarily usurped the center-stage spotlight and shook the world with the announcement that they had deposed Nikita Sergeyvich Krushchev. The removal of the roly-poly, seemingly indestructible Premier left a hole in our international picture, and an unsure feeling in us. Then, as if to show the world by compar- ison, we elected by the greatest landslide in American history the man who had taken us through some of our darkest days, the first Texan to ever sit in the White House, as President of the United States. The nation settled down to do a few things that needed to be done. The Civil Rights Act, after months of rioting, and a strong effort to kill it, survived and became law. The Warren Commission, following months of investigation and reams of testimony, issued its final report. Then came the War on Poverty, and the emphasis on Appalachia, with Union College playing a big part in the Kentucky program. Jean-Paul Sartre refused the Nobel Prize for Literature, standing firm by his own philosophy, while Dr. Martin Luther King brought honor to America when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Meanwhile Red China was mounting over her desert the mushroom-shaped cloud of membership in the nuclear club, and south of her we wondered what was happening in that little rice- paddy-and-jungle section of the world called Viet Nam. The space program went ahead on a large scale. Ranger 7 and Ranger 8, launched seven months apart, provided scientists with thousands of closeup pictures of the moon after three years of failure. Malcolm X mounted a platform in New York and was shot down as he started to speak, causing us to wonder just how large a role po- litical assassination will play in America. In a different manner, the world mourned first a former American president, Herbert Hoover, then Winston Spencer Churchill, one of mankind ' s greatest leaders. In the world of sports, 1964-65 was marked by the XVIII Olym- piad, the first ever to be held in the Orient, which saw the United States outdistance the Russians in gold medals after having suf- fered a setback four years ago. The St. Louis Cardinals won the National League Pennant on the last day of the season, then pro- ceeded to edge the New York Yankees in a full seven-game World Series. Back at home, seventy-six years of patience paid off for Union ' s Bulldogs when they won for the first time the championship of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Thus reflecting on the past, those of us who are seniors prepare to embark upon a troubled and anxious world, unsure of what the future mav hold in store. Life Awaits The Graduate Cap and gown bedecked grad- uates enter the Chapel for the finale.

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Governor Edward Breathitt crowns the Mountain Laurel Queen at Pine Moun- tain State Park. Lois Crowe, Union ' s candidate, is at far left. Optimism on a grey February afternoon is hope for spring and girls in Coppertone on Pfeiffer sun deck, for the pleasant odor of nearby gardens being cleared and glis- tening dew on the grass to hail the morn- ing, for baseball and puppy love. With the advent of spring, winter ' s hopes are realized. Nature and her children assume a happier pose, joyfully proclaiming once more the resurrection of beauty. It is a time of light hearts tinged with sadness, of graduation and good-byes until September. The Spring Formal and Junior- Senior Banquet highlight the social activities of the season, with a chance for some lucky Unionite to vie with other girls from Ken- tucky colleges and become Queen of the famous Mountain Laurel Festival at nearby Pineville. After the long days of winter, Persephone returns to grace the upper-world with her natural beauty. .MP Spring Awakens the Campus to New Life Coach Bush at the Junior-Senior Banquet displays his unique quality of being able to put a smile on every face, a light in every heart — and still find time to watch the birdie. Karen Watson and Claudia Havens sung leading roles in Menotti ' s opera The Old Maid and the Thief, produced at Commencement time.

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TRADITIONS Royalty wears the traditional smile. Faces come and go but not traditions. They are the substance of which colleges are made for they proclaim an identity with other times, indicating that an ever-living past exists upon which laurels are heaped each time traditions are remembered. In the College ' s almost one hundred years of existence as a center of higher learning, it has witnessed the tedious development of customs believed to enrich the life of the individual student as well as that of the institution. Doubtless, many practices have grown up only to be abandoned when it was realized that they lacked the particular quality which so singularly defines the Union ethos. Traditions at Union are as intangible as the friendliness which radiates from the Presi- dent down to the shyest freshman, or as perceptible as the beauty and charm embodied in its sundry queens. Whatever their nature they grace the campus with their presence. 30