Tribute to Jane Simpson McKimmon, 1867-1957

Dr. Jane Simpson McKimmon

1867-1957

North Carolina, and indeed the South, can boast of no finer story of successful endeavor in promoting country home and community programs than the one recorded by Mrs. Jane S. McKimmon, who introduced and established home demonstration work in North Carolina.

Because of her work, women and girls all over rural North Carolina came into their own and have been taught to make their lives fuller, more comfortable, and more efficient through an improved standard of the country home.

A native of Raleigh, Jane S. McKimmon has received many honors and tributes for her valuable and unselfish service to North Carolina families. Among them:

She was the first woman in the United States to be awarded the “Distinguished Service Ruby by Epsilon Sigma Phi, national Extension honorary fraternity.

The State Home Economics Association is proud to claim Mrs. McKimmon as one of its founders and past presidents, as is the National Home Economics Association, which felt the influence of her fine guidance.

In 1934, our own greater University of North Carolina conferred upon her the honorary degree of LL.D., in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the education field.

One of the loveliest tributes to Mrs. McKimmon was the establishment of the Jane S. McKimmon Loan Fund by home demonstration agents in 1927. Twenty years later, Extension workers have her another honor by presenting her portrait to North Carolina State University.

Several State Governors recognized Mrs. McKimmon’s talents and named her to a number of important posts. In 1917, Governor Bickett named her Director of Home Economics to help direct the World War I food program. In 1935, Governor Ehringhaus appointed her to the board for the first state Rural Electrification Authority, of which she later was made vice chairman. Governor Hoey in 1937 and Governor Broughton in 1941 appointed her to the board of directors of the State Farmers Cooperative Exchange. The same Governors made and kept her a member of the State Council of National Defense during World War II.

Ex-Governor O. Max Gardner once said, “Mrs. McKimmon’s work has been the most outstanding contribution to the development of the state of North Carolina. She is the great home-builder of the State.”

Senator Bailey suggested the state erect a monument to Mrs. McKimmon to face Governor Vance’s on Capitol Square. In answer The Raleigh Times wrote, “Senator Bailey can rest easily. Mrs. McKimmon will have her monument because she has built it for herself. Her real monument lives in the thoughts and lives of thousands and thousands of North Carolina families.”

In 1929, Mrs. McKimmon was nominated from North Carolina for the Pictorial Review Award to the woman who made the greatest contribution in some line of social welfare. The honorable Josephus Daniels said, “Her work has been a North Carolina epic of service.”

When Dr. McKimmon took over home demonstration work in 1911, its total enrollment was 416 farm girls in 14 counties. Within 30 years the enrollment, white and Negro, in all 100 counties, had reached 75,000.

The story of the program’s growth is told in her book, When We’re Green We Grow, published in 1945.

Her work was dramatized on the National Broadcasting Company’s 30-minute weekly program, Cavalcade of America,” May, 1949.