A Tribute to Jane Simpson McKimmon by Velma Beam, undated
The North Carolina Home Agents Association appreciates the privilege of paying a tribute to Dr. Jane Simpson McKimmon. We borrow from Milton two lines which aptly describe her:
“Grace is in all her steps, heaven in her eye—
In every gesture dignity and love.”
In her we see womanhood in strength; courage to face problems relevant to her keen insight into human nature; and love for people.
Goodwill has been at the center of everything she has done—And she has done so many things for the rural people of North Carolina—all of which has been and will continue to be reflected in the lives and deeds of the entire populace of North Carolina.
Hers has been a live of service to the people and is like mother’s sewing box—always brimming full, with always room for one more thing.
She was born and lives today in Raleigh, North Carolina, ‘a typical southern town where town and country folks have always been acquainted with each other’s mode of life’; and Raleigh has been the center of her life and work. Here she attended Peace Junior College; here in 1909 she had her first office when she became a lecturer in Farmers’ Institutes and later state director of home demonstration work; here from North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering, she took her B.S. degree in 1927 and her M.S. degree in 1929. From Raleigh, in 1917, Governor Bickett appointed her Director of Home Economics to help direct the World War I food program; in 1925 she was made assistant director of Agricultural Extension, a position she held until her retirement; in 1935 Governor Ehringhaus appointed her on the board of the first state Rural Electrification Authority, of which she is now vice-chairman; Governor Hoey in 1937 and Governor Broughton in 1941 appointed her to the Board of Directors of the state Farmers’ Co-operative Exchange; the same governors made and kept her a member of the state Council of National Defense, World War II.
It would be impossible to list the organizations to which Mrs. McKimmon belongs and the honors she has received from them, but she does appreciate especially the LL.D. degree conferred on her in 1934 by the University of North Carolina in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the educational field in organizing and setting a pattern which brought the home demonstration work to its present efficiency; she was the first woman in the United States to receive the Distinguished Service Ruby given her by the National Extension Honor Society, Epsilon Sigma Phi; yet, her real monument is in the people and in the work which helped them to help themselves.
Her dynamic spirit, indomitable courage, originality, initiative, delight in a good time, and contagious enthusiasm have made her a much loved leader and a great teacher. Her particular type of teaching, by demonstration, has grown until it knows no boundaries. Through this demonstration teaching she proved the truth of the statement that grand old man of Agriculture Seaman A. Knapp, who said, “You may doubt what you hear; you may even doubt what you see; but you cannot doubt what you hear, see, and are permitted to do for yourself.”
The home economics phase of Extension work began in November, 1911 when Dr. McKimmon was made State Home Demonstration Agent of North Carolina. At that time, she was the young mother of four children with a background of experience as lecturer and Director of Women’s Institute.
We are proud that our state was one of the five Southern states which set the pattern for Home Demonstration in the world—and we are proud of the leadership North Carolina exhibited under the direction of our beloved Dr. McKimmon—the power of demonstration as a teaching method was, and still is, the keynote of the organization she developed. From this humble beginning, based on the word service, a strong cooperative extension organization is now established in every State of the Union.
We would not forget the hardships attendant upon those first few years when Tomato Club Girls led by their dauntless State Leader, grew and canned a commercial product of excellent quality. Thus North Carolina clubs were the first in the country to put standard packs on the market! This very thing did much to open the eyes—and pocketbooks—of many county commissioners who had refused to see the necessity for such “frills” as they termed Home Demonstration work in that time.
Out of her love for, and confidence in the people who are living on the farm and in the farm home, the project leader phase of the total program has evolved—through these project leaders the great spread of work has been accomplished from county to county in an incredibly short time.
The phenomenal growth of the work under Dr. McKimmon’s enthusiastic guidance has attracted national attention, and many times she has been called to various sections of our nation, especially to University classes, to present her plan of organization and methods of conducting the work—thus her influence has spread far beyond the boundaries of our own state.
Exercising splendid judgment in the choice of personnel has been one of the strongest points in Dr. McKimmon’s career as an outstanding Home Economist. Most of us have heard her say “I’ve always sought the positive person—the one who did not say, ‘It can’t be done.’ She knew it could be done, and did it. Success always crowned her efforts.”
Never forgetting that a properly trained person is naturally the most efficient, Dr. McKimmon insisted on further education for agents. From 1916 on she planned two-week short courses at the Womans College and at State College where a 30-hour unit course was given. Careful selection of the outstanding educators in the country made these courses worthwhile. Agents were greatly benefitted and were better able to prove that “it could be done.”
Even now Dr. McKimmon is helping in every way possible to secure sufficient time for agents to study and obtain additional training in their chosen fields. In her own words, “This looked-for procedure is not in sight as yet, but the will may find a way.” That is symbolic of the driving force back of the successful career.
Ever ready to encourage professional advancement not only for the personnel in her own organization, but in other educational agencies as well, she helped to organize the State Home Economics Association which embraces Home Economics in high school, college, Extension, and in business—this is one example of how alert she has always been to opportunities for progress, and how cooperative she is with other agencies in order to hasten that progress!
In her recent book, When We’re Green We Grow, we find two paragraphs which summarize the great work of this great woman:
“There wasn’t much cash in the North Carolina farm home in the early nineteen hundreds. There isn’t much now. But there is a different attitude on many farms toward what constitutes wealth on the farm, and different method of making it serve the farm family.
“It has been a ready and receptive people with whom I have worked, a people who were green and ready to grow; and I have seen the sap rise, the leaves put forth, and a multitude of blossoms bring fruit in its season.”
This concept of the total view of the farm and home demonstration is seen from the Western North Carolina Mountains to the Seashore of the eastern coast of our great state. It has grown from the horse and buggy style—horseback even in some instances—to the streamlined automobile stage—with good roads leading to every cove, across every swamp and to the end of every trail.
We are so grateful that Mrs. McKimmon has lived to see her dream realized, the dream of having every county in the state organized, with the women and girls accepting the responsibility for those organizations in their own counties. County Councils which make forward social, educational, economic and spiritual improvement for all the people.
Skills have been developed, home improvements have been made, incomes have been increased, the general good health of people has been improved—and what is more important—people have been made better, lives have been made better. After all, “the final crop of any land is the people and the spirit of the people.” At it all stems from the work begun in 1911 by our pioneer, Dr. McKimmon, whose philosophy has been the human approach!
Active always in church work, she has a quiet but vital faith; and her belief in prayer is a thing which she has used in a practical way through all the years. Problems which are not to be solved in a moment are meditated on in a quiet place with trust in an Infinite Source of Power.
Perhaps this habit was formed early in her life when in her own words, “My earliest recollections are of being tucked into bed and the entrancing tales my mother would read to us every night! She could make us see vividly the things she described—the journeys St. Paul and other Bible stories….”
Her philosophy regarding the contributions of her agents, farm women and 4-H Club girls, to the fullest development of women, influence her co-workers and is, in a large measure, the key to the many fine accomplishments which may be accredited to the distaff side of the North Carolina Extension Service.
She has lived and is continuing to live a rich life both professionally and personally. She is blessed with a keen appreciation of the arts, of literature and of nature. She attributes much of her appreciation of music and literature to her early childhood. Brought up by strict Scotch Presbyterian parents who knew and loved the finer things of life, Mrs. McKimmon early cultivated a sense of values as to the arts. She has studied and traveled extensively, gathering a wealth of experiences and materials which serve to enrich her work.
We are proud of her accomplishments, thankful for her friendship and all love her for her courage, genuineness, integrity and loyalty. We wish for her many more years of gracious living and continued influence in her native state and other states. Memories of happy associations with her will be cherished always by those of us who know her and work with her—a really great lady, our own Dr. Jane S. McKimmon.
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Velma Beam Moore’s oral history, August 5, 1998, is on file at Joyner Library, East Carolina University. She speaks about her teaching and home economics career. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/OH0226/OH0226.pdf
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