First Honorary Alumna of Virginia Military Institute - Moody Family Archive Films (1969)

Duration: 6:50

Year Published: 1969

Sound: sound

Description: In this 1969 news segment for WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, Kathy Thornton interviews Mary Moody Northen about how she became the first honorary female alumna of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) as well as her family history in Texas and Virginia. Northen also explains her duties as the only female member of the VMI Foundation Board and how her father, William Lewis Moody Jr., influenced her career path. Mary Moody Northen ran the Moody Foundation after her father’s passing, and she established her own Mary Moody Northen Endowment in 1964. Founded in 1839, VMI is the oldest state military college in the United States. In 1996, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for a school receiving public funds to exclude women. VMI enrolled its first female cadets the following year, becoming the last American military college to admit women applicants.