Live GREAT: As Longtime Leader Celebrates Her 105th Birthday, KD Remembers her Lifetime of Service

One of Kappa Delta’s most admired leaders, Genevieve Forbes Morse who served as national president from 1959-1967, is turning 105 on June 8, 2010!

Genevieve was born in New Rochelle, N.Y., in 1905 and spent much of her childhood in Virginia, where she now resides. After marrying Frederick Tracy Morse in 1926, the couple moved to Ruston, La., where her husband taught at Louisiana Tech. Although Genevieve was already a young mother when she became a student at Louisiana Tech in 1928, she was active on campus. She served as president of the English honorary Sigma Delta Tau, a member of the college’s magazine staff, and a member of the local sorority Lambda Theta, which became KD’s Alpha Chi chapter in 1931.

In 1932, the Morses moved to Charlottesville, Va., where Genevieve supported Beta Alpha chapter, the University of Virginia and her community. She also honed her writing skills during these years and was listed in the 1942 and 1945 editions of “Who’s Who in American Poetry.” In 1945 she published “Through the Years and Other Poems.”

Genevieve’s work with Kappa Delta at the national level began in 1950 as a province president. She went on to serve as national editor before her election to national president in 1959. This was at a time when anti-Greek feelings were beginning to surface on college campuses, and students were at the brink of the rebellious 1960s. In Kappa Delta’s “Ordinary Miracles,” author Cynthia Allen Weston wrote the following about Genevieve: “Only an individual of great verve, and of diamond-like strength and clarity of purpose, could have served as national president for an unprecedented eight years during the most tumultuous period in the sorority’s history.”

Genevieve did not retire from Kappa Delta or her community when her term as national president ended. While serving as the sorority’s national historiographer, she published a two-volume, 875-page history of Kappa Delta in 1973, and she served as director of national archives. KD inducted her into the Order of the Emerald in 1983 and the Hall of Honor in 1987. Kappa Delta’s top award in new-member education is named for Genevieve.

In addition to Kappa Delta, Genevieve served as national president of the Daughters of Colonial Wars; curator general of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution; and national chairman of the DAR Museum Committee; and she is a DAR lifetime honorary vice president general. The American Biographical Institute named her Woman of the Year on more than one occasion and made her a lifetime deputy governor. She received the International Biographical Centre’s Twentieth Century Award of Achievement in literature in 1992.

Genevieve’s family says that she enjoys talking with others, and her interaction with so many people over the years has kept her mind active. She truly is a KD who has “lived GREAT.” If you would like to send birthday greetings, please mail them to:

Genevieve Forbes Morse
c/o The Lynmoore
12411 Gayton Road #329
Richmond, VA 23238

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