Yesterday I received a wonderful surprise. In the mail came a big packet sent by loyal reader Karl Benson ’63 that turned out to be full of photographs taken by his late wife, Carolyn Susan Emmenecker, class of 1963 (no degree). And they really are just absolutely wonderful, a candid look at life inside Jones North in 1959 and 1960–and all labeled and dated! These are a treasure and my gratitude to Mr. Benson is heartfelt.

I’ll need several posts to do them justice but since it’s the Christmas season I’ll begin with these. It looks like the young women spent time making holiday decorations for each other’s room:

And here is the first Jones housemother, Mrs. Morrow, opening presents under the college tree. From the happy look on her face and the shape of the box it may have been an official Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-Shot Range Model air rifle!

But maybe not.

I have it on pretty good authority that Mrs. Morrow was really a peach. Here’s a bit more about her:

Bonus: Here’s the Jones tree in 1960, in faded color. I like the crazy angle.