E. Virginia Alexander

Honored by:Joan Dietz
Brick location:D:1  map

Editor of the Bomb, President of Women's Athletic Assoc, Mortar Board Omicron, Pi Sigma Alpha, Iota National College Players, and Pi Beta Phi. She attended Hillside Preparatory School in Norwalls, Conneticut. Virginia Alexander was born in 1907 on her parent's cotton plantation Illallee at Scott, Arkansas.

Her father, Arthur Lee, was a Davidson for whom Davidson College was named. Her brother George attended the Naval Academy, sister Laurie Smith College, and Marion chose to be educated in Arkansas. The family felt strongly about the need for a good education. Iowa State was a perfect choice for Virginia who was a "farmer at heart", as well as a horse woman. She later developed a new, hardier, strain of hog by cross-breeding the Danish Landrace and Polinchina. It was through her contacts with Iowa State that she was able to do this.

She married Gordon Barr Brown from Canada, who also attended Iowa State, in 1928. In her twenties she became Western Canadian Golf Champion. She later moved back to Arkansas with her three children Joan, a 1951 ISU graduate, George, and Virginia.

Virginia helped her brother manage her father's plantation and raised horses and hogs. She organized a free medical OB-GYN clinic for all women on the cotton place, was in the Arkansas State Board of Visiting Nurses, and the Greater Little Rock Garden Club. She re-married Robert H. Alexander, also of Scott, and moved to Land's End Plantation.

Her current loves are Scott's All Soul's Church, Little Rock's Court House Square Park, and her two Doberman Pinschers. She is extremely active and an inspiration to her 3 children, 7 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. 1/27/95