O’Connor held beauty within

If what they say is true, that beauty rests within, Mary Flannery O’Connor was perhaps Georgia’s elect for Miss America.

Flannery O’Connor entered Georgia State College for Women as a 16-year-old freshman. The fact that she could barely drive was not important, for students at GSCW could not drive on campus until the last two weeks of their senior year. When off-campus travel was permitted two weekends per quarter, Greyhound and Trailway took the shape of transportation, not Chevrolet and Ford.

O’Connor entered GSCW in 1942 on an accelerated three-year program. Her involvement with GSCW sung of school pride with contributions to The Colonnade, The Spectrum and The Corinthian. O’Connor also spread her wealth of knowledge to such clubs as the Roman Catholic Neuman Club and the Allegro Club, which catered to students with interest in the arts. She was also part of the International Relation Club, the first honor society in the college.

Most of O’Connor’s work in GSCW’s publications took the form of art through her satirical cartoons. She became art director of the biweekly newspaper, The Colonnade, in 1942 and held this position until her graduation in 1945.

O’Connor was seen as witty, but also serious and intelligent. Perhaps this is why we see her stray from her satirical portrayals of life through cartoons into beautiful, enticing pieces of literature.

She served as editorial assistant for the 1943 Spectrum, GSCW’s yearbook. She also contributed to the 1944 Spectrum through her drawings of three student groups: the SGA, the YWCA and the Recreation Association.

Through the encouragement of her professors, she began submitting work to the literary magazine, The Corinthian. During her freshman year, three of her essays, a short story and a poem were published. She also became a literary assistant and continued publishing work in a variety of forms.

O’Connor used the Corinthian as her vehicle that would later bring her front door service to literary success. She used the same satirical, often demented humor from her cartoons to bring life into her short stories.

In a 1943 issue of The Corinthian, O’Connor speaks of a boy named Elbert who killed his brothers and uncle with a time bomb. At 17 she had learned to express her inner most thoughts through written words like few had done before.

O’Connor continued her involvement with all three publications during her last academic year, 1944-1945. She was art editor for The Colonnade and feature editor for The Spectrum. She was also editor for
The Corinthian. O’Connor was selected during her senior year into Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities and into the Phoenix Society, an honorary group fashioned by GSCW’s top seven percent of the senior class.

O’Connor’s graduation came in June of 1945 marked not the end, but rather quite a beginning into a picturesque future that would be painted with strokes of beauty, insight and promise for all those engaged.

Material for this story was taken from Jean Cash’s” Flannery O’Connor: A Life.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 21 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry