Marguerite Dawson Winant (1889 - 1974)

Born 5 Jun 1889 in NY

Ancestors

Died Jul 1974 at age 85 in 30 Sutton Place, New York, New York,

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Biography

MARGUERITE DAWSON WINANT, b. June 05, 1889, New York; d. July 1974, 30 Sutton Place, New York, New York, 10022. Marguerite was an avid genealogist most of her life. She worked closely with her cousin Helene Sowaal Redford and Ted Overbaugh. Ted is a nationally recognized Overbaugh family historian. We have copies of her letters, which address her family’s life in Old Greenwich Village from the Civil War period to the building of the Holland Tunnel. She lived her whole life in New York City, and is listed in Who’s Who of American Women (1961-1962). She was a very caring person, as evidenced by the attention she devoted to her uncle, James Overbaugh, who contracted tuberculosis. According to Helene, Marguerite supported him while he was a patient at the Tupper Lake Sanitarium. Her obituary in the New York Times reads: Marguerite Dawson Winant, who was president of the Alter Guild of Saint Bartholomew's Episcopal Church, died Sunday at her home, 30 Sutton Place. She was 85 years old. Miss Winant was a past president of Sorosis (Marguerite is the author of “A Century of Sorosis 1868-1968), and the Pap Hellenic House Association. She was a former Regent of the Mary Washington Colonial Chapter, the Daughters of the American Revolution and a member of the Society of Colonial Dames, and the New England Women of Holland Dames . Marguerite was also well known for her work with Delta Gamma, a fraternity founded in 1873 in Oxford, Mississippi, at the Lewis School for Girls near the University of Mississippi. In 1891, Delta Gamma was one of the seven charter members of the National Pan-Hellenic Conference, when the first inter-sorority meeting was held in Boston. Marguerite was initiated on May 1, 1908 in Omicron Chapter at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York. She graduated in 1911. During her lifetime she held many important positions, culminating in her serving as the National Fraternity President from 1932 to 1940. As such, her formal portrait hangs at the Executive Offices in Columbus, Ohio along with all former National Presidents. The honorary plaque in the Fraternity’s Headquarters’ proclaims: THE DELTA GAMMA FOUNDATION by the establishment of THE MARGURERITE DAWSON WINANT FELLOWSHIP for 1965-1966 declares recognition of Marguerite Dawson Winant’s personal devotion to the high ideals of her fraternity – rendering service to others. President of Delta Gamma from 1932 to 1940, her wisdom and vision have remained a permanent influence on the growth of her fraternity. Her close association with the conception, development, and operation of the Pan-Hellenic Hotel (now the Beekman Tower) attests to her outstanding capacity to guide and her tireless spirit to serve. In granting the Marguerite Dawson Winant Fellowship, we honor a loyal and devoted Delta Gamma and a distinguished fraternity woman who has displayed the highest ideals of womanhood through a lifetime of service to others. After her death, she was honored as a Senior Scholarship Honoree (1975-1976) and as a Memorial Fellowship Honoree on January 1, 1976

Sources

• Hunter Family Record