Della Marie Vickers McKinnon ’62 has witnessed Elon’s evolution through decades of change. Being a part of a remarkable five-generation family legacy that has both shaped the campus and deeply enriched the surrounding community.
Della Marie Vickers McKinnon ’62 remains deeply rooted in Elon University, a place that defines her family’s legacy and her upbringing.
“Not only did my grandparents, my parents, my husband, and I attend Elon, but also my brother, his wife (who was a librarian for over 30 years at the college), and their two boys,” McKinnon explained.
Growing up in the town of Elon, she saw the college not just as an institution, but as her neighborhood, her backyard and her daily reality. Her neighbors were often professors and staff of the college. The people who taught classes during the day were the same people she would see on her street later that night.
She watched the university evolve from her back window, witnessing its transformation over the years. One example is the property behind her house that was once used as the college farm, which later became a place that housed different families as the university expanded.
McKinnon was a part of Elon life and tradition from a very early age.
“I was in the College May Day as a flower girl when I was very young,” McKinnon recalled.
May Day is the celebration of the return to spring, and at Elon, the festival was always held on the first Saturday in May and consisted of dancing and other entertainment.
“There was a court selected by the student body which had a May King and May Queen along with their attendants and escorts, and they would ask different children in the community to be younger attendants,” she shareed.
When McKinnon looks back on those who shaped some of these early memories growing up, she notes the influence of professors at Elon, particularly the late president emeritus, Dr. J. Earl Danieley. In her younger years, she babysat Danieley’s son when Danieley was still a chemistry professor at the university. He later became president of Elon and held that position during McKinnon’s time as a student at Elon.
Her Elon experiences were very different from most because of her close connections to campus from a young age. She recalls even small memories like going to watch movies on Saturday nights with her mother in Whitley Auditorium.
Elon has seen many changes throughout the years, and McKinnon was there for all of it. But of those early years, she holds fond memories of the way Elon once was.
“The Elon Community Church met in Whitley Auditorium for church, and I attended Sunday School in classrooms in the Mooney Building. My boyfriend and I would go downtown to Garrison’s Soda Shop on the days we didn’t have chapel and buy a Coke in the small bottle for 10 cents. The Student Union was also in the Mooney Building, and we would gather there between classes, and on the weekends, my sorority would have social occasions with our fraternity brothers,” she recalls.
McKinnon’s family is forever woven into the very fabric of Elon’s history.
“I learned from my mom, Gladys Simpson Vickers, that her dad, Henry Simpson, helped finish building the wall around the campus and was one of the students in the very first graduating class,” she said. “My great-grandmother on my mom’s side and her whole family moved from Graham to build a house on the west side of the campus so that my grandmother, Mary Crawford, could go to Elon. It came full circle that when I became a student at Elon, that same house was then the Student Health Center.”
But it was her father, Earl Wright Vickers, Sr., who solidified Elon’s continued influence in McKinnon’s life. Her father dedicated much of his time to the town of Elon and the college, forever leaving his mark. He served as a member of the Board of Aldermen for Elon College, held the position of Town Clerk for several years and also worked as Deputy Sheriff for a period of time. But at the time of his passing, he was employed as the superintendent of the college power plant.
“Early in the 1940’s, Elon was designated as the location of the 325th College Training Detachment of the Army Air Corps, and since the college did not have a lot of finances, someone from Virginia offered to give the college a station wagon to provide transportation for the recruiters,” she said. “My dad offered to go to Virginia after work to obtain the vehicle and drive it back. He was on the way to Virginia when a truck hit the vehicle. He was the only one who died in the accident. After my father’s accident, Elon came to my mother and told her that her children’s education would be taken care of by the college. They honored that for my brother and me.”
During her first year as a student at Elon, McKinnon had the benefit of her former ties to the town and college that most of her peers did not have, and where she lived on campus was no different.
“Both my mother and her sister had lived in West Dormitory, and when I decided to stay on campus my first year, I also lived in West,” she said. “We even lived on the same floor, but at opposite ends of the same hall some 30 years later!”
Elon was there for so many important moments of her life, even the naming of her own daughter.
“We could not decide on a name until we were on campus at the O’Kelly Monument, and both my husband and I agreed on Kelly as her name,” says McKinnon.
Five generations of her family have attended Elon, each leaving their mark on the campus and the surrounding community. Today, McKinnon is proud to be an alum of Elon.
“I am especially proud of the latest visionary investment in the Robert’s Academy for children with dyslexia,” she said. “I cherish the lifelong friends made while at Elon. I have enjoyed going back to ball games, homecomings, and participating on committees. I am so proud of Elon and the school it has become.”
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