Eula Lea Jarnigan, the sixth president of Xi State, was born in Gatesville, Texas, January 20, 1877. She was the daughter of Albert Lee Jarnagin, the son of a United States senator, and Lizzabelle Ramsey Jarnagin, the granddaughter of the noted historian, Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey. Eula spent a happy childhood playing with her two little brothers under sunny Texas skies.

While she was still in elementary school, her father died, and her mother decided to move to Rogersville, Tennessee. Here Eula continued her education, graduating from the high school department of the Synodical College in Rogersville at an early age. Having chosen teaching as her profession, she went at the age of seventeen to live with her aunt, Mrs. Ellen Jarnagin McCallie, and her husband, Dr. T.H. McCallie, in Chattanooga. "Here she lived a happy and fruitful life, extending her experience in human relations," said Miss Jarnagin's biographer, Mary Mackinlay. "Her initiative and ability to cope with problems grew as she held her own with her unusually original and active cousins, the sons of Dr. and Mrs. McCallie."

In 1894 Miss Jarnagin accepted a position to teach the second and third grades at Ridgedale School in Hamilton County, a four-teacher school in which eight grades were taught. Miss Jarnagin's room was crowded, with sixty pupils in regular attendance, and it was often necessary to have three sit at a double desk. "The new teacher charmed the somewhat undisciplined youngsters with her attractive appearance, her happy, cheerful disposition, and her exciting stories. They enjoyed the dry humor with which she rebuked and coerced them. However, when the occasion called for more stringent measures, they were forthcoming."

The pupils made progress and the young teacher was popular with pupils, colleagues, and parents. The methods and techniques she was learning through experience were strengthened and supplemented by the things she heard at the all-day-Saturday teachers' meetings she attended regularly.

In 1898 Miss Jarnagin was transferred to City High School in Chattanooga, where she took up her new duties with her accustomed enthusiasm and zeal. She found the high school pupils responsive and eager and the high school faculty congenial. One of the teachers was her cousin, Grace McCallie.

For a number of years Miss Jarnagin and Miss McCallie spent their summers pursuing graduate study in the University of Chicago, Cornell University, and the University of Besanson in Southern France. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1917, Miss Jarnagin spent several summers at the University of Mexico.

In 1906 Miss Jarnigan, Miss McCallie, and Miss Tommie Duffy founded the Girls' Preparatory School in Chattanooga. Notably successful, the school was a place where these three capable and experienced teachers could develop their mature ideas concerning curriculum and effective methods of instruction. Their goal was not only to teach facts but to guide the girls in developing high ideals, wholesome attitudes, and good habits.

Miss Jarnigan took an active part in training and educating some of her own nieces and nephews, whose father had died. The girls studied at Girls' Preparatory School, while the boys were placed where they would have equal advantages.

After the death of her co-founders, Miss Jarnigan continued with the school for a time. She was of invaluable assistance in helping to plan the "beautiful modern building which now houses the Girls' Preparatory School, a school in which the high standards of the founders are perpetuated." For a number of years after her retirement, Miss Jarnagin often used to visit the school and participate in the planning. Miss Jarnagin is a member of Alpha, the first local chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma organized in Tennessee. Miss Mackinlay wrote of her in 1951, "Alpha is proud of Miss Eula, who has stood for all the good that delta Kappa president of Xi State, she has made every effort to extend the knowledge and practice of our policies." During her term as president of Xi State, Miss Jarnagin traveled over Tennessee, speaking at chapter meetings as well as conventions. She was known and honored by Delta Kappa members all over the state.

Friends have deeply sympathized with her in the gradual failure of her eyesight. However, in 1959, she was "cheerful as of yore" and still able to carry on some activities.

Though Eula Jarnigan's physical sight is impaired, her spiritual light is unfailing, for she has brought the light of truth and confidence to hundreds of students who have come under her influence through the years.

Source: Light from Many Candles: A History of Pioneer Women in Education in Tennessee, by Lucille Rogers. Published by Xi State, Delta Kappa Gamma.McQuiddy Printing Company, Nashville, 1960. Transcribed for this site by Char.