After more than 60 years, Jo Ann (Miley) Purkerson still remembers which room was hers in Lander University’s Chipley Hall.
“First floor, first room on the left.”
Still an all-women residence hall, Chipley Hall is turning 100 years old in 2025 and Lander University is celebrating its birthday by telling the stories of the women who have lived there.
Purkerson is a 1960 Lander grad who remembers her year living at Chipley Hall as a “friendly situation.”
“We were in and out of everybody’s rooms, up and down the halls. All girls, you didn’t have to worry about boys. You could run around in your slip or nightgown or whatever.”
Purkerson lived with three suitemates who all came to Lander, like she did, from Hampton County. Coming from a small high school, a small college appealed to them.
At Chipley, they had a house mother called Mama B, or Miss Blackwell, who ran a tight ship.
Back in the late 1950s, women living in Chipley had to sign out when they left campus.
“Our dates came to pick us up and we’d have to sign out where we were going and with whom,” said Purkerson. “That’s hard to believe today.”
Going on a date back then largely meant going to the movie theater and going to get a burger.
“There wasn’t that much to do out,” Purkerson said. “You went to church and the movie theater and occasionally ball games. Legion ball was big at that time. But you had to be in by 10 o’clock, you see, and that limited where you could go and what you could do.”
She recalled that South Main Baptist sent a bus to Chipley to take girls to and from the church. It was there Jo Ann met her husband, Earle Purkerson.
Jo Ann remembers one particular night at Chipley following a date.
“I didn’t have a TV growing up. I came in from a date one night and everybody was in the lobby wearing their pajamas. They had set up a TV in the lobby and we were watching the Oscars,” she recalls.
“Everybody was in there watching it. I had never seen it before that time, so I had a good time, too.”
Purkerson has stayed active as an alumna of Lander University, remaining in touch with classmates and previously serving as president of the Alumni Association.
Purkerson’s daughter, Julie Purkerson Lamb, also lived in Chipley Hall for a year and graduated in 1986. Mother and daughter each share the memory of Chipley Hall being hot in the summer, as both lived there before the residence hall got central heating and air conditioning. Her aunt, Catherine Grigsby ’39, also lived in Chipley Hall and was the Chipley House President her senior year.
Learn more about Chipley Hall and how Lander is celebrating its birthday at lander.edu/chipley100. Along with sharing memories from the women who lived there, Lander’s Office of University Advancement and the Lander Foundation have launched a campaign in order to commemorate the birthday and generate resources for upgrades inside the residence hall.