Browning Day Set For April 4 At Baylor

by Alan Hunt

Browning Day, a celebration of the birthdays of English poets Robert Browning (May 7) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (March 6) and former Baylor English department chair Dr. A.J. Armstrong (March 29), will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 4, at Armstrong Browning Library on the Baylor University campus.
Highlights of the program will include the first public display of two new stained glass windows and the presentation, posthumously, of the Huckins Medallion to Jacie Linthicum Hyatt (Mrs. Caleb Hyatt), a major library benefactor who died in 1995 at the age of 86. An educator, she attended Baylor in the 1930s. Her first cousin, Dr. Stewart Chilton, a Stephenville educator, will receive the award. James Huckins was one of the three principal founders of Baylor University and was also Baylor's first full-time fundraiser.
The two new stained glass windows will be unveiled in the Cox Reception Hall at the library. The "Florence Window" will be dedicated to the memory of George and Violet Jones and Paul and Johnnie Powell. The window was given by Dr. and Mrs Sid Jones of Waco in memory of their parents.
The "Italy Window" is dedicated to the memory of Lois Smith Douglas Strain, English professor and author, and was provided by her friends and former students at Baylor, led by Mary McCall. In 1951, Strain wrote Through Heaven's Back Door, the biography of library founder Armstrong, who died March 31, 1954, two days after his 81st birthday.
Dr. Mairi Rennie, the library's director, said Strain taught English at Baylor and served as acting director of the library for a brief period. Rennie added, "Mrs Mary McCall, in particular, was very fond of her and wanted to make this tribute to her."
Rennie said the stained glass windows were designed and installed by The Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia. "They are also doing the windows at George W. Truett Theological Seminary and they are very well regarded," she said.
The Browning Day program will conclude with a performance by Baylor Music School students of English poetry set to music. Their presentation will start at 6:15 p.m. in the Foyer of Meditation.
For more information about the program, call Rennie at (254) 710-3566.