Featured Photograph: Edith Garland Dupré – 1922
Carola Lillie Hartley
Publisher and Contributing Writer
Continuing with our articles on the Women of Opelousas for National Women’s History Month, today’s story focuses on a special woman from our city who made a big difference in higher education in our state.
One of the first teachers at the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial Institute in Lafayette (later the University of Southwestern Louisiana, and now the University of Louisiana) was Edith Garland Dupré of Opelousas. In 1901, she began her career at the university, where she taught for over 40 years.
Born on June 1, 1881, to Opelousas attorney Laurent Dupré and Marie Celeste Garland Dupré, at the age of five years, Edith Agnes Dupré went to live at Garland plantation in Opelousas, the home of her mother’s parents, Henry L. Garland and Julia Laurence Bullard. She remained with her grandparents until she became an adult, and because of this she changed her middle name from Agnes to Garland.
Edith graduated from St. Landry High School in Opelousas as valedictorian in 1896. From there she attended Newcomb College in New Orleans, graduating with honors in 1900. After a brief employment with a school in Tennessee, she joined the first faculty of the new Southwest Louisiana Industrial in 1901 and stayed for four decades, retiring in January 1944.
During her time at the college, she taught French and English, was head of the English department, was acting registrar, and chaired countless committees. She was instrumental in the growth of the institution that led to its recognition as a university.
Early on at the college, she was put in charge of the library where she selected its first 500 books and six periodicals. Today that library on the university campus is named in her honor.
During World War I, Edith went to Rome, where she did canteen work. While she was there in 1919, she was granted a private audience with Pope Benedict XV, which was a highlight of her life
When she returned from Europe after the war, she became involved in the Lafayette community. She helped to organize the first Public Forum of Lafayette; she organized a branch of the American Association of University Women on the Lafayette college campus, and helped form the Women’s defense League of Lafayette. She later was president of the Lafayette Women’s Club and a long-time member of the League of Women Voters. She was instrumental in the effort to bring a first-rate library to the Lafayette community.
Edith received the Lafayette Civic Cup award in 1942 and the community recognized her in 1956 with Edith Garland Dupré Day in Lafayette. She died in 1970 at the age of 89.
During this National Women’s History Month, let us celebrate the life of Edith Garland Dupré, a remarkable Opelousas woman who did so much to further education in Louisiana, and all those other amazing Opelousas women who came before us.
