Abstract
Gladys Paine begins her interview by describing her family and how she came to Brown in 1909, the first member to attend college. She considers herself lucky to have lived in the mansion on Benefit Street, where she met Sarah Doyle and made lifelong friends. Describing her classes and professors, Paine remembers public speaking with Professor Thomas Crosby and Deans Lida Shaw King and Margaret Shove Morriss. She majored in math and notes that she did not receive any career guidance while in school. She briefly describes her participation in social activities at Brown and ends Part 1 of the interview by recounting what she sees as her debts to the University. In Part 2, Paine discusses the social education she received from her peers, the jobs she held, her travels, and the marriage that made her “more or less what you call a liberated woman.”
Part 1
Part 2
Recorded on on April 4, 1986 in Worcester, MA.
Interviewed by Barbara J. Anton
Suggested Chicago style citation: Paine, Gladys. Interview. By Barbara J. Anton. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. April 4, 1986.
Biography
Gladys Paine was born in 1891 and grew up in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After studying math at Brown, she worked as a teacher, the owner of a lunchroom, and the manager of a doctor’s office. The mother of two daughters, Paine was active in the DAR and served as President of the Connecticut State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She is the author of an autobiography entitled Gad: Nine Decades of Happy Living and Notions After Ninety.