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Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation: More than three decades of hope through scholarship for young women
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received as much as $7,000 in one year,” Blevins said. one knows the financial challenges of college Emory & Henry is among more than 200 accredited more than the student who is faced with paying educational institutions to receive the scholarship hundreds of dollars for one textbook or learning the cost of grants that assist more than 10,000 students each year. a study abroad trip that all of his or her friends are taking. According to Blevins, the need-based scholarships Without financial aid, many of these students could must be awarded to Christian women who live in one never afford the college of their dreams. of the specified states: Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Nearly twenty years after her graduation from Emory Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina & Henry, Scarlett Cortner Blevins, ’98, has not forgotten or South Carolina. the importance of financial assistance while a student. “I Thirty-four E&H students received the scholarship was able to afford Emory & Henry because of the grants I grants during the 2014-15 academic year. “We try received. Now, I want to help students afford an education, too,” said Blevins, who as director of financial aid at Emory to divide the grant money among deserving female students in all of the specified states. But, the majority of & Henry assists more than half of the student population our student body comes to us from Virginia, Tennessee, with some sort of financial needs. North Carolina and South Carolina,” Blevins said. “We One of those resources paving the way for student also renew the scholarships for those students who success is the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, a received the awards as first-year students and who still scholarship program established for Mrs. Whitehead before her death in 1953. She was a generous philanthropist qualify for it.” Members of the Centralized Student Assistance and accomplished businesswoman whose passion was office at Emory & Henry select the students to helping others in need. receive the grants based on family income. “They are More than 30 Emory & Henry students will benefit considered as soon as the students apply for financial from a $212,000 scholarship grant made available by the aid,” Blevins said. Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation for 2015-16. The new Lettie Pate married Joseph Brown Whitehead, an scholarship reflects an $8,000 increase from last year’s attorney from Mississippi, in 1894. Her husband was an award to the College. entrepreneur responsible for obtaining exclusive rights Blevins said the increase likely will enable the College to bottle and sell Coca-Cola in the United States. to help more students than in previous years. The couple resided in Chattanooga, where they raised For at least the past three decades, Emory & Henry two sons, Joseph Brown Whitehead Jr. and Conkey Pate College has been the recipient of grants from the Lettie Whitehead. Pate Whitehead Foundation, Mrs. Whitehead which devotes most of its donated to charities in resources to awarding More than 30 Emory & Henry Virginia and Georgia scholarship assistance and was a trustee of each year to deserving students will benefit from a $212,000 Emory University, female students with scholarship grant made available Agnes Scott College financial need. “Depending and the Virginia on the students’ amount of by the Lettie Pate Whitehead Museum of Fine Arts. need, some students have
“1872: Letitia “Lettie” Pate is born to Elizabeth Stagg and Cornelius Pate, an enterprising merchant, in Thaxton, Virginia. Lettie Pate is raised in the Episcopal Church and privately educated. She exhibits from an early age an inquiring mind and an acute interest in business. During her youth, Lettie Pate lives among elderly female family members of uncertain means. These women lack formal education and struggle financially, observations that later influence Lettie Pate’s charitable giving.”* Her generosity extended to England and France where she supported the Queen’s Fund for air raid victims, furnished ambulances for the French, and served on the board of the American Hospital in Paris. After her husband’s death in 1906, Mrs. Whitehead managed the family’s business affairs, and became one of the first women to serve on the board of directors of a major American corporation.
Foundation for 2015-16.
*from lpwhitehead.org website
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Her oldest son created the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation as a memorial to his father. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation was created by Conkey Pate Whitehead, Mrs. Whitehead’s youngest son, as a memorial to his mother. Through the benevolence of these two foundations, the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation was formed and continues her legacy. v