Ethel Hedgeman Lyle

Ethel Hedgeman Lyle (born Ethel Hedgeman, February 10, 1887 - November 28, 1950) was an African-American founder of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (ΆKΆ). Lyle is often referred to as the "Guiding Light" for Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.

Early Life
Ethel Hedgeman was born in 1887 in St. Louis, Missouri. Throughout her elementary and high school career, Hedgeman attended public schools in St. Louis. In 1904, Hedgeman graduated from Sumner High School with honors. She also gained a scholarship to Howard University.

In 1904, Hedgeman entered Howard University. However, due to illness in her sophomore year, Hedgeman had to take halt from her studies. Throughout college, she belonged to Howard's choir, YWCA, and the Christian Endeavor, as well as participated in drama plays. Her demeanor was explained by college students as lively, charming, and full of life, amid her delicate health.

Alpha Kappa Alpha
Throughout the fall of 1907, Hedgeman was instrumental in founding Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, America's first Greek-letter organization established by Black college women. Hedgeman was persuaded by Ethel Robinson, a faculty member at Howard who also shared her sorority experiences with Lyle at Brown University. Hedgeman was also inspired by her then high school and college sweetheart George Lyle, a charter member the Beta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Howard in 1907. In order to proliferate her idea in forming a sorority, Hedgeman began recruiting interested classmates throughout the summer of 1907. Together, the nine classmates founded Alpha Kappa Alpha on January 15, 1908. Hedgeman served as vice-president of the sorority, since she was a junior, and designed the insignia for the sorority. Throughout her life, she was active in expanding Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Life after Howard
After graduating in 1909 with a Bachelor of Arts in liberal arts, she went to Enfala, Oklahoma. She taught music in Sumner Normal School between 1909 and 1910. She was the first African-American female college graduate to teach in a normal school in Oklahoma and the first to attain a Teacher's Life Certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Education. In 1910, she moved to Centralia, Illinois, where she also taught in public schools. She married her college sweetheart on June 21, 1911. Both moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Ethel gave birth to George, III, her only child. Ethel continued her education career in Philadelphia by teaching English at the Thomas Purham School and Arthur School. She retired in 1948, after almost forty years of teaching.

In her personal life, Lyle was involved in helping establishing the Mother's Club of the City, was a founder of the West Philadelphia League of Women Voters, and had membership in the Republican Women's Committee of Ward 40. She also was the national treasurer of Alpha Kappa Alpha from 1923 to 1946. In Philadelphia, she also chartered and was the president of Omega Omega in Philadelphia. In 1937, she was appointed chair of the Philadelphia's Mayor Committee of 100 Women Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Some of her hobbies included doing crossword puzzles, playing bridge and reading. On November 28, 1950, Ethel Hedgeman Lyle died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Honors
"The spirit of AKA hovering over us and our little deeds and acts—smoothing here, covering there, broadening younger, and making us do our best to think, to act, up to the highest in us. It is a force bigger than we are, stronger than we are, and it compels us to climb to the heights where it dwells. — Ethel Hedgeman Lyle"

Lyle received many accolades for her achievements. In honor of her efforts in founding the sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha designated her at the 1926 Boulè as Honorary Basileus, the only member with that title. Later, in 1951, the sorority established the Ethel Hedgeman Lyle Endowment Fund. In addition, an elementary school in St. Louis is bears her namesake. Her granddaughters, Andrea and Muriel, were inducted in 1994 as honorary members of Alpha Kappa Alpha.