Agnes Wadlington Barrett – ECU Chronicles: Our History

Image Source: Buccaneer, 1965, p. 19.

Agnes Wadlington Barrett served as secretary to the president from 1930, and then concurrently, from 1934, as secretary to the board of trustees until her retirement in 1968. During her career she achieved the unique distinction of having worked for the school’s first six presidents, Robert H. Wright (1870–1934), Leon R. Meadows (1884–1953), Howard J. McGinnis (1882–1971), Dennis H. Cooke (1904–1982), John D. Messick (1897–1993), and Leo W. Jenkins (1913–1989), as well as dozens of trustees and six board chairs, three of whom were chair by virtue of their office as state superintendent of public instruction. By the time of her retirement in 1968, Barrett had witnessed and contributed to — judiciously recording board minutes for over three decades — East Carolina’s impressive growth and development from a small, segregated teachers college to a large, desegregated university on the verge of becoming home to the state’s second publicly supported four-year medical school. In documenting board meetings with accuracy, efficiency, and discretion, Barrett enhanced the professional integrity of the board and the school at large while also leaving her mark indelibly on both. In May 1968, at her last board meeting, the trustees approved a resolution citing “Mrs. Agnes Barrett, secretary to the president and the board of trustees, for her outstanding service during the past 38 years.”

Before Barrett, Leon R. Meadows had served as secretary, and before Meadows, Claude W. Wilson (1867–1922) had filled that role. Wilson was first appointed a trustee following the founding of the school, then elected secretary of the board by the other charter members. He was subsequently hired, with the approval of the board, to serve as one of East Carolina’s founding faculty. Due to his appointment as a faculty, Wilson resigned his seat as a trustee but was nevertheless assigned special duties by President Wright so that he could continue serving as secretary, thus establishing a precedent for faculty service to the board as secretary. Following Wilson’s passing in 1922, Meadows, an English professor and director of summer school, was named his successor as secretary, and continued to serve in that capacity until Wright’s passing in 1934, when he, Meadows, was named East Carolina’s next president. It was then that Barrett, known and trusted as Meadows’ secretary, was chosen to assume additional duties as secretary to the board. Barrett’s eventual tenure of over three decades left the precedent of faculty service as board secretary a thing of the past.

Barrett (née, Wadlington) hailed from Cadiz, Kentucky, and graduated from Western Kentucky State Teachers College and Bowling Green College of Commerce. She moved to Greenville in 1930 to take what she thought would be a one-year appointment as secretary to the president, but then decided to stay. She soon met her future husband, Albert LeRoy Barrett (1896–1945), a native of Farmville and graduate of Eastman Business School of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., who worked at the John Flanagan Buggy Company as an automobile salesman. Their wedding ceremony, in November 1937, was held on campus in Ragsdale Hall, then a dorm for female faculty and staff, where Mrs. Barrett had previously resided. After their marriage, the couple made their home on West Fifth Street in Greenville. Mr. Barrett later helped found, with a business partner, the B&N Motor Company, but then passed away a year later, in 1945, following brain surgery.

Barrett had words of admiration for every president of the school including Meadows whom she described as a “keen businessman who enjoyed building.” During Meadows’ trial for embezzlement and false pretense, Barrett testified several times on the former president’s behalf, first discrediting one of the state’s witnesses and then later, affirming that Meadows had overseen extensive improvements on campus, though without proof regarding the origin of the funds used. Even after Meadows’ conviction and imprisonment, Barrett remained with the school, loyally serving its next four presidents with uncompromised diligence and efficiency.

Throughout her career, Barrett was a popular, good-humored presence on campus. In 1932, during her second year at East Carolina, the young Miss Wadlington — no doubt often mistaken for one of the students — was parodied in a Teco Echo April Fool’s edition poking fun at President Wright, a classic workaholic, depicting him instead as a liquor-lipped administrator inebriated while on the job. The student paper reported that a police raid had nabbed him and extracted a confession from his secretary, Miss Wadlington, who admitted she had been Wright’s “rum runner” for over five and a half months. With that, police jailed her along with President Wright, Dr. Meadows, and Dr. Herbert Rebarker. The extreme absurdity of the front page Teco Echo tale must have amused many in the Administration Building.

Barrett was a frequent participant in community efforts. During WWII, in the spring of 1943, she taught a course in “pre-flight aeronautics” at the Greenville High School, replacing Clyde Carter who had left the school to join the armed services. Barrett reportedly taught 16 boys, all with backgrounds in mathematics and physics, and “very much interested in airplanes.” She was qualified for the assignment having earlier, in 1941, taken the the Civilian Pilot Training course offered at ECTC, thereby becoming a licensed navigation instructor. Regarding her brief experience in the classroom, Barrett commented, “I love everything about flying and was thrilled to get a chance to teach this class.”

In the spring of 1953, Barrett took to the stage in a campus production of John Patrick’s (1905–1995) The Curious Savage, in a supporting role, that of the scheming daughter of Mrs. Ethel P. Savage, a deranged millionairess. The play, sponsored by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women as a benefit for the Foreign Study Scholarship fund, was staged in the “College Theatre” (now McGinnis Auditorium). In 1955, she participated in another dramatic project, a televised course featuring ECC professor of English, Dr. Edgar Hirshberg, lecturing on Shakespeare’s plays. In the project, Barrett was one of the readers who, when queued, read scenes from the plays Hirshberg discussed. Later the same year, Barrett had a small part in Mary Chase’s (1906–1981) comedy, Harvey, staged by faculty and staff. Barrett was also active in the creative writers organization on campus. By the 1960s, she had become one of the most well-known and well-liked people at East Carolina, widely respected for her involvement in the school and its many dimensions.

Former ECU historian Mary Jo Bratton (1926–1998), noting her long service at the highest levels of the presidential office and as secretary to the board, observed that Barrett came to be “revered as the institution’s unofficial chief of protocol.” Along with service to presidents and trustees, Barrett also became “de facto custodian of valuable relics” personally preserving many of the school’s “historical records and memorabilia, including the ceremonial spade [supposedly used in the 1908 groundbreaking] which she stored for years in the trunk of her car.” Another former university historian, Henry C. Ferrell (1934–2020) noted that through her “knowledge of East Carolina people, places, and things,” Barrett helped the school, its administrative leadership, and the trustees navigate courses forward even while appreciative of the past. Although others might match or exceed Barrett’s longevity, her exemplary record of service on high simultaneously to the school’s chief executive officer and its board of trustees remains well beyond compare.

Sources

“3 Witnesses Take Stand for Meadows.” Asheville Citizen. February 15, 1945. P. 3.
“Agnes Wadlington Barrett Papers, 1926-1945. Manuscript Collection # 1382. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/1382?q=Tecoan%201930
“Albert L. Barrett, 48, Dies After Operation: Funeral Services to be Held Today for Greenville Business Man.” News and Observer. May 2, 1945. P. 8.
“Audience Lauds Performances of College Faculty in Comedy.” East Carolinian. April 3, 1953. P. 4. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38320
“Board of Trustees.” 1964. University Archives # UA55.01.4737. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23427
“Board of Trustees members [Agnes Barrett and J. Herbert Waldrop].” October 1961. University Archives # UA55.01.2051. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23186
“Board of Trustees.” October 1961. University Archives # UA55.01.1404. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23084
Bratton, Mary Jo Jackson. East Carolina University: The Formative Years, 1907-1985. Greenville, N. C.: East Carolina University Alumni Association, 1986.
Coyle, Pat. “Barret’s ‘Year’ in Greenville Lasts a Lifetime.” Fountainhead. February 24, 1976. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/40026
“English Prof. Follows Rabbit as He Appears in Faculty Play.” East Carolinian. March 17, 1955. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38372
Evans, Clifton. Untitled article on the Civilian Pilot Training Course. Teco Echo. March 28, 1941. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37888
“Final Performance of Comedy by Faculty on Slate Tonight.” East Carolinian. March 27, 1953. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38319
Ferrell, Henry C. No Time for Ivy: East Carolina University, 1907-2007. Greenville, N. C.: East Carolina University, 2006.
Hardee, Roy. “ECU Board Names New Dorm.” News and Observer. May 21, 1968. P. 17.
Hill, Janet. “East Carolina Professor, Dr. Ed Hirshberg, Directs Shakespeare Television Class.” East Carolinian. September 23, 1955. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38380
Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Book Number 1. University Archives # UA01.01.01.01.01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/63305
“Miss Wadlington Married Nov. 23: Marries Leroy Barrett of this City; Has Served as Secretary to President Meadows.” Teco Echo. December 7, 1937. Pp. 1, 3. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38063
“Mrs. Agnes Barrett Teaching in G.H.S.” Teco Echo. February 27, 1943. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37916
“Pres. Forced to Resign for Selling Liquor: 75 Gallons Bonded Whiskey Found in his Office in Administration Bldg.; Miss Bowen and Miss Wadlington Implicated in Sale of Rum.” Teco Echo. April 1, 1932. April Fool Edition. Pp. 1, 4. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37877
“Third Hearing on ECTC Opens: Trustees Seeking Apt Explanation.” Rocky Mount Telegram. March 21, 1944. Pp. 1, 7.
“Variety of Parties Honor Miss Gaylord; Barrett-Wadlington Marriage Solemnized in Ragsdale Hall at E.C.T.C.” News and Observer. November 28, 1937. Society Section, p. 6.
Wilson, Leonard. “Evidence Closes in Meadows Case: Judge Williams Eliminating One Item in Charges; Arguments on Monday.” News and Observer. March 10, 1945. Pp. 1, 3.
“YMCA President Goes to Southern Area Meet; Other Campus Clubs List Current Activities.” East Carolinian. October 8, 1964. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38356