Peggy Roman Taylor was born in 1918 and Bettie Eagle Nelson was born in 1917. Both attended Montana State College (later Montana State University) and graduated in 1940. Eagle was a member of Pi Beta Phi, Spurs, Secretarial Club; Saberettes, and secretary of the Student Senate. She worked on the Exponent and the Montanan. Roman was in Chi Omega, the Saberettes, the Secretarial Club, and was part of dramatic productions. Both graduated with a degree in secretarial work.
After graduation, Taylor and Nelson wrote and organized a newsletter for their classmates every year, and sometimes more often.
Taylor died in 2012 and Nelson died in 2009. The Bettie Eagle Nelson and Peggy Roman Taylor Scholarship in MSU's Jacob Jabs College of Business is named for them.
Newsletters written for members of the class of 1940. The first edition, published in March 1944, includes a "roll call" of 23 households. The 1960 edition lists 49 household. The last edition, published in February 2002, lists 21 households.
Topics covered include where class members are living (including addresses); holidays; World War II; courtships and marriages; children and parenting; returning to campus for events like Woman's Day; Homecoming, and reunions; illnesses and deaths of both the classmates and their familiy members; domestic and foreign travel; military service; jobs and relocations; significant visitors; infirmity and aging; notable weather conditions; and grandchildren and other extended family.
Most of the editions were prepared around Christmas, with editions in January to reflect additional news, and sometimes another newsletter in the spring. All are typed, originally using stencils and, by 1978, duplicated on a copy machine. In the 1950s, the format solidified in an alphabetical listing of each person's news, almost always in that individual's own words. Some of the entries are very brief; others go on for a page or more. Those who sent their news in late are in an added "latecomers" section.
The editors created a strong social network with expectations for participation in the newsletter. In the earliest editions, classmates who did not contribute were referred to as "stinkers"; in later editions, the authors simply listed the people they didn't hear from, noting that non-participants would be removed from the mailing list after a period of time. From many of the entries, it is evident that many class members, particularly those in and around Bozeman, socialized in person frequently.
Along with the newsletter, there are a few letters from the Alumni Association about reunions and one group photograph.
Collection is open for research.
Gift of Lauri and Rick Taylor through the MSU Alumni Foundation.