Two Ladycliff Graduates Reflect On Their College Years And West Point Memories

Alice (Galvin) Kenny and Marilyn (McCabe) O’Donnell both grew up in Catholic families, Alice in Jersey City and Marilyn on Long Island. Ladycliff College was a Catholic women’s college in Highland Falls, New York, right outside the south gate of West Point. Alice’s older sister had attended Ladycliff, and Marilyn’s parents had selected Ladycliff for her. Education was one of the few majors available to the women at Ladycliff because teaching was one of the few socially acceptable professions for women in the 1960s. Marilyn met her future husband during her sophomore year at a mixer in the Hotel Thayer, and Alice met hers during her junior year. Both of their husbands deployed to Vietnam, Alice’s in September 1966 and Marilyn’s in November 1967. Both women kept in contact with their husbands through daily letters, and Alice received a MARS call (Military Auxiliary Radio System). They kept up to date on the situation in the war through the nightly news, and both met up with their husbands on R&R in Hawaii. Near the end of the interview, they reflect on the importance of reunions, and on what Ladycliff means to them.