Celebrating Women's History Month | Jackie Martin, Rho-Syracuse
By Archivist/Historian Diane Hall, Eta Upsilon-Drexel
During Women's History Month, we celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of extraordinary women who have left a lasting impact on society. Among these barrier-breakers are the Notable Delta Gammas, who have advanced our mission of doing good and left lasting legacies in various fields, from business and politics to arts and philanthropy. This month serves as a reminder to honor their achievements, inspire future generations, and reflect on the collective power of women who continue to shape our world.
Cecilia Barber Martin was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, in 1903. It is unknown how she acquired the nickname Jackie, but it became the name most people know her by. By the time she was seven, the family had relocated to Washington, D.C. From an early age, she was breaking barriers. One story goes that she convinced the administration of her elementary school to let her be the first female student to take an industrial arts class. The school acquiesced, but only because she would also take a home economics class.
After graduating from high school in 1921, she worked for a year to save money for school. In 1922, she was accepted into Syracuse University on a sports scholarship and chose pre-law as her major. And she pledged Delta Gamma! Unfortunately, her scholarship did not cover all her expenses. Even though she worked multiple jobs, she was unable to make enough money to continue at the university for more than a year.
Jackie had excelled in basketball, track and rifle. This helped her land her first job after she left school when she joined the Washington Times as the women’s sports editor. This made her the first woman to be hired as a sports editor for a major metropolitan daily newspaper. She also worked as the society editor for Underwood & Underwood Photo News Service, where she began to learn about professional photography. Over the next several years, she worked at several newspapers, coached a girls’ basketball team, trained for the half-mile at the Olympics (she was injured at tryouts) and joined the Newspaper Women’s Club.
In 1933, Ruth Bryan Owen, Kappa Nebraska, was appointed as the first female chief of mission as head of the U.S. embassy for Denmark and Iceland. Jackie traveled with her to Copenhagen as an unofficial press attaché. Her career was taken to new heights with the outbreak of World War II and the formation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Jackie was the WAAC’s first official photographer and public relations officer. In 1944 she traveled to Italy as a war correspondent, taking over 4,000 photographs of the war. After the war, she became chief of the photo operation for the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was the United States initiative to aid the economic recovery of Western Europe.
Throughout the 1960s, she was heavily involved with Delta Gamma, serving as a public relations consultant. For the 1964 Convention, she created an extensive exhibit titled This is Delta Gamma. She received many awards in her lifetime, including the George Arents Medal, a War Department Certificate of Merit and, in 1962, the Order of the Delta Gamma Rose.
Is there a Delta Gamma you think should be included on our Notable Delta Gamma’s list? Submit their name for consideration by filling out this form.