For Liggett and Lamda Alpha
I am Janet Lawrence and I’d like to tell you about another part of Liggett’s world, and explain how Lamda Alpha, one of Liggett’s special families, came to be.
It was 1976 when it all began for this remarkable group. Most of us were thrown together by fate and lived on the 2nd floor of Gilmore Hall at Hope College. Some of us pledged to the Delta Phi sorority and as freshman pledges we were often lined up alphabetically; Lawrence, Liggett, Molien….. One of our assignments was to learn details about the pledge next to us. Once the “Actives” learned of my hometown they relished in making Liggett spell it, over and over, faster and faster. Liggett became the best speller of “Schenectady” in history. “S-C-H-E-N-E-C-T-A-D-Y Ma’am”
Liggett and I both suffered from F.O.M.O., FOMO- the Fear of Missing Out. We both happily ran around campus until all hours socializing and pestering classmates who were trying to study, until they all finally threw us each out and went to bed. I would come back to Gilmore, remember I had homework to do, and creep into my room to get my books. EVERY time, as I came back out into the hallway, there would be Liggett, in her long flannel nighty, with her books, in the hallway, doing the exact same thing, for the exact same reason. We would sit and study together until the wee hours and as painful and exhausting as this routine was, it is time I will always remember and treasure.
One fateful night, Liggett and her best bud and roommate, Lynn Maxwell were out and about flirting with Hope athletes as they were known to do, and on this night if I remember right, their target was the Men’s swim team. Liggett and Max had pop guns, those toy guns with little strings attached to corks that would pop out of the barrel. I can picture the swimmers happily dropping into the pool with dramatic flair like they’d been mortally wounded by our duo. Max and Liggett would pose like Charlie’s angels for the athletes, holding their pop guns up like Farrah Fawcett and Jacqueline Smith. When they came home to Gilmore to regale us with the stories of their night and show us their best moves, we collectively dubbed them Liggett’s Angels, which became LA, which had to be Greek- ized hence, Lamda Alpha was born.
Liggett was our founder and ring leader. The group grew, we had sweatshirts made up as any respectable sorority would. We did nothing productive or fruitful, but we’ve been “meeting” at least twice a year, every year from that day to this- for 4 decades !! Despite distance and busy lives, we’ve seen each other through all the highs and lows of life.
Our leader, was a devout Christian, the most loyal of all Hope fans, and the most steadfast of friends. She came armed with her contagious smile and caring ways everywhere she went. Our silly little group, will be in debt to her forever, and will hold dear all our many memories of her smile and contagious laughter. While we celebrate the many facets of our dear friend, know that Liggett’s Angels will live on, as will her wonderful, loving, mischievous, and generous spirit.
