The Campus Queens’ Gallery on the second floor of the Student Services Center is a testament to the legacy of royalty at historically Black institutions that has long been a part of student life.
Though campus lore suggests the tradition of selecting a campus queen dates to 1932 when the institution was known as Princess Anne Academy, the earliest known student sovereign of record heretofore was thought to be Amelia Merchant, who reigned during the 1948-49 school year. Merchant, Maryland State College’s first queen, was the college sweetheart and future wife of Hawk football great Sylvester “Swifty” Polk.
A discovery unearthed from the university’s special collections archive reveals the reign of a Queen Lemay, who preceded Merchant one year earlier.
John Taylor Williams arrived in Princess Anne during the summer of 1947 and led a year-long transformation that saw not only an institutional name change, but also an emphasis on extracurricular activities to create a vibrant campus life for students.
On Oct. 25, 1947, the Princess Anne College Trojans faced the visiting Broncos of Fayetteville (N.C.) State Teachers College for PAC’s annual homecoming football game. Representing her college was Lemay Irene Atlee from Charles County, Md., the youngest of 12 siblings. The program, which misspelled her first name, playfully anointed Atlee “Her Majesty – Queen Lamay I.”
Thus, Atlee, not Merchant, was the first campus queen of the Williams’ era, holding that honor during the final year the institution was known as Princess Anne College.
When the 5-foot 1-inch Atlee won the crown, she was a home economics education major who enjoyed doing needlework. Lady Lemay chose the orchid as her flower decades before the campus became a place where it is grown commercially, and was no stranger to being “first.” She was the first president of the Eta Beta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., which was chartered on the campus in June 1947.
Who deserves credit for the striking portrait of Atlee published in that 1947 football program is unclear.
School records and her obituary agree that she graduated from Maryland State College in 1951.
Lemay Irene Atlee Amiker died April 23, 2017 in Silver Spring, Md. two days after her 89th birthday.
