Southern Belles

• By PAM BORDELON
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 10, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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And “The Lord” said, “OK, I’ll let coeds march with my band.” And, the Southern Belles became a reality.

The year was 1961 and the Southern University Marching Band, known as the “Marching Counts of Sound,” was an all-male bastion. The dancing corps was the idea of coed Mary Freddie, of Lake Charles, who had studied dance at the Jacob’s Pillow School of Performing Arts in Lee, Mass., and performed professionally with the Duncan Dance Troup in Chicago.

She met with band director T. Leroy Davis, aka “The Lord,” during her junior year to present her proposal that the group perform with the band during halftime. After two meetings, including one with then-music department head Huel Perkins, Freddie set to work to create the Southern Belles.

The initial group consisted of Freddie, Avé Bonham, Rosalind Canada, Gracie Franklin, sisters Cheryl and Bennifer Hall and Charlie Jackson. They recently got together to share their memories.

“We called him ‘The Lord’ because he knew everything we did,” explained Cheryl Hall Huckabay.

She and her sister attended the Southern Lab School and frequently attended Southern football games with their parents.

“I always liked to dance,” she said. “I remember they auditioned lots of girls. The tryout was in the band room.”

“I’d taken years of dance,” continued Bennifer Hall Tennell. “This was a good opportunity to put it to use. We also got a band scholarship — $25 or $50 … it paid for our books.”

“I truly enjoyed being with my sister,” said Huckabay. “It was someone to look after me even though I’m older.”

Considering the Southern Belles had no chaperones when they traveled, having someone to watch your back was important. For each of them, they experienced their first plane ride as a Belle. They also traveled by train for several games.

Two that had them all talking at once were the trip to play Florida A&M when the train broke down en route to Tallahassee, and traveling to Grambling University. Adding to the misery of the Florida trip was the terrible weather.

 “I don’t care how cold it got or how hard it might be raining, we couldn’t wear a coat,” said Tennell, shivering at the memory. “We couldn’t go to the bathroom, or eat or drink anything. We had to sit there in the stands with our hands in our laps … we couldn’t move. And, The Lord made us wear tons of red lipstick.”

“We had to do everything he said,” continued Rosalind Canada Scott. “It was his vision … what he wanted us to look like.”