Eleanora Nance

In 1920 Eleanora Nance became a maid in the Foods Department of the College of Home Economics, a post she would hold for 37 years. During those years, she wound into a ball of twine notes of events, notes about people, keepsakes, and other memorabilia. When a portion of the Home Economics Building in which she worked burned in 1952, she almost lost her “memory bundle,” but students dragged the blackened and soggy ball from the debris just before it was to be hauled away. Upon her retirement in 1957, she was presented an award for loyal and distinguished service. The certificate bore the UT Seal, the signature of the secretary of the board of trustees, and the signatures of every member of the College of Home Economics faculty. At her funeral, her basketball size “memory bundle” was unwound.