First Female Full-Time Faculty Member

Florence Vane Skeffington (1870–1922) earned the AB in 1887 and the AM in 1889 from Mary Sharp College (Winchester, Tennessee). She attended the University of Chicago in 1896–98 and earned the AB. She taught at the Dyersburg (Tennessee) High School and was principal of the Preparatory Department at Judson Institute in 1890–91. She was an instructor at Morehead (Minnesota) State Normal School in 1898–99. In 1899 she was appointed at UT to teach English and live in the dormitory for women students. In 1900 she became dean of women and assistant professor of English. She left the university in 1905 and joined the faculty of what is now Eastern Illinois University. She was president of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English in 1920–21 and was the author of two publications geared to the teaching of English at the junior high and high school levels. In the commencement edition of the 1922 University Record, a faculty tribute is paid her as a former colleague.