(Over the course of the next few weeks, the Lincoln Parish Journal is republishing some of its most memorable stories from the past year … some of our readers favorites).
by Wesley Harris
There is a place on Louisiana Tech University’s campus where footsteps slow, where memories collect and tradition holds steady. In the center of the Quad is the Lady of the Mist, a statue and fountain that doesn’t shout but speaks volumes about welcome, departure, hope, and belonging.
Crafted in durable granite, the Lady is placed in a fountain at the heart of the Quad. She faces north toward what were once the north entrance columns of the campus. That orientation was deliberate—through those old columns, arriving students and visitors would see her arms open, welcoming.
The Lady of the Mist is more than a statue. She is symbolic, welcoming new students and bidding farewell to graduates. A representation of hope, of graduates fulfilling their ambitions and highest callings. A focal point in Tech traditions, especially during commencement and during freshman convocation or welcome ceremonies.
The lady joined the campus landscape in 1938. A fountain was erected in a circular pool in the middle of the mostly barren quadrangle. The center point of the campus, the fountain was encircled by the most recent construction–Keeney Hall, Bogard Hall, Howard Auditorium, and the library.
The statue was sculpted by Duncan Ferguson, an art professor at Louisiana State University, and Jules Struppeck, a sculptor at Tulane. Elizabeth Bethea, head of the Tech art department, and Mary Moffett, also an art professor, led the women’s committee that worked to establish the fountain and the statue. The Women’s Panhellenic Association, headed by Mary Olive Green of Ruston as president, raised funds through several projects. Tech sorority members participated in the fundraising.
Tech President E. S. Richardson was horrified by the sculpture.
“He thought it was one of the awfullest things he had seen,” recalled Kenneth Hewins in the 1977 interview.
Hewins had served as Tech’s director of publications and head of the news bureau.
But the Lady remained and for several years, the statue and fountain complex had no name. It was simply called the fountain.
Possibly the first use of the name “Lady of the Mist” in print appeared in a newspaper article disseminated by the Associated Press in 1941.
The article reported part of the Easter Sunday offering to be given to the Louisiana Methodist Orphanage in Ruston were coins retrieved from the fountain.
The campus gardener, Sam Linder, cleaned out the pool in April 1941, collecting four pounds of coins, consisting of 510 pennies and a quarter.
The coins had been thrown in the pool in response to an editorial by Tech Talk editor Dennis Shell.
In his editorial, Shell had written: “Up in Annapolis, Maryland, the midshipmen are accustomed to tossing loose pennies at a bronze Indian statue for good luck during athletic events and for help with individual problems . . . Here, with the Lady of the Mist fountain, we are able to build a tradition as sacred as that made by the Annapolis midshipmen, and the causes to which the money could be donated are plentiful. Within the city limits of Ruston, there is an orphanage, for example, which undoubtedly could find numerous uses for such offerings . . . So if you have bought your postage stamps and still have loose pennies confusing your large change when I throw them away? Toss them in the fish pond.”
Shell had moved on to a newspaper job in Arcadia, but students followed his suggestion. The current editor of the Tech Talk, E.. W. Carswell of Ringgold took the coins to Trinity Methodist Church to be added to the annual Easter Sunday offering to the orphanage. Carswell included a clipping of Shell’s editorial and a letter from Hewins as publications director explaining how the students “pooled” their pennies.
Hewins was largely responsible for the statue’s name. Hewins had visited Niagara Falls and had been enthralled by the boat tours that had taken tourists to the base of the falls since 1859.
The “Maid of the Mist” tours recalled the maid, an Indian princess, of an ancient legend. Hewins told a group of students that the fountain reminded him of his visit to Niagara Falls, remembering the name of the boats as “Lady of the Mist,” because of the water spray that came up around them as they near the falls.
The students embraced the name, and the kneeling woman in the pool has been called the Lady of the Mist ever since.
The Lady witnessed hundreds of servicemen—Marines and U.S. Navy sailors—passing by during World War II as they headed to class and to chapel. These young men were attending college as part of a War Department effort to mold them into educated officers and gentlemen. After Tech, they went off to war. Some never came home.
The curbing around the pool became prime dating territory. Most students had little money for elaborate dates, much less a vehicle to go off campus. In the 40s and 50s, the Lagniappe, Tech’s yearbook, included many photos of couples sitting closely around the Lady. The 1942 Lagniappe features a cartoon showing a couple huddled before the fountain with the Lady blindfolded to provide a little privacy.
Over time, wear, neglect, and vandalism took a toll. In 1962, the Student Senate presented plans to sandblast and renovate the Lady and the fountain. A rose garden was planted between the fountain and Howard Auditorium.
Disaster struck in 1981 when vandals beheaded the Lady. A student-led effort saw to the statue’s restoration.
But a dilemma had to be resolved. A contemporary sculpture by a Tech art professor had replaced the Lady in the Quad. A committee of Tech leadership decided on a new spot for the Lady in Dudley Circle where another fountain had been installed. But a groundswell of support by students and alumni insisted the Lady be returned to her original home. Tech President F. Jay Taylor agreed, and the Lady of the Mist returned to her fountain in 1985.
Pranks like filling the fountain with soap occurred over and over through the 80s and 90s. The most innocent mischief gave way to malicious damage in May 1992.
The Lady’s head was not only removed, along with the 4-inch steel rod added to reinforce it after the last decapitation, but completely taken away. Louisiana Tech Police recovered the head in a trash dumpster behind a nearby fraternity house. Two young men were charged with felony criminal damage to property.
So the Lady was removed from the Quad yet again. A new head was molded and reattached with an superstrength epoxy. This time, an 11-inch steel rod was inserted to hold the head in place.
Tech officials were hesitant to return the statue to the Quad and considered placing a bronze replica in the fountain and displaying the original in a safe, indoor location. Tradition won out and the Lady of the Mist was returned to her rightful place.
One of the strongest practices tied to the Lady is the medallion ritual implemented in 2007. Freshmen receive medallions bearing the 12 Tenets of Tech during a convocation during the first week of the fall quarter. At the end of the convocation in Howard Auditorium, the new students walk a candlelit path lined with alumni, faculty, and older students and deposit the medallions into the fountain beneath the Lady of the Mist as a symbol of their commitment to Tech.
When those students graduate, the medallion is returned. It carries with it the symbolism of the journey—from being welcomed, to achieving, and leaving an imprint.
Because of its visibility and significance, the Lady of the Mist is more than decoration—it’s a gathering place, a memory anchor. It frames the historic face of campus and links past to present. Today she remains one of the defining, beloved spots on campus. Perhaps photographed more than any other campus landmark, it’s the perfect backdrop for senior portraits as students graduate.
With every class, every homecoming, every commencement, the Lady of the Mist remains a persistent presence. She is timeless but relevant.
For alumni, she’s an anchor—something familiar and unchanged, no matter how much the campus has shifted since the last visit.
For Louisiana Tech itself, the Lady embodies in stone what the institution strives for—a welcoming spirit, a sense of home, ideals that endure.
For over 90 years, the Lady of the Mist has prevailed despite her wounds. And in doing so, she weaves together generations of Louisiana Tech students, faculty, and alumni—making the campus not just a place of learning, but a place of belonging.
