Jenn Winslow Coltrane was initiated into the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College chapter of Kappa Delta on October 27, 1903. The chapter was founded earlier that year on January 28. Although she was born in Marshall, Missouri, and she died in Bellevue Hospital in New York City, she spent most of her life in Concord, North Carolina.
Jenn Winslow Coltrane
She served as her chapter’s president. After graduation in 1906, Coltrane was Kappa Delta’s first Inspector. She spent five years as National Treasurer before becoming National President in 1912. That year she was present at the meeting when Kappa Delta joined what is today the National Panhellenic Conference. Coltrane served as Kappa Delta’s National President until 1915. She was also the Business Manager of and a contributor to The Angelos of Kappa Delta.
Coltrane was on the state board of the Federated Women’s Club. From 1920-1923, she was Historian General of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She qualified for membership by descent from her great-great-grandfather, Colonel Beverly Winslow of Virginia.
During World War I, she worked in the War Risk Insurance Bureau and helped organize a Red Cross chapter in her county. In 1930, she founded the Junior Charity League in Concord. Its original focus was to provide soup, crackers, and milk to hungry schoolchildren. The Junior Charity League continues to this day.
The December 4, 1932 edition of The Tuscaloosa News reported, “Miss Jenn Coltrane, former national president of Kappa Delta Sorority, has returned to her home in Concord, North Carolina, after a short visit at the Kappa Delta House in Colonial Place.” She died on September 4, 1934, at the age of 47.
She was remembered at the 1935 Kappa Delta Convention held at the Huntington Hotel in California. In 1997, she was inducted posthumously into the Kappa Delta Hall of Fame.
