Ethel J. McCoy grew up in Sanford, Florida. She graduated from Duvall High School in Jacksonville. She enrolled at Syracuse University where she became a member of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Chi Omega. Syracuse winters must have been foreign to her coming from sunny Florida!
McCoy served as her chapter’s editor, sending reports to The Lyre of Alpha Chi Omega. In an issue she was described as a “thoroughly wideawake, dependable young woman who goes into whatever interests her with enthusiasm.” As a senior, McCoy was chairman of the YWCA Missionary Committee, “a position of the gravest responsibility.” Her research topic was “The Spanish Colonies in America” and the it focused on her home state. In 1911, she graduated from Syracuse and headed back south.
When the Tau Chapter of Alpha Xi Delta was established at Brenau College (now University) in Gainesville, Georgia, she assisted with the chapter’s installation.
From 1913 to 1916, she was the vice-president of Sunday School work for the Southern Methodist Church in Florida. She founded Camp Junaluska for Girls at Lake Junaluska on a lakefront hilltop in North Carolina. Ads state the establishment date as 1915. She retired from the camp in 1961.
1916
During the academic year, she taught at Virginia Intermont College (an institution which closed in 2014). During her 30-year tenure there, she taught history and was, for a time, the chair of the history department. It was said of McCoy, “Her ability as a teacher and her sympathetic understanding as a friend, have left a lasting influence on all who have known her.”
Parlaying on her love of history and travel, she organized and directed a Junaluska Travel Club. It provided educational adventures abroad for older campers.
1927
McCoy divided her retirement time between Lake Junaluska and Jacksonville, Florida. She died on September 14, 1970.
