Mrs. Cannon

A captivating little lady with a face like a Leonardo drawing, Mrs. Walter B. Cannon is a very extraordinary person whom Harvard could proudly name its matriarch. She has been attached to the community for eighty-two years, as daughter of a Harvard alumnus, Radcliffe undergraduate, wife of a medical school professor, mother of five talented children (three daughters graduated from Radcliffe, one son from Harvard and Medical School), mother-in-law of Professors Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and John Kenneth Fairbank, grandmother of two Harvard freshmen, great-grandmother-to-be of a potential Harvard or Radcliffe student.

Mrs. Cannon was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she attended school with her future husband. She crossed the country to enter Radcliffe in 1899. "I used to tell my classmates I was born in a wigwam with a buffalo nodding at the door," she recalls. Active in "The Idlers," a dramatic society, and in the Philosophy Club, she threw herself delightedly into a wide variety of courses. "I chose the man and not the subject. That way I became remarkably inspired."

Mrs. Cannon remembers her contemporaries as a stimulated and highly intelligent group. "We came because we really wanted to. The Harvard men called us greasy grinds, but as a matter of fact they married us." An acquaintance of the controversial Gertrude Stein, Mrs. Cannon describes her as "very brilliant and erratic--not admirable. (She was horribly disappointed in my lack of talent.)"

Mrs. Cannon remembers a very different Radcliffe in her day. "We couldn't go into the Square without gloves or hats, nor could we wear pants in theatrical productions. We lived in boarding houses. No women were allowed in Harvard Yard. However, our main advantage was having tiny classes. Professors walked across the Common to repeat their lectures for us. That gave them an extra bonus, as their salaries were miserable."

After an academic career that she calls "not at all distinguished," Mrs. Cannon graduated magna cum laude, then returned to St. Paul. There she became a high school teacher, instructing all subjects by "keeping a day ahead of the students." Two years later she married her remarkable husband, physiologist Walter B. Cannon, and returned to Cambridge.

Dr. Cannon's career took the couple all over the world. During her travels, Mrs. Cannon became enamoured with Peking's Temple of Heaven ("some things no amount of praise will spoil"), acquired two Russian icons by Italian artists, made friends with eminent scientists of myriad nationalities, including Russia's Pavlov. She swears that her foreign languages remain abysmal, that she never bothers with grammar. Asked whether she lectured to Cambridge on return, she answered, "Oh yes. I afflicted everybody."

Mrs. Cannon is the author of several best-selling books, including Red Rust, about raising wheat in Minnesota, and Heirs, about Polish people in New Hampshire. An avowed liberal, she has been prominent in the Birth Control Movement ("I stood for selectivity, not race suicide"), in public school work ("You're deserting your country if you're deserting them"), and in the N.A.A.C.P. In spite of liberal tendencies, Mrs. Cannon was at "sword's point" with son-in-law Schlesinger over the last presidential election. ("My children thought I was crazy.")

Throughout a busy life, the lady has never lost her avid interest in Radcliffe, which she calls "a school for leaders." The college presented her with a citation on its seventy-fifth anniversary. Later, her twenty grandchildren collected money and gave a room to the graduate center in her name. At the moment, Mrs. Cannon hopes other interested people will add to her own donation for a Mexican Room in the graduate center. "We should have a room from every country," she suggests. "I chose Mexico because I am so interested in it."

Mrs. Cannon loves to tell her age. ("When I get to ninety I'll become really obnoxious about it.") Her age, however, seems to be her only vanity. "I'm a very ordinary person with a very privileged life."