Elaine Barbara Frank, class of 1939
Elaine Frank grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and attended Hope High School. She graduated from LaSalle Junior College and transferred to Pembroke where she received her A.B. in English Literature in 1939. She was an assistant professor in English at Brown from 1944 – 1945 and later obtained a master’s degree in education from Boston University. She began working as a speech therapist at Meeting Street School while doing the same at Henry Barnard Laboratory School, and working as an assistant professor at Rhode Island College.
In this interview, Elaine Frank ’39, the daughter of a Providence-born father and Lithuanian-born mother, describes herself as a “City Girl” and discusses her decision to attend Pembroke College as a transfer student from LaSalle Junior College. She details her involvement in various dramatic societies at Hope High School, Pembroke, and throughout Rhode Island. Frank also recalls her Pembroke gym teacher, Bessie Rudd, and Dean Margaret Shove Morriss, as well as coeducational and single-sex classes on both the Pembroke and Brown campuses. In addition to her reminiscences of life on campus, Frank also discusses her life as a teacher at the Meeting Street School, Henry Barnard Laboratory School, and Rhode Island College.
Pembroke Hall, Brown University