The Emily Givans Hagert and Imogene Caruthers Horton Memorabilia Collection contains materials relating to the lives of Emily Givans Hagert and Imogene Caruthers Horton. Items included are a Salisbury State College anniversary booklet, an article about the Wicomico High School class of 1931 written by Dick Cooper, and news-clippings. Also included is a CD containing images of Imogene Caruthers and Emily Givans while at Maryland State Normal School at Salisbury and the Givans family as well as digital images of reunion pamphlets.

Emily Mary Givans (b. 1913), the daughter of Ernest Washington Givans and Emma Belle Hudson, was born in Snow Hill, Maryland. She graduated from Wicomico High School in 1931 and from Maryland State Normal School at Salisbury in 1934. Emily told her grandchildren the story of how she got into college during a recent visit.  She said that as a child of a modest family of farmers, she did not have the $100 required to pay for tuition.  However, a man named Mr. Bennett, who owned a local store in town frequented by the Givans family, loaned her the $100.  Emily said Mr. and Mrs. Bennett did not have children of their own and wanted to help.  They gave her the money with the condition that she pay them back after graduation.  Emily said she had to walk all the way to college from where she lived on Charles Street, but that the Bennetts and other local friends would often give her a ride to and from school.  Emily also said that the Caruthers family helped her get through school, and often invited her to dinner.  She worked at the "five and dime" on the weekends to help pay for expenses.  After college, she paid the $100 back to Mr. Bennett. Emily was a teacher for three years in Wicomico County, then a bankteller for 15 years in Baltimore. In 1939, she married Edward James Hagert (1913-2000), an electrical engineer, who worked at a radio station in Salisbury, MD. After moving to Baltimore, they had two children -- Hugh James (b. 1942) and Judith Lynn (b. 1945). Ed and Emily retired to Milford, DE.  

Daughter of Dr. Thomas J. Caruthers, founding faculty member of the Maryland State Normal School at Salisbury, Imogene Caruthers (1913-2000) was born in Cape Girardeau, MO. She was a 1931 graduate of Wicomico High School and a 1934 graduate of the Normal School. After that, she went on to earn a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1937. Returning to Salisbury, she became the first woman news reporter in Salisbury. She held that position until she married Herbert E. Horton, manager at the Old Swift & Company Poultry Processing Plant in 1944. From 1951 to 1964, they lived in Federalsburg, MD and the next 20 years, lived in Gainsville, GA and later in Lumber Bridge, NC where she wrote a bicentennial history of the town. Since 1985, she returned to the Eastern Shore, living in Mardela Springs. They had three children, Thomas Margaret and Anne.