Gussie Nell Davis

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Gussie Nell Davis (November 4, 1906 – December 21, 1993) was an American teacher best known as the founder of the Kilgore College Rangerettes, who in September 1940 became the first all-girls drill team to perform on a college football field.

Davis was born on November 4, 1906, in Farmersville, Texas. She was the daughter of Robert Augustus and Mattie Lavinia (née Callaway) Davis. Davis went to public schools in Farmersville, and enrolled at the Texas Woman's University (then the College of Industrial Arts) in 1923, where she advanced an intention to become a concert pianist. Her mother had taught her music from an early age but her dancing style was not widely accepted in the South-Central United States. As a result, she switched her studies from music to physical education, which went against the wishes of both her parents. Davis graduated in 1927 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, and began her professional career the following year at Greenville High School as an instructor of physical education, and pep squad sponsor.

During her first year in Greenville, the pep-squad, known as the Flaming Flashes, did stunts and a little marching. Over the next ten years the team's activities evolved and became more elaborate, including different drills with rhythm and dance steps to music. Wooden batons were added when Davis commissioned the school's nearest furniture maker to make them, then finally drums and bugles courtesy of Mr. Letcher Stark at Port Arthur High School. What had started simply as a pep-squad was now a full blown drum and bugle corps.

Davis received a master's degree in science from the University of Southern California in 1938. Kilgore College president Dean B. E. Masters hired Davis the following year to form a group that would keep football spectators in their seats during halftime, rather than consuming alcohol and brawling under the stands. President Masters had an additional goal of increasing the college's female enrollment. The group, called the Kilgore College Rangerettes, first performed in September 1940, and were the first all-girls dance-drill team in the United States to perform during the half-time periods of college football games. Davis was the group's sole choreographer until 1948, when she hired East Texas-based Denard Haden to assist her. She later hired accompanist Hazel Stewart, the team's long-time sponsor L. N. Crim, and assistants Peggy Coghlan, Barbara Harmon, and Deana Bolton. Alongside her work, Davis acted as a consultant, judged drill-team competitions, was a member of the National Drill Team Directors Association, and was part of the Fiesta International board of directors. Davis, with the retired director of the SMU Mustang Band Irving Dreibrodt, founded the American Drill Team Schools which gives instruction to drill teams across the United States.

A disciplinarian, Davis built the Rangerettes into a self-confident squad. She directed routines that were routinely more athletic and aerobic, and the squad were featured extensively in the press. She retired in 1979 but remained the group's godmother. She was hospitalized in December 1993 and died just after midnight on December 21. Davis was buried at Farmersville Cemetery.

Legacy

Davis' work created a multi-billion industry that encompasses multiple uniform and prop companies, drill camps worldwide, specialist choreographers and travel agencies dedicated to the drill-team-dance style she built upon. She chose not to marry or have children; she told the Irving Daily News in 1979: "The Rangerettes is [sic] my child". Davis was honored with the Gussie Nell Day in Kilgore in 1964 and in Farmersville six years later. It was followed up with a Texas-statewide celebration in 1979. She was named the 1969 Texas Woman of the Year by the Texas State Civitans. Davis was named an honorary citizen of Fort Worth and received a State of Texas House of Representatives Certificate of Citation. She was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame in 1989. In 2006, a former Rangerette, Kathryn Heller Zwick and her husband Nick, donated $3.5 million to help the college build the Gussie Nell Davis Residence Hall – a testament to the legacy of young women whose lives Davis touched and helped prepare for life beyond college.

In 1975 the Houston Contemporary Museum of Art honored Davis for creating a "living form" of art.[8] Davis served as the group's director for forty years, until June 1979.

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Gussie Nell Davis, founder of the Kilgore Rangerettes (and therefore of the world-wide dance-drill team movement), daughter of Robert Augustus and Mattie Lavinia (Callaway) Davis, was born in Farmersville, Texas, on November 4, 1906. She attended public schools in Farmersville and, with the intention of becoming a concert pianist, entered the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University), Denton, in 1923. She changed her major study to physical education and received a B.A. degree from CIA in 1927 and a M.A. from the University of Southern California in 1938.

Miss Davis began her professional career as instructor of physical education and pep-squad director at Greenville High School in 1928. Drawing on her combined experience in music, dance, and physical education, she trained the all-girl "Flaming Flashes" to use small wooden batons that she commissioned from a local furniture maker, as well as flags, various props, drums, and bugles in increasingly complex dance-drills and marches. Although there were several female drum and bugle corps or pep squads performing at football games, the Flaming Flashes were the first twirl-and-dance group. In 1939 when Davis was asked by B. E. Masters, president of Kilgore College, to "find a way to keep people in their seats at halftime" without using drums or bugles, she organized the Kilgore Rangerettes, a precision dance-drill team that performed for the first time in 1940. With the assistance of choreographer Denard Hayden, accompanist Hazel Stewart, long-time sponsor L. N. Crim, and assistants Peggy Coghlan, Barbara Harmon, and Deana Bolton, Miss Davis directed the Rangerettes until her retirement in 1979.

The Rangerettes performed for the Lions International Convention in 1940 and gave their first bowl-game appearance at the Little Rose Bowl in 1946. Subsequently, their performances at college and professional games, conventions, and other events have included the Cotton Bowl (annual since 1949, except for 1950), the Sugar Bowl (1950), the All-Star Game (1951–55), President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Inauguration (1953), the International Rotary Convention (1959), the Pecan Bowl (1966), the Shrine Bowl (1966), Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (1967–69), the National Convention of Chambers of Commerce of Venezuela (1973), the American Fortnight in Hong Kong (1975), various engagements in Romania (1977), and the annual Rangerette Revels (since 1943). The Rangerettes have been cover girls on numerous publications, including Esquire (October 1950), Look (August 4, 1959), Saturday Evening Post (October 5, 1963), Life (numerous times), and Newsweek (December 12, 1977). They have been the subject of articles in such diverse publications as the American Weekly (November 22, 1953), the Paris Match (February 29, 1964), Family Weekly (December 27, 1964), Southern Living (January 1967), Sports Illustrated (December 16, 1974), Texas Star (November 14, 1971), Texas Woman (February 1979), and Texas Highways (January 1981). They have appeared on the "Ed Sullivan Show" (1952) and "60 Minutes" (1971), and in such movies as Cinerama's Seven Wonders of the World (1956). All-American and sportscaster Red Grange dubbed the Rangerettes "Sweethearts of the Nation's Gridirons" (1950). The Ice Capades designed a 1973 show around the young women, who wear white Western hats, belts, and boots, red tops, and "flippy" blue skirts, all parts of a copyrighted costume. The Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston spotlighted the group in 1977 as a "living art form."

With Irving Dreibrodt, retired director of the SMU Mustang Band, Davis founded American Drill Team Schools, Incorporated, which has provided instruction for drill teams across the United States. In addition to serving on the Kilgore College Staff (1939–79), Davis was a consultant to drill teams, a judge of drill-team competitions, a member of the National Drill Team Directors Association and Rangerettes Forever, and a member of the board of directors of Fiesta, International.

She and her Rangerettes did not escape controversy. Until the mid-1970's, there were no Blacks in the Rangerette line. Davis said, however, that she would be receptive when a qualified Black tried out. In response to an adaptation of Erwitt's film Beauty Knows No Pain (1971), titled after the Rangerette motto, feminists and other critics expressed dismay at the emphasis on physical attractiveness and rigorous and authoritarian training; the product, the critics charged, was a troupe of "sexist" and "mindless" "Barbie Dolls," and their activity was inappropriate for the college curriculum. Miss Davis countered that there is nothing wrong in learning self-confidence, discipline, cooperation, and the ability to perform precision dance, along with poise, etiquette, and personal grooming. Hard work, team work, and a "boss lady" were necessary ingredients, she stated, to produce a dance performance judged better than that of the professional Rockettes. She further argued that half-time and special-event performances by the Flaming Flashes or the Rangerettes gave girls a chance to experience acclaim previously open only to male athletes and the band. Although Davis admitted that she was "really a devil" in 1940 when she put the Rangerettes' skirts two inches above the knee, the young women, according to her, were always dressed modestly; sex appeal was never mentioned. The director of Seven Wonders of the World," Walter Thompson, said that all of America "should be proud" of the Rangerettes. Davis's numerous honors suggest that others share this view.

She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore. She was honored with Gussie Nell Day in Kilgore (1964) and in Farmersville (1970) and Gussie Nell Davis Day in Texas (1979). She was made Texas Woman of the Year by the Texas State Civitans (1969). Davis Hall, a dormitory at Kilgore College, is named in her honor (1969). She was named Women in Communications Headliner of the Year (1973) and Outstanding Alumna of Texas Woman's University (1978), featured in the Rangerette-Showcase Museum (1979), enrolled in the Greenville High School Football Hall of Fame (1980) and the Texas Women's Hall of Fame as arts nominee (1990), and given numerous commendations. She died in Kilgore on December 20, 1993, of respiratory complications and was buried in Farmersville Cemetery.

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Gussie Nell Davis of Kilgore was best known for creating a "first" for Texas and the nation when Kilgore College hired her in 1940 to organize a group of girls to perform at half-time college football games. Her efforts produced the Kilgore College Rangerettes, the first girls’ drill team to ever perform on a football field. In 1975, the Houston Contemporary Museum of Art honored her for creating a "living form."

During her 40 years as director of the 65-member organization, the various Rangerettes groups traveled over a million miles throughout the United States and abroad. Her Rangerettes represented the United States and the State of Texas in South America, the Far East and other points around the globe. They were featured at numerous football bowls across the nation, on national television, in movies and on hundreds of magazine covers.

Davis’ honors include Who’s Who in America, 1965 Honorary Citizen of Fort Worth and a State of Texas House of Representatives Certificate of Citation. Davis received the International Civitan Citizenship Award in 1969 and the Cotton Bowl Association 25th Anniversary Participation Award in 1974. She was recognized in 1978 as a Distinguished Alumnae of Texas Woman’s University, and a women’s dormitory at Kilgore College bears her name. At the 1996 Texas Dance/Drill Team Educators’ Association’s convention, she was inducted into the TDDTEA Hall of Fame. (The name was changed to Texas Dance Educators’ Association (TDEA) in 2002.)

A talented musician, Davis was groomed to be a concert pianist, but upon entering the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman’s University) in Denton, she selected physical education as her career choice and later earned a master of science degree from the University of Southern California.

Gussie Nell Davis died December 20, 1993.