Martha L. Cocke (Miss Matty) Papers

Martha L. Cocke was born at Hollins Institute (now University), Roanoke Virginia, in 1855. She was the seventh of nine children born to Charles L. Cocke, founder and first president of Hollins, and his wife Susanna Virginia (Pleasants) Cocke. She graduated from Hollins Institute in 1874, and worked in various departments at the school. Her older brother Charles H. Cocke was meant to succeed his father as president of Hollins, but his premature death in 1900 pushed Miss Matty forward as her father's new successor. After Charles L. Cocke's death in 1901, she was named the second president of Hollins; this position made her the first woman in Virginia to be named president of a college. Miss Matty never married, and devoted her life to the running of Hollins Institute, which became Hollins College in 1911. She oversaw massive campus expansion; the Cocke Building (originally the library), Swannanoa (originally the Susanna V. Pleasants Infirmary), Pleasants Hall, Eastnor and the hill houses, Little Theatre, Gymnasium, the Beale Memorial Garden, and Presser were all built during her tenure. She retired in 1933, and her successor was another alum of Hollins, Bessie C. Randolph. Miss Matty lived in Eastnor until her death in 1938. She is buried in the cemetery on campus. Miss Matty did have a (probably romantic) relationship with her friend and Hollins Librarian Marian Bayne. Many on campus and in the Cocke family recognized this relationship and supported it (for further information, look into the Darlings subculture on Hollins campus, and the larger social phenomenon of "romantic friendships" or "Boston marriages").