Gladys V. England McGee Papers, 1923-1936 | University of Illinois Archives

Gladys Veatrice England was born in Mounds, IL, to Rome and Sophia England in 1905.  She attended Douglass High School, graduating in 1923 and beginning her studies as a member of the University of Illinois class of 1927 that fall.  Upon her arrival in Champaign-Urbana, she studied in the College of Commerce, and may have been a pledge of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.  She attended the 1923 and 1924 Homecoming football games, which were the first two held in the then-new University of Illinois Memorial Stadium.  She wrote that she "enjoyed them immensely."  Also, she frequently attended events hosted by the Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternities.  It is uncertain if she remained a student after the 1923-24 school year, though she did continue attending events in Champaign-Urbana through 1926.

By the spring of 1926, she was teaching at her alma mater, Douglass School, in Mounds, IL.  She married Charles Franklin McGee on October 15th, 1927, and, as Gladys England McGee, applied for a Summer Session scholarship at the University of Illinois in 1928.