Fund to Benefit English Majors

A half century ago, in her first year of marriage, Fannie Mae McDaniel entered a contribution of one dollar for “European Children” in the household accounts she maintained for her husband, George, and herself. Charitable giving remained part of the McDaniels’ lives. When Richard Coyle, executor of the McDaniel estate, reviewed their records, he found donations of ten dollars, twenty dollars, and a hundred dollars given regularly to dozens of charities.

Coyle was surprised by the estate’s assets. The McDaniels lived in a rented home and drove an old car; their interest in material accumulation appeared minimal. Yet when Coyle opened the safe deposit boxes, he found bonds and notes bought over the years. Additionally, there was the accidental death insurance policy Fannie Mae McDaniel bought only weeks before her fatal accident. At her death, McDaniel left a $65,000 endowment to Chico State. The Fannie Mae McDaniel Scholarship Fund will provide financial assistance to full-time English majors who have demonstrated financial need and scholarship achievement.

The first-born daughter of the Schwab family of Memphis, Fannie Mae helped out in the family dry goods store, cashiering and occasionally accompanying her father on buying trips. The Schwab family’s high expectations were not wasted on this high achiever. From spelling bee champion to straight-A student to Barnard College graduate, she fulfilled their expectations. In an era when few women attended graduate school, she received a law degree from Columbia University.

After working in a law firm in New York for six years, she and a friend decided to travel around the world. In Juneau, Fannie Mae Schwab enrolled in the mining class that would change her life. A good-looking Texan named George McDaniel also enrolled. Within months they married and collected materials necessary for prospecting farther north.

Their interest in the humanities and the arts is revealed in the notations the newlywed Fannie Mae McDaniel made in her household accounts of ticket purchases for movies and the occasional play, books, and library fees. Both McDaniels were voracious readers and seekers of intellectual stimulation. According to a story in the Daily Alaskan about their move north, “To help fill in the long winter months, she is taking a set of law books on mining laws and expects to study them.” The McDaniels moved to Wild Lake, seventy miles within the Arctic Circle. There they built the log cabin that would be their home for the next fourteen years. Unexpected travelers passing by were always welcomed, warmed with coffee, fed, and invited to spend a day or two.

Living simply, they both bought and hunted food. Once, while hunting, George and Fannie Mae McDaniel saw a large, delectable moose across the frozen lake. George was cautious about crossing the lake, first tying a length of rope around his waist and then around his wife’s waist, allowing about twenty feet between them. All seemed well until they approached the middle of the lake and heard the cracking sound that ice makes just before it gives way. Dropping down to spread their weight, they carefully crawled to the other side. The moose waited a bit too long, and the McDaniels brought home meat for the winter.

As they got older, they looked for somewhere else to live and moved to San Fran-cisco in the 1960s. During that time they were involved in charitable work, especially with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. After a few years of city life, the McDaniels again turned to more rural surroundings, settling in Chico. For the McDaniels, said Coyle, life “had little to do with the accumulation of material things. It had to do with experiences and memories.”

Fannie Mae McDaniel took classes at Chico State from the time she arrived in Chico until she was eighty years old. She studied photography, art, history, philosophy, and psychology, usually receiving one of the highest grades in the class.

At the time of her death in 1995, she was enrolled in Coyle’s psychology class. Because she was an excellent student, who attended every class, he was concerned when she didn’t appear one day. Coyle attempted to reach her, calling hospitals and the police. She was found a week later in the woods near Cohasset, dead of exposure. A diabetic, McDaniel had apparently not taken her medication, become disoriented, and got lost. George had died ten years earlier. “Their belief system was such that George was probably there and said, ‘Come on, Fannie Mae. It’s time; it’s fine. I’ve been waiting for you,’” said Coyle.

In accordance with her wishes, Coyle traveled to Alaska with the McDaniels’ ashes. There, he found a site close to where they once lived, gathered some wildflowers, said a few words, and scattered the commingled ashes. George and Fannie Mae McDaniel were rejoined in spirit in the wilderness they loved.

Barbara Alderson, University Publications
Interested in setting up a scholarship fund? Write
Ed Masterson
Office of University Development
California State University, Chico
Chico, CA 95929-0155