Jessie Kenan Wise (1870-1968)

Graham had won increased public support for higher education in previous years, but he had to turn to private donors during the Great Depression. Jessie Kenan Wise helped by starting a student loan fund, and grateful students dedicated the 1933 Yackety Yack to her. Wise was a member of a philanthropic family long associated with the university; her sister, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham, had endowed the Kenan professorships in 1917.