Kappa Delta Sorority was nationally founded October 23, 1897, at State Female Normal School (now Longwood College), in Farmville, Virginia, by Lenora Ashmore Blackiston, Mary Sommerville Sparks Hendricks,Sara Turner White, and Julia Tyler Wilson.

The thought that over 100 years ago four young women could just sit down and create a sisterhood as enduring as Kappa Delta sometimes defies understanding. But that's exactly what they did.

Kappa Delta's founders were four very different women. They ranged in age from 15 to 23, yet brought a singular sense of purpose to this particular endeavor. Their dream was to create something more lasting than a club: a sorority! It was to be an entity that would grow beyond their chapter at State Female Normal School. They never dared dream that it would grow into an organization of approximately 200,000 women, over 200 chartered chapters, and nearly 500 charted alumnae assocations nationwide.

We think our founders as larger than life because of what Kappa Delta is today. Certainly they were women of vision, but more than that, they were like many other young college women of 1897. They were privileged to be attending college at all, were concerned about their studies, had to obey rules, and worried about boys and dates.

Three of them were roomates in a dormitory, and the fourth was a friend to all. They just happened to get together to create the organization we now hold in highest esteem - Kappa Delta.