Page 28 from "The Mountain", Spring 2011, University of the South Magazine, Sewanee, Tennessee

From the Mountain | SPRING 2011 Page 28

Tennessee Williams and The School of Theology

A Story of Generosity



By Henry Hamman



Tennessee Williams had been hearing about Sewanee since infancy, from his maternal grandfather, Walter Edwin Dakin, an Episcopal priest and 1897 alumnus of The School of Theology.



THIS YEAR marks the centenary of the playwright Tennessee Williams, and there will be many commemorations of the man who is widely credited, even by his detractors, as having brought American dramatic writing to age. Williams has a special place at Swewanee, due largely to his bequest to the University of the bulk of his estate, including royalties from his prolific output of plays — The Glass Menagerie, A Street Car Named Desire, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, among others. To date, the bequest has generated nearly $20 million, and copyrights for Williams’ works begin to expire only in 2040.

At first glance, Tennessee Williams seems an unlikely Sewanee benefactor: Williams did not attend the University, apparently never visited Sewanee, and failed to appear at a 1980 convocation where he was to have been awarded an honorary degree. However, the bequest, among the most valuable ever received by the University, was hardly a case of depending on the kindness of strangers. Williams had been hearing about Sewanee since infancy, from his maternal grandfather, Walter Edwin Dakin, an Episcopal priest and 1897 alumnus of The School of Theology, in whose honor the bequest was made. The endowment was the playwright’s second gift to the University in honor of his grandfather.

Dakin came to Sewanee in 1895 from the Midwest, arrived at The School of Theology, one year after the Rev. William Porcher DuBose, perhaps the most eminent Episcopal theologian of his day, became dean of the school. Following his time at The School of Theology, Dakin was ordained by The Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, the University’s first vice chancellor, then bishop of Tennessee. At the ordination, Quintard gave the new clergyman a stole that he had received from Queen Victoria.


The Rev. Dakin began his ministry in several communities near Sewanee, and he continued to return to the Mountain on visits long after he had been called to the Diocese of Mississippi. As late as the summer of 1953, two years before his death, Dakin held court on the lawn in front of Tuckaway Hall, telling stories of his days at Sewanee.

Shortly after Dakin’s death in 1955, Williams sent the University a check for $1,000 in memory of his grandfather, to be used to help fund the renovation of St. Luke’s Hall, where The School of Theology was then housed. The School honored the gift with a plaque and used the money to renovate a set of rooms for visiting clergy. Today, that plaque is in Hamilton Hall, beside an honorary medal Williams was given at an Evensong Service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a gift from Williams’ mother, Edwina.

The late Arthur Ben Chitty, then University promotions director, spent hours with Dakin and his daughter, Edwina, developing quite a relationship with Edwina over the years. In a 1983 interview with the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Chitty said Williams paid for Dakin’s visits to Sewanee.



There’s no doubt that Dakin was a central figure in Williams’ life. Tom Williams, as he was then known, was born in Columbus, Miss., where Dakin was the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Until he was seven years old, Williams and his family lived with Dakin. His father, Cornelius Coffin Williams, a traveling salesman who was rarely at home with his wife and children, took an office job in St. Louis in 1918. According to a memoir by Edwina, Williams and his sister, Rose, often accompanied Dakin on his calls to parishioners.

Moving to St. Louis, away from his affectionate grandfather and into a life of relative poverty was a shock to Williams. Tom acquired the nickname “Tennessee” — a scornful reference to his Deep South accent. Cornelius was derisive of his first son, calling him “effeminate.” Edwina once wrote that she would have divorced Cornelius had it not been that “the Episcopal Church is strict … about divorce.”

Still, Dakin continued as a major influence in his grandson’s life, taking Williams to Europe in 1928. Though he encouraged his grandson to enroll in Sewanee, the young Tennessee did not, apparently because of a lack of funds.

In this Williams centenary year, it seems particularly fitting that The School of Theology’s campus is located on Tennessee Avenue, that Quintard Hall stands adjacent to the School’s Hamilton Hall and that the Tennessee Williams Theatre Arts building — one early fruit of the bequest in Dakin’s honor — stands on this campus.

Page 28 from "The Mountain", Spring 2011, University of the South Magazine, Sewanee, Tennessee

Page 29 from "The Mountain", Spring 2011, University of the South Magazine, Sewanee, Tennessee