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Life Member Stories – Nita

Nita BeecherMy story is a story of love at first sight. I saw Chapel Hill for the first time as a high school junior at a state high school Latin club convention. I went home and told my parents I only wanted to go to Carolina. I applied and was accepted early decision. (This was sacrilege to my father’s family, all of whom had gone to the University of Tennessee.) I spent the next 6 years (3 undergraduate and 3 law school) at my beloved Carolina working in student government as Student Attorney General and being a Phi Mu.

I left North Carolina right after graduation and have lived far from Carolina for 35 years but my connection to the Tar Heels has continued undimmed. I watched Dean Smith’s first national championship from my TV in Pittsburgh and his second in St. Louis. In fact, after giving birth to my first son in 1985, I had my TV turned to the NCAA tournament with my Tar Heel cap on my IV pool. (My pediatrician still laughs about that!

My love of Carolina is so great that my older son also applied (and was accepted) early decision. Charles is proud 2007 graduate of UNC!

For me Carolina is the touchstone of my life. No matter where I have lived Carolina has remained central to my identity. I don’t know if kids today still feel that way about Chapel Hill but for me James Taylor said it best–“In my mind I’m gone to Carolina.”

So I am as the song says “a Tar Heel born and a Tar Heel bred and when I die I’m a Tar Heel dead!” (To avoid profanity I won’t add the last part about the little school in Durham!)

Nita Beecher ‘75 | Life Member 30,790 | St. Louis