Pauline J. Sims Puryear (June 6, 1900 – August 2, 1971) was an American social worker and clubwoman, the fourth international president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and Dean of Women at Florida A&M State College. (Her surnames are written with and without the hyphen in various sources.)
Early life
Pauline J. Sims was born in Savannah, Georgia,[1] the daughter of Felix R. Sims and Emma E. Griffin Sims.[2] Her brothers David, George, and Yancey[3] were all ordained ministers; one of them, David Henry Sims, was 55th bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church;[4] his wife Mayme Holden Sims was also a church and community leader.[5] Pauline Sims graduated from Howard University in 1918.[6][7]
Career
Puryear was the fourth international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, serving from 1925 to 1927.[8][9] As president of Alpha Kappa Alpha, she corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois.[10] She was a charter member of the sorority's first New Jersey chapter in 1934, along with Myra Smith Kearse.[11] She and Kearse were also founding members of the College Women's Club of Union County.[12]
In the 1940s and 1950s, Puryear was a social worker in Newark, New Jersey.[13] She was ordained as a minister in the AME Church.[14] She spoke at churches[15] and at national and regional church conferences.[16][17][18] She was an alternate delegate to the 1948 Republican National Convention from New Jersey.[19] In 1962, she was Dean of Women at Florida A&M State College.[20] In 1967, she was still active with Alpha Kappa Alpha, as head of the sorority's "Negro heritage project".[21] In 1970, she helped launch a "black culture reading library" at the Pearl Street YWCA in Nashville, Tennessee.[22]
