This is part one of a three part series on looking back at the heritage of some of KC’s legends.
A banner proclaiming “A star was born and her name is Gussie Nell,” hangs on the red, white and blue walls of the Rangerette Showcase Museum. An oil derrick, women’s residence, various events and traditions practiced today serve to commemorate this campus legend and the impact she had on KC.
Miss Gussie Nell Davis began her professional career as instructor of physical education and pep-squad director at Greenville High School in 1928. Drawing on her combined experience in music, dance and physical education, she trained the all-girl “Flaming Flashes” to use small wooden batons that she commissioned from a local furniture maker, as well as flags, various props, drums and bugles in increasingly complex dance-drills and marches.