During the winter and spring of 1940, the young ladies of the Texas Tech Band were not satisfied to be left out in the cold while the Kappa Kappa Psi men were busily engaged in aiding the band. They went into action and organized a band sorority...
They named the organization 'Tau Beta Sigma' and adopted a constitution which called for formal pledging and initiation ruitual. They have their pin designed for members and pledges, a coat of arms, sorority crest and all of the necessary arrangements for a complete organization. They meet Monday nights, the same as the Kappa Kappa Psi men, and continue to operate through the school year of 1941-42. New officers for the coming year have been elected and the sorority has expressed a keen desire to become affiliated as an auxiliary unit with Kappa Kappa Psi...
- From THE BATON of Kappa Kappa Psi, May 1942
The preceding excerpt for The Baton, forerunner of THE PODIUM, helps describe the origins of Tau Beta Sigma. However, this was not the first time a Band Sorority was mentioned in Kappa Kappa Psi chronicles.
In 1937, the first practical idea for establishing an organization for band women was presented to D. O. Wiley, Director of the Texas Tech University Band. Wava Banes, a member of the band, now Wava Banes Henry of Midway, Utah, along with her classmates, Emily Surell and Rosell Williams, discussed many of the possiblilies and requirements necessary for the formation of a National Band Sorority.
Their plans and dicussions came to fruition in 1939, when a group of women in the Tech Band founded a local organization, known as "Tau Beta Sigma", modeled both in principle and idealism after Kappa Kappa Psi. Just like the Fraternity, Tau Beta Sigma was designed to serve as an honorary, service, and leadership recognition society which provided special social and educational experiences that were useful to women during the days of the "all male world" of collegiate bands.
Unfortunately, just as the group was becoming well established, World War II disrupted future "national" plans. Tau Beta Sigma continued to grow at Tech, taking over key projects within the band program and was greatly responsible for keeping the Tech Band in operation during the war years.
In June of 1943, the Tech girls petitioned the Grand Council of Kappa Kappa Psi to become a part of the National Fraternity as an active chapter. Accepting the group under these conditions would have entailed a complete revision of the Fraternity's constitution, an impossiblity under wartime conditions when all Fraternity operations were virtually suspended. Rather than postpone action, it was suggested the Tau Beta Sigma incorporate as its own national organization.
While applying for a national charter, the Tech Chapter encountedred difficulites involving Texas State corporation laws. In 1945, A. Frank Martin, Executive Secretary of Kappa Kappa Psi, was invited to meet with the women and assist them in desgning a plan to gain national status. During the meeting it was determined fewer obstacles would be encountered by submitting a charter application for the national organization in the State of Oklahoma.
In order to establish the national organization, the women of the Texas Tech Tau Beta Sigma Band Sorority surrendered their name, Chapter Constitution, Ritual, and jewelry designs to the band club at Oklahoma State University in January of 1946. And, on March 26, 1946 a charter was granted to Tau Beta Sigma.
The Kappa Kappa Psi delegates at the 1947 Fraternity Convention officially voted to accept Tau Beta Sigma as a "sister organization" of the Fraternity and offered this new organization the privilege of sharing all fraternal publications, National Office operations, staff personnel, and other frternal programs.
Over the next twenty years, each National Council developed new ideas, programs, and projects to support the growing membership of the Sorority. Many of these concepts are still part of the organization today. Also during this time, the Sorority initiated many new ventures. The most significant joint project was the Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma Commissioning Program. Don Gillis', Ballet for Band, which was premiered by the 1953 National Intercollegiate Band, was the first of twenty four pieces of band literatre commissioned by the Sorority.