The scrapbook of Frances Evelyn Hooper, known as Kandi or Frannie, only came to the Phillips Academy archives a few years ago, sent to Andover by her family. Most of the pictures have been removed, but fortunately every picture was labeled with a short description, and the scrapbook was filled with many other meaningful mementos. She grew up in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts, and her family had a summer home on Cape Cod in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts. During the summers she worked at a place called Lobster Pot Shop in West Yarmouth. Kandi attended Abbot Academy from 1957 to 1959. She had the same two roommates for both years at Abbot, one being Miss Vanity Fair.

Although church was required every morning at Abbot Academy, Hooper left many church bulletins in her scrapbook from churches in other locations. Kandi has many bulletins and certificates of making her Confirmation in the Cochran Chapel with the Abbot Academy. As well as being a very religious young lady, she also took pride in her church singing and involvement in Fidelio at Abbot. She saved all the pamphlets from performances, as well as other performances and plays that she attended. For Kandi and her friends, watching musical and theatrical performances as well as exploring museums, were fun weekend activities. The girls also often when on day trips though they were given a very strict expense budget. Most largely noted by Kandi was the skiing trips by Abbot seniors to Intervale, New Hampshire. Kandi and her friends found much excitement in their small trips, were often photographed having parties in their rooms or the hotels, laughing and smiling. She also spent a lot of her time at Brown University with friends, attending parties or going to football games. On the Andover campus, Kandi’s most documented events were football games and dances. She cut out newspaper clippings from the Phillipian of the football game scores, and took many pictures with her friends at the games. The dances at Abbot were a big occasion for the boys and the girls, so Kandi saved many items such as name tags, boutonnieres, and dance cards from these events. She attended her senior prom with, presumably, her boyfriend Bob Miller. He went to Wellesley High School, and later went on to attend the Naval Academy, after living with the Hooper family for the summer after their senior year. Kandi continued to write about Bob in her scrapbook, referring to him as “He”, and adding newspaper clippings of him in the town newspaper. In her senior year, Kandi was the photography head of yearbook, news representative for the Phillipian, and a member of Fidelio and the debate society. Noting her love of photography, she took many pictures of her friends and landscapes. She loved to document her surroundings and memories with friends, which were all included in her scrapbook. She later took the SAT three times, and kept each test admission ticket. That spring she was admitted to Northwestern University, where she entered in fall 1959. Most interestingly, Kandi kept a 1959 penny in her scrapbook, which each of the Abbot seniors in the class of ‘59 would wear in their shoes until graduation day for good luck. On her graduation day, her closest friends left her letters written on pictures she had taken of them, writing of how amazing the last two years had been with Kandi, and how they would miss her dearly. Kandi admits to being excited and ready to move on from Abbot but nostalgic of her two transformative years there.

by Alexa Matis, class of 2018

Scrapbook Box 86