Education: After Madame

Many a plebe was just learning that in dancing, unlike marching, he must not put his heel down first, when Death came to Rudolph W. Vizay, longtime Dancing Master of the United States Military Academy (TIME, March 11). Last week “Madame”‘ Vizay’s half-trained pupils lined up in Cullum Hall to take their lessons from Mr. & Mrs. George Roberts.

The rulers of West Point had two good reasons for entrusting the social future of the U. S. Army to slim, white-haired George Roberts and his dark-haired, sparkly-eyed wife. The Roberts’ had the endorsement of the Oklahoma Military Academy and they were as great sticklers for strict ballroom decorum as “Madame” Vizay. George Roberts, at 19 in Okmulgee, Okla., learned to dance by attending the class which smart Esther Taubee ran for Okmulgee’s newly rich oilmen. Soon George Roberts married his teacher, who was about his own age. After the War they opened a school in Okmulgee, a bigger one in Tulsa.

Last week West Point cadets rejoiced that for the first time in history they would have an occasional chance to stop stumbling over each other’s feet, practice with the two young women whom the Roberts’ had thoughtfully brought along.