Bardsley, who at 98 still lived in Anderson, Indiana, which had been her home since the early 1940s.

Students dressed up for class and, like many, Bardsley wore a fur coat but resisted the lure of bobbed hair. She instead spent "hours" under the dryer at the hairdressers. Prohibition didn't touch her life since she didn't drink or socialize with those who bootlegged liquor. Few students had cars. She, like the others, walked or rode the streetcars. The one exception was traveling to the formal dances at the Michigan Union because floor-length gowns required taxis.

Every such formal event began with a procession led by the man who had chaired the event and his date. Bardsley twice led such processions. Women received special dispensations from rules for big events like the J-Hop. Otherwise, they had to be in their rooms by 11 p.m. during the week and 1 a.m. on the weekend. "Our housemother would sit up until everyone was in," Bardsley recalls.

The only child of Alice and William, a Canadian who practiced law, Bardsley grew up in West Branch, Michigan. She earned a BA degree and teaching certificate in 1930 and taught a year in Royal Oak before deciding, partly because she loved math, to return for an MBA, majoring in banking and merchandising. Her first job was with Himmelhoch's in Detroit as a buyer in the better dress department — 'any dress over $29," she explains. She organized a fashion show fundraiser for the Michigan League using professional models and U-M students.