Born on March 16, 1891 in Fall Branch, Tennessee, Julia Isabel Ramsay was once a librarian and instructor at Tennessee’s first college, Tusculum College, during the years of 1916-1917. On May 18, 1905, Ramsay received a degree from Greeneville and Tusculum College in Domestic Science. Three years later, Ramsay graduated from Washington and Tusculum College in 1912, the diploma degree written entirely in Latin. She received a degree from the University of Tennessee in Music for the Summer School of the South in 1913.

Once located on the campus of the University of Tennessee, the Summer School of the South was a teaching program started by Charles W. Dabney, the president of the university at the time, to improve the teaching of future southern educators by promoting a separate schooling especially made for future educators. The Summer School of the South began as an independently run program in 1902 until the University of Tennessee took charge of the program in 1918, when the school closed.

Tusculum College went through a few name changes during the college’s early years. In 1868, Greeneville College merged with Tusculum College to produce the name Greeneville and Tusculum College until the two schools broke apart before the year 1908. In 1908, Tusculum College, the oldest college in Tennessee, united with the Washington College Academy which produced the name Washington and Tusculum College until the two schools separated in 1912.