Hessie St. Clair Woodruff Bugg, Class of 1905, was born in Anniston, Alabama in 1884. In 1901, she came to Farmville, Virginia to attend [then] State Female Normal School, where her sister Mary St. Clair Woodruff was a member of the faculty and the principal of the Training School. While a student, Bugg served as the Secretary of the Class of 1905, and was a member of the Archery Club, the Glee Club, the Skating Club, the German Club, the Cunningham Literary Society, and Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority (ZTA).

In 1906, she married James Luckin Bugg, a native of Farmville who was at that point a cashier at the First National Bank. He later became a manager, then President of the bank. The couple had two children, Mary St. Clair (Bugg) Holland and James Luckin Bugg, Jr. Mary St. Clair (Bugg) Holland graduated from State Teachers College in 1944. James Luckin Bugg, Jr. graduated from Hampden-Sidney College in 1941 and subsequently earned both his Master's degree and Phd. from UVA. In 1963, Bugg, Jr. was named the 1st Chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and in 1969 became the 2nd President of Old Dominion University.