In 1903, Julia Burnelle (Bernie) Smade Babcock became the first Arkansas woman to be included in Authors and Writers Who’s Who. She published more than forty novels, as well as numerous tracts and newspaper and magazine articles. She founded the Museum of Natural History in Little Rock (now Museum of Discovery), was a founding member of the Arkansas Historical Society, and was the first president of the Arkansas branch of the National League of American Pen Women.

Bernie Smade was born in Union, Ohio, on April 28, 1868, the first of six children, to Hiram Norton Smade and Charlotte Elizabeth (Burnelle) Smade. Her family moved to Russellville, where Smade attended public school. On March 17, 1884, when she was fifteen, she read her impassioned essay at the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) Convention, which was published by request of the Russellville WCTU. She enrolled in Little Rock University, paying her way by working as the college president’s housekeeper.

Although she made excellent grades in school, Smade did not return to college the next year but instead married William Franklin Babcock, who worked for the Pacific Express Company, in 1886. For a short time, the couple lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the society that had relied heavily on slavery in the recent past still retained many of the attitudes and customs of that time. Her observations there resulted later in the play Mammy, the first drama in which a slave “mammy” plays the leading role; it was later published by Neale Publishing Company of New York.

The Babcocks returned to Little Rock, where, after eleven years of marriage and the birth of five children, William died. His widow was determined to make a living by writing so that she could stay at home and raise her family; at night, she wrote stories and poems that she sent to editors across the country.

Her first book, The Daughter of the Republican, was published in 1900 and sold 100,000 copies in six months. It was followed by The Martyr (1900). These were “temperance novels,” describing the suffering caused by the consumption of liquor. Her books and emotionally charged tracts on the subject were credited with helping to bring about the national prohibition amendment in 1920.

Justice to the Woman (1901) and A Political Fool (1902) were political novels also about temperance. By Way of the Master Passion touched on the “fascinating story of evolution.” Babcock herself was interested in nature, and Darwin’s Origin of Species and the Bible were the first two books in her library after she was married.

When her youngest child started school, Babcock became society page editor for the Arkansas Democrat. She wrote features and, for a while, was the main editorial writer for the paper, though without a byline, which was standard newspaper practice at the time. Babcock was also the first female telegraph editor in the South.

After five years at the Democrat, she resigned to start her own project, becoming editor and publisher of The Sketch Book, “the most beautiful magazine in the South,” whose photography, paintings, stories, poetry, and music were original Arkansas contributions. Four issues a year were published from 1906 through 1909. In 1908, she also published the first anthology of poetry written by Arkansans, Arkansas People and Scenes: Pictures and Scenes, containing 100 poems and seventy illustrations.

Babcock moved to Chicago to work for a newspaper there, which serialized several stories she wrote, including “Daughter of the Patriot” and “The Devil and Tom Walker.” She also served on the staff of The Home Defender, a prohibition newspaper. She later returned to Arkansas, believing that to be a better environment for raising her children.

Babcock spent winters in New York City doing research in libraries and in the National History Museum. Her study of “submerged poverty people” (the unrepresented or unacknowledged poor) was introduced at a meeting of garment workers. It was used to inaugurate a strike for higher wages. Before the strike ended, 75,000 sympathy strikers marched on Broadway.

After reading a story in Ladies’ Home Journal about the love affair of Abraham Lincoln and Ann Rutledge, Babcock corresponded with the Illinois Historical Society and many persons who had known Lincoln personally. She became one of the country’s leading authorities on Lincoln, having conducted numerous personal interviews with his law partners and others, and published of The Soul of Ann Rutledge in 1919. This biographical novel was an international success, going through fourteen printings and translation into several foreign languages. It also was adapted into a stage play in 1934 and a radio play in 1953, when it was performed by the American Theater Wing.

Babcock learned through her research that she shared many of Lincoln’s beliefs, and she wrote four more books about Lincoln and his family between 1923 and 1929. She also wrote Light Horse Harry’s Boys (1931) about Robert E. Lee and The Heart of George Washington (1931) about the first U.S. president.

She used her love of nature and history to repudiate noted polemicist H. L. Mencken’s derision of Arkansas. Babcock decided in 1927 to “show ‘em by establishing a quality museum to belie the state’s reputation as a cultural backwater.” She first presented exhibits in a storefront on Main Street in downtown Little Rock. One such exhibit was King Crowley, a sculpted stone head containing eyes of copper with silver pupils and ears decorated with gold plugs, which had been “discovered” in a gravel pit on Crowley’s Ridge in Craighead County; thought to be an ancient artifact, it was later proven to be a fake, though Babcock was long a proponent of its authenticity.

Later that year, she secured the third floor of City Hall for the fledgling Museum of Natural History and Antiquities, which she financed with donations from friends. In 1928, Babcock wrote to Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the New York Natural History Museum, asking for help in securing exhibits. He sent her a boxcar of mounted animal displays.

In 1933, when space was needed for Works Progress Administration (WPA) offices, the museum’s exhibits were crated and stored in the basement. Many of these artifacts were pilfered, and few were returned despite Babcock’s call for help to the mayor.

In 1935, Babcock became folklore editor of the Federal Writers’ Project, for which she did research on African-American and Native American history in the state. Surveys included interviews with almost 1,000 ex-slaves, at which time she attended all-night voodoo rituals in keeping with her interest in the supernatural. She wrote for Modern Mystic, a magazine in London, England, and was a member of both the American and British Psychical Research Societies.

By 1941, the last surviving Confederate soldiers of the Civil War had vacated the Arsenal Building in Little Rock City Park. With the help of businessman Fred Allsop and the promise of city government to provide a curator’s salary and funds to renovate the building, Babcock again opened the Museum of Natural History. Then in her seventies, she literally lived in the basement and often scaled ladders to paint murals of prehistoric scenes on the walls to enhance exhibits.

Thanks in part to Babcock’s influence, the city park was renamed in honor of General Douglas MacArthur, who had been born in the Arsenal Building. Babcock corresponded with MacArthur, and he and his family attended a ceremony at the park on March 23, 1952.

Babcock retired from the museum in 1953. She donated many objects to the museum, including the large marble statue of a woman, entitled Hope, which she had placed there in memory of her husband. She itemized other items and billed the museum $800, with which she planned to start a new life at the age of eighty-five.

Her new life began in a small house on top of Petit Jean Mountain, where she began to paint and continued to write. In 1959, she published her only volume of poetry, The Marble Woman. She died at home on June 14, 1962, a few weeks after her ninety-fourth birthday; a neighbor found her sitting with a manuscript in her hand. Her mountaintop retreat had been aptly named—Journey’s End. She was buried in Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock.

This entry appears in the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Photos credit Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Marcia Camp, and UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture.

Betty Clark Dickey was born in tiny Black Rock, Arkansas in Lawrence County in 1940. She graduated as valedictorian in 1958 from Walnut Ridge High School and went to the University of Arkansas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1962.

Following college, Betty taught school within the Watson Chapel and Pine Bluff School Districts, worked in her husband’s law office, and raised four children before deciding to pursue a degree in law. Betty earned her juris doctorate in 1985 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and was admitted to the Bar and licensed to practice law in Arkansas and later, in Texas.

Betty enjoyed many years of private practice as an attorney but soon began her career in public service. She served as City Attorney in Redfield and Assistant City Attorney in Pine Bluff. From 1991 to 1993, she served as commission attorney for the Arkansas Soil and Water Conservation Commission. In 1995, Betty was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit, consisting of Jefferson and Lincoln counties, to become the first female prosecuting attorney in Arkansas. She was appointed to the Arkansas Public Service Commission in 1999 by Governor Mike Huckabee, who later, in 2003, named Betty his chief legal counsel, the first woman to hold that role in Arkansas history.

Betty Dickey was appointed twice by Governor Mike Huckabee to serve stints on the Arkansas Supreme Court, one as Chief Justice. During her time on the state’s highest court, she authored a notable case involving the First Amendment and freedom of the press. She was appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson in 2015 as one of three special justices to hear a case related to Arkansas’s gay marriage ban. In 2021, she was named redistricting coordinator for the Arkansas Board of Apportionment.

Notably, Betty Dickey was appointed to be Special Prosecutor in 1997 to prosecute the charges against a trusted Boy Scout master, Jack Walls. Mr. Walls was a notable and well- connected Lonoke County citizen, accused of more than a decade of horrific sexual abuse crimes against young boys involved with scouting. Mr. Walls seemed to be evading the justice he deserved until Betty Dickey took the case, amended, and substantially upped the charges and vigorously prosecuted Mr. Walls. The prosecution was successful, and Mr. Walls was sentenced to four life terms, plus two forty-year terms to be served concurrently.

Betty Dickey has four children, John, Laura, Ted, and Rachel, two daughters-in-law and one son-in-law, as well as 10 grandchildren. She lives in Little Rock.

Photos courtesy of the Museum of American History, Cabot Public Schools, Inviting Arkansas, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Gussie Haynie was one of Arkansas’s best-known woman lawyers in the late 1930s. She was pioneer in Arkansas in championing the rights of poor divorced women and destitute children. She was the first woman appointed a deputy prosecuting attorney and the first woman to hold an executive-level cabinet position in the state’s government, heading the Department of Public Welfare from 1937 to 1939. She sought to modernize the state’s welfare programs’ administration, including introducing civil service standards for personnel. She was abruptly removed from her position in 1939.

Gussie Faye Haynie was born on June 13, 1901, in Pulaski County. (Her exact place of birth is not certain.) She was the older of two daughters of J. M. “Mike” Haynie and Mary F. Haynie; her younger sister was Tressie H. Haynie. J. M. Haynie was the sheriff and collector for Pulaski County in the late 1920s. In 1929, while being investigated by a grand jury for taking bribes to protect an illegal “roadhouse” operation outside Little Rock, he abruptly resigned and left the state.

Haynie graduated from Little Rock High School and received her license to practice law before the Arkansas Supreme Court on July 10, 1922, even before graduating from the Arkansas Law School the following June. She started as a deputy clerk of the Pulaski County Chancery Court, serving for five years before joining the Pulaski County Sheriff’s office in 1926, first as a deputy sheriff, then becoming chief clerk. At some point, she started working on cases involving domestic relations, representing (for free) poor divorced or separated women and deserted children seeking financial support from the men who had deserted them.

In his 1931 reelection campaign to remain the Sixth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney, Carl E. Bailey promised to appoint a woman to handle domestic relations cases. On January 1, 1931, Bailey appointed Haynie to be his office’s “domestic relations attorney.” In her first eighteen months, Haynie handled nearly 600 cases involving 1,400 women and children. She said all the cases she handled were social problems whose solution was a community responsibility.

She was one of four women who graduated on June 1, 1932, from the Little Rock School of Social Work. Her graduation talk, “Development of the Family Court,” reflected her thinking about the need to establish a family court, not to “end family disorganization,” but with an aim to repair the effects of a broken home.

In March 1933, Bailey appointed Haynie to be a deputy prosecuting attorney in his office for domestic relations—the first woman deputy prosecutor in the state—though in accepting the promotion Haynie had to accept a reduced salary.

Throughout her career, she spoke at conferences on a range of family-related issues. She made a study of the juvenile court laws of Arkansas, which led to reforms in the Pulaski County Juvenile Court. She sought to prevent ill-advised marriages, which she frequently encountered in her work, by supporting a law requiring advance five-day notice of the intent to marry and setting a minimum age of eighteen for marriage without parental consent (she estimated that 600,000 married couples in the United States in 1935 consisted of boys and girls who were both under sixteen years of age).

Haynie was head of the legislative committee of the Little Rock Business and Professional Woman’s Club, where she focused on social legislation. Commenting in December 1934 on pending New Deal legislation, she said, “Our job as citizens of the state is to see that our legislature falls in line with the national program, co-operating wherever possible, and taking up where the national plan leaves off.”

In 1935, she drafted legislation to create a second division of the Pulaski County Chancery Court to be called the Domestic Relations Court, and she drafted two other bills, one to revise the laws governing the probate and juvenile courts and the other to require an investigation by a social agency as a prerequisite to adoption of a child.

In his 1936 campaign for governor, Bailey pledged to reorganize the state’s welfare agencies. With Haynie’s help, Bailey modified a bill originally drafted for the incumbent Junius Marion Futrell’s administration and submitted it to the Arkansas General Assembly. Known as the 1937 Welfare Law (Act 41), it passed on February 4, 1937. As the federal Social Security Board required, the 1937 Welfare Law reorganized the state’s Department of Public Welfare. Haynie had added probational work and aid to “crippled” children to the department’s functions.

In February 1937, Bailey appointed Haynie to head the Welfare Department, the state’s largest department in terms of number of employees (around 400) and budget. No woman had ever held a cabinet-level executive post in the state’s government before. Upon assuming the position of commissioner of the Department Public Welfare, Haynie immediately had to draft an operating plan for the new department and submit it along with a copy of the 1937 Welfare Law to the federal Social Security Board for approval. Her plan was approved in March, qualifying Arkansas to receive matching federal grants under the 1935 Social Security Act for aid to the needy aged, dependent children, and the blind.

Haynie said her mission was to make “an unbiased effort to assist and benefit the indigent, the underprivileged, the maladjusted and sick of Arkansas.” By 1938, under her administration, one out of every four Arkansans sixty-five years of age or older was receiving assistance.

As the first woman to hold an executive post, Haynie faced challenges to her authority heading the Welfare Department. Members of the seven-member State Board of Public Welfare asserted that Haynie had to report to them and not directly to the governor. They passed a resolution essentially saying that Haynie had no executive authority to hire and fire department employees on her own. Almost a year later, the state’s attorney general finally issued a public statement that, as executive head of the Welfare Department, Haynie was uniquely authorized by Act 41 to perform all the executive functions of the department, thus nullifying the Welfare Board’s resolution.

Some members of the Welfare Board also strongly objected to Haynie’s plan to place the Welfare Department’s personnel under civil service standards. This step was central to Haynie’s plan to modernize the department’s administration and a requirement imposed by the federal Social Security Board. It took multiple meetings between federal government representatives, Governor Bailey, and the chairman of the Welfare Board to affirm Haynie’s plan.

In February 1939, Bailey—pushed by William Abington and other legislators who disliked Haynie—summarily fired her. A newspaper account explained the decision thusly: “‘Women and politics don’t mix,’ a high official explained….Political pressure to make a change was brought to bear on the administration because ‘many legislators and others were embarrassed when they were forced to transact business with a woman.’”

After her firing, Haynie joined the staff of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) in Arkansas in 1939 and was appointed a WPA district administrator in 1941.

Haynie married Claude E. Nicholas and moved to Seattle, Washington, where she died on October 23, 1957. She is buried in Roselawn Cemetery in Little Rock (Pulaski County).

This entry appears in the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Photo credit Arkansas Gazette, November 30, 1922.

Jacquelyn Williams McCray, a native of Monticello, Arkansas is retired dean/director and professor emeritus of the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences (SAFHS) at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She was named Dean/Director 1890 Research and Extension in July 1995 and retired June 30, 2008.

Under McCray’s leadership, the School made significant strides in image enhancement, program and faculty expansion, resource development, and student recruitment and retention—including the establishment of the first (of two) nationally recognized USDA Centers of Excellence for Regulatory Sciences, which was followed by Aquaculture & Fisheries. Her grant writing and contract negotiations through the United States Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies exceeded $20 million. During her tenure, the School emerged as the University’s fastest growing academic unit having shown an enrollment increase of 40% while she was Dean/Director.

Prior to her appointment as dean, McCray served I numerous administrative positions in the School. She entered administration from a faculty position in the Department of Human Sciences where she conducted housing and community development research in Arkansas and the Southern Region for more than 20 years. During this time, she served as chair of two Southern Region Housing Research Projects, and she conducted contract research for the Lower Mississippi Delta Commission, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and the Arkansas Delta Finance Authority.

Professionally, McCray is a long-time member of the American Association of housing Educators having served as its national president in 1991-92. She has been a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the Housing Assistance in Washington, DC, and she is widely published in major housing, family and community development journals with more than 50 referred publications to her honor. McCray also served as chair of the Association of 1890 Extension Administrators and as a member of the National Extension Committee on Organization and Policy.

McCray earned the bachelor of science degree from Arkansas AM&N College (now UAPB), the master of arts degree from Michigan State University, and the doctor of philosophy degree from Florida State University. She has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from both UAPB and Florida State University. She was also named a Centennial Laureate in 2007, one of the top 100 graduates of the Florida State University by the College of Human Sciences during its 100 years of existence. McCray is a former member of the Board of Directors of Southern Bancorp Inc., along with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Southern Bancorp is a CDFI Bank-Holding Company with branches in eastern Arkansas and western Mississippi, and she served on the Southern Bancorp Community Partners Board, the non-profit arm of Southern Bancorp. McCray was appointed by Governor Mike Beebe to serve two terms on the Arkansas Burial Association Board. In 2012, she was inducted into the UAPB/AM&N Alumni Hall of Fame.

After 42 years of service to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, she retired in 2008. She returned to her alma mater in January 2014, to serve as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from 2014—2017. Most recently, Dr. McCray was recognized as a “Hidden Figure” in honor of Women’s History Month by the City of Pine Bluff in March, 2024

For more than 55 years Jamileh Kamran, owner of Jamileh Kamran Designs, has dedicated her career to fashion. Along the way she has not only made a name for herself locally, but also nationwide. Kamran has written two books, The Art of Couture and The Art of Decoration. Kamran opened the first School of Fashion in Arkansas, the Jamileh Kamran School of Fashion, now known as Jamileh Kamran Arkansas Fashion School, receiving national accreditation by the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training and licensed by the Arkansas Division of Higher Education. Since then, Kamran has trained and mentored students of all ages and genders to be successful fashion designers and create jobs for themselves and others.

Born in Iran, Kamran has fond memories of her mother taking her to a marketplace and buying her small cuts of leftover fabric, which she would use to make clothing for her dolls. For the then 5-year-old Kamran, this marked the beginnings of a rich career that took her halfway around the world to Little Rock, where she helped raise the city’s profile in haute couture while dressing her clients.

Kamran’s career journey has its beginning in her birthplace ... northern Iran, close to the Caspian Sea. Her family consisted of her parents and her brother, Jalil “Jim” Kamran. Because her father worked for the department of education, the family moved every four or five years. When Jamileh Kamran was about 8, they moved to Tehran. They lived there a few years, then moved to southern Iran, near the Persian Gulf. They returned to Tehran when Kamran was in 12th grade.

At the age of 13, Kamran began to study design during her summer break from school. Her inspiration was her aunt, whom she describes as “the best tailor in town.”

Kamran’s idyllic childhood flowed into adolescence, then adulthood. She was 18 when she met Allen Afsordeh, the man who would become her husband. The two were taking post-high-school college prep courses. The couple dated for a short time, their courtship interrupted by Afsordeh’s enlistment in the army. After his army service was up, the couple married. At that time, Kamran did not practice her design work. Afsordeh found a job as an accountant in a bank, while Kamran worked for Iran Electronics Industries. Then came the day Kamran’s boss took her into his office and warned her to leave the country. Kamran heeded the advice. She and her then-2-year-old daughter, Nirvana, went to the United States in August 1978. Three months later, as Afsordeh was preparing to leave the country and join his family, the Iranian Revolution began. Kamran came to Arkansas to join her brother.

After her arrival, Kamran took English-language courses. She also took business administration courses at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock but ultimately decided that a career involving either was not for her. She returned to her design work, using her home as a base.

She began having private showings at the Little Rock Club atop what is now the 400 West Capitol building. Shortly after that she met the late philanthropist and “hat lady,” Willie Oates, and began charity fundraising through her shows.

Then Kamran got an early feather in her cap, by way of Hillary Clinton, first lady of Arkansas at the time. At the time Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, and Kamran’s daughter, Nirvana, were both accepted in the statewide Rockefeller gifted math program. When Kamran met Clinton at a function pertaining to the program, she took that opportunity to tell Clinton what she did. Kamran was invited to Clinton’s office to show her some sketches.

Shortly afterward, Bill Clinton was re-elected governor. It was time for another inaugural. Kamran created a design for her, a green lame gown overlaid with chiffon printed in gold. After that, Kamran created quite a few designs for Clinton off and on, traveling to the Governor’s Mansion for fittings.

After Clinton became first lady of the United States, Kamran made a couple of trips to the White House to continue to outfit her during her husband’s first term.

Oates was another devoted client. She and Oates were on at least 12 boards together.

Kamran has volunteered her time through fundraising, working with such entities as the Arkansas AIDS Foundation, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Lion’s World Services for the Blind, Youth Home of Arkansas, the American Heart Association and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. She has received numerous awards, and her work was featured in such magazines as People and Southern Bride.

Courtesy Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Helaine Williams

JoAnne H. Bush began her public service career 51 years ago as City Clerk of her hometown, Lake Village, Arkansas. Mayor Bush’s employment started with the City of Lake Village on October 15, 1972. In 1991, she was sworn in as the town's first woman mayor and began her service to the city, Chicot County, Southeast Arkansas, and to the whole the state. In all, Mayor Bush served eighteen years as City Clerk and twenty-eight years as Mayor of her hometown. Bush retired as Lake Village mayor on December 31, 2018.

Mayor Bush has served on the Local Police and Fire Investment (LOPFI) Board under three different governors, chairing LOPFI, and bringing her own unbending sense of honesty and fair play to that institution. She served in these capacities from 1995 – 1997; 1999 – 2013 and chaired the Board from August 1999 to December 2013. Since its inception, Mayor Bush holds the single honor of being the first woman to serve on and chair the LOPFI Board, which oversees millions of dollars in retirement benefits for police and fire personnel in Arkansas.

In 2009, Mayor Bush served as the longest-tenured woman president of the Arkansas Municipal League (AML), which is a service and advocacy organization, and lead all five hundred municipalities—both large and small. JoAnne served with distinction on numerous AML boards, the executive committee, and the past presidents advisory council serving Arkansas cities and towns.

Bush represented tens of thousands of cities at the national level as a member of the National League of Cities (NLC) serving on committees such as the Finance, Administration, and Intergovernmental Relations Steering Committee, including the NLC Board of Directors. Also, at the national level, Mayor Bush was asked to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee of Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry due to her expertise at the local government level. She is a former board member of the Southeast Arkansas Chief Elected Officials Board, the Southeast Arkansas Economic Development District, the Southeast Arkansas Solid Waste Board, and has served as a governor's appointee to the Chief Information Officer Council for the State of Arkansas. Mayor Bush also served on the Arkansas Delta By-Ways Board holding the position of Vice-President of the South Region. Currently, Mayor Bush serves as a Commissioner of the Arkansas Natural Resources Division and serves on the Executive Committee of the Arkansas Good Roads Foundation.

She has served as Chair for the Chicot County Housing Assistance Corporation. Between 1997 and 1998, as Chair, she oversaw the construction of one hundred self-help built, new houses in her community which are still thriving, viable homes today. Mayor Bush's hard work has not gone unnoticed.

In 2000, the Arkansas House of Representatives presented her with a special citation for her dedication and hard work performed for her town. As noted above, in 2002, she received the Arkansas Municipal League's Twenty-Five Years of Service Award and the Arkansas Department of Rural Services recognized Mayor Bush with the 2004-2005 Rural Advocate of the Year Award. This honor was presented in recognition for a lifetime of achievements and outstanding leadership and dedicated service to the people of rural Arkansas. The 2008 award from the Win Paul Rockefeller Leadership Award went to Mayor Bush for the great assistance and guidance she showed in establishing the Chicot County Literacy Council. Her own community recognizes her worth honoring her not once, but twice as the Lake Village Chamber of Commerce Woman of the Year in 1983 and again in 2001.

Although Mayor Bush has received personal accolades for her work around the State, she is extremely proud of the achievements of her city. Lake Village was recognized as Volunteer Community of the Year by the Arkansas Department of Tourism and Governor Huckabee. Lake Village also won the prestigious Henry Award for Community Tourism at the Arkansas Governor's Conference on Tourism. The Arkansas Wildlife Federation Conservation bestowed their Award for Outstanding Contributions given Lake Village’s wise use and management of the Nation’s resources. JoAnne was the only woman and a founding Board Member of the State Aid Street Committee. This committee was charged with creating policy on how street money would be equitably distributed throughout the state of Arkansas.

During her twenty-eight years as mayor of Lake Village, JoAnne was responsible for seeking out and receiving funding for the renovation of Lake Village’s historic Tushek building, built in 1906, and restoring it to as much original decor as possible. This building is the City Municipal Complex and houses all city employees under the same roof. Not only was the new municipal complex restored using grant money in the amount of over two million dollars, the more than 100-year-old complex possesses LEED certification, making it one of the very few buildings to achieve this certification and the first in the Arkansas delta region.

Most recently, due to the leadership and example of Mayor Bush, the City of Lake Village was awarded the Arkansas Governor’s Council on Fitness Award for the City’s exceptional leadership in physical activity and health for Arkansas Citizens. The City of Lake Village was one out of only two cities in the state of Arkansas awarded this honor.

Mayor Bush is married to 1st Lt. Eddy Bush who retired from the Arkansas Highway Police and is now the current mayor of Lake Village. JoAnne has a daughter, Whitnee Vencill Bullerwell, who is married to Mike Bullerwell. They reside in Little Rock. Mayor Bush is the proud “MeeMee” of Emilee Anne Bullerwell who is a fifth grader at Pulaski Academy. She also has two bonus daughters and bonus grandchildren, Beverly Bush of Searcy—who is mom to Collier and Amy Saunders of Benton, who is married to Brent Saunders, and have two children, Jack, and Sophie. Mayor Bush is a member of the Lake Village Assembly of God Church.

Simply put, Mayor Bush loves her Lord, her family, her city, and her state!

Kathy Webb currently serves as Vice-Mayor of Little Rock. Webb was elected to the Little Rock City Board of Directors in 2014 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2022, representing Ward 3 in Midtown. Webb recently retired as the Chief Executive Officer of the AR Hunger Relief Alliance, the statewide umbrella organization for Feeding America food banks, food pantries and agencies, and hunger activists, the lead partner for the AR No Kid Hungry Campaign, and the education and advocacy clearinghouse on hunger issues in Arkansas.

Previously, Webb represented District 37 in the Arkansas House of Representatives, comprised of much of mid-town Little Rock. She served as Co-Chair of Joint Budget Committee, the first woman in Arkansas history to hold that position. Webb is also the first open LGBTQ person to run for and be elected to political office in Arkansas.

In 2007, Webb received the Rising Champion Award from Arkansas Kids Count Coalition, followed by the Champion Award in 2009, 2010 Elected Public Official of the Year from the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Imagine Justice Award from the Black Methodists for Social Renewal and the Steel-Millar Award from Hendrix College for Religion and Social Awareness. In 2011, Webb received the First Branch Award from the Arkansas Judicial Council, the Humanitarian of the Year Award from JCA (formerly NCCJ), and the Mental Health Council of Arkansas Legislator of the Year. TALK BUSINESS rated Webb as the most effective member of the Arkansas House in the 88th General Assembly.

Webb became CEO of the Alliance in 2012. Long active in the fight against hunger, Webb founded the AR Legislative Hunger Caucus in 2007, organized the first Serving Up Solutions in 2008, and served on the Alliance Board prior to being selected as CEO. The mission of the Alliance allowed Webb to pursue her passion of providing immediate support for those in need as well as fighting for systemic change. In 2013, she received the National Advocate of the Year Leadership Award from Share Our Strength. The competitive award was given to Webb based on her tireless efforts on Share Our Strength’s behalf, in the fight to end childhood hunger. She also received the Brownie Ledbetter Civic Engagement Award from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas in 2013.

More recently, she received the Living Legacy Award and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Award from Philander Smith College, the Center Street Champion Award from First United Methodist Church, and Arkansas Advocate’s Friend of Children Award. In 2023, Webb received the Sandra Cherry Award from The Gaines House for her work on behalf of the unsheltered, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the AR Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

Previously, Webb co-owned Lilly’s Dim Sum, Then Some. She received the Arkansas Hospitality Association’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2005 and the Restaurateur of the Year Award in 2011. Webb worked in the hospitality industry in Chicago and the Washington, DC area before returning to Little Rock. She served as a national officer in the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Washington, DC, where she honed her organizing and advocacy skills.

She graduated from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College with a BA in Political Science. In 2007, Webb attended Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, Webb served as Honorary Survivor Chair of the 2015 Arkansas Race for the Cure. In 2017, she was honored as a Hero by the Chicagoland Affiliate of Komen for the Cure, on the 20th anniversary of their founding. Webb served as Founding President from 1997-1999.

Webb represents Ward 3 on the Little Rock City Board, and is the liaison to the Little Rock Zoo, Commission on Children Youth, and Families, and the Age-Friendly Commission. Webb recently served on two commissions under former Governor Asa Hutchinson, the Commission on Women and the Food Desert Working Group (Co-Chair). She currently chairs the Mayor’s Food Desert Task Force. She recently formed Kathy L. Webb Consulting, to focus on assisting non-profits in organizational development, advocacy, or other issues.

Webb served on the national board of DePaul USA, which operates programs for alleviating homelessness across the United States and the National League of Cities Council on Youth, Education, and Families. She is an active member of First United Methodist Church.

Webb’s favorite title is “aunt” to her nieces and nephews. She is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan (with the Cubs a close second), played competitive basketball and tennis in college, loves books, theatre, and movies, and embraces musical genres including classic rock, country, and opera. Webb is a popcorn aficionado and lover of all the foods she prepared in her restaurants. Webb lives with Alex (Hamilton) and George (Washington), her rescue cats, and hopes to add a dog to the family soon.

The Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center, and specifically founder Dr. Bessie Boehm Moore, had the unparalleled vision to gather statewide support for the Folk Center by bringing together a group of women who could get-things-done. Dr. Moore was a force of nature who knew presidents, governors, and officials—all of whom would answer her call and say “yes” to her request. This resulted in a committee that, 50 years later, has impacted the arts and humanities, non-profit and for-profit businesses, community service, and education.

It is fair to say that without this group of women, craft apprentices, the Music Roots Program, and the Heritage Herb Gardens would likely never have existed. It is also noteworthy that many of the crafters, musicians, and herbalists are women. Without those hundreds of crafters, thousands of folk music students, and inestimable number of visitors to the herb gardens and symposiums the current state of folklife in Arkansas might be dim or non-existent. The Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center has given Arkansans and visitors a living link to the pioneer past and a thriving cultural and economic future.

For 50 years, the Committee of One Hundred has existed to support the Ozark Folk Center’s mission of folklife preservation. While much has been funded over those decades, there are three major areas of focus: the Music Roots Program; craft apprenticeships; and the Heritage Herb Gardens. The Ozark Folk Cultural Resource Center received considerable funding from the Committee of One Hundred and this major collection of Ozark folk history is now housed at the Arkansas State Archives.

The Music Roots Program

The Committee of One Hundred has been a primary funding partner of the Music Roots program since its inception over 25 years ago. The results have exceeded expectations with student enrollment ranging between 50 to 130 students per year. Over the past 25 years, conservative estimates would put the total number of students between 1,500 and 2,500. Students have learned to play instruments, work with other musicians by forming ensembles and perform on a stage. Beyond that, the students, their families, and the community have gained a greater appreciation for the music heritage of the Ozarks. In 2006 the Music Roots program earned a Henry Award, tourism’s highest honor and in 2023, Music Roots received the Arkansas Art Council’s Arkansas Governor’s Art Award for Folklife Preservation.

During the summer of 2023, the Committee of One Hundred was a sponsor of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Five women represented the music of the Arkansas Ozarks and all were associated with the Music Roots program. At every performance, these musicians told the audience about the Music Roots program and the talent of these women dazzled audiences leading to so much national publicity that it became impossible to track. In addition to the Music Roots program, the Committee also funds the highly successful Next Generation concerts at the Ozark Folk Center which feature multiple generations and provide performance opportunities for up-and-coming student talent.

The Committee of One Hundred for the Ozark Folk Center’s dedication to folk music preservation has resulted in a huge economic impact with musicians ranked highest in creative jobs in Stone County and music instrument sales and repairs—in tiny Stone County—reaching 1.7 million dollars. The impact of this music legacy is impossible to measure but it is fair to say, that without Committee funds, folk music would not be thriving in Arkansas!

Crafts Apprenticeships

From its earliest years, the Committee realized that traditional craft skills were being lost and founding members based their apprenticeship program on lessons learned while travelling to and in dialogue with Colonial Williamsburg. The Committee of One Hundred has funded almost $200,000 in crafts apprenticeships over the decades. Uniquely, both the master crafter and the apprentice were paid and apprentices were not required to remain at the Ozark Folk Center thereby spreading these craft skills and folk culture throughout Arkansas and the nation.

It is impossible to measure the economic impact of the numerous small businesses that were created through the apprenticeship program but the impact of the Committee’s investment resonates throughout Mountain View and beyond. The first craft apprenticeships began in 1978 and two apprentices in that group founded companies still in existence today. David Mathews was a blacksmith apprentice who later founded Stone County Ironworks and was Arkansas’ Small Businessman of the Year in 1991 and was also named to Inc. Magazine’s list of the country's 500 fastest-growing privately held companies. It was the only Arkansas company to make the list.

Original apprentice, Jerry Lovenstein learned broom making from Bill and Jim Ford going on to found, with wife Judy, Grassy Creek Brooms where they make brooms by hand in a workshop on the land that they homesteaded. In 1985, Jerry was a master artisan in the National Endowment for the Arts’ folk arts apprentice program and a recipient of the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2001 individual artist fellowship in traditional craft. Numerous other Folk Center artisans and apprentices have contributed to the creative economy through awards, teaching, and founding arts-related organizations.

Heritage Herb Gardens

In June of 1977, Committee of One Hundred members Elizabeth Warner, Sidney Nisbet, and Billy Joe Tatum tilled and planted a cabin garden with native and European herbs. Over the years, the gardens flourished and by June 12th of 1986, the Heritage Herb Garden was dedicated to the people of Arkansas by Arkansas First Lady Hillary Clinton. In 1993, the herb gardens were recognized with Arkansas State Parks Director’s Commendation for the advancement of the State Parks System through the Sumptuous Herbal Feast and Workshop.

Additional awards for the Committee of One Hundred include a 1985 Henry Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service, the 2001 Partners in Parks Gold Award from the Arkansas Tourism Foundation, 2007 Partners in Parks Platinum Award from the Arkansas Tourism Foundation, 2012 Arkansas State Parks Director’s Commendation for the advancement of the State Parks System through the Music Roots Program, and the 2023 Folklife Award for the Music Roots Program from the Arkansas Arts Council’s Governor’s Arts Awards.

The economic impact of the Committee of One Hundred’s fifty-year legacy can be measured through direct funding at almost $2,000,000 and volunteer hours valued at $2,202,112. Difficult to measure although vitally important are the impacts of the craft apprenticeship program, Music Roots program, and Heritage Herb Gardens which have spawned local businesses and helped to build the creative economy and vibrant culture for which Mountain View is known today. Over the past fifty years, the Committee has given almost $2,000,000 in direct funding to programs that include craft apprenticeships, the Heritage Herb Gardens, the Ozark Cultural Resource Center, and Folk Center Special Projects and Staff Awards. This amount, adjusted for inflation, is a conservative summary that does not include any fundraising costs or Committee events. The Committee of One Hundred is an entirely volunteer organization and the financial impact of their volunteer hours is approximately $2,202,112. A conservative estimate of annual Committee volunteer hours would be 3129 hours per year or 156,400 hours over 50 years.

The Committee of One Hundred has contributed to the well-being of Arkansans by preserving the pioneer skills of craft and plant usage as well as the folk music that served as entertainment and salve for the soul in times of sorrow. The Committee was an early contributor to Arkansas’ creative economy resulting, five decades later, in Arkansas’ reputation as a source of fine craft, music preservation, and herbal knowledge.

2023 Inductee

Adolphine Fletcher Terry was a civic-minded woman from a prominent Little Rock (Pulaski County) family who used her position to improve schools and libraries, start a juvenile court system, provide affordable housing, promote the education of women and women’s rights, and challenge the racism of the Old South. Terry pushed for social change in the early years of the civil rights movement and may best be known as the leader of the Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools (WEC).

Adolphine Fletcher was born on November 3, 1882, in Little Rock to John Gould Fletcher and Adolphine Krause Fletcher. Her father worked in the cotton business and in banking and served terms as sheriff of Pulaski County and city mayor. She was the oldest of three children. Pulitzer Prize–winning poet John Gould Fletcher Jr. was her younger brother.

With her mother’s encouragement, Fletcher enrolled in Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, when she was fifteen. Her East Coast education and schoolmates broadened her views on race relations. She graduated in 1902, at a time when few men and even fewer women had college degrees.

Fletcher’s father died in 1906, and her mother died three years later.

After college, Fletcher and another Vassar graduate from Arkansas, Blanche Martin, were asked to serve on a national committee to investigate the state’s educational needs. They discovered a system of mostly one-room schoolhouses among 5,000 school districts, inadequate supervision, and no consistent policies. The two made school consolidation their cause, writing articles for newspapers, making speeches, and lobbying. In 1908, Fletcher was leading efforts to consolidate school districts, appoint professional county superintendents, and provide school transportation in rural Arkansas.

As a young college graduate, Fletcher also co-founded a group to encourage women to become college educated. The group eventually became the Little Rock branch of the American Association of University Women. She also formed the first School Improvement Association in Arkansas, forerunner of the Parent Teacher Association; organized the first juvenile court in Arkansas in 1910; and chaired the Pulaski County Juvenile Court board for about twenty years. She helped start the Girls Industrial School near Alexander (Pulaski and Saline Counties) for girls detained by the court, as well as a temporary home for young people who had no adult supervision.

On July 7, 1910, Fletcher married Little Rock native and lawyer David D. Terry. The couple had four children: David, Mary, Sarah, and William.

Mary Terry was born in 1914 with a rare condition, called osteogenesis imperfecta, that caused her bones to break for no apparent reason. The condition crippled Mary for life and had a significant impact on her mother. Despite doctors’ predictions, Mary lived a long life, earned a college degree, traveled, and had a career in psychological testing. Terry said caring for Mary led to an awakening in which she found “in some measure the spiritual meaning of life, a sense of real achievement and peace.”

Terry and her husband adopted a fifth child, Joseph, an orphan whom Mary befriended when she was in Boston for medical treatment.

Her daughter’s illness and her own coming to terms with Mary’s condition formed the basis for Terry’s first book, Courage! (1938). The book was written under the pseudonym Mary Lindsey. Her other books include Cordelia, Member of the Household (1967), about a young African-American girl who lived with the Fletcher family when Terry was a child; Charlotte Stephens, Little Rock’s First Black Teacher (1973); and her unpublished autobiography, Life is My Song, Also (1973–1974).

While her husband served in the army during World War I, Terry continued to put her energy behind social and political causes. Shortly after the war, she was one of three white women to act as an adviser to the newly established black Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). While her sister Mary was a leading local suffragette, Terry also marched for voting rights for women in 1920. “To me, the vote represents more than just saying how a person feels about an issue or a candidate,” she said. “It represents human dignity and the fact that a citizen can express his or her opinion on any subject without fear of reprisal. That, I think, is what real human dignity consists of.”

Terry’s husband served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1933 to 1942. During her husband’s early years in Washington DC, Terry remained in Little Rock to raise their children and head an American Legion auxiliary committee that secured federal funds to pay the salaries of librarians in Arkansas. As part of that arrangement, she and the committee collected books and found the space to open free libraries throughout the state. The committee also convinced the Arkansas legislature to create a state library program. In Little Rock, Terry was a trustee of the city public library for about forty years, retiring in 1966. She recalled, in an interview a few years before her death, that she worked quietly to open the library to black adults in the 1950s and then to black children.

Also in the 1930s, Terry and others formed the Little Rock Housing Association to secure federal funds under the 1937 Housing Authority Act to combat slum housing. She later organized a group of women who spoke on radio programs and before civic groups about the importance of low-rent housing and slum clearance. During this time, she was also active in the Arkansas chapter of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching.

In the fall of 1957, when Terry learned that Governor Orval Faubus had used troops to prevent black students from attending Central High School during the Little Rock desegregation crisis and that a white mob had terrorized the students, she wrote: “For days, I walked about unable to concentrate on anything, except the fact that we had been disgraced by a group of poor whites and a portion of the lunatic fringe…. Where had the better class been while this was being concocted? Shame on us.”

Terry and two friends, Vivion Brewer of Scott (Pulaski and Lonoke Counties) and Velma Powell of Little Rock, formed the Women’s Emergency Committee (WEC) after a ballot measure to close Little Rock’s high schools, as a means of avoiding desegregation, passed in 1958. They became the first organized group of white moderates to oppose the governor and demand the reopening of the city’s four public high schools.

In the months following its formation, the WEC worked to persuade the public to reopen the schools. In May 1959, the WEC, black voters, and a group called Stop This Outrageous Purge campaigned successfully to recall three school board members who were segregationists. The recall election was the first full-scale loss for Faubus and the segregationists. The WEC efforts, including a study documenting the negative effect the school crisis was having on Little Rock’s economy, altered the course of public action and helped reopen the schools in 1959.

In other efforts, Terry was instrumental in starting the Pulaski County Tuberculosis Association and the Community Chest, the forerunner of the United Way. She was active in historic preservation and the arts. In later years, she worked to make the city auditorium accessible to older people and the handicapped.

Terry had a stroke sometime after her ninetieth birthday, and her health declined. Her family moved her to a nursing home from the antebellum mansion the Pike-Fletcher-Terry House, which was built by Albert Pike, where she had lived since she was a child. She died on July 25, 1976, in the nursing home at age ninety-three. She is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock.

Terry and her sister, Mary Fletcher Drennan, willed the family mansion to the city of Little Rock, and it became the Decorative Arts Museum of the Arkansas Arts Center (now the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts). In the fall of 2004, the former Decorative Arts Museum was renamed the Arkansas Arts Center Terry House Community Gallery and reopened as a space for collaborative exhibitions and programs with arts and non-profit agencies. The Adolphine Fletcher Terry Library of the Central Arkansas Library System is named for her.

Peggy Harris

Little Rock, Arkansas

This entry, originally published in Arkansas Biography: A Collection of Notable Lives, appears in the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas in an altered form. Arkansas Biography is available from the University of Arkansas Press.

Photos credited by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, Central Arkansas Library System

2023 Inductee

Cathy Owen is Chairman of Eagle Bank & Trust Company, as well as Chairman, President & CEO of State Holding Company, in Little Rock. This year, she will enter her fiftieth year in banking. She was fresh out of college when the bank president died suddenly, and she was asked to take on the role of running the bank, where she had spent summers and holidays working. She officially began her career in the summer of 1974, although her memories of the bank go back to the day the First State Bank of Sherwood opened its doors in 1967.

As the daughter of the bank’s founder, there were questions from the moment she initially walked through the door about how she got the job, and whether or not she belonged there. She knew she had two options. She could quit, walk out, and prove her critics right, or stay, work hard, and prove them wrong. She chose the latter option, and she will tell you that this decision she made when she was sixteen years old changed the trajectory of her life, and has led her to the most rewarding career she could have imagined.

Cathy earned her BSBA in Finance and Banking from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and her Graduate Banking Degree from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking, at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. She is also honored to be a National Security Forum Air War College Alumnae, Montgomery, Alabama.

Not long ago, Cathy was one of very few women in a banking leadership role, and often the only female in the room. She is the only female to chair the Arkansas Bankers Association in its 132-year history. She currently serves on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the American Bankers Association, the largest financial trade association in the United States. She also chairs its Government Relations Committee, which is the American Bankers Association’s leadership council, and chairs its Professional Development Committee.

She also sits on the Board of Hastings Holding Company and oversees the management of One Financial Centre.

In 2022, Cathy was named One of the Most Powerful Women in Banking to Watch, by American Banker, New York. In 2019, she was knighted into the Knights of Saint Martin, in Rome, Italy, into the Order of San Martino of the Mount of Beatitudes, which is a knighthood sanctioned by the Pope in recognition of and focused on promoting equality and service to those less fortunate. This same year, she was the recipient of the Sandra Wilson Cherry Award, in recognition of leadership and exemplary community service.

Cathy has served on and chaired many community and charitable boards and committees. She is currently the Immediate Past Chair of the Baptist Health Foundation Board, a member of the Arkansas Bankers Association Government Relations Committee, Fifty for the Future Board, Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum Foundation Board, North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Board, and is a member of the Arkansas International Women’s Forum. Highlights of her previous leadership roles and volunteer activities include the Arkansas Arts Center, Fine Arts Club of Arkansas, Junior League of Little Rock, Mount Saint Mary’s Academy, Arkansas State Fair, Little Rock Marathon, Girl Scouts, Pi Beta Phi Sorority, and the Little Rock Air Force Base.

She is especially proud of the work she and a small group of men did to save the USS Hoga (a towboat best known for her actions during WWII during the attack on Pearl Harbor) and bring her to her resting place in North Little Rock.

Cathy is also a proud daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother.

2023 Inductee

Dorothy McFadden Hoover was an accomplished aeronautical research scientist who was born in Hope, Arkansas in 1918. One of her greatest achievements was her contribution to the development of the “thin sweptback tapered wing,” which became the aviation industry standard and transformed air travel in the 20th century. Her life story was essentially unknown until she was briefly mentioned in the highly acclaimed book Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. Shetterly described Hoover as “exceptionally fluent in abstract mathematical concepts and complex equations.”

Dorothy Estheryne McFadden was the youngest of four children born to William McFadden and Elizabeth Wilburn McFadden. She graduated from Henry Clay Yerger High School in Hope in 1934 at the age of fifteen. McFadden entered Arkansas AM&N, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, as a sixteen-year-old in 1934 and graduated in 1938 with a BS in mathematics.

After teaching high school for several years, Dorothy earned an MS in mathematics from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University), the first institution in the country to award graduate degrees to African Americans. Her thesis, “Some Projectile Transformations and Their Applications,” prepared her for her future work in aeronautics.

Dorothy was one of the first of six African American women hired by Langley Labs, NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, later NASA). Her graduate-level work helped set her apart from her peers, and she was given rigorous mathematical assignments from Langley engineer R. T. Jones, the premier aeronautical engineer of the twentieth century. In 1946 Jones selected Dorothy to be his personal mathematician. She was the first of the Black human computers to work directly with an engineer and she thrived in this highly competitive environment.

In late 1946 Dorothy began working with R.T. Jones’ successor, Frank S. Malvestuto Jr., a brilliant engineer and prolific researcher. By 1951, she had earned the title of Aeronautical Research Scientist. That same year, she was listed as co-author with Malvestuto on two significant research publications addressing “thin sweptback tapered wings” on aircraft. Being listed as a co-author was a landmark accomplishment. She was the first African American woman to be listed on a Langley engineering report.

In 1952, Dorothy’s marriage to Ricardo Hoover ended, and she temporarily left the world of engineering to pursue her interests in theoretical mathematics, earning an MA in physics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She was the first woman, of any race, to earn a master’s in physics from UA. A portion of her 1954 master’s thesis, “Estimates of Error in Numerical Integration,” was included in the Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science the following year.

Hoover returned to the Washington DC area, where she served in a variety of government positions. In 1959 Hoover joined a small group of highly skilled mathematicians in the theoretical division of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, combining her work in physics with her mathematical prowess and contributing valuable information that promoted America’s success in the space race.

Dorothy McFadden Hoover’s tenacity in her pursuit of advanced degrees in mathematics and physics blazed a trail for all women, and especially for women of color. In addition, she broke the “glass ceiling” several times in her professional life, coauthoring papers with white male scientists at NACA and achieving a number of “firsts” in both academics and in government service. Ms. Hoover’s success was stunning given the many obstacles of the Jim Crow South, coupled with the fact that she was a woman in a male-dominated profession.

While continuing her mathematics research in Goddard’s Theoretical Division, Hoover began writing a book, A Layman Looks with Love at Her Church, a history of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. Hoover was a member of the Campbell AME Church located in the Anacostia Historic District in southeast Washington, D.C. The book was published in 1970.

Dorothy McFadden Hoover died in 2000 in Washington DC.

Photos Courtesy of Richard D. Sallee

2023 Inductee

Joyce Elise Williams Warren is Arkansas’ first Black female judge, the first Black person ever elected to an Arkansas state-level trial court judgeship, the first Black female graduate of the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law, the first Black law clerk for the Arkansas Supreme Court, the first Black female appointee and first Black Chairperson to serve on the Arkansas State Board of Law Examiners, the first Black female appointee and first Black female to serve as Chairperson on the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, the first Black person to be elected to the Arkansas Judicial Council Board of Directors, the first Black President of the Arkansas Judicial Council, and the first Black person to receive the “Outstanding Jurist Award” from the Arkansas Bar Association and the Arkansas Bar Foundation. She was only 11 years old when she and nine other Black students were the first to integrate West Side Junior High School in Little Rock. Although she has blazed many trails, most of those accomplishments were made without her knowledge that she would be a “first.”

Warren is most often credited with her dedicated and tireless work as a juvenile judge who formed, joined, and led collaborative efforts—both on and off the bench—to improve the lives of Arkansas’ children and families. Her contributions helped create a new Arkansas juvenile justice system, adopt improvements to adoption laws, create standards for attorneys who represent children and parents in child abuse and neglect cases, establish accountability for those who provide or should provide services to children in need, and protect those children in correctional facilities and/or medical facilities.

She was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas on October 25, 1949 and grew up in Little Rock. Her parents, both of whom were teachers, divorced when she and her sister, Janice, were very young. She developed her interest in helping children and families because she was surrounded by her mother, maternal grandmother, and two maternal aunts—all of whom were public school teachers. She witnessed these closely-knit family members devoting their time and resources to help provide for the needs of children 1 and families in their classrooms and in the community. She attended public schools in Little Rock, breaking the color barrier when she was one of ten Black students who integrated West Side Junior High School—just four years after the Little Rock Nine integrated Central High School. She graduated from Central High School in 1967, and attended both Rockford College (now Rockford University) in Rockford, Illinois and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Anthropology. She began attending law school part-time at night. She married James in 1972, and they had two sons, Jonathan and Jamie, while she was still in law school. She earned her law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law (now UALR William H. Bowen School of Law) in 1976—becoming the law school’s first Black female graduate. Warren continued her legal and judicial education after she became a judge, and earned a Diploma of Judicial Skills from the American Academy of Judicial Education in 2001.

Warren’s first job after law school started in January 1977, when she became a law clerk for Arkansas Supreme Court Associate Justice Darrell Hickman—thus earning her the distinction of becoming the first Black person to serve as a law clerk for the State’s highest court. Her next job was as an assistant attorney general for Bill Clinton. In January 1979, when Clinton took office in his first term as Governor, she worked as one of his administrative assistants until November 1979. She was an in-house legal advisor for the Arkansas Department of Health from November 1979 until February 1981. She had a brief family law practice, and then worked as a staff attorney for Central Arkansas Legal Services from January to December 1982. In January 1983, Pulaski County Judge Don Venhaus appointed her as Pulaski County Juvenile Court Judge—making her the first Black female judge in Arkansas. She served in that capacity until January 20, 1987, when the Arkansas Supreme Court declared the county juvenile court system unconstitutional. Shortly after that court decision, Governor Clinton appointed her to serve on the newly created Arkansas Juvenile Justice Commission, which was tasked with making recommendations for the creation of a new juvenile court system. During the period of the Commission’s existence, she and James had their last child, Justin. Also, in that same time frame, she served briefly as a special 2 master hearing juvenile cases for the Sixth Judicial District Circuit and Probate (Chancery) Judges, and was later appointed by Venhaus to serve as Pulaski County Paternity Judge, holding that office from July 1987 until April 26, 1989.

In March 1989, the Arkansas Legislature created 17 new circuit-chancery judgeships to hear juvenile matters—with only one of those designated for the Sixth Judicial District (Pulaski and Perry Counties). Governor Clinton appointed Warren to that sole position, which she held from August 1, 1989 until her term ended on December 31, 1990. In November 1989, the Legislature created a second juvenile judgeship in the Sixth Judicial District. Warren was elected, without opposition, to that judgeship in November 1990—again making history by becoming the first Black person ever elected to a state-level trial court judgeship in Arkansas. After that election, she was elected five more times—with no opponents—and continued hearing juvenile cases on the juvenile division bench until she retired on December 31, 2020, after serving the public for over 31 years on the state bench, and 6 years on the county bench.

Over her lengthy career as a public servant, Warren presided over a caseload which mostly involved juvenile cases. She heard thousands of cases and saw children and families with a myriad of problems, such as poverty, neglect, educational deficits, sexual abuse, physical abuse, trauma, mental illness, and drug abuse. Juvenile court is a problem-solving court, which can be rewarding—but more often emotionally and physically draining; however, as difficult as most days were, Warren loved her work. Her passion for justice and fairness fueled her efforts to help improve the systems that touched children and families to help solve or prevent their problems. She set a high standard of excellence for herself and others. She credits God for giving her the strength and courage to forge ahead, and James for guiding her career and being her biggest “cheerleader.”

She has served in multiple positions to gain knowledge, advocate for reform, and challenge laws to improve systems that serve children and families in need. She was Chairperson of the Arkansas Governor’s Children’s Council, which was established after 3 a lawsuit was filed over the condition of the State’s child welfare system, and charged to oversee reforms being made in the child welfare system. She served for many years as Chairperson of the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee on Foster Care and Adoption. She was a member of the Governor’s Working Group on Juvenile Justice, which was created in response to the tragic school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas. She helped establish 10th Division Circuit Court as a Pilot Court for a Dependency-Neglect Mediation Project in Arkansas. She was Chairperson of the Arkansas Children’s Behavioral Health Care Commission.

She helped implement and presided over the Arkansas Pilot Court Team for Safe Babies, which is based on the science of babies’ brain development. Safe Babies Court Team (SBCT) is a systems-change initiative focused on improving how courts, child welfare agencies, and related child-serving organizations work together, share information, and expedite services for young children.

10th Division Circuit Court was selected as one of eight (8) courts across the Nation to be a part of a new Implementation Sites Project, which involved the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) providing training to courts seeking to implement principles and practices to improve outcomes for abused and neglected children and their families.

In October 2000, Warren wrote A Booklet for Parents, Guardians, and Custodians in Abuse and Neglect Cases, which has been printed and updated in English and Spanish and distributed throughout Arkansas and other states.

She is humbled by and grateful for the numerous honors, awards, and recognitions she has received. In 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, Arkansas Business selected her as one of the “Top 100 Women in Arkansas.” She was named National CASA Judge of the Year in 2012. In that same year, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette online edition named her as one of the “10 Most Influential Blacks in Arkansas.” In 2018, the Pulaski County Bar Association chose her as one of its “Arkansas Legal Pioneers and Living Legends.” 4 Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families chose her as one of the “2020 Friends of Children Honorees.” The Arkansas Bar Association and the Arkansas Bar Foundation chose her to receive the 2021 ‘“Outstanding Jurist Award.” In that same year, she received the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen “Distinguished Alumni Award.” Since 2012, she has been listed in the Central Arkansas Library System Encyclopedia of Arkansas.

Even in her retirement, she continues to work to improve the lives of children and families. As a Judicial Consultant for ZERO TO THREE, she serves as an advisor to the Infant Toddler Court Program (ITCP), assists in supporting the implementation of the Safe Babies Court Team (SBCT) approach in new states and sites, and provides training as needed. She is a member of the Arkansas Safe Babies Court Team (SBCT) State Advisory Committee, and serves on the boards of the Arkansas Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (JLAP) Foundation, the Arkansas Commission for Parent Counsel, and the Interfaith Center of Arkansas. She is a member of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, where she serves on the Vestry.

As she always did, Warren still makes her own family her top priority. She and James (now married over 51 years) are proud of their three sons, Jonathan, Jamie, and Justin, their respective wives, Courtney, Kassie, and Heather---and even prouder of their 11 grandchildren.

2023 Inductee

Nan McInturff Snow was born on July 23, 1936 in Carnegie, Oklahoma as the only child of Hobart W. InInturff and Ganie Stephenson. After graduating from Harrison, Arkansas High School, she attended Arkansas State Teacher’s College from 1953 to 1957, where she met her husband, Ken Snow. Nan Snow became a civil activist, first becoming involved with the feminist movement in the 1960s. In 1981, she established a consulting firm with her friend, Dorothy Stuck. Known as “Stuck and Snow Resultants”, they sought to get results for their clients, instead of merely consulting. Nan Snow is involved in politics, and was actively involved in Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign and Hillary Clinton’s 2008 and 2016 campaigns. Nan Snow continues to be involved in women’s issues in Arkansas and at the University of Central Arkansas.

Over her decades of service, she has helped raise women's status in ways that improve their economic opportunities and overall well-being. After graduating from Arkansas State Teachers College in 1957, Snow worked as a reporter and copywriter before shifting her career to public service.

Snow, who also has two master's degrees from Southern Methodist University, authored two books that reached the bestseller list in Arkansas. "Roberta: A Most Remarkable Fulbright," which she co-authored with Dorothy Stuck, received an award of commendation from the American Association of State and Local History. Her second book, "Letters Home," is a World War II memoir.

Snow is a changemaker, and her life's work has been public service. She has served on many boards, including inaugural chair of the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame, president of the Arkansas Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and board member of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Arkansas Women's History Institute, LifeQuest of Arkansas, and Encore for Women's Health.

She is a founder and charter member of the UCA Women's Giving Circle, a member of the UCA Purple Circle and, most recently, the inspiration for the C.D. Wright Women Writers Conference. She was part of the Arkansas Women’s Foundation, which started "Girls of Promise." She helped the UCA faculty and staff start "Girls of Promise" at UCA, which is now UCA's “Girl Power of Stem."

Photos credited by University of Central Arkansas

2023 Inductee

Pat Qualls was born May 13, 1940 and learned about demanding work helping out on the family cotton farm where she grew up in Northeast Arkansas. That farm work ethic helped her succeed as an all-state basketball player at Monette High School and also as a young pianist. After graduating from Arkansas State College with a bachelor’s degree in music education, Pat was hired in 1963 as the first music teacher in the Monette Public Schools. She later earned her master’s degree in music education at Arkansas State University. At Monette, she built a very successful and respected choral program. Unable to find a suitable music workbook for her 6th grade music classes, she wrote and published her own music workbook: “Learning to Read Music.” One year, she coached the Jr. and Sr. girls’ basketball programs while keeping her full music load. The Monette Lions Club honored Pat on her retirement after sixteen years of service at Monette Public Schools by dedicating to her their 14th annual Lions Club Horse Show. From 1976 – 1983, Pat also served as the part time music director at Monette First Baptist Church.

Pat then moved to Lake City where her late husband Bill Qualls was farming and opened a private music studio teaching piano, voice, and organ. Shortly after that Pat was elected as the mayor of Lake City, the first woman ever elected to municipal office in Craighead County. Lake City sits on the banks of the St. Francis River where flooding has always been a concern. One of Pat’s major accomplishments as mayor was to obtain Corp of Engineer’s funding for drainage improvements; she also expanded the sewer system. Pat was successful in getting a nursing home established in Lake City.

In 1983, during her second term as Lake City Mayor, Governor Bill Clinton appointed her to serve on the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC). After completing her first partial term, she was appointed to two more terms, serving a total of 14 years, longer than any other APSC Commissioner. Pat served on the National Association Regulatory Utility Commissions executive and electricity committees. She served as Vice President and President of the Mid-America Regulatory Commissions

In 1985, at the age of 45, Pat fulfilled a long-time dream of learning to play the harp. She played twice in the White House during President Clinton’s administration. She also directed the Immanuel Baptist Church Chancel Bells at a performance in the White House. The Chancel Bells also performed with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra in three concerts.

Pat retired from state government and moved to Jonesboro in 2002. In that year she was inducted into the Arkansas Music Educators “Hall of Fame.” In 2003, she organized the first “Celebrity Bell Ringers” day; served on the Salvation Army Board and was named 2008 “Volunteer of the Year.” Pat felt led to teach a 16-year-old autistic girl to play the harp which led to a 2010 innovative music performance program for musicians with disabilities. It eventually grew into a unique program that included scholarships, private lessons, public performance, and concert tours. In 2019, for the 10th Annual program of “The Role of Music in the Lives of Special Needs Children and Adults”, there were over 75 performers who shared their talents with a near-capacity crowd in the ASU Fowler Center. This concert featured male & female soloists; male trio; male & female duet; pianist; violinist: harpist; native American flute player, trumpeter; the 40 voice “Overcomers Choir “organized by Pat, and a liturgical dance team traveling from Atlanta. A wide array of disabilities included: Autism, MS, Cerebral Palsy, Aspergers, Blindness, Down Syndrome and Deafness. For her work with special needs musicians, Pat was awarded the Jonesboro Exchange Club’s “Book of Golden Deeds” Award and the “Making a Difference” award by the Arkansas State University College of Nursing and Health Professions. She also received KAIT-TV/First Community Bank “Great Acts of Kindness Award.” Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin proclaimed “Pat Qualls Day” April 30, 2013. The Arkansas Arts Council awarded Pat with the “2021 Governor’s Arts Award for Community Service for over sixty years as an arts leader and advocate, as well as serving as an Arkansas Public Service Commissioner for 14 years and the mayor of Lake City for 4 years.

Other honors received by Pat Qualls include being named among the 1965 & 1970 Outstanding Young Women of America, the 1973 Outstanding Secondary Educators of America, and the 1981 Personalities of the South. She was honored with the Monette PTA Life Membership Award. She served as Alpha Delta Kappa Treasurer and President. She received the Monette Fine Arts Council Award. She is an honorary member of the Monette 4H Club. She served as president and treasurer of the NEA Choral Directors Association as well as the Arkansas Choral Directors Association treasurer and historian. From 2002-2005, Pat served on the Delta Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors. From 2011-2021, she served on the Delta Symphony Orchestra Guild. In cooperation with Dr. Dale Miller, ASU Choir Director, she organized three Christmas “Hallelujah” flash mob choirs at Jonesboro Turtle Creek Mall in 2012, 2013, and 2018. She has also served on three mission trips with Little Rock Immanuel Baptist Church from 1990-2001 where she helped with earthquake devastated Turkey. She taught women to sew to help them produce income. She also went on a mission trip to Russia directing a youth choir and visiting schools and orphan homes.

Pat recently moved to Conway to be near her only child, Bret Qualls, daughter-in-law Mary Etta, granddaughter Janna Salter; great granddaughters Maggie Erbach, Emma Fulmer, and grand dog Callie. She has already become involved in the Conway community by becoming a member of the Conway Symphony Orchestra Guild, P.E.O. and participating in the music ministry of First Presbyterian Church. She also serves as harp teacher to two adults.

2023 Inductee

Sandy Edwards’ career exemplifies her deep commitment to improving quality of life through arts and education. Over four decades, her leadership has provided increased access to arts and culture offerings as well as educational opportunities, with a significant focus on her adopted state of Arkansas.

Edwards joined Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in 2007, playing a vital role in the conception, planning, building and opening of the museum. She was instrumental in the establishment of endowments for the museum’s operations, acquisitions, and capital improvements, as well as funding that provides free admission to all and underwrites the costs of school visits for K-12 students. Serving as deputy director, Sandy managed departments responsible for growth in audiences, promoting access, private gift support, member involvement, community development, and creating a national presence. During her tenure at Crystal Bridges, the museum became a renowned cultural destination and welcomed more than 10 million people to its building and grounds.

Prior to Crystal Bridges, Edwards and her late husband, Clay, served as the management team for University of Arkansas’s development program (1998 – 2007) directing the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century, and successfully building a culture of unprecedented philanthropic support for the flagship institution. The program successfully met its $1 billion goal, helping position UA as a nationally competitive, student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world. Her strategic leadership and mentorship yielded a workforce of fundraisers, alumni relations professionals and communicators who would go on to serve and lead not only at the university but other organizations throughout the state and nation impacting their philanthropic initiatives.

Photos credited by Justin Froning

2023 Inductee

The University of Arkansas Women’s Giving Circle (WGC) is a group of alumnae and friends who recognize that women have the power to make a tremendous impact as philanthropic leaders. This impact grows exponentially as WGC members combine their annual gifts to create a substantial pool of resources used to fund innovative grant projects from university faculty and staff.

The WGC was founded in 2002 by members of the university’s Women and Philanthropy Committee and the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century Steering Committee who had the vision and forethought to create a collective giving group. The founding members are an accomplished group of women including Sylvia Boyer, Pat Cooper, Johnelle Hunt, Mary Trimble Maier, Julia Peck Mobley, Harriett Phillips, Debbie Walker, Lynne Walton, Margaret Whillock, Mary Lib White, and Donna Axum Whitworth.

The WGC identifies timely opportunities on the campus, particularly those with an emphasis on the enrichment of women’s lives, and together chooses how to direct the group’s pooled resources through an annual grants award process. The impact of the WGC is significant in terms of the dollars awarded; important issues addressed by the grants; and the statewide reach of the projects funded. Since the founding of the group in 2002, the WGC has awarded $1.7 million to 145 projects in almost every corner of Arkansas. Numerous research projects have national and international impact as U of A faculty share their research results with scientists and colleagues around the world.

The WGC’s funding priorities include projects and programs that support and promote scholarship, research and service; enrich the quality of life of women and children; and encourage outreach and engagement in Arkansas. Projects funded by the WGC include literacy programs, design and build projects at Camp Aldersgate, breast cancer research, engineering camps for girls, self-defense courses, salary negotiation training, mentorship programs for elementary students in the Arkansas delta, healthy cooking programs, a campus food pantry, support for women in agriculture, music education, a journalism workshop for minority students, and mental health awareness among many others. Often, small grants from the WGC serve as seed funding and result in long-term, permanent programs providing support and solutions for Arkansans throughout the state.

Knowing that many students face financial hardship during college, the WGC has endowed two scholarships providing valuable resources to help deserving students achieve their goals. The Women’s Giving Circle Endowed Scholarship in Nursing was created in 2011, and the Women’s Giving Circle Founders Endowed Advance Arkansas Scholarship was created in 2016. To date, these endowed funds have provided $53,000 in scholarship support for University of Arkansas students.

Through their work, the members of the WGC hope to set an example for young women and girls and inspire them to make a difference. The idea that women can be change makers and use the power of collaboration is one they want to demonstrate and pass on to future generations.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Amy Rossi was born and raised in North Little Rock and attended parochial schools where one of her most meaningful leadership experiences was being elected to student body president at Mount St. Mary Academy, which set a course for a future in political involvement. Over her career, Rossi has worked closely with legislators and governors to draft laws to improve the lives of Arkansas’ children and families and is most often credited with helping the state adopt a program for uninsured children now called ARKids First.

She earned her undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and her master’s in social work from the University of Tennessee. She began her career in direct services as director of a treatment facility for emotionally disturbed adolescents. During that time, she was also on the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s School of Social Work as an instructor for youth service workers.

Rossi spent 23 years at Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a statewide nonprofit child advocacy organization, and 15 years as Executive Director, making her one of the state’s best resources on issues affecting children and families. In 2004, she joined the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement as associate director where she worked to prevent childhood obesity, improve child health services in the schools and advance a statewide system of health information exchange. Rossi spent the last five years of her career with AFMC as Vice President continuing to work to improve the quality of health care. She retired from there in 2015.

For more than 40 years, she has taken leadership roles on numerous government and private task forces, committees and commissions charged with improving services for children through public policies and programs. Her notable activities have included serving on the Governor’s Commission on Juvenile Justice, which designed a new juvenile court system for Arkansas; serving as special master in two class-action lawsuits against the state’s Department of Human Services regarding services to children in their custody; serving on the Governor’s Task Force on Youth Violence, a group of prominent leaders appointed to guide the state in the aftermath of the Jonesboro school shooting, and as a member of the Arkansas T.E.A. Program Advisory Council, which provided oversight to the state implementation of welfare reform.

She also served board terms on the Arkansas chapter of the National Conference for Community and Justice, served on the Executive Planning Committee for the Clinton School of Public Service, and was a founding board member and past president of the Arkansas Women’s Foundation. She also had a longtime involvement with the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum. She is most often credited with helping the state adopt a program for uninsured children now called ARKids First.

Rossi has received numerous recognitions and awards for her work including the 1999 Josetta Wilkins Courage Award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission; the 1998 Shuffield Award from the Arkansas Medical Society; the 1997 Distinguished Service Award from the Arkansas Hospital Association; the NCCJ National Humanitarian Award in 2000; and the 21st Century Families Award in 2001 from the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

She was named for four years to the Top 100 Women in Arkansas by the state’s weekly business journal and was a finalist in the Arkansas Business 2003 Non-profit Executive of the Year competition. Arkansas Children's Hospital bestowed the first of an annual "Dr. Betty Lowe" award to Rossi in 2003 for her contributions improving the lives of children. Similarly, in 2008, Arkansas Treatment Homes Inc. bestowed the “Making a Difference” award coinciding with its 25th anniversary to celebrate Rossi’s contributions to improving foster care. The American Academy of Pediatrics in September 2009, presented Rossi with its annual “Child Health Advocate” award. In 2019, the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement awarded its annual Dr. Tom Bruce Arkansas Health Impact award to Rossi for her career achievements to improve public health in Arkansas.

She is a longtime board member of the Arkansas Food Bank and was a proud member of the second class of Leadership Greater Little Rock and served as the first chair of the group’s Alumni Board. She currently volunteers with her church food pantry, AARP Arkansas and recently accepted a term on the Age Friendly Little Rock Commission.

Rossi and her husband of nearly 40 years, Joe Bryan, are the proud parents of two sons, Nathan and Nicholas and grandparents to three lights of their lives: Braxton, Hallie, and Sawyer.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Carolyn Pollan was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives from Fort Smith in 1975 and served 12 terms. When first elected, she was one of only three women in the House and Senate. She has the distinction of the longest service in the Arkansas Legislature of any woman and any Republican. She also served as vice-chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party.

During her 24 years of elected service, Rep. Pollan passed more than 250 pieces of legislation. She created The Children and Youth Committee to deal specifically with problems of children. The House speaker appointed her chairman, while the Senate appointed Sen. Max Howell as its Chairman. For eight terms she chaired the committee, which changed child welfare, child abuse, and at-risk youth laws and the court system for juveniles. She established and chaired the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Abuse and moved child abuse reporting from the Department of Human Services to the State Police. From this commission came the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas and the use of multi-disciplinary teams to circle services around a child.

Pollan legislated major changes for teaching at-risk youth, and The Pygmalion Commission was created to help establish a nontraditional system for underachieving youth. Because of the lack of statistical information needed to make sound legislative changes, Rep. Pollan embarked on a 12-year research project of at-risk populations in Arkansas which culminated in her Ph.D. in Education from Walden University in 1993. She specialized in cognitive studies and assessment.

Rep. Pollan was appointed to regional and national leadership roles, serving as chairman of the Southern Regional Education Legislative Board; chairman of the Southern Legislative Council Education Committee; legislative representative to the NAEP Board for the nation’s school testing under U.S. Dept. of Education; National Literacy Survey Advisory Board with U.S. Dept. of Education; Workplace Literacy Project Advisory Board with U.S. Dept. of Labor; and Office of Technology Assessment of the Congress Advisory Board for the National Study of Computers in Education.

After term-limiting from the legislature in 1999, Dr. Pollan became a senior staff member for three years for Gov. Mike Huckabee, working with the legislature to direct the governor’s initiatives: welfare reform, workplace reform, and handling the multimillion-dollar Tobacco Settlement.

Dr. Pollan served on a variety of boards and commissions through the years. She served on the John Brown University Board of Trustees in Siloam Springs for 25 years and is now Trustee Emeritus. She was the first female member in Board of Trustee meetings and served later as vice-chairman. She was the first and only woman to serve on the prestigious Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission and held a six-year term. Pollan was a founding member of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement with UAMS, and president of that board. She served on the development committee of the Clinton School of Public Service, helping shape the school into the force it has become.

She’s been recognized for her leadership by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, the Association of Chiefs of Police, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation, the League of Women Voters, and the One Call Utilities Commission, just to name a few. Pollan was also honored for her legislative service at events by the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and Children’s Advocacy Centers of Arkansas. Honors given to Pollan include 100 Top Women in Arkansas by Arkansas Business magazine; “One of Ten Outstanding Legislators in the United States Award” by the National Assembly of Government and the Associated Press Statewide Poll of 100 Influential People in Arkansas.

Carolyn’s husband of 55 years was George Pollan, until widowed in 2017. She had three children Cee Cee, Todd, and Rob, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. After retiring, Pollan lived in Fort Smith until her death on October 23, 2021.

Photo credited by John Brown University.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

When Cynthia Conger started her foray into the financial planning industry, she was married with two young children at home. She began studying accounting in Michigan and when her husband got a job in Arkansas, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She then decided to pursue her master’s of business administration, graduating in 1983. She joined a local insurance agency to start a financial planning section, and by 1985, she was a founding partner in Little Rock’s Arkansas Financial Group, Inc.

There she gained experience, expertise and national acclaim. Along with three other financial planners, she founded a fee-only financial planning firm working with middle income clients, Financial Decisions, Inc., in 1999. In 2005, she formed her own firm, now known as Conger Wealth Management. Her firm focused on women in transition, while also advising couples on financial planning. In 2018, she sold her firm to Advisory Alpha, but continues to work part-time.

Conger writes extensively about financial planning, and her articles have appeared in Arkansas Business, Arkansas Times, AY Magazine, Newsweek, Medical Economics, Physicians’ Financial News, Journal of Accountancy, Journal of Financial Planning, Financial Planning Magazine, Smart Money, Money Magazine, USA Today, Financial Adviser Magazine, Investment Adviser Magazine, Worth, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Southwest Spirit Magazine, Elle and CNNfn.

During her career, she has been recognized byWorth magazine as one of the top practitioners in the nation, and she was named to Wealth Management magazine’s list of “50 Distinguished Women in Wealth Management.”

She sat on the National Board of Directors of the International Association for Financial Planning for four years and served as chairperson for IAFP Registry Admissions and for the IAFP Conference for Advanced Planning. She is also a past president of the Arkansas Chapter of IAFP.

Active in her community, Conger served on the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas Board from 2006 to 2014, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Foundation Fund Board from 2002 to 2006, and the University of Arkansas System Foundation Inc., since 2004. She also served on the boards of Professional Counseling Associates and the UALR Friends of the Arts. Today, she is a member of the Arkansas Symphony Board of Directors.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Dorothy Morris is a trailblazing philanthropist who has focused her attention and more than three decades on the fine arts in her home state of Arkansas. She has expanded the Morris Foundation’s reach to encompass every area of need in the state, from health and well-being to cultural preservation and the Fine Arts.

A native of Malvern, Morris developed a career in real estate and business in Dallas. Upon returning to Arkansas in the 1980s, she met and married Walter Morris, a fellow philanthropist and founder of the Morris Foundation. A move to Hot Springs turned her focus to the city’s Historic Downtown Arts District. After her husband passed away, Dorothy created a memorial chapel in his honor at Lake DeGray, beginning a longstanding partnership with Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch.

Dorothy’s stewardship of the Morris Foundation produced her signature achievement — the Hot Springs Giving Circle. Working with fellow philanthropist Don Munro and the Munro Foundation, she helped create and maintain the Giving Circle, a form of “participatory philanthropy” that has distributed nearly one million dollars to the surrounding community since its inception in 2008. During 2018’s Arkansas Gives event, the Morris Foundation raised a half million dollars in one day for Arkansas nonprofits.

The Morris Foundation has been instrumental in supporting Arkansas institutions of higher learning, from the University of Central Arkansas’s Shakespeare program; Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist University programming, to National Park College, where Morris joined with Don Munro to co-chair the fundraising drive for the Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Science. In 2019, the Morris Foundation participated in a fundraising campaign for Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, which resulted in the new Morris Concert Room.

The Morris Foundation’s commitment to seed-funding has resulted in new nonprofit organizations which grow and spin off successful programs to become self-sustaining. The Morris Foundation also shepherds award-winning successes like Hot Springs Area Cultural Alliance (which Dorothy co-founded along with Don Munro); Hot Springs Children’s Dance Theatre; Cutwell for Kids and Emergent Arts educational resource nonprofits; Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center and Levi Hospital; Hope Outreach and Eleanor Klugh Jackson House food banks; Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival; Hot Springs Music Festival and Hot Springs Jazz Festival.

The Morris Foundation’s reach extends statewide and regionally, from supporting the Mid-America Arts Alliance and Arkansas Food Bank to funding research at Little Rock’s University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and from Opera in the Rock to UCA’s annual Shakespeare festival and back again. The Morris Foundation’s AETN film credits include the documentaries: “Precious Memories: Historic Rural Churches of Arkansas;” “City of Visitors: The Story of Hot Springs” and the Emmy Award-winning “Champion Trees,” in collaboration with Hot Springs artist and author Linda Williams Palmer.

Her community involvement meant lending her talents to several boards and committees such as the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, where she served as Arkansas director, the Arkansas Coalition for Excellence, the YCMA and the Arkansas Single Parent Scholarship Fund, just to name a few.

Morris has received numerous awards and recognitions for her contributions to the community, including the Governor’s Individual Patron of the Arts Award in 2003 and the Woman of the Year in Philanthropy from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas in 2013.

Photo credited by Michael Mueller

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Margaret Louise Sirman Clark was born in Dixie, Ga. She graduated from high school in New York City, earned a bachelor’s degree from Arkansas AM&N College, which became the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), married Oran Clark and taught French & Spanish at Merrill High School in Pine Bluff for 11 years. While teaching, she continued studies in French at Summer Institutes at Rutgers University and the University of Massachusetts in Arcachon, France; on a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for the 1964-65 academic year at the Institut des professeurs de français a l’etranger at the Sorbonne in Paris, coupled with a Summer Institute at the University of Besançon; and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Arkansas in 1968.

She started teaching at the University of Arkansas (UA) as a visiting instructor in the Summer of 1969. She was hired as a part time French instructor in the Fall of 1969 while working on her doctorate in education, thereby becoming one of the first African Americans hired to teach at the UA. Over the next 29 years, she taught French in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, and in the College of Education and Health Professions, she taught courses in secondary education, including foreign language methodology and multicultural education. She offered English as a Second Language (ESL) workshops in Northwest Arkansas before developing a master's degree program in ESL and teaching master's degree education courses in the university’s summer program in Athens, Greece. Over the years, she made numerous scholarly presentations, including ones in the countries of Brazil, Brunei, Chile, Mexico, Oman, and Singapore.

She has served on the boards of the Washington County Historical Society (WCHS), the Arkansas-East Bolivia Partners of the Americas as its first African-American president, and the Arkansas Alumni Association. She spearheaded the chartering of the UA chapter of Pi Delta Phi, a French Honor Society, and spearheaded the chartering of the undergraduate Kappa Iota Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 1978. She served as the first president of the Phi Alpha Omega graduate chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority which was chartered in 1998.

Clark is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 1989 Panhellenic Award for Outstanding Faculty Member, the Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, a Silas Hunt Legacy Award in 2006, the AR Alumni Association Service Award in 2015 and the Machado Leadership Award from the Partners of the Americas in 2016. She was honored for her community service with the 2004 Torchbearer Award from the graduate chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and named one of the Outstanding Women of the Year in 2003 by the Washington County Women’s Coalition. In 2019, a dormitory was named by the UA - Margaret Clark Hall.

She served as the first African American president of the following organizations: the Arkansas Foreign Language Teacher’s Association; the Arkansas division of the American Association of University Women (AAUW); the Fayetteville Branch of AAUW; the Fayetteville Business and Professional Women; and the Iota chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society of Key Women Educators.

She served on the board of the Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas and volunteered as a docent at the Walton Arts Center. She served as the chair of the Synchrony Committee for AAUW in its effort to coordinate predominantly women’s organizations in a get-out-the-vote initiative. Her wide range of interests is reflected in her memberships in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, Northwest Arkansas Jazz Society, the university’s Fulbright Alumni Association, and the Washington County Democratic Women, plus her support of the Walton Arts Center and the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas.

As a member of St. James United Methodist Church, she served for 11 years as both treasurer and chair of the Education Outreach Committee. Also, for her church, she has served in leadership positions at both the district and conference levels, including serving as chair of the Conference Religion and Race Committee.

She retired in 1998, but continued teaching foreign language methodology classes until the end of the summer of 2007. Currently, she remains actively involved in community and state organizations by continuing her years of service on the boards of both the WCHS and the AR-E. Bolivia Partners of the Americas, and on the Committee of the Washington County Coalition of Women in History.

Photos credited by The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Mary Brown "Brownie" Williams Ledbetter was a lifelong political activist and the driving force behind pivotal political campaigns and the formation of organizations that supported fair education and equality for all.

Born on April 28, 1932, she was the eldest of four children. Born with brown eyes, her family called her “Brownie,” and the nickname stuck. Her mother died in 1947, shortly followed by her father in 1950. Brownie and her siblings were then cared for by her relatives Grainger and Frances Williams, who moved into the Tall Timber Jersey Farm (the Williams family farm) with their children.

Brownie graduated from Little Rock High School (later named Central High School). She then attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga, from 1950 to 1953 but felt she did not fit the image of Southern womanhood the school projected and did not finish her degree. On July 26, 1953, she married Calvin Reville Ledbetter, an attorney, and political science professor. Brownie and Cal moved to Germany, where he served with the U.S. Army for three years.

While in Germany, Brownie heard about the desegregation crisis at Central High School. Her aunt signed her up for the Women's Emergency Committee to Save Our Schools (WEC), which supported the reopening of public schools. In 1963 Ledbetter began working with the Panel of American Women, a forum where women promoted religious and cultural diversity by sharing their own experiences. In 1981 the Panel became the Arkansas Public Policy Panel (APPP). Ledbetter served as Executive Director of the APPP until 1999 when she spearheaded the creation of the progressive Arkansas Citizens First Congress.

In 1983, Ledbetter founded the Arkansas Fairness Council, a coalition of 23 organizations representing labor, African Americans, teachers, environmental and church organizations, serving as president and chief lobbyist for 15 years. She also was a founding member of the Arkansas Women's Political Caucus, an organizing member of the ERA/Arkansas Coalition, founder and Executive Director of Arkansas Career Resources, Inc., State Director of the Southern Coalition for Educational Equity, legislative director of the State Federation of Business and Professional Women, and co-founder of the Women's Environment and Development Organization.

Ledbetter also worked behind the scenes on many state and national political campaigns. In 1967, she managed her husband's campaign for the Arkansas General Assembly and, in 1970, served as an organizer and consultant in Dale Bumpers’ run for governor. She ran the Arkansas McGovern for President Campaign and was a senior consultant to the Fulbright senatorial campaign in 1974. Ledbetter served as the first Political Action Chair of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1973 and was behind a successful statewide effort to support the appointment of the first African-American federal judge from Arkansas. She served on the State Democratic Central Committee from 1968 to 1974 and as Affirmative Action Committee Coordinator for the Arkansas Democratic Party from 1973 to 1974. Brownie helped organize the first Planned Parenthood affiliate and clinic in Arkansas in 1984 and led the effort to defeat the first statewide ballot initiative restricting access to birth control and abortion.

Through her service on the Women's Environmental and Development Organization (WEDO) and the National Congress of Neighborhood Women, she had the opportunity to work with women and minorities from across the world. Ledbetter participated as a nongovernmental delegate in several UN preparatory and commission meetings in New York, Rio, Cairo, Beijing, and Johannesburg.

Brownie’s numerous awards and recognitions include the American Civil Liberties Union’s Civil Libertarian of the Year, the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award from the National Education Association, the Father Joe Biltz Award from the Just Communities for Central Arkansas, and the National Women's History Month Award. The Arkansas Public Policy Panel and the Arkansas Citizen's Congress created the “Brownie Ledbetter Dragonslayer Award” to recognize outstanding achievement in social justice. After retirement, she served on the national board of the Center for the Advancement of Women in New York City. She was also a founding member of the Women's Foundation of Arkansas.

Photos credited by CALS Butler Center

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

“When you’re here, everyone’s family,” isn’t just the tagline for one of the largest fine jewelry retailers in the Mid-South, it’s the mantra for the founder herself, Sissy Jones. Originally from small-town Gillett, Arkansas, Sissy started Sissy’s Log Cabin in 1970 in Pine Bluff with nothing more than a handful of estate jewelry and antique wares she sold in a literal log cabin she rented for $50 per month. Her eternal optimism has turned Sissy’s Log Cabin into Arkansas’ largest independently owned jewelry store with over 14,000 square feet of showroom filled with diamonds, jewelry, estate jewelry, fine gifts and fabulous antiques with five locations in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, Jonesboro, Conway, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee.

It's not the business, but the woman behind it who makes it so unique: Sissy’s entrepreneurial spirit led her to create a name for herself. Sissy’s Log Cabin is one of the South’s few Rolex dealers, and carries other name brand designers such as LAGOS, David Yurman, Henri Daussi, JB Star, and more.

With a staff of graduate gemologists, master jewelers and designers, Sissy’s is more than a retailer – it’s a one-stop-shop for jewelry design, craftsmanship, repair and selection. You might find the diamond ring of your dreams at Sissy’s Log Cabin – or you might choose to come in and design it yourself with the help of expert industry professionals that specialize not only in the newest trends, but also in precious antique pieces. Sissy herself attended several gemology and jewelry design programs.

However, if you asked for her claim to fame, Sissy would not name the awards or cite the store’s growth. She would instead want to recognize her family for their love and support as the cornerstone of her business, and her faith in the Lord. From her business’ humble beginning through its continued growth, Sissy and her family have always looked to Proverbs 20:24 in any and all decision making. Her husband, Murphy, helped her start the original store, and she currently employs three generations and more than 20 family members, including her son, Bill, who now serves as the CEO, his wife, Sharri, executive secretary, and their sons William and Wyatt, both graduate gemologists; all integral pieces of the business’s unique story and monumental success.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Born Rosetta Nubin Tharpe in Cotton Plant, she became one of the first superstars of gospel music while also crossing over from gospel to secular music. Her electric gospel musical style influenced later stars like Little Richard, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.

Born in 1915 to an evangelist, mandolin-playing mother, Rosetta began playing guitar and singing at age 4 in the Church of God in Christ. At age 6, she regularly performed alongside her mother in the church. She excelled at the guitar, playing melodies and riffs. Her playing was influenced by her mother and by pianist Arizona Dranes, as well as bluesman Thomas A. Dorsey.

She and her mother traveled the country as part of a church troupe and eventually landed in Chicago in the 1920s. Rosetta moved to New York in the mid-1930s and married a minister, Thomas A. Tharpe. Though they divorced not long after, Rosetta kept his last name to use as her stage name. She remarried in the 1940s to Fosh Allen.

In 1938, Tharpe signed to Decca Records and had successes with versions of gospel songs by Thomas A. Dorsey. She recorded songs for her gospel fan base but also branched out to secular tunes for other audiences. Her popularity eventually landed her on John Hammond’s “From Spirituals to Swing,” in Carnegie Hall in 1938. She recorded with Cab Calloway, but the songs she recorded with Lucius “Lucky” Millinder’s jazz orchestra in 1941 and 1942 had more success. She was so popular, she was one of only two black gospel acts to record “V-Discs” for U.S. troops overseas during WWII.

On July 3, 1951, a paying crowd of 25,000 gathered in Washington, D.C.’s Griffith Stadium to witness Thorpe’s third marriage to her manager, Russell Morrison. After trying to appeal to the pop music market, her concert dates slowed, and she lost her contract with Decca Records. She later signed with Mercury Records and toured Europe in 1957 and the 1960s. She had a stroke in 1970, which brought speech difficulties and a leg amputation, but she continued to perform until she died in Pennsylvania in 1973.

In 1998, the U.S. Postal Service created a Rosetta Tharpe stamp in her honor. And in 2003, the album Shout, Sister, Shout featuring contributions by various artists was released as a tribute to her music. In 2012, she was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. In 2013, she was the subject of a PBS American Masters episode titled, “Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock & Roll.” In 2014, she was inducted into The Cotton Plant Historical Museum Entertainers Wall of Fame. In 2017, Highway 17 from Cotton Plant to Brinkley was renamed the Sister Rosetta Tharpe Memorial Highway. In 2018, a marker was installed on the Cotton Plant museum’s property as a stop on the Arkansas Delta Music Trail: Sounds from the Soil and Soul. In 2018, she was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Bon Jovi, Dire Straits and The Cars.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Established in July 1999 by a group of mostly Hispanic women, the nonprofit Hispanic Women’s Organization of Arkansas (HWOA) seeks to enhance the lives of Latinx and other residents of the community through events, scholarships and programs aimed to promote education and political participation in Northwest Arkansas.

The organization’s motto is "Celebrating Education, Culture, and Community” and it envisions an America “where economic, political and social advancement is a reality for all Latinos, where all Hispanics thrive, and where our community’s contributions are recognized.”

To accomplish its mission, HWOA engages in activities to “advance educational opportunities for Hispanic women and their families, to celebrate and teach others about our cultures, and to become active participants in the community.”

The organization’s GEM program supports members of the community with parenting, English and computer classes. HWOA’s RAD program encourages community members to register to vote and participate at the polls, paying special attention to infrequent voters and new citizens. The organization also provides college scholarships to high schoolers in the community.

HWOA’s annual conference brings community leaders and members together to discuss changes around demographics, infrastructure, education and other issues that affect the well being of residents, while promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

In 2001, HWOA was selected to participate in the Emerging Latino Communities Initiative (ELCI) of UNIDOS US. HWOA has also been an affiliate of UNIDOS US, whose mission, since 2004, has been to build a stronger America by creating opportunities for Latinos.

2020/2021/2022 Inductee

Junior League of Little Rock (JLLR) is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving the community through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. It has been the driving force behind the kinds of initiatives and institutions that make the community a healthier, more vital place to live. JLLR members, reflecting a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and professional pursuits work together to identify unmet needs, forge effective coalitions, and work for change.

The Junior League of Little Rock was organized in 1914 as an auxiliary to the United Charities, forerunner to the present United Way. The group separated from United Charities in 1921 in order to establish its own projects, and in 1922 affiliated with the Association of Junior Leagues International. In 1929, the Junior League of Little Rock was incorporated.

The League’s first project was the Baby Welfare Station, headquartered at the Arsenal in McArthur Park. The center provided medical examinations for infants and pre-school children as well as instruction in health care for mothers. In keeping with League philosophy, the project was turned over to the City of Little Rock in 1937.

The JLLR legacy can be seen throughout the community as they continue to provide volunteers, funding, and leadership support in an effort to establish long lasting projects. Many of the city’s cherished organizations were established or founded in part by the visionary and effective leadership of League Members, including Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Potluck, Gaines House, Volunteers in Public Schools (ViPS), and Riverfest, just to name a few. While their history is something they celebrate, they know their work is not done.

2019 Inductee

Andrews is a conservationist and a leading voice for environmental protection in Arkansas. She has spent decades lobbying at the State Capitol as an “Advocate for Clean Water, Clean Air, Clean Energy and Recycling.” She’s helped save the Buffalo River, and her efforts in Little Rock led to the preservation of land that would pave the way for the River Trail. In 2018, the Ozark Society gave her the prestigious Compton Award recognizing her outstanding service.  

Born in Oklahoma, she developed an interest in land and water as a farmer’s daughter. She went into the medical field and began her career at Central State Hospital in Norman, Okla., as supervisor of the blood bank. She moved to New York to work for St. Elizabeth’s Hospital Clinical Laboratory. Then, she paused her career to study French in Paris at the Alliance Francaise and travel Europe. She also spent time as laboratory supervisor in Honduras. During her travels, she witness environmental disasters up close, and her concern for the environment and conservation deepened.  

She settled in Arkansas in 1970 and spent the rest of her career at the McClellan VA Hospital in the laboratory and as ambulatory care supervisor and education coordinator. Her conservation efforts in Arkansas began with advocacy work that helped save the Buffalo River from dams and and would initiate the Buffalo National River designation in 1972. She served on the Arkansas Trails Council in the early 1970s, and she was appointed by two governors to the Arkansas Scenic Rivers Commission where she served for 10 years. She also joined the Ozark Society where she served as president for six years. 

In 1991, she and her partner Dave Gruenewald and two others served as plaintiffs in federal court in a lawsuit to oppose a bridge across Jimerson Creek in Little Rock. In doing so, she opposed the City of Little Rock, the Corps of Engineers and its district engineer. This action is credited with preserving the landscape and paving the way for construction of the Big Dam Bridge and Two Rivers Bridge and the nationally recognized River Trail. She’s also worked with nonprofit agencies, government and churches to ensure Arkansas is a land of clean water and air. She has led many excursions on the Buffalo River and is a role model to women and children, teaching them survival skills and self-sufficiency.

2019 Inductee

Witherspoon is a director and founder of the firm Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon and Galchus. She’s a prominent labor and employment attorney and the first woman to serve as president of the Arkansas Bar Association. Under her leadership, her firm has garnered work-life balance awards and achieved majority female ownership. She’s also supported and founded organizations that serve women.

Witherspoon graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1974 with her bachelor’s degree, and graduated with honors from the UALR School of Law in 1978. Her law practice in Arkansas has centered on representing private and public employers, and she’s regularly asked to conduct training for human resources professionals. She serves as the Arkansas delegate to the American Bar Association and is part of the prestigious Union Internationale des Advocats, which is an international society recognized before the United Nations. In 2013, she was appointed to the Commission on Uniform State Laws. She is a member of the American Bar Association and currently serves as chair of the Commission on Interest Lawyers’ Trust Accounts.

At CGWG, she’s been instrumental in furthering work-life balance practices and won acclaim locally and nationally from the American Psychological Association, the Society for Human Resources Management and the state of Arkansas. Her firm was honored in 2012, 2013 and 2014 with the When Work Works Award which recognizes companies that incorporate flexibility into workplace practices. The firm has been recognized for programs that foster employee well being and promote a family friendly workplace. Under her direction, CGWG became the only firm in the state, and possibly the region, with 50 percent ownership by female attorneys, a feat attributed to her devotion to mentoring, developing and promoting young female attorneys.

She provides legal services to low-income people through VOCALS — the Volunteer Organization Center for Arkansas Legal Services. She was an original founder of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and has served as past president. She is on the Little Rock Sister Cities Commission and the Board of Directors for the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

2019 Inductee

As a journalist, she became the first female president of the National Newspaper Association and would eventually serve as president of seven different state and national journalism organizations. She was also the first female president of the Dumas Chamber of Commerce. She served as a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for 14 years,

She was born on Dec. 25, 1923, in Tillar, Ark., and at age 16, she enrolled in the University of Arkansas at Monticello, all while writing stories for The McGehee Times as a freelancer. She studied at Louisiana State University in 1942, majoring in sociology and journalism. Upon graduation in 1944, she became editor of The McGehee Times. She married Louisiana native Melvin Schexnayder in 1946 and they returned to graduate school at LSU. The couple worked for six years at The McGehee Times before purchasing the Dumas Clarion in 1954 and co-owned the newspaper for more than four decades.

From her position, she took stands on larger issues such as supporting the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock and other economic and development issues in Dumas. In 1975, she was appointed by Gov. David Pryor to the Arkansas Board of Pardons and Parole and became the first woman to serve on the board.

In her journalism career, once she joined an organization, she was sure to be elected president. She became president of the Arkansas Press Women in 1955. She was the first woman elected to the Little Rock chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and became its first female president in 1973. In 1977, she was elected president of the National Federation of Press Women. In 1981, she became the first female president of the Arkansas Press Association. In 1989, she was elected treasurer of the National Newspaper Association, and by 1991, she was its first female president.

In 1984, she ran unopposed for the state House of Representatives. In a famous anecdote about Schexnayder, a fellow legislator suggested during her first week in the house that she’d be fine if she sat and listened. She told him, “You obviously don’t know me very well. I’m not a side-line sitter, and I always have plans.” She served in the House until 1999. She was the lead sponsor of several bills enhancing the Freedom of Information Act; lead sponsor of a bill creating the Arkansas Ethics Commission and a bill creating sales tax for a research center and endowed chair at UAMS in alcohol abuse prevention.

The Schexnayders sold the Clarion in 1998 and established Dumas Community Fund which evolved into Delta Community Foundation. Melvin Schexnayder died in 2007. Though removed from journalism, she remained involved in civic life. In 2012, she published her memoir, The Salty Old Editor: An Adventure in Ink.

Mrs. Schexnayder’s family includes three children and spouses, John and Deanna Schexnayder of Austin, TX, Sarah and Mark Steen of Frisco, Texas, and Dr. Steve and Dr. Becky Schexnayder of Little Rock; 9 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

2019 Inductee

As an educator, public servant, political scientist, and writer, Diane Blair was a favorite professor at the University of Arkansas, and her book, Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule? now serves as a textbook in many universities.

Following her graduation from Cornell University, Blair worked for the President’s Committee on Government Contracts, conducted research for the Senate and served as a legislative assistant. She married Arkansan Hugh Kincaid with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps and moved to Fayetteville where she completed her master’s degree at the University of Arkansas in 1967. She was a part-time lecturer at the university, and in 1971, Gov. Dale Bumpers appointed her to chair the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women.

In 1976, Gov. David Pryor selected her to chair a commission on public employee rights, and in 1979, she was assistant professor of political science at UA, where she taught courses in national government, state and local government, Arkansas politics and politics in literature. She was often voted a favorite teacher in student polls. Her marriage ended, but she married attorney James Burton Blair in 1979, and Gov. Bill Clinton performed the ceremony.

In 1980, Clinton appointed her to the commission for the Arkansas Educational Television Network where she served until 1993. She was chairperson from 1986 to 1987.

In 1982, she won the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Master Teacher Award in politics. Always interested in women in politics, her first book, Silent Hattie Speaks: The Personal Journal of Senator Hattie Caraway, was based on the journals of the first woman to be elected U.S. Senator. Her second book, Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule?, was published in 1988.  She was promoted to full professor at the University in 1990.

In 1992 and 1996, she served as an advisor on the Clinton-Gore presidential campaigns, and also chronicled the 1992 campaign as official historian. She was also selected to be a member of the Arkansas delegation to the Electoral College. She followed the campaign again in 1996, keeping journals and conducting interviews on the team’s perception of the campaign. Those papers were donated to the Special Collections at the UA Libraries. Clinton appointed Blair to the board of directors of the U.S. Corporation for Public Broadcasting where she served from 1993 to 2000. She became chair and the boardroom was later named in her honor.

Blair died in 2000 of lung cancer. Her husband bestowed an endowment to the Fayetteville Public Library in her honor and also endowed the Diane Blair Chair of Political Science at UA. The Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society at the University of Arkansas was established with funds appropriated from Congress in 2000.

Photos Credit: Special Collections, University of Arkansas Library

2019 Inductee

As president and CEO of Heifer Project International, she led the organization’s global program and helped expand programs and projects that have provided food security to impoverished people in the U.S. and more than 50 countries around the world. Through Heifer, she has devoted her life to empowering women and enhancing the lives of their children. Prior to Heifer, she served as executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for 10 years.

Luck attended Hendrix College and majored in education. She graduated with her bachelor’s degree from David Lipscomb College in Nashville, then went on to get her master’s degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

She served as assistant director in the Governor’s Office of Volunteer Services. And in 1978, she became the first executive director of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. In 1979, she became executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism as Gov. Bill Clinton’s first cabinet appointee. Under her direction, the economic impact of tourism in Arkansas doubled from $1 billion to $2 billion.

In 1989, she became Global Services Director of Heifer Project International, and by 1992, she was the president and CEO where she served until 2010. She expanded the nonprofit’s budget from $7 million to over $100 million. The new sustainable LEED award-winning headquarters and campus in Little Rock were designed and built under her leadership.

She was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Board for International Food and Agricultural Development, which advises USAID administrators on agricultural development priorities and issues as they relate to global famine and hunger. She served on many other councils and committees to further the dialogue on food and agriculture in the 21st century.

In 2010, she was awarded the World Food Prize, an international award recognizing individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food. She’s received Forbes magazine’s “Trailblazer Award” and was the recipient of several honorary doctorate degrees for her humanitarian service. In 1992, she was official delegate to the U.N.’s Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil and an official participant in the PVO/NGO Earth Summit — the only individual listed as a participant in both gatherings. 

2019 Inductee

Born in Bentonville, Louise McPhetridge Thaden had a passion for aviation from a young age. She was raised on a family farm, but a plane ride with a barnstormer in her youth cemented her desire to fly. 

She attended the University of Arkansas to pursue a degree in journalism and physical education but never graduated. She took a job in sales in Kansas and spent much time around the airplane factory. Later, she was given a job as an office manager in California where pilot’s lessons were included. She earned her pilot’s license in 1928. Not long after, she became the first and only pilot to simultaneously hold the women’s records for speed, altitude and solo endurance. She competed and won against Amelia Earhart and others in the first all-women’s transcontinental race, the National Women’s Air Derby in 1929.

She and Earhart formed the Ninety-Nines, an advocacy group for women pilots. In 1930, she opened a flight school for women at the Penn School of Aviation in Pittsburgh and raised scholarship money for its first 12 students.

With the help of Frances Marsalis, she set a refueling endurance record of 196 hours — more than eight days aloft — over Long Island, New York in 1932, which included 78 air-to-air refueling maneuvers where food, water, oil and fuel were passed down from another aircraft. This gained national attention, and she made a series of live radio broadcasts from the plane.

In 1936, she and her co-pilot became the first women to win the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race from New York to Los Angeles. Due to mechanical errors and weather, they didn’t know they’d won the race and were confused by the swarm of people around their aircraft. She beat Earhart and the fastest male pilot in America.

She won the Harmon Trophy in 1937, the highest honor given to a female pilot. She retired in 1938 to spend more time with her two children, Bill and Pat, and to write her memoir, High, Wide and Frightened. In 1951, the airport at Bentonville was renamed Louise M. Thaden Field in her honor. In 1976, Governor David Pryor declared Aug. 22 to be Louise M. Thaden Day. She was posthumously inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 1999.

In the fall of 2017, Thaden School, a new independent school in Northwest Arkansas and named in her honor, opened with grades 7 and 9 and will grow incrementally over the next few years to serve students in grades 6 through 12.  Her pioneering and innovative spirit – at once regional and global in its orientation – will inspire efforts to create a school that gives students roots and wings, enabling them to build strong foundations and reach new heights as they pursue their dreams and make their futures.

2019 Inductee

She blazed a trail for Arkansas women in publications, building the Arkansas Times and Arkansas Business Publishing Group into two of the state’s biggest independent multimedia firms. From her position in the publication industry, she has championed women in all fields, co-founding the Arkansas Women’s Foundation, which works to ensure economic security for Arkansas women and girls.

She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and began her publishing career in 1978, joining the Arkansas Writers Project as part of the ad sales department at the Arkansas Times. She was among the founders of Arkansas Business in 1984 and Southern magazine in 1986.

In 1984, she was honored in New York by the National Council of Women of the United States as a Young Achiever, one of six young women in the country achieving exceptional success at a young age. She was the first woman from Arkansas to receive this honor. In May 1985, she was featured in Good Housekeeping magazine’s 100th anniversary issue as one of the “100 Young Women of Promise” and the only woman from Arkansas to be included.

In 1995, she became CEO and principal owner of the newly formed Arkansas Business Publishing Group, which has been honored with more than 115 national and local awards for outstanding journalism, publication and website design, and excellence in publishing and web development.

From 1995 to 1999, she created a publication featuring the top 100 women in Arkansas and their accomplishments. In 1998, this publication led to co-founding the Arkansas Women’s Foundation with Pat Lile.

Her work in the community has included serving on the Board of Trustees for the Arkansas Arts Center, the Junior League of Little Rock Advisory Board, the Arkansas Executive Forum and the Community Advisory Board for the University of Arkansas Medical School. She has served on the Governor’s Task Force for Entrepreneurship in Education, as well as worked with the Single Parent Scholarship Fund, the Arkansas Community Service Awards, the United Negro College Fund, AETN, Youth Home, Arkansas Chamber Singers, Planned Parenthood and the Arkansas Women’s Political Action Committee.  

In 2012, Gov. Mike Beebe presented her with the Distinguished Citizen Award. As of February 2019, she has retired from ABPG.

2019 Inductee

Chartered in Little Rock in 1937, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Beta Pi Omega Chapter is the oldest graduate chapter in the state of Arkansas and is committed to providing assistance to families, students and organizations in the community. The chapter’s 265 members spearhead service projects, health fairs, workshops, education programs, voter drives, cleanups and fundraisers and donate their time and money to improving life for future generations.

Beta Pi Omega’s members are trailblazers in the fields of education, math, the arts, public service, and business. From their positions in the community, they advocate for positive change in families, neighborhoods, schools and churches.

The chapter sponsored the chartering of Gamma Alpha Chapter on the campus of Philander Smith College, the first undergraduate chapter in the state, as well as sponsored the chartering of Epsilon Phi Chapter on the campus of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the first African-American sorority/fraternity on the college campus.

The chapter has been recognized on international, regional and local levels for its programs and has forged partnerships with the Little Rock School District, the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock, the American Heart Association, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Lions Club International.

In the area of education, more than 500 high school seniors and college students have received scholarships or other assistance from Beta Pi Omega. The chapter has awarded scholarships each year since 1976. The Ivy Foundation, the chapter’s nonprofit arm, awarded more than $26,000 to students to pursue higher education in 2017 and continues to award scholarships each year. The chapter also hosts the “New Directions” summer workshop to teach students about careers, etiquette, finances and personal development to prepare them for the future. The chapter has collected and distributed more than 2,000 backpacks and school supplies to children in local school districts.

In 2019, the chapter partnered with 16 organizations to undertake service projects in honor of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. International Day of Service. With more than 250 volunteers, donations of books, school supplies, hygiene kits, pillowcases and eyeglasses were collected, packed and distributed to those in need.  

2018 Inductee

Annabelle Davis Clinton Imber Tuck became the first woman elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1997. As a chancery judge, she made the first ruling in the Lake View school district case, which would eventually reshape the financing of public education in Arkansas.

Born in Heber Springs, much of her childhood was spent outside of the country as her father worked in international development in Bolivia and Brazil. When her father was transferred to Nigeria when she was 14, Annabelle finished high school while living with her brother’s family in a suburb of Washington D.C. She attended college in Massachusetts and graduated with a degree in political science. She started paralegal training in Pennsylvania, and then moved to Houston to work and attend the Bates College of Law at the University of Houston. In 1975, she moved to Little Rock, finished her law degree and joined the firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings, where she would become a partner.

In 1984, she was appointed to the Pulaski County Circuit Court by then-Governor Bill Clinton. Four years later, she was elected chancery and probate judge for Pulaski and Perry Counties. In this role, she handed down the first ruling in the Lake View school case, in which the school district sued the state on the grounds of unequal funding of schools. She ruled the state did not meet the promise of providing “suitable” education and equal educational opportunities for each child regardless of where they lived.

This set in motion a nearly 10-year-long examination of the inadequacies in the state’s education system. The Supreme Court decision in 2002, and decisions made thereafter, meant changes in taxes and school administration and brought permanent mandates that would change how school programs were funded. In 1998, she was named one of the “Top 100 Women in Arkansas.”

As a Supreme Court justice, she was the author of the first decision to remove legal prohibitions against homosexual activity. Her opinion was cited as a precedent in 2011, when the Court struck down a voter-led act which would prohibit same sex couples from adopting children or becoming foster parents. She was cited again in 2014 when a judge struck down the state’s prohibition against same sex marriage.

In her retirement, she serves as a Public Service Fellow/Jurist-in-Residence at the William H. Bowen School of Law and advocates for fair access to the legal system through the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission, created by the state Supreme Court in 2003. In 2010, the Arkansas Bar Foundation presented her with its Equal Justice Distinguished Service Award for her work to raise awareness among her colleagues for legal aide and each attorney’s ethical obligation to provide pro bono services.

In connection with implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act, she served three years on the Insurance Commissioner’s Plan Management Advisory Committee, followed by service on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace Board from July 2013 until November 2015.

2018 Inductee

Bessie Grace Boehm Moore was an educator, civic leader, and force of nature, advocating for a robust library system in Arkansas, economic education in public schools and the creation of the Ozark Folk Center State Park.

Born on Aug. 2, 1902, her mother died in childbirth and Bessie was sent to live with an aunt in Kentucky. Her father later remarried, and they moved to northern Arkansas, where she continued to attend school in Mountain View. At age 14, Bessie passed the teacher’s exam and was hired in Stone County by the school board. Moore retained a fondness for the people of Stone County, who welcomed her family as homesteaders.  

She was instrumental in creating the first county library in Pine Bluff, and also worked to promote libraries on a national level. She served on the Arkansas Library Commission board from 1941 to 1979. In 1966, she was appointed to serve on the National Advisory Committee on Libraries by President Lyndon Johnson, where she stayed until 1988. Under her leadership, more than 50 public and regional libraries were established. In 1980, the American Library Association awarded her its highest honor.

Her life frequently centered around a classroom, as teacher or student. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in education from the Arkansas State Teachers College (now UCA) in Conway. After her husband’s death in 1958, she joined the Arkansas Department of Education, and in 1961, became the coordinator of economic education.

In 1959, she was recognized with the C.E. Palmer Distinguished Service Award, given to the citizen of Arkansas who gave the finest service to the state the preceding year. She was the first woman to receive this award. Other winners have included the late Governor Winthrop Rockefeller and Senator J. William Fulbright.

When the Arkansas State Council of Economic Education was founded in 1962, she was executive director. This organization later became Economics Arkansas, and has taught more than 85,000 teachers how to integrate economic and personal finance concepts into curriculum, impacting more than 4 million students. In 1963, she was the first woman to be invited to address a session of the Southern Governors’ Conference.

The Center for Economic Education at the University of Arkansas was renamed in her honor in 1979. The Stone County Library also bears her name, as well as the largest meeting room in the Arkansas State Library at 900 W. Capitol Ave.

2018 Inductee

Dr. Carolyn F. Blakely is a lifelong educator and chancellor emeritus at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. She developed the Honors College at the university and served as Dean. At the request of students, it was renamed in her honor. Her contributions to the community, education, and civic organizations have impacted countless individuals in Arkansas and beyond.

She was born in Magnolia and raised by her grandmother after her mother’s death. She graduated as valedictorian of her high school. She attended Arkansas AM&N College, later renamed to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and went on to earn her master’s degree in English at Atlanta University. She became the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree in English at Oklahoma State University.

She took teaching positions in various universities, but returned to her alma mater as a member of the English department. She eventually made her way into the administration, serving as interim vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and later, interim chancellor, and finally Interim Chair of the Department of English, Theater and Mass Communications. She became the first woman to serve as chancellor of a publicly supported, four-year institution of higher education in Arkansas.

She was part of a group that founded the Pine Bluff Symphony Orchestra, which was formed out of the public school’s String Music Program. Blakely had established an instrument rental program, which encouraged students to participate in the school orchestra class with the end goal of having students who could play with a professional orchestra.

Blakely has also been named one of Arkansas “Top 100 Women” three times; was elected president of the National Association of African-American Honors Programs, and received the NAACP Education Award. She has also served on the boards of several community and civic organizations, including the Arkansas Schools for the Blind and Deaf, Arkansas Humanities Council, United Way, Arkansas Community Foundation Board, the Susan G. Komen board, and the Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield Advisory Board.

2018 Inductee

Born in Little Rock in 1887, Florence Beatrice Smith Price became the first African-American female composer to have a composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra. Her classical piece, Symphony in E Minor, was performed by the Chicago Symphony of Orchestra in 1933. It was also performed at the Chicago World’s Fair as part of the Century of Progress Exhibition.

She composed more than 300 works in her lifetime, including chamber music, vocal compositions and songs for radio. Her style is a mix of classical European music and black spirituals and rhythms.

Florence was first introduced to music by her mother — a piano teacher and businesswoman — and she published her first original pieces in high school. She finished as a valedictorian in 1903 and attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she graduated with honors in 1906.

She returned to Arkansas to teach music in Arkadelphia, then at Shorter College in North Little Rock, finally landing in Atlanta to head the music department at Clark University. She married in 1912 in Little Rock, and had three children, one who died in infancy. In Little Rock, she opened a music studio, taught piano and continued to compose, but was not allowed to join the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association because of her race.

Segregation and racial discrimination in the South eventually prompted Florence and her family to move to Chicago in 1927 where she had several works accepted for publication, including her Piano Sonata in E Minor. She also won first prize in the Rodman Wanamaker Music Competition for her first symphony. She composed several songs, one sung by Marian Anderson at her famous Lincoln Memorial concert in 1939. Following the 1933 premiere of her Symphony in E Minor, the orchestras of Detroit, Pittsburgh and Brooklyn performed subsequent compositions by Price.

Nearly 10 years after her death in 1953, a Chicago Elementary school took her name as a tribute to her legacy as a black composer. As a teacher in Little Rock, she had immense influence on many of her students.

Manuscripts, books and other papers belonging to Price were discovered in an abandoned Illinois home in 2009, and those works were secured by the University of Arkansas. Violin Concertos Nos. 1 and No 2, contained within the findings, were recorded in Fayetteville. The BBC symphony orchestra performed one of her “lost” compositions in London in March 2018. She’s also been the subject of recent articles in the New York Times and the New Yorker. A documentary film about Price's life and music has aired on PBS affiliate stations as well as at film festivals in the United States and in the United Kingdom.

2018 Inductee

Karen Flake is president and CEO of Mount St. Mary Academy; founder of Karen Flake & Associates providing market research and consulting; supported the state’s economic development on the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority board; and been honored for volunteerism and community service.

Karen graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy in 1965 and taught English from 1972 to 1977. She  earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and graduated with master’s degree in interpersonal organization and communication from the University of Arkansas.

Though she left her teaching position, she and her husband John continued to support the school through donations and serving on the board of directors for the Mount St. Mary Foundation. In 2001, she was named Outstanding Alumna.

Much of her experience is in the research industry. She was chair and CEO of Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights, which was named in 2001, 2002 and 2003 to the Inc 500 fastest growing privately held companies in America. The company performed custom research for clients such as IBM, Federal Express, Sabre, Genentech, Acxiom, American Century, Sprint and managed large, dedicated call centers for Verizon, AT&T and Qwest. It was sold in 2007 to Market Strategies International, and Flake became vice chair. In 2009, she founded Karen Flake & Associates of Little Rock.

She also steered the direction of the state from her 1996 appointment to the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority, where she served for six years. She became chair of the board in 2001, and held oversight over all committees. The board was responsible for the state’s economic development through loan requests, bond counsel, trustee, and other legal financial services; bond re-financing, venture capital and oversight of affordable housing and other specialized programs.

Her volunteerism and leadership spans many organizations from the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas and the Arkansas Women’s Leadership Forum to Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (CARTI), the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society board, St. Vincent Women’s Advisory Board, the Greater Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, Our House, and the Centers for Youth and Families, where she was named Volunteer of the Year in 1991. She’s been named one of Arkansas Top 100 Women and won the March of Dimes Arkansas Citizen of the Year recognition in 2001.

2018 Inductee

Academy Award winner Mary Steenburgen has appeared in over 60 films. She is known for her work in the films MELVIN AND HOWARD, WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE, STEP BROTHERS, and television shows “Justified”, in which she played the diabolical character Katherine Hale. She has also recently appeared in “Orange is the New Black” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

Mary currently stars alongside Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda and Candice Bergen in Paramount Pictures’ BOOK CLUB, which was released in theaters on May 18, 2018. For 4 years, Mary starred alongside Will Forte in FOX’s critically-acclaimed comedy series, “The Last Man On Earth”.

Additional television credits include “30 Rock”, “Bored to Death”, and “Blunt Talk”. Additional film credits include GOIN' SOUTH, TIME AFTER TIME, RAGTIME, PHILADELPHIA, BACK TO THE FUTURE 3, CROSS CREEK, MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY, MISS FIRECRACKER, THE PROPOSAL, ELF, DIRTY GIRL (for which she co- wrote the song, RAINBIRD, with Melissa Manchester), FOUR CHRISTMASES, THE HELP, and LAST VEGAS.

Partial theater credits include Holiday (London’s Old Vic, directed by Lindsay Anderson), Candida, Marvin’s Room, The Beginning of August, The Exonerated.  Mary is proud to be a company member of New York’s Atlantic Theater.

Mary is a songwriter for Universal Music Publishing Group. She has collaborated with many acclaimed songwriters including Matraca Berg, Troy Verges, Jeremy Spillman, Luke Laird, Lori McKenna, Caitlyn Smith, Lucie Silvas, John Osborne and many others. She is currently writing the music for the animated film version of the book The Underneath and wrote the end credit song for the upcoming feature film WILD ROSE.

2018 Inductee

Raye Jean Jordan Montague was an engineer and graphics design trailblazer in the U.S. Navy who is credited with the first computer-generated rough draft of a U.S. naval ship. She was recognized by ABC’s Good Morning America as a “hidden figure” in science and computing for the U.S. Navy.

Born in Little Rock, she graduated from what would later become the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in 1956. She wanted to study engineering, but could not due to segregation, so she graduated with a business degree.

She began her naval career in Maryland as a digital computer systems operator. She later became a computer systems analyst and served as program director for the Naval Sea Systems Command’s Integrated Design, Manufacturing and Maintenance Program. She became the first female Program Manager of Ships in the U.S. Navy, overseeing a staff of 250 and the procurement of Computer-Aided Design and Computer-Aided Manufacturing equipment for more than 100,000 people. She worked on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Navy’s first landing craft helicopter-assault ship. Her work using computer design saved time and millions of federal tax dollars.

In 1972, she was given the U.S. Navy’s Meritorious Civilian Service Award, the third-highest honorary award. In 1978, she became the first female professional engineer to receive the Society of Manufacturing Engineers Achievement Award, and in 1988, earned the National Computer Graphics Association Award for the Advancement of Computer Graphics.

The significance of her contributions to the Navy have ben documented in a series of articles titled, “Breaking Barriers: The Raye Montague Story.”

After her 30-year naval career, Montague is now a mentor, volunteer and motivational speaker in Little Rock. She’s active with LifeQuest, The Links Inc, the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, and the American Contract Bridge League. She volunteers with students at the eStem Elementary Public Charter School in Little Rock and works with inmates through a community re-entry program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

2018 Inductee

Dr. Sue Griffin is a professor and editor-in-chief whose tireless research on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions has led to significant breakthroughs in the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s.

She grew up in Arkansas and attended high school in Ft. Smith. After graduation, she moved with her parents to Los Alamos, N.M., where she worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and met and married her husband, Dr. Edmond Griffin. They have two sons, Edmond II and Clay.

Griffin has served as the Alexa and William T. Dillard professor in geriatric research and director of research at the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Hailed as a “lifelong innovator, pioneer and trendsetter in science,” she has worked relentlessly on the details of progression for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, Down Syndrome, head trauma and epilepsy. Her work has enabled scientists to research more specific angles to advance the prevention and treatment of these diseases. She was an Arkansas Woman of the Year in 2014.

She has continuously applied for and been awarded grants from the National Institutes of Health since 1991, and in 2016, was awarded a $10 million grant for the further study and possible treatments of Alzheimer’s disease. In 2016, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alzheimer’s Association for her work at its International Conference in Toronto.

She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nutrition from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and earned her Ph.D. in physiology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Dr. Griffin was a Moss Heart Fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School where she and her husband were professors for 12 years. At Southwestern, she had a number of scientific firsts regarding interactions between the peripheral and neural immune systems.

When Dr. Griffin joined UAMS in 1986 and began to focus her attention on Alzheimer’s disease, she started with the idea that in response to nerve cell distress, the brain’s innate immune system produces small proteins called cytokines that act as drivers of the accumulation of the plaques and tangles that characterize Alzheimer’s disease in the brain.

Her research reported this year in the Alzheimer’s Association: Alzheimer’s and Dementia journal, shows how the ApoE 4 protein interferes with the normal production of proteins necessary for ridding nerve cells of waste that otherwise builds up and disrupts necessary nerve cell functions. Dr. Griffin’s future-oriented thinking led in 2004 to the creation of a successful new journal, the Journal of Neuroinflammation, which reports the latest science in the burgeoning field of neurodegenerative disease-associated immune responses in the brain. Drs. Griffin and Monica Carson are Editors-in-Chief.

2018 Inductee

The Women’s Foundation of Arkansas is an organization devoted to improving the economic viability of women and girls through education; performing research to identify areas of need and securing grant money to address them; and introducing girls to careers in STEM fields.

Founded in 1998, the organization is the only one in the state focusing solely on women and girls. It was created by a group of the “Top 100 Women in Arkansas,” selected by the Arkansas Business Publishing Group. The 100 honorees challenged themselves to make a difference in Arkansas and the foundation idea emerged. The group was led by ABPG CEO Olivia Farrell; Pat Lile, president of the Arkansas Community Foundation; and Mary Gay Shipley, board chair of the ACF.

The founders put out a call for funds and more than 150 women responded, while 82 donated more than $1,000 to create a permanent endowment. The first programs were developed, as well as an annual fundraising event called, The Power of the Purse, where accomplished women would be honored and grant recipients would be announced.

In 2002, the organization acquired 501(c)(3) status. Programs include Girls of Promise, an annual two-day STEM conference for eighth-grade girls; First Person Plural, which gathers the life stories of 20th century women; an Arkansas Women’s Organization directory for those wanting to support women-oriented groups and organizations; and the annual Women Empowered Leadership Conference. Today, the organization is non-partisan, located in downtown Little Rock, and run by volunteers. It has one full time and three part-time staff members.

2017 Inductee

Bernice Jones was born October 31, 1905 in Springdale, AR. She attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville from 1924-1928, and taught school at Harmon and Oak Grove Schools from 1926-1931. In 1938 she married Harvey Jones, at which time they set out to continue to build the Jones Truck Line, which eventually became the nation’s largest privately-owned carrier by the time it was sold in 1980. In the early years (1952), Harvey and Bernice and others, founded Northwest Medical Center and Hospital in Springdale, which over the years grew into a multi-million dollar facility. Both Bernice and Harvey’s continued service on the Board spanned 51 years, from 1952-2003. In 1968, they established Har-Ber Village Museum, a large antique village on the Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees in Grove, OK that consisted of over 100 independent buildings. Free of charge, they welcomed over 600,000 visitors/yr from all 48 states and many overseas countries. After Harvey passed in 1980, Bernice dedicated her philanthropic energy to help advance private giving throughout Arkansas. Examples include the establishment of the Harvey and Bernice Jones Center for Families in Springdale, dedicated to strengthening the family. This center of over 245,000 sq ft on 38 acres, contains multiple classrooms, conference centers, several indoor and outdoor recreation facilities to include two swimming pools, ice skating rink and a full size gymnasium. Also on this campus, the old truck line maintenance shop was renovated for offices for 34 community charitable agencies.

Her major awards include the first Arkansan to receive the Presidential Citizens Medal for exemplary deeds of service to her fellow citizens, presented by President Bill Clinton.

Bernice Jones was not only a major philanthropic leader in Arkansas, but through her example, established a legacy that has yet to be surpassed.

2017 Inductee

Brinda Jackson was born in McGehee, Arkansas, a small rural town in Southeast Arkansas, and raised in an even smaller rural town, Montrose, Arkansas, population 399 (at that time).  Her parents, William and Bernice Jackson, farmers in rural Arkansas, instilled unquestionable values, the importance of education, and a strong work ethic in her and her seven siblings.  Because of their teachings and guidance, Brinda was destined to shape a global footprint beyond that small town.  Brinda is very humble, and is unaware of the broad impact she has had on others throughout her trail-blazing career.  She continues to plant the seeds of greatness in the paths of women, inspiring them to achieve their dreams.

While in grade school, she was inspired to become an Architect from watching “The Brady Bunch” television show.  She became focused on that career and that focus remained with her until her dream was realized.  In 1979, Brinda graduated Valedictorian from Lakeside High School in Lake Village, Arkansas, as the first African American to do so in the history of the high school.  She attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and graduated with a degree in Architecture, only the second African American woman to do so.  From 1985 to 1989, she worked as an Architect in a small architectural firm in Little Rock.  After realizing her initial dream of becoming an Architect, she decided to shift her focus to other opportunities.  In January 1990, she started a career with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Little Rock District, as an Architect in the Design Branch.  

One of the most noteworthy items of her career as an Architect came about when she passed her Architectural Registration Exam in 1991, becoming the first African American woman in Arkansas registered to practice Architecture.  Since that time, she has maintained her status as a Registered Architect.  She is also a registered Project Management Professional.

She has attained additional outstanding accomplishments throughout her career.  During her tenure as an Architect and Design Team Leader in the Design Branch, she worked on various projects for military installations across the country, including Fort Sill, Oklahoma; Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma; Fort Bliss, Texas; Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina; and Little Rock Air Force Base.  In 1999, Brinda made the transition from Architect to Project Manager.  In 2003, she deployed as a civilian Project Manager with the Forward Engineering Support Team, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.  While in Iraq, she was presented the 555 Combat Engineer Group Commander's Award for being the “Battlefield Hero” of the day and received two Command Sergeant Major's Coins of Excellence, in addition to receiving the Superior Civilian Service Award and the Chief of Engineer's coin.  During her career, she has received numerous awards, achievement medals and recognition's, to include:  2013 Civilian of the Year for Little Rock District; 1999 graduate of the Army Management Staff College, where she received the Department of the Army Certificate of Achievement for "Best in Seminar"; 1998 recipient of the Women of Color Technology Award for Government Leadership (non-Government award); and the 1995 Little Rock District Architect of the Year. 

Though an architect by profession, she is currently the Chief, Civil Works Programs Branch, Little Rock District, with the responsibility of developing, defending and executing an annual civil works program in excess of $200M.  Her reputation for “getting the job done” has led to increased opportunities for various developmental assignments:  Operations Project Manager for Table Rock Lake, Branson, Missouri; Regional Integration Team - Programmer, Headquarters USACE, Washington, DC; Acting Chief, Project Management Branch, Galveston District, Galveston, Texas; and most recently, the Acting Chief, Civil Works Integration Division, Southwestern Division, Dallas, Texas, where she was responsible for an annual civil works program portfolio that exceeded $1B. 

Brinda has been an inspiration to all that know her, particularly women, because of her phenomenal career.  She is a mentor to many, both formal and informal.  Understanding the struggles of growing up poor in a small rural Arkansas town, she and three of her siblings (who also graduated from Lakeside High School) established the Jackson Family Scholarship in 2000, which is awarded annually to a graduating Senior of Lakeside High School.   Brinda is a member of St Mark Baptist Church in Little Rock.  She and her husband, David Switzer, reside in central Arkansas.  

2017 Inductee

There are few Arkansans - women or men - who have spoken more eloquently on the cause of civil rights and social justice than Dorothy D. Stuck. In the turbulent era of the late 1950s through the 1960s, she was a leading and sometimes lone, voice in calling for equality for all in Arkansas.

During this time she and her husband Howard were publishers of three east Arkansas newspapers - the Marked Tree Tribune, the Lepanto News Record, and the Truman Democrat. She received the Press woman of the Year award in 1964 and 1969. She was a charter member of the Arkansas Press Women and later served as its president.

In 1968, she was elected to represent Poinsett County in the Arkansas Constitutional Convention and was elected to chair the Suffrage and Election Committee, the only woman to chair a major committee.

She was able to put her words into action when she was named in 1970 as Regional Director, U.S. Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Dallas Region, including Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. In this position, she was responsible for adherence to desegregation of public schools, institutions of higher learning and state health organizations. She served a temporary assignment as acting national Deputy Director of the office for Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., and was among those responsible for the implementation of Title IX, providing equal opportunities for women in education. She received HEW's Distinguished Service Award, which is the Department's highest civilian award, for her leadership in civil rights.

Also while in Dallas, she was the first woman to chair the Dallas-Fort Worth Federal Executive Board and was named one of Dallas' Top Ten Women News-Shapers.

After nine years, she returned home to Arkansas and became a partner in Stuck and Snow Consultants, a Little Rock-based management and publications consulting firm.  She also became a charter board-member of Southern Bancorp, a rural development bank serving the Delta area. As a board member, she coined the term  “Building Communities, Changing Lives” to characterize the bank's work. She served on the board of the bank’s holding company and chaired the board of its non-profit partner, Southern Bancorp Community Partners.

After 30 years, she retired from the board, at which time Southern Bancorp established the Dorothy Stuck Empowerment Award that will be given annually to the employee whose work best exemplifies her goals.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008. While a student at the university, she was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority and later served for nine years as editor of "The Arrow," the sorority's national magazine.

Upon her retirement, she co-authored a biography, "ROBERTA: A Most Remarkable Fulbright" which reached the best-seller list in Arkansas and received an award of merit from the American Association of state and Local History.

Currently, she is a member of the Winthrop Rockefeller Lecture Board. She is one of those featured in the Rockefeller Museum on Petit Jean. She has also been a part of the Arkansas women's exhibit at the Old Statehouse Museum. She is listed in the book, "100 Women of Achievement in Arkansas" and included in the University of Arkansas' Pryor Center for Oral and Visual History which features life histories of outstanding Arkansans. She has been honored by the Archives of the Women of the Southwest at Southern Methodist University in its "Remember the Ladies" recognition program.

Dorothy's husband Howard died in 1981, and their son, Howard III, in 1990. She now resides in Little Rock. Often introduced as an "Arkansas Legend", it can be easily said that her courage in a time of democratic upheaval has earned her well-deserved admiration and respect.

2017 Inductee

Elsijane Trimble Roy was Arkansas’s first woman circuit judge, the first woman on the Arkansas Supreme Court, the first woman appointed to an Arkansas federal judgeship, the first woman federal judge in the Eighth Circuit, and the first Arkansas woman to follow her father as a federal judge.

Born on April 2, 1916, in Lonoke (Lonoke County), Elsijane Trimble was one of five children of Judge Thomas Clark Trimble III and Elsie Walls. Her father and grandfather were both attorneys in a law practice with Senator Joseph T. Robinson, and her father later became a federal judge. Trimble grew up in Lonoke attending local schools and was a star basketball player her four years at Lonoke High School, graduating in 1934 as valedictorian. After high school, she entered the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), where she was the women’s singles and mixed doubles tennis champion for two years. She completed undergraduate studies and law school in five years and was the only woman to graduate from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1939. At the time, she was only the third woman to graduate from UA with a law degree.

She was admitted to the bar the same year as graduation and joined the law firm of W. W. McCrary Jr. in Lonoke. Between 1940 and 1942, Trimble was a state attorney for the Revenue Department, and from 1942 to 1944, she worked in the Office of Price Administration, where she was the chief price attorney.

Trimble married a law school classmate, James Morrison Roy, on November 23, 1944, and moved to Houston, Texas, where he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In December 1946, they had a son. The following year, the Roys returned to Arkansas, moving to Blytheville (Mississippi County). She and her husband returned to practice law for the firm of Reid and Evrard. By 1954, she and her husband established Blytheville’s first husband-and-wife law firm, Roy and Roy, which lasted until 1963. The firm was closed for personal reasons after both her husband and father were hospitalized in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Between 1963 and 1966, Roy was the law clerk for Justice Frank Holt of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She and her husband divorced on June 30, 1967.

In 1966, Roy became the first woman judge in Arkansas when Governor Orval Faubus appointed her as a justice for the Sixth District Court; she served from April to December. She served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Arkansas between February and May 1967. From May 1967 until 1975, with the exception of a few months in 1969–70, she served as a law clerk for Federal District Court Judges Gordon E. Young (1967–1969) and Paul X. Williams (1970–1975).

Governor David Pryor appointed her as the first woman judge on the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1975, where she served until 1977, when Pryor recommended her for a federal judgeship in the Eastern Judicial District of Arkansas upon the retirement of Judge Oren Harris. On October 21, 1977, President Jimmy Carter nominated Roy to be the first woman federal district court judge in the Eighth Circuit, as recommended by Senators Dale Bumpers and John L. McClellan, and the U.S. Senate confirmed her on November 1, 1977. Roy occupied the position for twenty-one years, taking senior status in 1989 and retiring in 1999.

During Roy’s legal career, she garnered many honors, awards, and recognitions. In 1969 and 1976, respectively, she was named Woman of the Year, first by the Business and Professional Women’s Club and then by the Arkansas Democrat. She was awarded two honorary degrees: a Juris Doctor in 1969 from UA and a Doctor of Laws in 1978 from what is now the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. She was a prominent member of Chi Omega.

Roy kept her favorite Bible verse, Micah 6:8, on her bench: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before your God.” Her Arkansas Democrat Woman of the Year plaque inscription reads that “she has become a symbol of pride and inspiration to all women.” In its memorial resolution to her, the Eighty-sixth Arkansas General Assembly reflected upon her “commitment, hard work, dedication and service.”

Roy died on January 23, 2007, at the age of ninety, and is buried in Lonoke Cemetery.

(Courtesy of: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Central Arkansas Library System)

2017 Inductee

Dr. Joanna Seibert developed the department of pediatric radiology at Arkansas Children’s Hospital coming to Arkansas with her husband in 1976 as Arkansas Children’s Hospital became the center for children in Arkansas. She was the first trained pediatric radiologist in the state. She previously was at the University of Iowa and was the first woman on their faculty. She has represented Arkansas across the country and abroad, developing a pediatric radiology department of distinction. One of her major developments was helping to find a method of detecting whether children with Sickle Cell Disease are at risk to develop a stroke as well as studying whether premature babies could be less at risk by several methods of treatment to the mother. She is the author of over 100 peer review papers on Pediatric Radiology and several Textbooks, the most recent in 2017 is Casebook of Pediatric Radiology 2 Edition a primary text for radiology residents to learn about pediatric radiology.  Biennially Arkansas Children’s Hospital gives an award to the physician who embodies teamwork in his or her practice. The award is named the Joanna and Robert Seibert award. Dr. Seibert was named among the top 100 Women in Arkansas 1996-1998, the Worthen Arkansas Professional Woman of Distinction in 1992, and has been named among the Best Doctors in Arkansas 1997 until partial retirement in 2013.

She became an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church in 2001 and has served four congregations, St. Margaret’s, Trinity Cathedral, St. Luke’s North Little Rock, and presently is at St. Mark’s Little Rock developing health ministries, grief recovery groups across the state, teaching lay people how to become visitors to the sick as a facilitator of the Community of Hope, working with people in recovery, preaching and helping to develop adult education for parishes. She also leads retreat in the state and throughout the country especially for women who are seeking a deeper spiritual life in a busy world as well as leading retreats for men and women in recovery for addiction. She is the author of six books on spirituality in today’s world.  Dr. Seibert and her husband Robert have lived in Little Rock for almost 40 years and have three grown children and six grandchildren.

2017 Inductee

June Biber Freeman, born and reared in New Jersey,  came to Pine Bluff from the University of Chicago, where she had met and married her husband, Edmond Freeman,  a Pine Bluff native. Both were graduate students at the time.  When a call from his family interrupted his studies, she moved with him to Pine Bluff  where he joined the family-owned newspaper, the Pine Bluff Commercial. 

Long interested in the arts, she was instrumental in establishing the Little Firehouse Community Arts Center. Serving as its unpaid director until, with her continued vision and help, it morphed into the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas (ASC).  In 1973, she conceived and organized the  Women and the Arts: A Conference on Creativity,  the first of its kind in the region. It was one of several events she organized for the ASC. Governor Dale Bumpers appointed her to the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women.  In 1975,  Freeman was  hired by  Townsend Wolfe as the Arkansas Arts Center’s Director of State Services, a job  she held for the next five years. Her eleven year old son’s repeatedly asking when she was going to stop working brought her commute and her job to an end, an agreeable one.        

In 1982, she was instrumental in establishing  Pine Bluff Sister Cities. With the help of Century Tube, a Japanese firm headquartered in Pine Bluff, Iwai City, Japan, and Pine Bluff became Sister Cities in 1984. Pine Bluff city officials and employees, students, teachers  and  interested citizens visited Iwai and people from Iwai visited Pine Bluff, one of the state’s international port cities.  She has served on the boards of the Arkansas Arts Center, the Mid-American Arts Alliance and the Arkansas Arts Council. (In view of her background in psychology, she has served as  a longstanding member of the UAMS Advisory Board of the Psychiatric  Research Institute.) 

Freeman is the founding director of the non-profit Architecture and Design Network (ADN) which got underway in  2003. Securing the support of the Arkansas Arts Center, the UA Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design (FJSAD) and the central section of the Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), Freeman  launched a  series of free public lectures by distinguished architects.  Retiring  as director at the end of 2016, she continues to serve as a  board member. She was named a honorary member of the FJSAD  Dean’s Circle and, in 2013,  was given an Award of Merit  by the state Chapter of the AIA at its annual meeting. In 2016 the ADN board named the lecture series for her. 

Freeman and her husband, who retired as publisher of the Pine Bluff Commercial, moved to Little Rock in 1995. The couple has  four children and six grandchildren. 

2017 Inductee

Maya Angelou was an internationally renowned bestselling author, poet, actor, and performer, as well as a pioneering activist for the rights of African Americans and of women. Her first published book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), was an autobiographical account of her childhood, including the ten years she lived in Stamps (Lafayette County) with her grandmother. The popular and critical success of the book was the foundation of her career as an author and public figure, as well as the basis of her identification as an Arkansas author. She was in the first group of inductees into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 1993. She held over fifty honorary university degrees, along with many other awards recognizing her accomplishments in the arts and her service to human rights.

Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Bailey Johnson, who was a naval dietitian, and Vivian Baxter Johnson, who was a nurse. Angelou had one sibling, her older brother Bailey Jr.; he called her "Maya," his version of "my sister."

After the divorce of their parents in 1931, Marguerite and Bailey Jr. were sent to Arkansas to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, and their uncle, Willie, in Stamps. Henderson owned the only grocery store in the small town and reared the children according to the strict Christian values common in the rural South at that time. The family encountered the racial prejudice of the white customers in the store and of the community leaders generally. In her autobiography, Angelou recounted chafing at the attitudes she encountered of people who seemed to condone the limited opportunities available for black high school graduates of the time. Later, Angelou suggested that her faith and Christian beliefs—as well as her strong sense of fair play and realization of her own and others' inner beauty—stemmed from these early experiences.

In 1935, the children were returned to the care of their mother in St. Louis but were sent back to Stamps after it was discovered that Marguerite had been sexually molested by her mother’s boyfriend. The man was tried and convicted but then released; he was found dead soon after. The eight-year-old girl felt guilty and believed that her voice had caused the death of the rapist, so she became mute and remained so for several years.

The two children once again moved to be with their mother—this time to San Francisco, California. After dropping out of high school, Marguerite was briefly employed as a cable car conductor, the first black person ever to hold that position. She returned to Mission High School and earned a scholarship to study dance, drama, and music at San Francisco’s Labor School, where she also learned about the progressive ideologies that may have served as a foundation for her later social and political activism. In 1944, three weeks after graduation, she gave birth to her son, Claude (who later changed his name to Guy). She had no further formal education.

At the age of twenty-one, she married a Greek sailor, Tosh Angelos. Before they divorced in 1952, when she was singing at the Purple Onion nightclub in San Francisco, she created her professional name by combining a variation of his surname with her brother’s nickname for her, Maya. Eventually, she legally changed her name to Maya Angelou.

In 1954–55, she toured Europe and Africa in a State Department–sponsored production of the opera Porgy and Bess. In 1955, she moved with her son to New York City, where she studied modern dance with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. She appeared in television shows and released an album called Miss Calypso in 1957, also appearing in the film Calypso Heat Wave the same year. A composer of poems and song lyrics since her teen years, she continued to develop her writing skills. 

She met prominent members of the African-American creative community and performed in Jean Genet’s The Blacks. With Godfrey Cambridge she produced Cabaret for Freedom, a fundraiser for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in SCLC, recruited Angelou as its northern coordinator in 1960. 

In the early 1960s, she met South African freedom fighter and civil rights advocate Vusumzi Make, a leader of the Pan Africanist Congress who was then living in New York City. They moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she became editor of the weekly newspaper the Arab Observer. In 1963, she and her son left Egypt for Ghana, where she met Malcolm X. She became an assistant administrator at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama and later a feature editor for the African Review, as well as a feature writer for the Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company, where she also recorded public service announcements.

Upon returning to the United States, Angelou rejoined the civil rights movement, working with Malcolm X in the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, and King was assassinated in 1968—on April 4, Angelou's birthday.

In reaction to these events, Angelou—encouraged by novelist James Baldwin—began writing the first installment of her life story, including an account of her years in Arkansas. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was first published in 1970 and has since been translated into more than ten languages. Her experiences in the civil rights movement were a focus of a later autobiography, The Heart of a Woman (1981). Enjoying her burgeoning career as a writer, lecturer, and public personality following the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she wrote the screenplay for Georgia, Georgia, a Swedish-American film; it was the first screenplay by an African American to be filmed. A collection of her poems, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972.

Winning much critical acclaim and becoming a national figure who was always in demand for public appearances, she continued to maintain her political activism. The running themes in all of her works, both about herself and about the world, deal with the individual’s wish and right to survive in a non-hostile world. Believing that hatred and racism destroy that which is good and basic in humankind, she struggled to provide simple, down-to-earth solutions to the problems that threaten the world.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford appointed her to the Bicentennial Commission. In 1981, she received a lifetime appointment to the Reynolds Chair of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, she read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. She read her poem "A Brave and Startling Truth" at the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations and "From a Black Woman to a Black Man" at the Million Man March in 1995.

Angelou had a distinctive and compelling speaking voice, and, at six feet tall, a powerful physical presence enhanced by her training in dance and stage performance. Angelou was nominated for a 1977 Emmy Award for her portrayal of Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in Alex Haley’s television miniseries Roots. Angelou appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, and the Tavis Smiley Show. She also started a Hallmark greeting cards line called Life Mosaic. The movie Poetic Justice (1993) featured poetry written by Angelou and performed by Janet Jackson. In 1998, she made her film directing debut with Down in the Delta (1998). In 2006, she had a starring role in Tyler Perry's Medea's Family Reunion. In 2002, she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for A Song Flung Up to Heaven.

Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2000. On February 15, 2011, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. In 2013, she received the Literarian Award from the National Book Foundation and the Mailer Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Norman Mailer Center.

Her body of published works includes autobiographies, numerous poetry collections, a book of essays, several plays, a screenplay, and a cookbook. Among her many works are Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes (2004), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013).

After a period of ill health, Angelou was found dead by her caretaker on May 28, 2014, in North Carolina. In June 2014, the town of Stamps renamed its only park in her honor. On April 7, 2015, the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp in honor of Angelou. In March 2016, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure to rename a post office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after Angelou.

(Courtesy of: Encyclopedia of Arkansas, CALS)

(Images courtesy of:  Persistence of the Spirit collection, PS14_08: Maya Angelou on January 23, 1983. PS24_06: a negative of Maya Angelou, Arkansas State Archives)

2017 Inductee

Pat Lile’s mantra challenge to people in our state for decades has been “Who will build Arkansas if her own people do not?”  She was powerfully influenced by this question which was the message on a billboard on the north side of the bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock in 1957. When the National Guard was sent by President Eisenhower to the capital city to protect students integrating Little Rock Central High and to keep the peace in September 1957 during the crisis under Governor Faubus, a photograph of that billboard took on a powerful new meaning.   After their years at Hendrix College, she and her husband John moved to Durham, North Carolina, for him to attend Duke University Law School. That question loomed large in their thinking, they realized in retrospect, as they made the decision to Arkansas in June of 1962. They have not regretted that return home. 

Since then, Lile has enjoyed two volunteer and professional careers of almost 30 years each, the first 28 years in Pine Bluff and since 1990, in Little Rock. She became known for her community building efforts both locally and statewide, focusing on the importance of leadership development and on philanthropy, the giving of individual and corporate financial resources. Don Munro challenged her by saying that he wanted to see the time come in Arkansas that philanthropy would be as frequent a topic of conversation as  Razorback sports! She set out, through the Arkansas Community Foundation to which Munro contributed significantly, to help make that a reality.  Dr. Tom Bruce, also a major contributor, was her ally in that effort which continues even today under the able Heather Larkin who succeeded Lile as president and CEO in 2008. 
                                                                                                                    

Pat Lile culminated her professional career by serving as President and CEO of the Arkansas Community Foundation, Inc. from mid 1996 through the end of 2007 when she retired.  Her previous positions in Little Rock included serving as Executive Director of the Commission for Arkansas’ Future, a state planning effort from 1990-1995, and as Interim Executive Director of the Family Service Agency.  

Prior to moving with her family to Little Rock, she and her family lived in Pine Bluff for 28 years, where she was very active in the community as a volunteer. Among her charitable involvements was the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary which she served as president. She also served on the Board of the United Way of Southeast Arkansas for which she was the first woman to serve as drive co-chairman, and the first woman to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors, a position she held for two years. She was an active member of the League of Women Voters in those years. She ran two major tax initiative campaigns for the city, and led two millage campaigns for the public schools, all successful. A Brownie Scout leader, she was also an active volunteer in the public schools from which their 4 children all graduated.  She was awarded a lifetime membership in the PTA and was given the Lester Silbernagel Award by the Pine Bluff School District. As a member of the Junior League of Pine Bluff, she chaired several committees and was a delegate to the League’s national child advocacy conference in the mid 1970’s. She also led a community task force which established the first SCAN child abuse chapter outside of Little Rock. A supporter of the Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, she chaired its first benefit dinner and charitable auction. As an active member of First Presbyterian Church in Pine Bluff, she was the first woman to serve as annual stewardship campaign chair, and was honored to be one of the first women elected as an Elder to serve on the Session. 

She and her husband John founded Leadership Pine Bluff in 1981, the first program of its type in the state, and she was its executive director for 9 years. She organized NALO for other leadership programs in the state and led its annual conference for several years. Concurrently, she led the nonprofit community-planning and improvement program entitled Pine Bluff 2000 and was Vice President for Community Development of the Greater Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce. She completed the Community Development Institute at UCA in the late 80’s.  She was a founding board member and officer of the Pine Bluff Affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation in 1987, the second local Affiliate formed in the state. In a newspaper poll naming the Top Ten Most Influential Residents of the city, she was the only woman chosen. In 1982 she was honored with the Community Service Award from Channel 4 and the Governor’s Office on Volunteerism for her efforts to build Pine Bluff. She co-founded Synergy Forum, a 50-member women’s philanthropic grantmaking organization in Pine Bluff. In 1977 she was one of the co-founders of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and served on its Board for 10 years, including service as Board Chair. 

As a resident of Little Rock since 1990, Lile has served on the Boards of Baptist Health Foundation, the Metropolitan YMCA, JCA (Just Communities of Arkansas, formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews), City Year Little Rock/North Little Rock, and Lifequest.  Lile was the first Arkansas woman to be chosen to participate in Leadership America, and served on the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce steering committee which created Leadership Arkansas. She also has served on the Garvan Woodland Gardens advisory council and is a member of the advisory board of WAND (Women’s Action for New Directions). She was a co-founder of the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance (formerly named ACE) and served on its board for many years. She is a sustaining member of the Junior League of Little Rock, and formerly a member of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, where she was named a Paul Harris Fellow. After retirement, she served for two years as a consultant on the nonprofit sector for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and is a volunteer speaker on various topics such as leadership, community development, stewardship, volunteerism, board governance and philanthropy.

Currently she is serving her eleventh year and second term as Chair of the Board of Trustees of Philander Smith College. She also serves on the Boards of the U. S. Marshals Museum and the Joseph Pfeifer Kiwanis Camp. 

Lile has received a number of other honors including the Arkansas Community Foundation’s Lugean Chilcote award in the late 80’s and its “Roots and Wings” Arkansas Benefactor award on her retirement.  She received the Award of Excellence from the Arkansas Community Development program.  She was named by the Governor as a member of the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Commission for the 1986 celebration year. In 1989 Lile was named as co-honoree (with Dr. Joycelyn Elders) as "Citizen of the Year" by the Arkansas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She is a 1995 graduate of Leadership America, a nationwide leadership program for outstanding women, and was the first Arkansas native chosen to participate. Entergy, Inc. awarded her its “Distinguished Leadership Award” in 1997. Appointed by then President Bill Clinton, she was the only Arkansan to attend the 1999 White House Conference on Philanthropy. Lile was honored four times as one of the "Top 100 Women of Arkansas" by Arkansas Business. In 2004 the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Arkansas Commission named her the recipient of a “Salute to Greatness” Community Service Award.

 She is a founding member of AWLF (the Arkansas Women's Leadership Forum) and was a co-founder with Olivia Farrell of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas, twice honored her, the first time at its “Power of the Purse” luncheon in 2002, and again by naming her “Arkansas Woman of the Year in Philanthropy” in 2007. She was honored in 2008 with the “Lifetime of Service” Award by City Year Little Rock/North Little Rock and with the Billie Ann Myers “Paragon” award by the Division of Volunteerism. In March of 2009 Lile was named by Arkansas Business, the state’s premier weekly business publication, as one of the top 25 Arkansas women leaders over the past 25 years, one of only two from the philanthropic sector.  In March of 2010 Lile was presented the Father Joseph Biltz award from Just Communities of Arkansas (JCA), and was named recipient of the James E. Harris Nonprofit Leadership award in 2016 by the Arkansas Nonprofit Alliance. 

Under Lile’s leadership for almost 12 years, the Arkansas Community Foundation assets grew from just under $15 million to almost $130 million, and its statewide Affiliate system grew to include 26 local community foundations offices, with a staff of 11 full-time and 26 part-time. ARCF is one of the five largest grantmaking foundations in the state.  Lile retired as President and CEO effective 31 December 2007. 

Lile is a native of Hope, Arkansas. After attending Hendrix College, in 1959 she married John Gardner Lile III, who is now a retired attorney. They have four grown children, seven grandchildren, and one great grandchild. They are active members of First United Methodist Church where she serves on several boards and committees and is the volunteer Director of Planned Giving. 
 

2017 Inductee

Ruth Hawkins of Jonesboro is best known around the state for her strong advocacy for historic preservation and heritage tourism.  As she is quick to point out, it is not that she is enamored of old buildings; rather, it is the heritage they represent and how they can be utilized to tell the stories of Arkansas to the rest of the world.

Hawkins has been at Arkansas State University since 1978, with most of her early years there as Vice President for Institutional Advancement.  While traveling throughout the region to raise funds and friends for the university, this St. Louis native fell in love with the Arkansas Delta and its rich heritage.  Looking for ways to merge needs of the region with programs and opportunities offered by the university, her first heritage project was raising funds to acquire and restore property in Piggott, Arkansas, that once belonged to Paul and Mary Pfeiffer.  The Pfeiffers’ son-in-law, legendary author Ernest Hemingway, was a frequent visitor and wrote portions of A Farewell to Arms in their barn.  The project opened in 1999 as the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center and led to Hawkins’s decision to devote full-time to preserving the heritage of the Arkansas Delta. The project also led to the publication of her book, Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow:  The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Marriage, which is the only biographical work that focuses on Hemingway’s relationship with the Pfeiffer family.

Under her leadership, the Arkansas State University Heritage Sites program now has grown to include the Southern Tenant Farmers Museum in Tyronza, the Lakeport Plantation near Lake Village, and the Historic Dyess Colony:  Johnny Cash Boyhood Home. In addition to serving as economic catalysts in the rural communities where they are located, these sites provide research and field experiences for students in A-State Heritage Studies Ph.D. program, which Hawkins helped launch.  She also serves as Executive Director of Arkansas Delta Byways, Inc., a tourism promotion association serving 15 counties in Eastern Arkansas.  She led the efforts to develop two National Scenic Byways, the Crowley’s Ridge Parkway and the Arkansas segment of The Great River Road, and serves as a technical advisor to the Mississippi River Parkway Commission.  She has the unique distinction of serving as chairman for both the 75th Anniversary Celebration and the Centennial Celebration for Arkansas State University.

Her work has been recognized through numerous state and national preservation awards, including the Parker Westbrook Award for Lifetime Achievement in preservation, a Preservation Honors Award through the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Lifetime Achievement Award through the Arkansas Historical Association, the Peg Newton Smith Lifetime Achievement Award through the Arkansas Museums Association, and induction into the Arkansas Tourism Hall of Fame.  Hawkins has served on numerous boards and commissions and is a member of the International Women’s Forum of Arkansas, the Board of Trustees for The Delta School in Wilson, and the Jonesboro Rotary Club.

2017 Inductee

The mission of the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters is the same today as when they first came to Arkansas in 1887: serving God and all those in need. To their original ministries of education and health care have been added Hispanic ministry, prison ministry, and other apostolates that would have been unimaginable to those first four Sisters who founded the congregation. 

In 1900, just thirteen years after the foundation of their community, the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters established St. Bernards Hospital and Regional Medical Center. Today, the Sisters remain active in the governing and pastoral care of St. Bernards, the leading health care provider in Northeast Arkansas.

God continues to bless this community with new vocations as women of faith seek to follow their Master who came "not to be served, but to serve." 

2016 Inductee

Betty Ann Lowe, M.D., was an exemplary pediatrician, diagnostician, educator, and advocate for children, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the state of Arkansas.  She was known to be homespun, devoted, generous and tenacious beyond compare!  Her parents, John W. and Winnie Lowe were public school administrators and educators.   Betty was educated in the public schools of rural Texas and Arkansas, the University of Arkansas and the U of A Medical School venturing out of state only to Boston’s Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School for residency training.  She attributed her 25 years of private pediatric practice in Texarkana, AR/TX as preparing her to understand the struggle of families and local physicians and the need for better access to medical care for all residents of the state.  To quote her, “To practice medicine for a period of time is a major factor toward being an effective clinical teacher”.  She then set out to educate over two generations of pediatric physicians in the next three decades of her career.   

Betty was active on boards and committees locally for such agencies as Camp Aldersgate, Easter Seals, and Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families (she was a founder of this group).  She also enjoyed being part of the International Women’s Forum of Arkansas and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Women’s Foundation of Arkansas.  She was named the recipient of the Father Joseph Blitz Award given by Arkansas Just Communities; the Paul Harris Fellow Award of Rotary International for community service; graduated first in her UAMS medical school class; elected to membership in the medical honor society of Alpha Omega Alpha; 1980 the Golden Apple Teaching Award from UAMS; 1982 the Arkansas Caduceus Club Distinguished Faculty Award; American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)--member, Fellow, Vice President and President (only Arkansan to serve and the second woman to be elected nationally for President); received the Milton Senn Award from AAP in 1996 for contributions to school health; 1982 the President's 75th Anniversary Award at ACH; and the UAMS Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Achievements in Science and Medicine in 2002.  Dr. Lowe was named as the first recipient of the Harvey and Bernice Jones Chair in Pediatrics in 1997.   President William J. Clinton appointed her as an advisor to his Task Force for Health Care Reform.   Because Betty had such a passion for teaching physicians, nurses and other health care professionals her family, medical colleagues, former students and patients honored her with the establishment of the Betty Ann Lowe, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Education in 1999.  As part of her legacy to ACH she directed her estate to provide for continuing support of the Division of Pediatric Rheumatology at ACH and a Chair was established for a Board Certified Pediatric Rheumatologist in 2013.

She was known as a role model for students and physicians; not just for female students, but also for all students.  She was fair and demanded the best effort from herself and others.  As one student recalled, “ She did not tolerate laziness” or students who only wanted to do enough to “get by”.  “Not living up to individual potential” was a lesson learned at an early age within her family and carried over into all aspects of her professional career.  She not only believed that excellence could be achieved in life, but that no one should even consider not “going for it”.  

Dr. Lowe achieved many firsts in her career starting at an early age as valedictorian of Fourche Valley High School (Briggsville, Arkansas) and graduating first in her UAMS medical school class; but she never aspired to be ‘first’ only because something would attract attention to her.  Quite the contrary, as Medical Director for Arkansas Children’s Hospital and Associate Dean of Pediatrics at University of Arkansas Medical Sciences, she was known to put the patients, families and students first.  She insisted that the needs of patients and physicians come before “remodeling her office to look like a real physician’s office when that money could be used for patient care”.  The ‘firsts’ she celebrated were those achieved by Arkansas Children’s Hospital in patient care, pediatric education, and clinical research. Over the next twenty-five years Dr. Lowe assisted with a number of firsts for ACH: a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with 12 bassinets; a state of the art ambulatory care service; open heart surgery; bone marrow transplant; heart transplant; NICU expanded to 55 beds; and a cooperative agreement with UAMS and ACH for the establishment of a joint state of the art Research Institute.

During her tenure as Medical Director the ACH expanded from a 45-bed, 2 patient wards to a modern teaching hospital with more than 260 beds, 70 specialty clinics and a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Although she worked with excellent boards, administrators, and physicians over those years, there were the “dis-believers” who thought some of her ideas “were off the wall” and just could not be done.  Her answer to those was, “We won't know until we try, will we?”  

As President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the first and only Arkansan to date to hold that title, she was an advocate for health care reforms for children and medical education by challenging policies of the day, and advising politicians as well as physicians to “step up to the plate” and get moving with improving situations like poverty, public health issues (clean water, sanitation, adequate food for good nutrition, etc.), and health insurance.  Many thought these were inappropriate issues for pediatricians, but Betty was relentless in showing how getting at the “root causes of illness and disease was essential to improving treatment and keeping children well”.

Aunt Bett, as she was known within the family, counted the nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews as her children and patients when the need arose. A very special treat for her was getting to visit with her first great-great niece and to get a late night phone call from her mom (the great niece) about what she should do about a “red rash’’!  Aunt Bett would have liked for one of her nieces or nephews to become a Pediatrician. When one great niece told her she wanted to pursue Nursing, she replied, “Yep, yep, I think that is great!  Be you and do what you love and success and happiness are sure to follow”.  She was always supportive of the “kids” as she called them.

At one point she aspired to be a professional basketball player, but gave that up when she realized she would not be taller than five feet four inches.   She had tremendous common sense and was practical in assessing her limits.  This did not, however, diminish her competitive spirit in high school and intra-mural basketball in college.  Her “left hook shot” was un-guardable and rarely missed going through the hoop! She was an avid reader with a very diverse subject matter interest and maintained a large stamp and coin collection; always had beautiful flowers in her garden as well as good vegetables (which she tended herself).

Betty prepared well for her chosen profession and never stopped studying and learning even in retirement.  She exemplified what young women in Arkansas and elsewhere can become with education, study, and perseverance. 

In summary, three quotes stand out:  Betty was quoted on many occasions saying, “If you have any ideas about the future of our society then you know that this depends on making sure our children of today have the best health and education we can give them”.  To quote President Bill Clinton at her retirement, “To me, she just took care of kids better than anybody. And she inspired a whole new generation of doctors to do the same. Betty, you have lived your life well in the most noble way possible – pouring yourself out for others”.  One of her great nephews who spoke at her memorial told of an instance when Aunt Bett had said something he had done was “cool”.  He followed by saying that “ When Aunt Bett said something was cool, now that was cool!” 

2016 Inductee

Bettye McDonald Caldwell (December 24, 1924 - April 17, 2016) was an American educator and academic who influenced the development of Head Start.

Caldwell was born in Smithville, Texas, to Thomas and Juanita McDonald. Her family was poor, as her father was a railroad firefighter who lost his job when Caldwell was young. After graduating first in her high school class, Caldwell attended Baylor University, where she was a psychology and speech major. She earned a master's degree at the University of Iowa and a doctorate in psychology at Washington University. After graduate school, Caldwell was on the faculty or staff of several universities, including Northwestern University, Washington University, Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate. 

While at Syracuse, Caldwell worked with pediatrician Julius Richmond on child development studies. Finding that poor children trailed off developmentally after the age of one, they created a day care center for children six months to five years of age. As the first infant group day care, the center required a waiver from the state. Caldwell felt that an emphasis on early childhood education could help to "level the playing field" for poor children before they started kindergarten. In 1964, Caldwell and Richmond's work led to the establishment of the Head Start project under Lyndon B. Johnson. Richmond was the first director of the project.

In the late 1960s, Caldwell moved to Arkansas. Working on the faculty of the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, she established the Kramer Project, an inititive establishing a day care center associated with a Little Rock elementary school. Caldwell joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1974. The school made her Donaghey Distinguished Professor in 1978, the same year that she was one of Ladies' Home Journal's 10 Women of the Year. She was named to the faculty of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1993.

She and her husband, Fred Caldwell, had two children. Fred Caldwell died in 2004. Bettye died in April 2016.

2016 Inductee

As a Community Development advocate, Cathy Cunningham believes in the power of education - cultural, political & economic - to change lives and communities. She believes that young people and adults, who understand the importance of helping to create an improved quality of life for all, can positively affect the direction of a community’s future.

After marrying Ernest Cunningham in 1978 and moving to Helena, she was fortunate to share in the lives of his two sons and now five grandchildren. Mrs. Cunningham soon became a champion of historic preservation and led an effort to restore several historic structures. Upon seeing the dramatic results several friends were easily persuaded to become involved with the restoration of the 1905 Short House, still in operation as the Edwardian Inn Bed & Breakfast.

Cathy Cunningham has been dedicated to the improvement of her ‘adopted’ hometown through tourism and economic development. She was appointed by Governor Frank White to the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (Arkansas Economic Development Commission). She served as Chairman of the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council and as one of the founding board members of the Arkansas Main Street Program. She was the first woman asked to serve on the Board of Arkansas Power & Light (Entergy Arkansas), and has served many years on the Board of First National Bank of Phillips County (Southern Bancorp, Central).

Mrs. Cunningham and her husband were instrumental in the decision of KIPP; the Knowledge is Power Program, to open a school in Helena. A national network of public Charter Schools dedicated to preparing students in underserved communities for success in college & in life; KIPP opened in 2002 with 3 classes of 5th grade students and now serves over 1500 students in Helena-West Helena, Blytheville, and Forrest City. Mrs. Cunningham serves on the Board of KIPP Delta where, as Chairman of the Development Committee, she led a campaign to raise several million dollars to support KIPP Delta Public Schools.

As a Community Development Consultant with Southern Bancorp Community Partners, and as Chair of the Helena Advertising & Promotion Commission, Mrs. Cunningham led the development and implementation of the Civil War Helena project and many tourism related improvements in the community. The Civil War project included the construction of a ¾ replica of the former Ft. Curtis, development of Battery C, construction of Freedom Park, and the placement of more than 100 interpretive kiosks, bronzes, & canons throughout the community. Civil War Helena shares the emotional stories of both Union & Confederate soldiers, Contraband (former slaves) and the families left behind.

2016 Inductee

Kay Kelley Arnold retired from Entergy Corporation as vice president of Public Affairs three years ago and now spends her time gardening, fishing, entertaining friends at her cabin on the Little Red River, playing with her dog Scout, traveling and volunteering for political candidates and non-profit causes she believes in.  She was a pioneer in understanding and acting on the belief that working cooperatively together, government and the private sector can accomplish goals that can not and do not happen alone. She has led award-winning programs that support the environment and economic growth.  She developed effective grass roots campaigns to pass significant legislation and to raise funds for innovative projects that bridge the gaps that exist between economic prosperity and environmental quality. 

Her experience in philanthropy and political action is now focused on several state, regional and national organizations where she serves as a board member and volunteer.  She currently serves on the board of Arkansas Hospice, and is a founding director of two new environmental non-profits, the Arkansas Environmental Defense Alliance and the Little Red River Foundation.  She continues to serve on the national board of The Conservation Fund and is an advisory board member to the Inter-American Foundation and the Foundation of the Mid South.   She is also serving as a citizen advisor to the Metroplan board, appointed by Mayor Mark Stodola and an Arkansas advisor to the Clinton Foundation.   She is an active member of the Arkansas Women’s Forum and serves as an honorary member of Arkansas Women of Power.  

 As the first Arkansas director of the Nature Conservancy field office, she learned the importance of partnerships between government, non-profit and corporate entities. Working together these organizations can accomplish more than any one of them could do by themselves and the societal benefits of these collaborations are both enduring and tangible.  As the Director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage she experienced the power people have to improve their communities when they are focused and flexible to make changes and work diligently toward common goals.  

Public service is part of Kay Kelley Arnold’s DNA.  Her parents, Henry and Tommie Kelley, always participated in the life of their community and taught their children that it was an honor to be asked and a duty to serve, to volunteer their time and talent to the betterment of society, in small and large ways.   That foundation coupled with enlightened employers who understand the value of volunteer opportunities and who encourage employees to find meaningful ways to give back to their community gave Kay the love, spirit and ability to get involved in a wide variety of projects.

For almost 40 years, Kay has been an active volunteer, serving and leading on more than 45 Board of Directors for non-profit and governmental agency advisory boards at the local, state, national, and international levels.  As her numerous board and committee positions attest, Kay utilizes her passion for the environment and her commitment to eliminating poverty and expanding economic opportunity to advocate for meaningful change, both within Arkansas and beyond.  

Arnold’s decade of volunteer service to the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, the body responsible for setting policy for Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, brought momentous improvements to the airport’s passenger experience while dramatically increasing its economic impact on the state of Arkansas.

Arnold, who twice served as chairwoman, was influential in changing the airport’s longstanding business model with airlines, an unheard-of move at the time.  This enabled the airport commission to begin retaining record earnings, which have helped to bring about $90 million in improvements during the largest construction initiative within the organization’s history.  The projects have included a new ticket lobby, baggage claim renovation, an enlarged security checkpoint in addition to an upcoming concourse renovation.  Much of the work, which was completed by local contractors, began at the end of the recession, and provided a much needed spur to the local economy.  The first phase of the terminal redevelopment project was completed in May 2013 with President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton in attendance to celebrate the airport’s transformation, and formally dedicate the facility as Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.   The concourse renovation, the last portion of the long-term project, will start later this summer.

Clinton National Airport, which is now debt free, has been a trailblazer as airports across the country have since adopted the Little Rock Airport’s best practices, set forth by the airport commission, as their choice financial model for future success.  

The airport is home to nearly 4,000 jobs with approximately half of those located at Dassault-Falcon Jet Corporation.  Occupying more than 1-million square feet, Dassault-Falcon’s operation at Clinton National is the largest in the world.  In 2013 during Arnold’s last term as chairwoman, Dassault was looking at several communities that were vying to be the site of the company’s new facility to serve as the completion center for two new jets, the Falcon 5X and the Falcon 8X.  Arnold was exceedingly determined that Little Rock would be chosen, which would result in a 250-thousand square foot expansion and additional, good paying jobs.  Through Arnold’s leadership, the airport provided $41 million in rent incentives, which helped Little Rock win the project that was completed in November 2015.

2016 Inductee

Lottie H. Shackelford has made history throughout her impressive 40 plus years in local, state and national politics.  In 1987, she became the first woman elected Mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas.  Six years later, President Bill Clinton appointed her to the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), making her the first African American woman to serve on that Board. She also has the distinction of having the longest tenure as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), having served for 20 years and is currently Vice Chair Emeritus and Chair of the DNC Women’s Caucus.

Ms. Shackelford's political career began in 1978 when she was appointed to the Board of Directors for the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. She was elected and re-elected city wide three times before being elected the City’s first woman Mayor. During her tenure in local government, Ms. Shackelford directed liaison activities for minority businesses and held leadership positions in the National League of Cities. Additionally, she presented papers and conducted lecture tours on local government, economic development and electoral politics nationally and in European and African countries, as well as, leading economic trade missions to Asian countries.

For the past several decades, Ms. Shackelford has worked tirelessly with the Democratic Party and has been a delegate to every Democratic National Convention since 1980. Her national political experience includes senior positions on presidential campaigns, working on White House transition teams, and Co-Chair of the 1988 DNC Convention.

With wide-ranging institutional knowledge and political experience, Ms. Shackelford remains an invaluable asset to the Democratic Party.  During her tenure as DNC Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation, Ms. Shackelford traveled across the country and around the world, sharing the Democratic Party’s message and engaging voters in the political process. She regularly participated in political forums in other countries, including Azerbaijan, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, and observed elections and the electoral process in Romania, the Baltics, West Germany and Taiwan.

Ms. Shackelford has also been an active member, locally and nationally, of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and has received numerous honors and awards with some of the most coveted being a recipient of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Trailblazer Award in 1980 the Mary Church Terrell Award in 1998 at National Convention, The Delta Legacy Award at the 42nd National Convention, Esquire Magazines 40 most influential African Americans in 1984, induction into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 1993, Woman of Distinction, 2003, Jimmie Lou Fisher-Lottie Shackelford Dinner, 2014 to honor women who have worked tirelessly on behalf of key issues that affect women in Arkansas and a Greek Legend Honoree in 2015.

Ms. Shackelford received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas and was a Senior Fellow at the Arkansas Institute of Politics and a 1983 Fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

She has an extensive record of having served on numerous boards and commissions such as the Board of Directors of Philander Smith College, Little Rock, AR, Southern Regional Council, Atlanta, GA, and Little Rock Airport Commission. Ms. Shackelford is also a member of many civic and social organizations including the Urban League, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., The Links, Inc. and The Southern Youth Leadership Development Institute.

A native of Little Rock, Arkansas and a member of the First Baptist Church of Little Rock, Ms. Shackelford is a proud mother of three adult children, a son and two  daughters, and a devoted grandmother of six.  She is a mentor to dozens of young women and men interested in politics and continues to open doors for future generations who want to serve the public.

2016 Inductee

Joycelyn Elders, the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology, was the fifteenth Surgeon General of the United States, the first African American and only the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service. Long an outspoken advocate of public health, Elders was appointed Surgeon General by President Clinton in 1993.

Born to poor farming parents in 1933, Joycelyn Elders grew up in a rural, segregated, poverty-stricken pocket of Arkansas. She was the eldest of eight children, and she and her siblings had to combine work in the cotton fields from age 5 with their education at a segregated school thirteen miles from home. They often missed school during harvest time, September to December.

After graduating from high school, she earned a scholarship to the all-black liberal arts Philander Smith College in Little Rock. While she scrubbed floors to pay for her tuition, her brothers and sisters picked extra cotton and did chores for neighbors to earn her $3.43 bus fare. In college, she enjoyed biology and chemistry, but thought that lab technician was likely her highest calling. Her ambitions changed when she heard Edith Irby Jones, the first African American to attend the University of Arkansas Medical School, speak at a college sorority. Elders—who had not even met a doctor until she was 16 years old—decided that becoming a physician was possible, and she wanted to be like Jones.

After college, Elders joined the Army and trained in physical therapy at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After discharge in 1956 she enrolled at the University of Arkansas Medical School on the G.I. Bill. Although the Supreme Court had declared separate but equal education unconstitutional two years earlier, Elders was still required to use a separate dining room—where the cleaning staff ate. She met her husband, Oliver Elders, while performing physical exams for the high school basketball team he managed, and they were married in 1960.

Elders did an internship in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, and in 1961 returned to the University of Arkansas for her residency. Elders became chief resident in charge of the all-white, all-male residents and interns. She earned her master's degree in biochemistry in 1967, became an assistant professor of pediatrics at the university's Medical School in 1971, and full professor in 1976.

Over the next twenty years, Elders combined her clinical practice with research in pediatric endocrinology, publishing well over a hundred papers, most dealing with problems of growth and juvenile diabetes. This work led her to study of sexual behavior and her advocacy on behalf of adolescents. She saw that young women with diabetes face health risks if they become pregnant too young—include spontaneous abortion and possible congenital abnormalities in the infant. She helped her patients to control their fertility and advised them on the safest time to start a family.

Governor Bill Clinton appointed Joycelyn Elders head of the Arkansas Department of Health in 1987. As she campaigned for clinics and expanded sex education, she caused a storm of controversy among conservatives and some religious groups. Yet, largely because of her lobbying, in 1989 the Arkansas Legislature mandated a K-12 curriculum that included sex education, substance-abuse prevention, and programs to promote self-esteem. From 1987 to 1992, she nearly doubled childhood immunizations, expanded the state's prenatal care program, and increased home-care options for the chronically or terminally ill.

In 1993, President Clinton appointed Dr. Elders U.S. Surgeon General. Despite opposition from conservative critics, she was confirmed and sworn in on September 10, 1993. During her fifteen months in office she faced skepticism regarding her progressive policies yet continued to bring controversial issues up for debate. As she later concluded, change can only come about when the Surgeon General can get people to listen and talk about difficult subjects.

Dr. Elders left office in 1994 and in 1995 she returned to the University of Arkansas as a faculty researcher and professor of pediatric endocrinology at the Arkansas Children's Hospital. In 1996 she wrote her autobiography, Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America.

Now retired from practice, she is a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, and remains active in public health education.

2016 Inductee

Patti Upton of Heber Springs is the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Aromatique Inc., a multi-million-dollar international company that launched the decorative fragrance industry. Before Upton, American women brought color and fragrance to their home only by using live flowers. She changed the world with decorative fragrance in open bowls, as well as fragranced candles. Aromatique, founded in 1982, now features many fragrance product lines, complete with accessories and decorative containers, and a full bath line. Her first fragrance creation – The Smell of Christmas – was made up of Arkansas native botanicals such as acorns, pine cones, gumballs and hickory nuts, fragranced with spices and oils. Placed in a friend’s shop, the fragrance sold out and customers clamored for more. Today the company employs more than 200 people in Arkansas. Media took notice, including People magazine, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," the London Sunday Express, Southern Living and the Washington Post. Upton has been recognized by Working Woman magazine, the International Women's Forum, the Society of Entrepreneurs and the Easter Seal Society. She was honored as the Arkansas Business Woman Owner of the Year and her company as the Arkansas Business of the Year. Several organizations have benefitted from her philanthropic work, including the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and The Nature Conservancy. Upton was recognized with the Distinguished Citizen Award from Little Rock’s KARK-TV and the Office of the Governor of the State of Arkansas for her charitable work.  In February, 2016,  Patti was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

2016 Inductee

Pat Walker was born in Boise, Idaho, on May 9, 1919.  She was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  After Pat graduated from high school, she and her mother moved to Coffeyville, Kansas, where she met her future husband, Willard.    Pat and Willard lived in several different towns before settling in Springdale to raise their two children, Patricia and Johnny Mike.  Pat feels blessed to have shared 61 years of marriage with Willard before he passed away in February, 2003.   She has seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren: each one brings her great happiness.  Every day is a celebration of life as she enjoys time with friends and family.

In 1986, Willard and Pat created the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation.  Since that time, their generosity has touched the lives of thousands of Arkansans.  Pat still serves as a lifetime board member for the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, is an active member of SpringCreek Fellowship of Springdale, and pursues an active role in the Walker Charitable Foundation.   As one of the Razorback’s most loyal fans, Pat enjoys the spirit of the fans and the competition of the games, especially in football, baseball, basketball and gymnastics.  

Many awards have been bestowed upon Pat in recognition of her philanthropy, including the 2002 American Heart Association Tiffany Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Razorback Foundation and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Distinguished Service Award.  She has been recognized as one of the Most Distinguished Women in Arkansas.  Pat and Willard were inducted into the Towers of Old Main in 2001 and are long-time members of the University of Arkansas Chancellor’s Society and the UAMS Chancellor’s Society. Pat served as honorary chairperson in 2005 for Komen Ozark Race for the Cure. 

Pat Walker has left her mark on many institutions across the state. In 1996, the Pat Walker Theater was dedicated at the Springdale High School.   The Pat Walker Health Center was dedicated in November, 2004, at the University of Arkansas Fayetteville campus. In 2007, the University of the Ozark’s dedicated the Pat Walker Teacher Education Program.   The Pat Walker Center for Seniors at Washington Regional Medical Center was opened in April, 2008, recognizing Pat as a role model for senior adults.  In 2010, Arkansas Children’s Hospital named the Pat Walker Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in honor of Pat’s commitment to healthcare. 

Through philanthropy, Pat has provided many people with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Each gift has come with a sincere desire to better others lives. Ozark Guidance, Circle of Life Hospice, The Jones Center for Families, the Fayetteville Public Library, the Springdale Public Library, Crystal Bridges and many other Northwest Arkansas organizations have received the philanthropic support of the Walker Charitable Foundation.   As well, many scholarships bearing the Walker name have been set up across the State to enable students to further their education and reach their full potential in life.  

Willard and Pat Walker made the decision together to focus on healthcare and education in their state and community.  Pat looks forward to continuing this mission for many years to come. 

2016 Inductee

In 1824, Catherine McAuley found herself a wealthy heiress. For years, she had observed in her native Ireland, the plight of single women and the poor.  Now, with the finances, she began in earnest to address these needs; gradually others were attracted to assist. As many joined her ranks, though she had no intention to form a religious community, in 1841, it became increasingly necessary for organizational support.  The rest is history! Within a few years, the Sisters were providing shelter and education for poor women and children throughout Ireland and England, coming to Little Rock Arkansas in 1851. Mount St. Mary Academy, the oldest continuously operated high school in Arkansas, was the Sister’s first focus, later responding to health and social needs. Through the years, the Sisters embraced the needs of ALL including the Civil War, where in Helena, wounded soldiers from both Union and Confederate armies received their care.

In Arkansas, over the last 165 years, the sheer number of lives the Sisters have touched is overwhelming! Currently there are seven Mercy Hospitals, a residential care facility, schools and direct services to the needy.  The influence of “Mercy” in Arkansas and many parts of the United States has and continues to spread far and wide, driven by the Direction Statement of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas:

“Animated by the Gospel and Catherine McAuley’s passion for the poor, we, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, are impelled to commit our lives and resources to act in solidarity with the economically poor, especially women and children; Women seeking fullness of life and equality in church and society; One another as we embrace our multicultural and international reality”.

2015 Inductee

Alice Walton is the founder of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and now serves as Chairwoman of the Museum’s Board of Directors. Ms.Walton is the youngest of four children born to the late Helen Walton and the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

An avid horsewoman, nature lover and art collector, Ms. Walton envisioned creating a significant art museum in her hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, so that people of the region would have ready access to great works of art. She conceived Crystal Bridges as a celebration not only of American art and history, but of the Ozark landscape she loved and explored as a child, and planned to build the museum on land that had belonged to the Walton family for years. In 2005, Alice involved her family in her dream for Crystal Bridges, and the Walton Family Foundation agreed to fund the project.

Nestled in 120-acres of Ozark woodlands—a gift from the Walton family to Crystal Bridges— the museum opened on 11-11-11 with the mission of welcoming all to celebrate the American spirit in a setting that unites the power of art with the beauty of nature. The establishment of the museum and its impact within the region has prompted numerous accolades for Ms. Walton, including  Headliner of the Year by the Arkansas Press Association, inclusion on the 2012 "TIME 100" list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art Medal. 

Ms. Walton serves as a member of the board of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Trustees' Council of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. She currently lives in central Texas, where she raises cutting horses and operates the Rocking W Ranch.

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2015 Inductee

Betty Bumpers, former First Lady of Arkansas, wife of former U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers, has dedicated her life to issues affecting children’s health, empowering women, and the cause of world peace. A former art teacher educated at Iowa State, the University of Arkansas, and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, Betty Bumpers is the mother of three children and has seven grandchildren.

When she became First Lady of Arkansas, the state had one of the lowest immunization rates in the nation. Mrs. Bumpers spearheaded a statewide immunization program for childhood vaccinations, and the state achieved one of the highest immunization rates in the country. The “Every Child By “74” project model that brought together the Arkansas League for Nursing, the State Health Department, the Arkansas National Guard, the State Nurses Association, the State Medical Society, and the Cooperative Extension Service of the University of Arkansas, faith-based organizations, and other volunteers, was so successful it was used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for immunization programs across America. It continued into the next decade.

When Jimmy Carter became President, Mrs. Bumpers contacted him and explained the deficits in the country’s immunization program, and urged him to work to improve the situation. At that time, only 17 states in the country required immunizations by school age. Mrs. Bumpers” and Mrs. Carter’s advocacy led to the first federal initiative in comprehensive childhood immunization, launched in 1977. These efforts led to laws in every state requiring vaccinations before entry into school. Today, more than 95% of American children are immunized by the time they go to school. The CDC says it is the most successful public health program they have ever had.

In 1991, responding to the 1989-1991 measles epidemic, Betty Bumpers and Rosalynn Carter founded Every Child by Two to ensure that all children in America are immunized on schedule by age two and that states develop immunization registries. Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala said, “from Arkansas to Washington, DC, to the far corners of the globe, Betty has been a guardian of children, protecting them from polio, from rubella and from many other invisible enemies.”

In 1982, Mrs. Bumpers, concerned about the growing nuclear arms race, formed Peace Links to “effect a mind shift in the way people think” about peace and nuclear war. For twenty years Peace Links, which encompassed over 200 gubernatorial and congressional women and global women leaders, worked to educate communities about a new concept of national security, the value of cultural diversity, non-violent conflict resolution, global cooperation, citizen diplomacy, violence prevention and peace building. Through the National Peace Foundation, she continues to draw the world together into a unified community dedicated to peace.

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2015 Inductee

Daisy Gatson Bates (1914-1999). Born in Huttig, Arkansas. She married journalist Lucious Christopher Bates and they operated a weekly African-American newspaper, the Arkansas State Press. Bates became president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP and played a crucial role in the fight against segregation, which she documented in her book The Long Shadow of Little Rock. Civil rights activist, writer, publisher. Born Daisy Lee Gatson on November 11, 1914, in Huttig, Arkansas. Bates’s childhood was marked by tragedy. Her mother was sexually assaulted and murdered by three white men and her father left her. She was raised by friends of the family.  

As a teenager, Bates met Lucious Christopher “L.C.” Bates, an insurance agent and an experienced journalist. The couple married in the early 1940s and moved to Little Rock, Arkansas. Together they operated the Arkansas State Press, a weekly African-American newspaper. The paper championed civil rights, and Bates joined in the civil rights movement. She became the president of Arkansas chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1952. As the head of the NAACP’s Arkansas branch, Bates played a crucial role in the fight against segregation. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court declared that school segregation was unconstitutional in the landmark case known as Brown v. Board of Education. Even after that ruling, African American students who tried to enroll in white schools were turned away in Arkansas. Bates and her husband chronicled this battle in their newspaper.  In 1957, she helped nine African American students to become the first to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, who became known as the Little Rock Nine. The group first tried to go to the school on September 4. A group of angry whites jeered at them as they arrived. The governor, Orval Faubus, opposed school integration and sent members of the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the students from entering the school. Despite the enormous amount of animosity they faced from white residents of the city, the students were undeterred from their mission to attend the school.

Bates’ home became the headquarters for the battle to integrate Central High School and she served as a personal advocate and supporter to the students. President Dwight D. Eisenhower became involved in the conflict and ordered federal troops to go to Little Rock to uphold the law and protect the Little Rock Nine. With U.S. soldiers providing security, the Little Rock Nine left from Bates’ home for their first day of school on September 25, 1957. Bates remained close with the Little Rock Nine, offering her continuing support as they faced harassment and intimidation from people against desegregation. 
Bates also received numerous threats, but this would not stop her from her work. The newspaper she and her husband worked on was closed in 1959 because of low adverting revenue. Three years later, her account of the school integration battle was published as The Long Shadow of Little Rock. For a few years, she moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Democratic National Committee and on antipoverty projects for the Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration.

Bates returned to Little Rock in the mid-1960s and spent much of her time on community programs. After the death of her husband in 1980, she also resuscitated their newspaper for several years, from 1984 to 1988. Bates died on November 4, 1999, Little Rock, Arkansas.

For her career in social activism, Bates received numerous awards, including an honorary degree from the University of Arkansas. She is best remembered as a guiding force behind one of the biggest battles for school integration in the nation’s history.

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2015 Inductee

Edith Irby Jones was the first African American to attend and to graduate from the University of Arkansas Medical School, now the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), in Little Rock (Pulaski County). Not only was she a pioneer in the desegregation of higher education in Arkansas and the South, but she also has served as a highly successful doctor, educator, and philanthropist in Arkansas, Texas, and overseas.
Edith Irby was born on December 23, 1927, near Conway (Faulkner County) to Robert Irby, a sharecropper, and Mattie Buice Irby, a maid. Her father died when she was eight, and the family moved to Hot Springs (Garland County). Irby’s older sister died of typhoid fever at the age of twelve, largely due to her impoverished family’s lack of access to medical attention. Irby suffered from rheumatic fever when she was seven, making her joints so painful that she was unable to walk or attend school for a year. These experiences prompted Irby to seek a career in medicine, with the goal of helping those who could not afford standard medical care.

Irby graduated from Langston Secondary School in Hot Springs in 1944 and earned a scholarship to Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee. She majored in chemistry, biology, and physics. Upon graduation, she applied to three medical schools: Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois; the University of Chicago; and UAMS. She chose to remain in Arkansas largely because the tuition at UAMS was considerably less than at the other two schools. Earlier the same year, Silas Hunt had been accepted at the University of Arkansas School of Law. Now, Irby became the first African American accepted at UAMS—as well as the first accepted at any medical school in the South. This accomplishment was reported nationally in many publications, including Life, Time, Ebony, and the Washington Post.

Although she had been accepted to attend classes, she was not allowed to use the same dining, lodging, or bathroom facilities as other students at UAMS. Resisting the segregationist rules, many of her classmates chose to eat with her and to study with her at her apartment. During her second year at the medical school, she married Dr. James B. Jones; they had three children. She received her MD degree, becoming the college’s first African-American graduate, in 1952. She then opened a general practice in Hot Springs.
Jones and her family moved to Houston, Texas, in 1959, where she became the first black woman intern at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospital. The hospital segregated her and limited her patient rosters. She completed the last three months of her residency at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington DC. She was among several other black physicians who founded Mercy Hospital and one of twelve doctors who owned and developed Park Plaza Hospital. Over time, she accumulated staff privileges at nine Houston-area hospitals, including the Houston Hospital, which was renamed the Edith Irby Jones M.D. Health Care Center in her honor. However, she has always maintained her practice in Houston’s “third ward” to serve those who could not afford to go anywhere else for medical care.

In 1985, she was elected the first female president of the National Medical Association (NMA). She is also the only female founding member of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC). Jones has taught, consulted, and/or provided healthcare in not only in the United States but also in Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, China, Russia, and throughout Africa. She provides support for two international healthcare locations that bear her name: the Dr. Edith Irby Jones Clinic in Vaudreuil, Haiti (which she helped to build), and the Dr. Edith Irby Jones Emergency Clinic in Veracruz, Mexico. Jones was a charter member of Physicians for Human Rights, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997. As of 2008, she continues to teach and practice medicine at the University of Texas Medical School and Baylor College of Medicine.

Source: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas

2015 Inductee

Hattie Wyatt Caraway (1878-1950), U. S. Senator from Arkansas 1931-1944, was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate in her own right. She was born February 1, 1878, near Bakersville, Tennessee. At fourteen, she entered Dickson (Tennessee) Normal College, where she earned a B.A. degree in 1896 and also met Thaddeus Horatius Caraway, a fellow student several years older than she. The couple married in 1902 and had three sons, Paul Wyatt, Forrest, and Robert Easley. They settled in Arkansas where Thaddeus Caraway practiced law and entered first local and then state politics.

Thaddeus Caraway was elected to the United States Congress in 1912, and to the Senate in 1920. He was reelected in 1926 but died unexpectedly in 1931, and his widow was appointed in his place. In a special election early in 1932 she was elected to the office. Unexpectedly she decided to run for a full term in 1932, and supported by Huey Long of Louisiana, she conducted an intense campaign and won the Democratic nomination, tantamount to election.

In 1938 she won her second full term, and continued to support the Roosevelt economic program.. She lost her race for a third term in 1944, but remained in Washington in other Civil Service positions. Hattie Caraway died December 21, 1950.

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2015 Inductee

Hester Ashmead Davis was an active participant in the development of Cultural Resources Management legislation and programs in the United States. Born June 4, 1930 in Ayer, Massachusetts, she took an unconventional route to a career in Archeology at a time when few opportunities existed for women.

After receiving a B.A. in history from Rollins College in 1955, an M.A. in Social and Technical Assistance from Haverford College in 1955, and an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina in 1957, Hester became preparator at the University of Arkansas Museum in 1959. This began a lifelong association with archeology in Arkansas, first at the Museum until 1967, and then as State Archeologist with the Araksnsas Archeological Survey from 1967 to 1999, when she retired.

At Arkansas, Hester became associated with Charles R. McGimsey III, and they were both involved for more than a decade in CRM issues and activities. She participated in the foundational Airlie House Seminars and co-edited the subsequent report in 1977. She was a founding member of the National Association of State Archeologists, the American Society for Conservation Archeology, and the Society of Professional Archeologists, and served in numerous committee and officer positions, including President in the latter two organizations.

In Arkansas, Hester extended her role in public archeology and CRM through several organizations. She was a member of the Arkansas State Review Board on Historic Preservation from 1969 to 2000, and served terms as Vice Chair and Chair. She taught a Public Archeology course that included CRM at the University of Arkansas between 1974 and 1991. She was a founding member of the Arkansas Archeological Society, and served in several officer positions including 20 years as editor of the Bulletin, and 40 years as editor of the newsletter.

On the regional level, she was a long time member of numerous organizations, including the Southeastern Archeological Conference and the Southeastern Archeological Conference and the Southeastern Museums Conference, serving as President of both. Nationally, she was a member of the Society for American Archeology, the Socity for Historic Archeology, the Coordinating Council of National Archeological Societies, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Association for Field Archaeology, and served on boards and committees in all of them. She was a consultant for several Federal Agencies, including the National park Service and Bureau of Land Management, and was a CRM program reviewer and/or consultant to a long list of agencies and Universities.

Along with her election to the Board of Trustees for US/ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), the US’ committee for UNESCO’s International Council on Monuments and Sites, her most important internationally ranked role and one that she was especially proud of, Hester was also appointed (by Bill Clinton) to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee,  a committee appended to the US Department of State, that  advises the president and USIA on matters of cultural property ownership and repatriation that arise through UNESCO provisions and actions. 

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2015 Inductee

Hillary Clinton has served as Secretary of State, Senator from New York, First Lady of the United States, First Lady of Arkansas, a practicing lawyer and law professor, activist, and volunteer, but the first things her friends and family will tell you is that she’s never forgotten where she came from or who she’s been fighting for throughout her life.

Hillary grew up in a middle class home in Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. Her dad, Hugh, was a World War II Navy veteran and a small business man with a drapery business that designed, printed, and sold his draperies. Hillary, her mom, and her two brothers helped out in the business whenever they could. Hugh was a rock-ribbed Republican, a pay-as-you-go kind of guy who worked hard and wasted nothing.

Hillary’s mother, Dorothy, had a tough childhood. She was abandoned by her parents as a young child and shipped off to live with relatives who didn’t want her. By age 14, Dorothy knew the only way she’d get by was to support herself, and she started working as a housekeeper and babysitter while she went through high school. Her mother’s experience sparked in Hillary a lifelong commitment to championing the needs of children.

Her own childhood was very different. Her parents built a stable middle class life. Hillary attended public schools and was a Brownie and a Girl Scout. She played in a girls' softball league. She was raised a Methodist and her mom taught Sunday school. Her youth minister took Hillary to see Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in Chicago and helped her develop a lifelong passion for social justice.

Hillary graduated from Wellesley College and then went to Yale Law School, where she was one of just 27 women in her graduating class. Hillary met her husband Bill at law school.

After law school, Hillary chose not to go to a big New York or Washington law firm. Instead, she went to work for the Children’s Defense Fund, going door to door in New Bedford, Massachusetts, gathering stories about the lack of schooling for children with disabilities, which contributed to the passage of historic legislation to require their education.

It’s this commitment to public service and fighting for others—especially children and families—that she’s carried all her life.

After serving as a lawyer for the Congressional Committee investigating President Nixon, she moved to Arkansas where she taught law and ran legal clinics representing poor people. She co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, one of the state’s first child advocacy groups. And on October 11, 1975, she married Bill in a small ceremony in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As First Lady of Arkansas, she was a forceful champion for improving educational standards and health care access. And she and Bill started their own family when their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Bill was first elected president in 1992 and re-elected in 1996. As First Lady, Hillary tenaciously led the fight to reform our health care system so that all our families have access to the care they need at affordable prices. When the insurance companies and other special interests defeated that effort, Hillary didn’t give up. She worked with Republicans and Democrats to help create the successful Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage to more than 8 million children and has helped cut the uninsured rate for children in half.

In 1995, despite being told by some officials not to go, Hillary led the U.S. delegation to Beijing to attend the UN Fourth World Conference on Women and gave a groundbreaking speech, declaring that “human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights once and for all”—inspiring women worldwide and helping to galvanize a global movement for women’s rights and opportunities.

In 2000, Hillary was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman senator from New York. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Hillary pushed the Bush administration to secure $20 billion to rebuild New York and fought to provide health care for first responders who were contaminated at Ground Zero. She repeatedly worked across the aisle to get things done, including working alongside Republicans to expand TRICARE so that members of the Reserves and National Guard and their families could get better access to health care.

When Congress wouldn't do enough for rural areas and small towns, Hillary didn’t back down. She launched an innovative partnership in New York with eBay and local colleges to provide small businesses with tech support, microloans and training programs to sell their goods online. She helped expand broadband to remote areas of the state. And she launched Farm-to-Fork, to help New York farmers and producers sell their products to New York’s restaurants, schools, colleges and universities.

In 2008, Hillary ran for president. When she came up short, she told her supporters, "Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it.

And when President Obama asked Hillary to serve as his secretary of state, she put aside their hard-fought campaign and answered the call to public service once again. After eight years of Bush foreign policy, Hillary was instrumental in starting to restore America’s standing in the world. Even former Republican Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said she “ran the State Department in the most effective way that I’ve ever seen.”

She built a coalition for tough new sanctions against Iran that brought them to the negotiating table and she brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended a war and protected Israel’s security. She was a forceful champion for human rights, internet freedom, and rights and opportunities for women and girls, LGBT people and young people all around the globe.

In 2014, Hillary took on a new role—grandmother to Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky—and she couldn’t be prouder or happier. 

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2015 Inductee

Johnelle Hunt was born in Heber Springs, Arkansas.  She met Johnnie B. Hunt when she was a junior in high school and four years later they were married.  She attended the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.  She and J. B. were married 55 years and blessed with two children as well as seven grandchildren.

In 1962, the J. B. Hunt Company, a rice hull packaging company, opened its doors in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Johnelle worked part-time to help her husband get started in the business. As the company grew, she found herself working more and more - helping with correspondence, financial statements and doing bookkeeping. Before long she was working full time. In 1969 the couple co-founded J.B. Hunt Transport with five trucks and seven trailers.  Its success is a tribute to the Hunt’s entrepreneurial spirit and hard work. J.B. Hunt Transport is one of the largest transportation logistics providers encompassing Intermodal, Dedicated, Truckload, LTL, Final Mile, Refrigerated, Flatbed and Expedited services. Among her jobs were the position of credit manager and the board position of Corporate Secretary which she held until 2008.  At her retirement from the Board of Directors of the company in 2008, Johnelle was recognized as being an active and important partner contributing to the company’s development and success. 
   
Mrs. Hunt currently holds a seat on The Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute Advisory Board. She is the founding Chairman of the United Way Alexis de Tocqueville Society for Washington County as well as a founding Executive Board Member of the Ozark Affiliate of Susan G. Komen.  In May of 2000, she accepted the position of Campaign Treasurer for the University of Arkansas’ Leadership Team entitled Campaign for the 21st Century, a major fundraising drive that raised over one billion dollars. Following the Campaign for the 21st Century, an Advisory Board was formed of which Mrs. Hunt served on the Executive Committee.  She was Co-Chair of the University’s Campaign Arkansas Steering Committee in 2013 and continues to serve on the Campaign.  She has served on the Board of Directors for The Beau Foundation benefiting prenatal care in Northwest Arkansas since 2003.  She previously served on the UAMS Foundation Board.

In 1990, she and Mr. Hunt were chosen as the Arkansas Easter Seal Arkansans of the Year, the first couple to receive this award. In 1992 she was one of four women to receive the Worthen Professional Women of Distinction Award and has been included in “The Top 100 Women” list for Arkansas from 1994-1998.  In 1996 the March of Dimes honored the Hunts as Citizens of the Year. In 2001 she and Mr. Hunt were inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.  Mrs. Hunt received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by the University of Arkansas in 2009.  She was honored by the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce where she also received the 2013 Dick Trammel Good Neighbor Award.

Since the passing of her husband in December of 2006, Mrs. Hunt has taken a very active role in projects developed and managed by her company, Hunt Ventures.  The group is primarily responsible for the conception and development of the more than 700 acre project in western Rogers known as Pinnacle Hills with over 1.4 million square feet of retail/restaurants, 960,000 square feet of Class A office space and an additional 238,000 square feet of offices and retail under construction. Johnelle is also actively involved with many other ongoing projects and companies started by Mr. Hunt including Northwest Arkansas Quarries, Haskell (Oklahoma) Sand and Gravel, Central Mortar and Grout (Muskogee, Oklahoma), J.B. Hunt Gas and Oil Drilling (Midland, Texas) and a rock quarry project in Honduras, Central America.  Other companies she is associated with include BioBased Technologies and Pinnacle Hills Promenade.  She has also developed and constructed Northwest Arkansas’ newest cemetery, Pinnacle Memorial Gardens, along with the accompanying 3000 square foot Hunt Chapel.

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2015 Inductee

Mary Ann Ritter Arnold was born April 25, 1927. She graduated from Stephens College with an AA in 1945 and from the University of Missouri with a BS degree in Home Economics in 1948. She married Sidney W. Arnold in 1948. He graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1956. 

In 1975, she moved back to Marked Tree and became president of E. Ritter & Co. from 1976-1992. She and her husband had three children — Melissa, Ritter, and Paul - who have given them seven grandchildren and two great granddaughters.

Arnold became active in the Agriculture Council of Arkansas, National Cotton Council, Cotton Board, US Rice Council, Arkansas Telephone Association, US Telephone Association, Crittenden Hospital Board, State Chairman of Farm Services Agency Committee, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation, ASU Museum Advisory Committee, ASU Business School Advisory Committee, ASU Foundation, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Marked Tree Chamber of Commerce, Poinsett County Justice of the Peace, a strong supporter of the Marked Tree Museum-Library, the Marked Tree School system and Girl Scouts and a member of the Marked Tree First United Methodist Church serving on the PPR and Trustees committees.

She was elected Mayor of Marked Tree, to fill the remaining term of Wayne Nichols in September 2013 — becoming the first female mayor of Marked Tree. Arnold was re-elected to the mayor’s position in November 2014.

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2015 Inductee

Dr. Mary L. Good is the Dean Emeritus (Founding Dean) of the College of Engineering and Information Technology (E.I.T.) at the University of Arkansas Little Rock and is presently serving as a Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Economic Development. The E.I.T. College of UALR was organized in 1999 with the approval of the University Of Arkansas System Board Of Trustees and the Legislature.  It grew from about 300 students in existing departments to over 1100 in 2012.  It has developed nationally recognized programs in System Engineering, Information Quality, Nanotechnology, Modeling and Simulation and Construction Management.  It is the linchpin for the workforce required for economic development in Central Arkansas.  Good also presently serves on the boards of Saint Vincent Health System, and Delta Bank and Trust, both of Little Rock.  

Previously Dr. Good served four years as the Under Secretary for Technology for the Technology Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce, a presidentially appointed, Senate confirmed, position.  The Technology Administration is the focal point in the federal government for assisting U. S. Industry to improve its productivity, technology and innovation in order to compete more effectively in global markets.  In addition to her role as Under Secretary for Technology, Dr. Good chaired the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technological Innovation (NSTC/CTI), and served on the NSTC Committee on National Security.

Before joining the Clinton Administration, Dr. Good was the senior vice-president for technology at Allied Signal, Inc., where she was responsible for the centralized research and technology organizations with facilities in Morristown, NJ; Buffalo, NY; and Des Plaines, IL.  She was a member of the Management Committee and responsible for technology transfer and commercialization support for new technologies.   This position followed assignments as President of Allied Signal’s Engineered Materials Research Center, Director of the UOP Research Center, and President of the Signal Research Center.  Dr. Good’s accomplishments in industrial research management are the achievements of a second career, having moved to an industrial position after more than 25 years of teaching and research in the Louisiana State University system.  Before joining Allied Signal, she was professor of chemistry at the University of New Orleans and professor of materials science at Louisiana State University, where she achieved the university’s highest professional rank, Boyd Professor.

Dr. Good was appointed to the National Science Board by President Carter in 1980 and again by President Reagan in 1986. She was Chairman of that Board from 1988 until 1991, when she received an appointment from President Bush to become a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).  Dr. Good has also served on the boards of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cincinnati Milacron, and Ameritech.  She was also a member of the National Advisory Board for the State of Arkansas.

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2015 Inductee

Roberta Waugh Fulbright (1874-1953) was a dominant figure in the life of Fayetteville and in the progress of Arkansas, including an unsurpassed devotion to the University of Arkansas. She successfully led a variety of businesses-from banking to manufacturing to real estate.  As publisher of the Northwest Arkansas Times, she championed the University of Arkansas, fought political corruption, advocated for social equality for women, and promoted civic causes.

She is also known as the mother of J. William Fulbright, who served as University of Arkansas president and as a U.S. Senator from Arkansas.  Her contributions to the community, her advocacy of education as a social good, and her unwavering support of the university were foundations upon which Senator Fulbright built his own public service and political vision.

On March 30, 2012, the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees approved the naming of this dining hall in her honor in gratitude for her life and legacy.

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2015 Inductee

The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools was formed in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1958. It was established in response to the closing of Little Rock's four public high schools by Governor Orval Faubus. The organization was founded by a group of women led by Adolphine Fletcher Terry, a member of a prominent Little Rock family. Mrs. Terry, Vivion Brewer, and Mrs. J.O. Powell organized the first meeting, which fifty-eight women attended. The stated purpose of the Committee was to inform the people of Little Rock, and Arkansas, of the need for public education and of the price of not having public schools. After the schools were reopened in September 1959, the name was changed to the Women's Emergency Committee (WEC). The membership of the WEC eventually grew to over 1600 women. In the five years of its existence, the WEC opposed Governor Faubus and his forces on numerous occasions. The most successful confrontations for the WEC were the Little Rock School Board recall election in May 1959, in which three Faubus-supported segregationists were removed from the board, and the defeat of Amendment 52, which would have abolished the constitutional guarantee of free public schools, in November 1960. The WEC was also involved in school board and political contests through much of its history, principally the Joe Hardin-Faubus race in 1960 and the Sid McMath-Faubus race in 1962.

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