FAYETTEVILLE — Five Fayetteville women were honored Monday as Women of History for their varied contributions to the community from political activism to government service and business to founding a program for intellectually disabled to women’s athletics.
Joyce Bunch had never used a telephone before her first job as a switchboard operator for Campbell-Bell in downtown Fayetteville.
She later went to work as a bookkeeper at the Bank of Elkins where she remained for more than 40 years, retiring in 2004 as the bank’s president, a position she had held for more than 20 years. She was the first woman in Washington County to serve as a loan officer.
At A Glance
National Women’s History Month
Women’s History Month originated as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week." The observance became Women’s History Month in March 1987 by an act of Congress. Since 1995, Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have proclaimed the month of March as “Women’s History Month.”
http://www.womenshistorymonth.gov/about.html
She established the first licensed day care in Elkins. She also has served on the Elkins Planning Commission and School Building Committee and the Washington County Quorum Court.
Ruth Cohoon was described as a trailblazer for women in Arkansas athletics. She served as the first ever women’s athletic director at the University of Arkansas, a position she held during most of her 34-year stay at the university. She was hired as a 22-year-old swimming instructor soon after she graduated from the University of Tulsa.
She was promoted to women’s athletic director in 1975 after volunteering in 1972 to collect the grades of female athletes and report them to the NCAA before each season and all games.
Ann Harbison, who spent 39 years teaching science, mostly in the former Winslow School District, served on the state teacher retirement board and was active in the Arkansas Education Association as a strong advocate for improved salaries and benefits for teachers.
She currently serves on the Washington Quorum Court where she worked to implement alternative programs to juvenile incarceration which cut in half the number of children sent to the juvenile detention center. She has been at the forefront for the completion of the Southeast Water Project which will extend city water to the entire county and now is working on plans for major bridge improvements in the county.
Carol Hart saw “a huge need” for programs to help and prepare persons with intellectual disabilities to live independently in their community while working as a classroom aide at what was then called the Washington County School for Trainable Children, which is now the Elizabeth Richardson Center.
The result was the formation of Life Styles Inc., which began in 1976 with the mission to provide programs and services to developmentally disabled people so that they could hold jobs and live independently. She served as the program’s director from that time until her retirement in 2011.
Lindsley Smith is the communications director for the City of Fayetteville after serving in the state Legislature for six years. She is a strong advocate for women’s issues, particularly the Equal Rights Amendment.
She contributed to legislation concerning health insurance coverage, nursing mothers’ workplace accommodations, domestic partner protections and strengthening workers compensation coverage. She has mentored young women as a faculty member of the Junior Statesmen Programs at Yale and Stanford universities. She currently is doing oral history interviews with current and former Arkansas women legislators for the Pryor Center for Oral and Visual History at the University of Arkansas.
More than 130 family members, friends and former recipients joined a coalition of local women’s groups which sponsored the annual event, including Altrusa International of Fayetteville, Inc., American Association of University Women, Business and Professional Women, Delta Kappa Gamma-Iota Chapter, Washington County League of Women Voters and Washington County Democratic Women.