NORTH LITTLE ROCK -- The inaugural class of the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame included several prominent businesswomen from Northwest Arkansas and others with ties to the region.
Eleven women, along with one organization, were honored Thursday night and remembered at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock in front of family, friends, co-workers and other state leaders as influential Arkansas women.
The Hall of Fame is a partnership between the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce and the Arkansas Business Publishing Group. Mitch Bettis, president and publisher of Arkansas Business Publishing Group, said at Thursday's event that there were 73 nominations for the inaugural class. The final inductees were chosen by a board of directors. The group is seeking nominations for next year's class.
There were three categories for inductees: organization, contemporary and historic.
Contemporary inductees were:
• Hillary Clinton, former first lady of both the state and the United States, former U.S. senator for New York, former U.S. Secretary of State and current candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. The former Fayetteville resident taught law at the University of Arkansas and the School of Law Legal Clinic.
• Former Arkansas First Lady Betty Bumpers, known for her leadership on child immunizations and other issues.
• Mary Good, founding dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• Johnelle Hunt, co-founder of J.B. Hunt Transport Service of Lowell. She was the first woman to be inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame in 2001.
• Dr. Edith Irby Jones, the first African American to attend and graduate from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
• Mary Ann Ritter Arnold, former president of agribusiness firm E. Ritter & Co., and the first woman mayor of Marked Tree. She has served on the National Cotton Council, Agriculture Council of Arkansas, and on the board of directors for the Arkansas Rice Council and the U.S. Rice Council.
• Alice Walton, founder and chairwoman of the board of directors of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and a leader on regional issues.
The historic inductees were: civil rights pioneer Daisy L. Gatson Bates; Hattie Caraway, the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate; Hester Davis, Arkansas' first state archaeologist and long-time executive at the University of Arkansas Museum, and Roberta Fulbright, influential publisher of the Northwest Arkansas Times. Family and friends of the historic inductees were present to receive the awards on behalf of the recipients.
Kathy Cande was one of Hester Davis' archaeology students. Cande, who now works at the Arkansas Archeological Survey at the University of Arkansas, said Davis was nationally and internationally known for her work, but never worked for accolades.
"She would not think she was necessarily worthy of it," Cande said of Davis' induction. "She didn't do things for awards and wouldn't have nominated herself."
The Women's Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools was the organization inducted Thursday night. The group was formed in 1958 in response to Gov. Orval Faubus' decision to close Little Rock's four public high schools. In May 1959, the group helped lead a successful recall election of three segregationist school board members. After the schools opened in September 1959, the group changed its name to the Women's Emergency Committee.
NW News on 08/29/2015