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San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame 2005 Inductees
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2005 "Spirit" of the Women's Hall of Fame Award Alice "Lefty" Hohlmayer turned her youthful fastpitch hobby into a baseball career. At age 20, Hohlmayer got the unique chance to play in a professional baseball league. It was an opportunity women players today can only dream of. Lucky for Hohlmayer she was born at just the right time: 1925. During WWII, Professional Baseball came to a grinding halt with male players fighting overseas. Baseball fans turned to the women of America to fill the national pastime gap. Lefty joined the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1946 at its heyday, boasting 8 teams and playing 110 game schedules. The women of the AAGPBL had to adapt from Girl's Softball to baseball's 80-foot baseline with 9 players (instead of 10) and grueling road schedules. And they had to live up to society's idea of femininity, complete with skirts and make-up worn on and off the field--those bare legs paid the price with every slide into base. In 1948, Left pitched 42 scoreless innings, once got a hit off the great Satchel Paige in an All Star game, and was the only woman in the "55 years and over World Men's Slow Pitch Tournament" in 1981. These days she is invited to speak nationally and was asked to consult on the Geena Davis film "A League of Their Own". The character Rosie O'Donnell played in the film was loosely based on Alice.
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Ruth M. Heifetz, M.D., M.P.H.,(UCSD School of Medicine), physician and humanitarian, she was a founding member of both the San Diego Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the San Diego Environmental Health Coalition (1980). Heifetz has been a trailblazer of environmental justice, and as such as fought tirelessly for the health of women and children exposed to toxic materials in their communities and workplace. She exemplifies outstanding leadership, has made significant contributions to our community's health, and is highly committed to occupational and environmental health and safety. She has taught these issues to generations of medical students. Her humanitarian accomplishments encompass three main themes: protection of workers, protection of the environment and the prevention of nuclear war. Dr. Heifetz was founding member of the Environmental Health Coalition, has served on the Lead Prevention Task Force for San Diego, and is the main scientific advisor responding to numerous problems of toxic exposure in our community. Her career reflects a lifetime commitment to preventive health, and she has always been on call to help prevent impending environmental disasters. She does so with a gentle, informed and persistent approach. Ruth Heifetz provides a superb role model for others wanting to devote their careers to protecting the lives of workers and the population from occupational and environmental causes of disease. She continues her work today and believes that we, as individuals and together, make a difference.
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Helen S. Hawkins, Ph.D. (1930-1989), was a producer & host of KPBS humanities programs, an historian, co-founder and first president of San Diego National Organization for Women, and publications director for the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. She produced and appeared in more than 100 KPBS-TV programs. Hawkins was an historian whose inquisitive mind and work improved the lives of women in our community. In an effort to provide support and information to the women of San Diego, Helen became co-founder an first president of the local NOW. She furthered this work by serving on the Commission for Affirmative Action and Women's Rights, participated in the National Women's Caucus, and helped create Dimensions, a women's networking group. After raising three children she returned to school to complete her masters and Ph.D. in history.In the late 1970s Dr. Hawkins joined KPBS television as Executive Producer of Humanities programming. During her 6 years there she produced more than 100 television programs, many of which focus on women's rights and issues of the time. Her work received an Emmy and a silver gavel from the American Bar Association. In addition, Dr. Helen Hawkins was awarded NOW's Susan B. Anthony award given for "courage and compassion and work for women's rights." Helen also became publications director for the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation while serving on the UCSD Board of Overseers and with SD Independent Scholars. She embodied leadership and courage and her work bridged the gap between community and academics. She was a true visionary, a pioneer in her time in the broadcasting industry while furthering women's and minorities rights. Her most notable quote is true today: "Equal rights are just like liberty, never secure. The erosion of rights occurs so quietly, so slowly--you may not even notice it at first." Helen Hawkins lives on as a role model as we move toward equality in the 21st century.
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Anne D. Ewing has worked to remove restrictions in women’s private, civic and political lives. She founded San Diego’s Chapter, National Women’s Political Caucus; led a statewide reform of racist and sexist language in primary school readers; and faced Catholic excommunication for her support of women’s reproductive rights. Ewing became part of the civil rights movement in the segregated south when she was only 20 years old. She moved to San Diego in 1968 where she plunged headlong into women's rights issues. The early 1970s found her crusading for the removal of the blatantly sexist primary school readers where little girls were depicted as fearful and unimaginative. Anne helped to establish the Education Task Force of the NOW and became coordinator of the state level force. She developed criteria to identify sexist representation and demonstrated it vividly by developing a popular slide presentation. Resistant to change, the Education Board was sued by California NOW under Anne's leadership, leading to successful negotiations. The result was a state mandate to approve only those texts free from sexism and racism. In 1976 Anne Ewing founded the National Women's Political Caucus in San Diego and for 30 years has been assisting women of both parties to seek and hold political office. On another front, Anne responded to the Catholic excommunication of San Diego women who defended NOW's pro-choice position in the 1970s. She led a pro-choice march and rallied public opinion behind a woman's right to choose. Anne Ewing knows how to create structure change, and because of her efforts, countless girls and women have gained respect and self-determination long denied to others.
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Rev. Alyce Smith-Cooper, an African-American Ancestral storyteller and actor who provides healings, motivational, and diversity training sessions. She is widely recognized for creating cultural understandings in such diverse venues as: the Old Globe Theatre, corporation & government classrooms (MCI, FBI), the Wild Animal Park, and the Bethel African-Methodist Episcopal Church. Smith-Coopers credentials include education as a registered nurse with a specialty in psychiatric nursing and a master's degree in Human Behavior. She is a staff Chaplain at Scripps Memorial Hospital, an ordained minister and is in private practice as a spiritual counselor. She is a psycho-dramatist, certified to find deep meaning, strength, and healing from public storytelling. Alyce is equally comfortable setting up motivational training programs or teaching schools and organization how to deal with diversity. As a result, her audience becomes better listeners and more connected to life. She has performed in Fortune 500 boardrooms, museums, libraries, schools, homes, and under trees. She is Storyteller-in-Residence at San Diego's Children's Hospital and Wild Animal Park's Heart of Africa. In over 35 years of service, Ms. Smith-Cooper has captured hearts by the power of her presence, through which her words aid the imagination to soar by the beauty of storytelling. She sits, touches, sings, and prays with the dying and their families. As an Ancestral Storyteller, Alyce Smith-Cooper introduces audiences to the world of African-American folklore through her vibrant words and expressive vocal techniques. Alyce encourages students to explore their personal stories and to ignite their imaginations, spontaneity and creativity. Students develop an awareness of a rich and colorful culture and learn to appreciate the magical world of the storyteller.
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Evelyn L. Clarke, has worked for decades on behalf of San Diego’s first women’s and human rights organizations such as San Diego National Women’s Political Caucus and the Older Women’s League. She has preserved the histories of organizations by photographing or videotaping their events for their archives. Curiosity and determination prompted Evelyn to take leading roles in many organization working on behalf of women's rights, human rights, healthcare, local and national politics, youth and multi-cultural issues and concerns. Evelyn's childhood was spent in orphanages and foster homes but books and librarians became her inspiration. It was at the local library that she learned about the women's movement. Form the San Diego Girl Scouts, she learned to hold her head high and be happy and proud of being a girl. Evelyn joined the women's movement early, attending the first local meeting of the National Women's Political Caucus and signing on as a charter member. She participated in parades and demonstrations but couldn't sign carry because she had decided to photograph every event and activity--an interest she had acquired at Girl Scout camp. In 1975 she attended the first International Women's Conference in Mexico City where her Press Pass from a local paper gained her an interview with Margaret Mead. She also participated as a YWCA delegate to Washington where then President and Mrs. Clinton attended her session. Evelyn's role models, she says, are schoolteachers--all of them--and all the women who were seated and continue next to her in the movement. Evelyn is proud of the women of San Diego and reminds them that defeat, in the words of Susan B. Anthony, "is not an option."
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MISSION
STATEMENT
The
mission of the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame is
to acknowledge and honor women who have significantly
contributed to the quality of life and who have made outstanding
volunteer contributions in San Diego County.
General
Information:
The purpose of the
annual induction of five women into the Hall of Fame
is to make women's actions and accomplishments visible
in San Diego. The women honored every year will be remembered
for their efforts in a Hall of Fame exhibit housed at
the Women's History Reclamation Project. The annual
induction is also a forum for coalition building between
the four co-hosts and dozens of women's organizations
representing San Diego's diverse population. The annual
induction is also a fund-raising signature event for
the four Co-Hosts including the following:
Women's
History Museum and Educational Center
is
a museum, library and archive with a mission to educate
and inspire present and future generations about the
contributions of women. It preserves, shares, and integrates
women's stories for a more complete understanding of
history.
The County of San Diego Commission
on the Status of Women, established in 1970,
is mandated to study and advise the Board of Supervisors
on the needs and problems of women and to eliminate
the practice of discrimination and prejudice on the
basis of gender.
San Diego State University's
Women's Studies Department, the nation's
first women's studies department, established in 1970,
offers a BA, MA and Post-baccalaureate Certificate.
It has a reputation for excellence in curriculum, faculty,
community involvement, and international scholarly liaisons.
The Women's Center, University
of California, San Diego provides education
and support on gender issues affecting the UCSD and
general communities. The Center advances women's intellectual,
professional, and personal goals to increase awareness
of issues affecting women and men.
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