Georgia Women of Achievement inductees honored at Wesleyan ceremony

Women with passion and commitment to preserve history, ensure civil rights of the oppressed and strive for excellence in nursing were inducted Thursday into the Georgia Women of Achievement’s 2015 Hall of Fame.

Allie Carroll Hart, of Madison, Frances Freeborn Pauley, of Decatur, and Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff, of Athens, were honored posthumously at the 24th annual induction ceremony at Wesleyan College.

Georgia Women of Achievement was founded in 1992 to honor women who have made outstanding contributions to the state.

“We don’t know women stories,” keynote speaker and author Jill Tietjen said afterward. “We do not tell women stories. All of our history is the history of men.”

Tietjen, a historian and expert in women’s history, said while women make up 50 percent of the population, they are not in as many leadership roles as they should be.

She quoted the late Jeannette Rankin, who was elected in 1916 to the U.S. Congress, who said, “We’re half the people. We should be half the Congress.”

Tietjen added, “They knew it in 1916. Guess what? We’re still not.”

Rankin, a Republican from Montana, served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Women have so much to offer,” said Tietjen, who took the audience through an brief of overview of some of Georgia’s outstanding women. “Look at these women who were inducted today and how much they contributed.”

A short video tribute was shown about each of the inductees.

Hart, who lived 1913 to 2003, served 25 years with the Georgia Department of Archives and History, including as director from 1964 to 1982. She is credited with transforming the agency into “one of the nation’s premier state archives.” She was named a Society of American Archivists’ Fellow, the highest honor bestowed by the society.

Hart was also a driving force behind the founding of the Society of Georgia Archivists and the Georgia Genealogical Society. She is also known for making her hometown of Madison a leader in historic preservation.

“I would say that she’s the mother of the archives profession in Georgia,” said Edward Weldon, a former director of Georgia Archives, in videotaped remarks. “She really kind of birthed that baby and helped mature it and bring it along and provide that sustenance that has left a legacy.”

Pauley, 1905-2003, was a political activist through the 1930s and into the 1990s.

She was committed to public education, health and welfare, the civil rights of the oppressed, and the needs of the poor.

“In the struggle for social, racial and economic justice, Frances exhibited a dogged determination, a willingness to learn by doing and a deep commitment to meaningful democracy,” her program biography stated.

She never held political office. Her activism likely began in the Depression era, said Kathryn Nasstrom, who wrote a book about Pauley titled, “Everybody’s Grandmother and Nobody’s Fool.”

“It was really seeing the additional misery that was caused for poor people, white as well as black, in the metropolitan-Atlanta area during the Great Depression that was the radicalizing experience for her as it was for many, many people,” Nasstrom said in videotaped remarks.

Woodruff, 1892-1968, was known for her passion for nursing. Her honorary membership in the Emory Nurses’ Alumni Association cited her for “meritorious service as a volunteer nurse at Emory and other hospitals before, during, and since the war years,” her program biography stated.

She began the tradition of granting a Compassion and Caring Award to encourage high ideals and excellence in nursing. Her dream was realized at Emory with the creation of the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing. She attended the groundbreaking in January 1968, five days before she died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

“She was involved in nursing when many people looked upon it as being dirty and beneath individuals,” Amy Dorrill, associate dean of development and alumni relations at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, said in videotaped remarks. “But she looked past that.

“When many of her friends were probably volunteering in a much more social environment, she got dirty, and she lived out her passion,” Dorrill said.

Family members of the women honored attended the ceremony and were given a silver commendatory plate.

“We’re all thrilled because Nella was the most giving,” said relative Nell Hodgson Watt, 88. “She never lost the common touch.”

This story was originally published March 5, 2015 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Georgia Women of Achievement inductees honored at Wesleyan ceremony ."