Georgia Women of Achievement

The Georgia Women of Achievement (GWA) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Georgia for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The concept was first proposed by Rosalynn Carter in 1988. The first induction was in 1992 at Wesleyan College, and has continued annually. The induction ceremonies are held each year during March, designated as Women's History Month. The organization consists of a Board of Trustees and a Board of Selections.^[1] Nominees must have been dead no less than ten years. Georgians, or those associated with Georgia, are selected based on the individual's impact on society. Nominations are proposed through documentation and an online nomination form, and must be submitted prior to October of any given year. GWA has traveling exhibits and speakers available upon request.^[2]

Inductees

Georgia Women of Achievement

Name	Image	Birth–Death	Year	Area of achievement	Ref(s)
Jessye Norman		(1945–2019)	2025	Opera singer, philanthropist	[3]
Alma Thomas		(1891–1978)	2025	Painter, educator	[4]
Beatrice Hirsch Haas		(1905–1997)	2024	Fundraising Consultant	[5]
Adella Hunt Logan		(1863–1915)	2024	African American teacher and suffragist	[6]
Valeria Murphey		(1926–1990)	2024	Artist, philanthropist	[7]
Elizabeth "Bessie" Tift		(1860–1936)	2024	Philanthropist	[8]
Phyllis Jenkins Barrow		(1920–2009)	2023	WWII Women's Army Corps, Executive Officer of the European Order of Battle Branch in Army Intelligence at the Pentagon, Chairwoman Athens Salvation Army Advisory Board	[9]
Alice Coachman		(1923–2014)	2023	First black woman to win an Olympic gold medal	[10]
Luck Flanders Gambrell		(1930–2015)	2023	Philanthropist	[11]
Dorothy Rogers Tilly		(1883–1970)	2023	American civil rights activist	[12]
Lizzie Lurline Collier		(1893–1986)	2022	Educator, civil servant	[13][14]
Josephine Fields Sanders		(1895–1975)	2022	Musician, civic leader	[15][14]
Hedwig "Hedy" Grace West		(1938–2005)	2022	Musician	[16][14]
Josephine Wilkins		(1893–1977)	2022	Social activist, president of the Georgia State League of Women Voters	[14]
Ruby Maude Anderson		(1893–1977)	2021	Educator	[17]
Mary Givens Bryan		(1910–1964)	2021	Archivist	[18]
Laura Pope Forester		(1873–1953)	2021	Folk artist	[19]
Allie Murray Smith		(1905–2000)	2021	International ambassador; mother of Rosalynn Carter	[20]
Clarice Cross Bagwell		(1914–2001)	2020	Educator	[21]
Katharine DuPre Lumpkin		(1897–1988)	2020	Author and educator	[21]
Juanita Marsh		(1926–2013)	2020	One of the first women judges in Georgia	[21]
Jean Elizabeth Geiger Wright		(1924–2002)	2020	Land conservation and environmentalism	[21]
Leila Alice Daughtry Denmark		(1898–2012)	2019	Pioneering pediatrician, supercentenarian	[22]
Mary Dorothy Lyndon		(1877–1924)	2019	First female graduate from the University of Georgia in 1914	[22]
Ludie Clay Andrews		(1875–1969)	2018	First African-American registered nurse in Georgia. Founder of the Grady Municipal Training School of Colored Nurses	[23]
Susie Baker King Taylor		(1848–1912)	2018	Nurse and educator, first African-American Army nurse, wrote and self-published a memoir of her Civil War experiences.	[23]
Mamie George S. Williams		(1872–1951)	2018	First African-American woman on the National Committee of the Republican Party. First woman to speak from the floor at the National Republican Convention.	[23]
Carolyn McKenzie Carter		(1919–2010)	2017	First woman photojournalist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution	[24]
Clermont Huger Lee		(1914–2006)	2017	One of Georgia's first female landscape architects	[24]
Lucile Nix		(1903–1968)	2017	First library head for the state of Georgia	[24]
Sarah Harper Heard		(1853–1919)	2016	Founder of a traveling library system	[25]
Ellamae Ellis League		(1899–1991)	2016	Architect	[25]
Katie Hall Underwood		(1884–1977)	2016	Midwife	[25]
Allie Carroll Hart		(1913–2003)	2015	Worked to preserve government records and photographs; established the Georgia Archives Institute for professional development; helped create the Southeast Archives and Records Conference; Faithful Service Award 1971 from Gov. Jimmy Carter, Outstanding Achievement Award from the Georgia Trust in 1997 and 2000, Brenau University Alumni Hall of Fame 2002	[26][27]
Frances Freeborn Pauley		(1905–2003)	2015	League of Women Voters; President of the DeKalb League; Georgia League President; Executive Director of the Georgia Council on Human Relations; activist with the Office of Civil Rights who worked to implement the Civil Rights Act of 1964	[27]
Nell Kendall Hodgson Woodruff		(1892–1968)	2015	American Red Cross; volunteer; first female member of the Emory Hospital Administration Committee; Eisenhower appointee to attend the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland; created the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing	[27]
Rebecca Stiles Taylor		(1879–1958)	2014	First president of the Savannah chapter of the National Association of Colored Women	[28]
Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas		(1834–1907)	2014	Memoirist	[29][28]
Bazoline Estelle Usher		(1885–1992)	2014	Atlanta's first Supervisor of Negro Schools	[28]
Henrietta Stanley Dull		(1863–1964)	2013	Caterer, journalist, author (as S. R. Dull) of Southern Cooking	[30]
Mary Gregory Jewett		(1908–1976)	2013	Founder and first President of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation	[31]
Lollie Belle Moore Wylie		(1858–1923)	2013	Writer	[32]
Sarah Randolph Bailey		(1885–1972)	2012	Educator who organized the YWCA-sponsored Girl Reserves for African-American girls	[33]
Ethel Harpst		(1883–1967)	2012	Founder of the Ethel Harpst Home for children	[34]
Beulah Rucker Oliver		(1888–1963)	2012	Educator	[35]
Lillian Gordy Carter		(1898–1983)	2011	Mother of President Jimmy Carter; Peace Corps worker; nurse; businesswoman	[36]
Mary Francis Hill Coley		(1900–1966)	2011	Midwife, subject of All My Babies	[37]
May duBignon Stiles Howard		(1894–1983)	2011	Health care	[38]
Mary Ann Lipscomb		(1848–1918)	2010	Educator	[39]
Celestine Sibley		(1914–1999)	2010	Journalist	[40]
Madrid Williams		(1911–1993)	2010	First female president of the National Association of Bar Executives	[41]
Caroline Pafford Miller		(1903–1992)	2009	Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1934 for her first novel, Lamb in His Bosom, the first Georgian to win the Pulitzer for Fiction.	[42]
Harriet Powers		(1837–1910)	2009	Quilt maker, creator of the Bible Quilt now in the possession of the National Museum of American History	[43]
Jane Hurt Yarn		(1924–1995)	2009	Environmentalist, conservationist	[44]
Elfrida De Renne Barrow		(1884–1970)	2008	Author, poet	[45]
Amilee Chastain Graves		(1910–1983)	2008	Publisher; first woman to hold elected office in Habersham County	[46]
Susan Dowdell Myrick		(1893–1978)	2008	Journalist, technical advisor for Gone with the Wind movie	[47]
Margaret O. Bynum		(1921–1982)	2007	Educator	[48]
Edith Lenora Foster		(1906–1996)	2007	Librarian, writer, historian	[49]
Helen Douglas Mankin		(1894–1956)	2007	First woman elected to the United States Congress from Georgia	[50]
Sara Branham Matthews		(1888–1962)	2007	Scientist who discovered a treatment for spinal meningitis	[51]
Eliza Frances (Fanny) Andrews		(1840–1931)	2006	Botanist	[52]
Grace Towns Hamilton		(1907–1992)	2006	First African-American woman elected to the Georgia General Assembly	[53]
Sarah Porter Hillhouse		(1763–1831)	2006	First woman editor and printer in Georgia	[54]
Alice Woodby McKane		(1865–1948)	2005	First female doctor in Savannah	[55]
Nina Anderson Pape		(1869–1944)	2005	Educator	[56]
Jeannette Pickering Rankin		(1880–1973)	2005	First woman elected to the United States House of Representatives	[57]
Mathilda Beasley		(1832–1903)	2004	Former slave, Georgia's first African-American Catholic nun	[58]
Louise Frederick Hays		(1881–1951)	2004	Historian, director Georgia Department of Archives and History	[59]
Helen Dortch Longstreet		(1863–1962)	2004	Social activist	[60]
Sarah McLendon Murphy		(1892–1954)	2004	Children's activist	[61]
Emily Barnelia Woodward		(1885–1970)	2004	Journalist	[62]
Madeleine Kiker Anthony		(1903–1989)	2003	Historic preservationist who helped save the old courthouse in Dahlonega, Georgia, now the Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site	[63]
Helena Maud Brown Cobb		(1869–1922)	2003	Missionary, educator	[64]
Julia Lester Dillon		(1871–1959)	2003	Landscape architect	[65]
Leila Ross Wilburn		(1885–1967)	2003	Georgia's first registered female architect	[66]
Wessie Gertrude Connell		(1915–1987)	2002	Librarian	[67]
Lula Dobbs McEachern		(1874–1949)	2002	Educator, missionary, philanthropist	[68]
Alice Harrell Strickland		(1859–1947)	2002	Georgia's first woman mayor	[69]
Julia L. Coleman		(1889–1973)	2001	Educator	[70]
Catherine Evans Whitener		(1880–1964)	2001	Revived the textile art of tufting into a profitable business	[71]
Sallie Ellis Davis		(1877–1950)	2000	Educator	[72]
Laura Askew Haygood		(1845–1900)	2000	Educator, missionary	[73]
Ellen Louise Axson Wilson		(1860–1914)	2000	First Lady of the United States, first wife of President Woodrow Wilson	[74]
Moina Belle Michael		(1869–1944)	1999	Originated the idea of using poppies to remember the war dead; honored with a United States postage stamp in 1948	[75]
Lillian Eugenia Smith		(1897–1966)	1999	Author of Strange Fruit, a 1944 novel about interracial love	[76]
Lettie Pate Evans		(1872–1953)	1998	Philanthropist, on board of directors of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co.	[77]
Julia Collier Harris		(1885–1967)	1998	Journalist, civic leader, editor	[78]
Rhoda Kaufman		(1888–1956)	1998	Social activist	[79]
Carrie Steele Logan		(1829–1900)	1998	Founded Carrie Steele Orphans' Home	[80]
Rebecca Latimer Felton		(1835–1930)	1997	First woman to serve in the United States Senate; women's rights advocate	[81]
Mary Ann Harris Gay		(1829–1918)	1997	Author	[82]
Nancy Morgan Hart		(1735–1830)	1997	Namesake of Hart County; frontier woman, American patriot, spy for the colonial army during the American War of Independence	[83]
Lucy Barrow McIntire		(1886–1975)	1997	Civic activist	[84]
Susan Cobb Milton Atkinson		(1860–1942)	1996	First Lady of Georgia, wife of Governor William Yates Atkinson; proponent of a state-supported college for women	[85]
Nellie Peters Black		(1851–1919)	1996	Women's issues organizer and activist	[86]
Ellen Smith Craft		(1826–1891)	1996	Escaped slave, educator	[87]
Corra Mae White Harris		(1869–1935)	1996	Author	[88]
Lugenia Burns Hope		(1871–1947)	1996	Social reformer [89]
Selena Sloan Butler		(1872–1964)	1995	Founder of first African-American PTA	[90]
Anna Colquitt Hunter		(1892–1985)	1995	Historic preservationist	[91]
Hazel Jane Raines		(1916–1956)	1995	First woman in Georgia to earn a pilot's license (private license, and commercial license with Eastern Air Lines), stunt pilot, Lieutenant of Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, flew with the (British) Air Transport Auxiliary, trained Brazilian air students, recalled into active duty to fly in the Korean War, inducted into Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame	[92][93]
Julia Flisch		(1861–1941)	1994	Journalist, women's rights advocate, educator	[94]
Carson McCullers		(1917–1967)	1994	Author	[95]
Margaret Mitchell		(1900–1949)	1994	Author of Gone with the Wind	[96]
Ruth Hartley Mosley		(1886–1975)	1994	Philanthropist	[97]
Emily Harvie Thomas Tubman		(1794–1885)	1994	Founder of the first public high school for girls in Augusta	[98]
Dicksie Bradley Bandy		(1890–1971)	1993	Philanthropist, businesswoman, campaigned to restore the historic Cherokee Chief Vann House Historic Site	[99]
Mary Musgrove Bosomworth		(1700–1765)	1993	Creek Indian woman who served as an interpreter for James Oglethorpe	[100]
Cassandra Pickett Durham		(1824–1885)	1993	First woman in Georgia to earn a doctor of medicine degree	[101]
Viola Ross Napier		(1881–1962)	1993	First woman member Georgia House of Representatives, first woman lawyer to argue before Georgia Supreme Court	[102]
Gertrude Pridgett "Ma" Rainey		(1886–1939)	1993	Blues singer	[103]
Martha McChesney Berry		(1866–1942)	1992	Founder of Berry College	[104]
Lucy Craft Laney		(1854–1933)	1992	Educator, hospital administrator	[105]
Juliette Gordon Low		(1860–1927)	1992	Founder of Girl Scouts of the USA	[106]
Flannery O'Connor		(1925–1964)	1992	Author	[107]