The 2019 Women of Achievement

For 35 years now, Women of Achievement has recognized and honored female leaders who have changed Memphis — and sometimes the world — for the better. Be they educators, artists, CEOs, or simply agents of change, more than 250 women have been saluted for their distinctive impact.

New in 2019 — and more than nine months in the making — is the Memphis Women’s Legacy Trail, a guide to places where women made history or where they are memorialized today. The trail stretches from Downtown (Beale Street) to Soulsville and Elmwood Cemetery, then east along Central Avenue to Christian Brothers University, the Memphis Pink Palace Museum, and the University of Memphis.

Chosen as exemplars in seven categories — Courage, Determination, Heritage, Heroism, Initiative, Steadfastness, and Vision — the honorees will be celebrated at an awards ceremony next March. We celebrate the examples they’ve set every day.

COURAGE

For a woman who, facing active opposition, backed an unpopular cause in which she deeply believed.

Mildred Richard-Edwards

Born to a drug-addicted mother, Mildred dropped out of school in 1990 (at the age of 12) to care for her infant twin siblings who had been abandoned. In 2000 Mildred found out she was HIV-positive after she gave birth to her son, a pregnancy that was the result of rape.

Overwhelmed, she was referred to Hope House. There she met staff members Maria Randall and Melissa White. For the first time, she met other women like herself. There she learned how to live with HIV and she earned her GED.

“You don’t leave someone who is living with HIV,” she says.

Asked to speak at a Hopes and Dreams luncheon to raise funds for a new space, Mildred was terrified but Maria convinced her she could do it and stood by her side as she spoke. The experience was life-changing and she’s been speaking about living with HIV ever since.

Mildred is a tireless advocate on behalf of people living with HIV, counseling them through Hope House and Friends for Life. She has been a peer mentor, patient navigator, and case manager. “You don’t leave someone who is living with HIV,” she says.

Mildred received the National Public Citizen of the Year Award in 2016 from the National Association of Social Workers for her work advocating on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS.

She is founder of “My Sista’s Keeper,” which started as a small group for women impacted by HIV. Her siblings and son are grown and she now works for a pharmaceutical company, traveling to teach people how to live and thrive with HIV. Mildred is a force of nature who, through her courage, has transformed countless lives.

DETERMINATION

For women who solved a glaring problem despite widespread inertia, apathy, or ignorance around them.

Mary E. Mitchell

Born in 1936, Mary Mitchell has lived in the same home in Orange Mound since she was 6. Developed in the late 1800s as one of the nation’s first planned African-American communities, for decades Orange Mound was a source of pride to the business owners, lawyers, teachers, and professionals who called it home.

Today, many of those homes and businesses stand empty, and the local news media often reports stories of the neighborhood’s poverty and violence.

To Mary, however, Orange Mound is sacred ground. She watched its slow decline, but was determined that the rich historic and cultural heritage of Orange Mound deserved to be preserved and celebrated, and she has worked to make that happen.

In 1980, at age 44, she enrolled at LeMoyne-Owen College, graduating with a degree in philosophy. After graduation, she started her own business, but continued to promote the importance of Orange Mound at every opportunity. From 2000 through 2005 she chaired the Orange Mound Collaborative, which stressed education through empowerment, with an Early Childhood Institute, an oral history project, and a community newspaper.

She embraces opportunity and progress when faced with challenges. Thanks to her extraordinary determination, the history of Orange Mound has been documented through newspaper articles, tours, speaking engagements, and documentaries.

When grant funding ended, Mary enlisted the help of the University of Memphis Journalism Department to keep the paper running for several more years.

In 2006, determined to maintain the momentum of the Collaborative, she co-founded the Melrose Center for Cultural Enrichment in Orange Mound, committed to the preservation and restoration of the Historic Melrose School building, which includes a genealogy center and a museum.

Mary unites teams around historical, cultural, and socioeconomic factors to advocate for “The Mound.” She embraces opportunity and progress when faced with challenges. Thanks to her extraordinary determination, the history of Orange Mound has been documented through newspaper articles, tours, speaking engagements, and documentaries.

Rachel Coats Greer

In 1958, Rachel’s father started Rachel’s Flowers, and in 1997, the florist moved to 2486 Poplar on the edge of Binghamton. The neighborhood suffered from crime, poverty, and hopelessness.

One day a young boy asked for a job to buy clothes and school supplies. Rachel hired him, and when he brought friends along, also needing work, she hired them, too. She soon realized they needed more than money. With help from her parents and late husband, Harry Greer, she tutored them and bought school clothes. She mobilized friends, family, and employees, and Central Christian Church provided support.

In 2002, Rachel’s Kids, Inc. became a nonprofit. The mission: Provide opportunities and improved quality of life for the children of Binghamton. The method: Call Rachel.

Rachel is a shining light of hope in a neighborhood where there are growing opportunities but still devastating challenges.

Rachel does what is needed when it is needed. Help with school? Tutors are hired. Need food? It is delivered. Transportation? It is arranged. Need a safe haven from domestic violence? It is found.

In 2003, Rachel and Harry moved their home to Binghamton and opened their door to the neighborhood. Over the years, more than 300 kids have been helped by Rachel and her volunteers. She takes them to football games, doctor appointments, and camps. She reminds them to believe in themselves and not allow their circumstances to define their future.

A long-time customer says, “Rachel is a shining light of hope in a neighborhood where there are growing opportunities but still devastating challenges. She is a mentor, a counselor, a business partner, a problem-solver, a go-to person, and a humble servant leader for this neighborhood.”

The many young Rachels and Haleys living in Binghamton named for Rachel and her daughter show how much Rachel’s determination has made a difference in the lives of children in Binghamton.

HERITAGE

For women whose achievements still enrich our lives.

Cornelia Crenshaw (1916-1994)

Cornelia Crenshaw was born in Millington, and at age 5 her family moved to Memphis, where she lived until her death in 1994. She attended Booker T. Washington High School and LeMoyne-Owen College.

One of the few African-American professional women working outside the field of education, Cornelia was employed for 27 years by the Memphis Housing Authority. Her advocacy for workers’ rights got her fired from the MHA. She then sued, unsuccessfully, under the new Civil Rights Bill of 1964, to get her job back.

She was the person who told the union about Robert Worsham’s poem “I Am A Man,” which then became the iconic slogan of the entire civil rights movement.

At the age of 49, Cornelia became a full-time community activist. Noted for her stylish clothing and hats, she regularly attended city council meetings and made her voice and views known. Well before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to support the Memphis sanitation workers, Cornelia was collecting food and necessities for the strikers’ families. She was the person who told the union about Robert Worsham’s poem “I Am A Man,” which then became the iconic slogan of the entire civil rights movement. The only African-American woman on the strategy team headed by Rev. James Lawson, she walked in the daily protests Downtown and was tear-gassed during the first march led by Dr. King.

Cornelia was ahead of her time in recognizing institutional racism. In 1969 she protested an increase in garbage collection fees by refusing to pay her Memphis, Light, Gas & Water bill. After MLGW turned off her utilities, she continued to live in her well-appointed home without gas or electricity for ten more years until she was forced to abandon it. Because of her protest, however, MLGW began to accept partial payments on bills, thus allowing customers to spread out their utility costs.

Cornelia’s long-time advocacy was officially recognized when the Memphis Public Library named the Cornelia Crenshaw Branch at 536 Vance in her honor.

Estelle Axton (1918-2004)

Estelle Axton co-founded Stax Records with her brother, James Stewart, the name a combination of STewart and AXton. Stax became renowned as a leader in soul music, rivaling the Motown sound in the 1960s.

Born in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle taught school in Memphis, married Everett Axton, raised two children at home, and worked as a bank teller.

When her brother decided to open a record company, she persuaded her husband to mortgage their house and joined James as a full partner in 1959. Together they bought the old Capitol Theater on McLemore and turned it into a recording studio and a record shop. Jim managed the studio and Estelle ran the Satellite Record Shop.

“The record shop was a workshop for Stax,” she once explained. “When a record hit on another label, we would discuss what made it sell.”

I think she was responsible for the racial harmony at Stax. Mrs. Axton, you didn’t feel any back-off from her, no differentiation that you were black and she was white.

Musicians recall Estelle as the one who encouraged them and sometimes made her brother sign them. She promoted the careers of Rufus and Carla Thomas, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Isaac Hayes, who said of her: “Estelle was a very generous woman, with her time, her counsel, and her advice. I think she was responsible for the racial harmony at Stax. Mrs. Axton, you didn’t feel any back-off from her, no differentiation that you were black and she was white. … Being in a town where that attitude was plentiful, she just made you feel secure. She was like a mother to us all.”

“Were it not for her, there’s no way Stax could have become what it became,” says David Porter, the songwriter who wrote many Stax hits, such as “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Coming.”

After leaving Stax in 1970, she founded the Memphis Songwriters Association and co-founded the Memphis Music Association, the umbrella organization for all Memphis music.

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music opened in 2003, and she lived to see it, dying in 2004 at age 85. In 2007 she was posthumously awarded a Grammys Trustee Award, given to “individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording.”

HEROISM

For a woman whose heroic spirit was tested and shown as a model to all, in Shelby County and beyond.

Gabriela Salinas

Gabby’s story of survival and courage has been told all over the world. In 1996, her father brought her to the U.S. from Bolivia at age 7 to be treated for cancer, but was unable to pay for her life-saving treatment at a New York Hospital.

Actress Marlo Thomas heard of her plight and had her flown to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital — where no patient ever pays. The medical team treated the cancer in Gabby’s spine, helped allowing her to walk again. Barely a year after arriving in Memphis, however, her father and younger sister died in a car crash that paralyzed her mother.

Her spirit has been tested over and over again, but Gabby has emerged as a true hero.

In 2001, she was granted U.S. citizenship and attended St. Agnes Academy and Christian Brothers University. During this time, she was treated again for cancer. In 2010, still a student at CBU, she joined the St. Jude Department of Chemical Biology and Therapeutics, where she helped establish “Danny’s Dream Team,” composed of former patients who run races to raise funds in honor of founder Danny Thomas.

That year, she lobbied for expansion of Medicaid after the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. She watched as that effort was defeated and saw the hospital that treated her family close. That sparked her political awakening. In 2018 Gabby ran for state senate. She defeated two opponents to become the Democratic nominee, facing a nine-year incumbent in a solidly Republican district. On election day, her opponent won by only 1,520 votes.

Her spirit has been tested over and over again, but Gabby has emerged as a true hero.

INITIATIVE

For a woman who seized the opportunity to use her talents and created her own future.

Maxine Starling Strawder

In Beckley, West Virginia, Maxine was born with poor vision. The family moved to Cleveland, where 10-year-old Maxine saw legendary African-American dancer Katherine Dunham. That performance gave Maxine a life-long passion for dance.

Her parents enrolled her at Cleveland’s Karamu House, one of the oldest African-American theaters in America, where she danced without her Coke-bottle glasses, barely able to see the stage.

She attended Fisk University, which had no dance program, so cleaned houses to pay for travels to Europe, studying in Denmark and Germany. Back in the states, she worked with dancer/choreographer Bob Johnson’s Pittsburgh Black Theater Dance Ensemble.

While in Cleveland she fought housing discrimination and participated in marches and sit-ins for civil rights. In Memphis she continues to advocate for social justice.

She earned a master’s degree in library science from Indiana University and took a job with the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library system. One of the first African-American librarians in Memphis, she became manager of the Gaston Park Branch.

Maxine never gave up her passion, and in 1973 helped organize the First National Congress of Blacks in Dance. She remained active in the Memphis arts community for decades, involved with the Harry Bryce Dance Company, the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, and Project: Motion. When she turned 75 she choreographed the annual show for Project: Motion. 75 Rotations: Celebrating Maxine Strawder’s Passion for Dance had three sold-out performances, benefiting the Maxine Strawder Dance Enrichment Scholarship at the University of Memphis.

While in Cleveland she fought housing discrimination and participated in marches and sit-ins for civil rights. In Memphis she continues to advocate for social justice.

“Both my mother and grandmother lived to be 96 years old,” she says. “Both faced many obstacles in life and possessed a loving fierceness. They instilled that in me.”

STEADFASTNESS

For a woman with a lifetime of achievement.

Dr. Jane Howles Hooker

Jane Hooker was a mother of three and pregnant when she entered then-Memphis State University in 1961. Now 81, she really has never left the university. And the change she led while there — to revive and develop intercollegiate athletics for women, to teach and inspire generations of teachers — is legendary.

From the 1930s until 1972 (when Title IX became law), many American colleges and universities provided no athletic programs for women. Instead, female athletes joined the Association for Intramural Athletics for Women.

Jane spent summers playing sports at Cliff Davis Park and, as a teen, competing thanks to the YWCA’s Y-Teen basketball team. In 1956, while still at Messick High School, Jane married the love of her life, Joe Hooker. She became pregnant with their first child and hid her pregnancy until after graduation. Soon she was the mother of four.

In 1969, along with Elma Roane, Jane and several women across the state started a Tennessee Women’s Sports Foundation. Their mission was to provide intercollegiate varsity sports for women.

When she enrolled part-time at Memphis State in 1961, Jane majored in Health, Physical Education and Recreation. She earned a bachelor of science degree in 1968, followed by a master’s in 1969.

She played basketball and badminton as a Tiger and served as head coach for women’s volleyball from 1970 to 1972. But Jane’s real love was teaching, so she left coaching and commuted to Oxford, where she earned her Ph.D. in 1988 at the University of Mississippi.

In 1969, along with Elma Roane, Jane and several women across the state started a Tennessee Women’s Sports Foundation. Their mission was to provide intercollegiate varsity sports for women. Her interest in providing sports opportunities for children led her to accept responsibilities in the AAU Junior Olympics and Special Olympics. A recipient of countless awards, she taught and held U of M administrative positions until retiring in 1998.

Jane is an active member of Bethany Christian Church and has written its history. She is a proud lifetime member of the University of Memphis Alumni Association and until recently could be found in the stands rooting for the Tigers.

VISION

For a woman whose sensitivity to women’s needs led her to tremendous achievements for women.

Dr. Carol Danehower

Every day dozens of women and girls in Memphis and Shelby County endure beatings, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, and emotional violence that strip them of their health, their sanity, their confidence, and their capacity to study or to work. Every year 15 to 20 local women are killed by men who have claimed to love them.

Dr. Carol Danehower is committed to giving of her time, her expertise as a researcher and educator, and her passion for helping women to fulfill a vision of safety and fairness for women in their homes, at work, everywhere.

Carol is an associate professor in the Department of Management at the U of M Fogelman College of Business and Economics. She became aware of the deadly extent of domestic violence locally and nationally as a board member with the Memphis YWCA.

Carol’s vision for safe, secure, productive homes and workplaces for all is critical and just. She has made generous and persistent efforts toward that vision.

She came to the Memphis Area Women’s Council in 2011 as a volunteer concerned about women and violence, and how domestic violence limits women’s capacity to be productive and maintain careers.

With the Women’s Council, she created a two-hour training workshop, “Violence at Home. Victims at Work. Employers Confront Domestic Violence,” which she presents to classes at the university every semester. With Deborah Clubb, co-founder of Women of Achievement, she has trained nearly 1,000 people in workplaces across the city about confronting domestic violence. Carol began chairing the Women’s Council board of directors in 2013 and continues in that capacity.

Carol’s vision for safe, secure, productive homes and workplaces for all is critical and just. She has made generous and persistent efforts toward that vision.