Majick RavenHawk Named "Women in Business Champion of the Year"

The Oklahoma District office of the US Small Business Administration has named Majick RavenHawk their 2011 "Women in Business Champion of the Year." She has had a talk radio show since 2009 on Contact Talk Radio. She has a PhD in religious studies and metaphysics. Check out her show schedule and more at her RavenHawk Talk Radio website. She and other honorees will be recognized at the Oklahoma SBA annual luncheon April 21 at the Oklahoma History Center. For details, click here. Congratulations, Majick!

Lisa Thiessen Named 2011 "Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year"

Congratulations to Lisa Thiessen, business development specialist for Southwestern Oklahoma State University's Small Business Development Center in Weatherford. She has been named the SBA "Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year."  She will be honored at the US Small Business Administration's annual banquet on April 21 at the Oklahoma History Center.  Read more here.

Oklahoma City Day Shelter Serves Homeless Women and Children

If you know of a woman who is homeless in Central Oklahoma, send her to  the Sanctuary Women's Development Center in Oklahoma City. Opened in 2009, it is the first of its kind serving homeless or at-risk women. Last year, they served close to 500 women and children. Located at 2133 SW 11th Street, it is a project of Catholic Charities. Call 526-2321. It is open weekdays from 8:30am to 3:30pm. Donations and volunteers are always needed. You can follow them on Facebook. Read more about the service at this Oklahoman article.

Kelsy Eakin is SBA's Oklahoma Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Dottie Overall, The U.S. Small Business Administration Oklahoma District Diretor announced recently that Kelsy Eakin "Oklahoma Young Entrepreneur of the Year."  Eakin is president of Keltec in Tulsa. You can view her company's website here and the article about her company's start. Congratulations, Kelsy!  She will be recognized during the SBA's annual small business luncheon April 21 at the Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Dr. in Oklahoma City. The luncheon is set to start at 11:30 a.m.

OSU Celebrates Women's History with Oral Histories

Check out the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program (OOHRP) at the Oklahoma State University Library. Explore the following websites:

Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame Oral History Project
http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/owhof/

Women of the Oklahoma Legislature Oral History Project
http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/wotol/

Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: Oklahoma Women and the Dust Bowl
http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/dustbowl/

Want to learn more? Call OOHRP at 405-744-7685, email liboh@okstate.edu, or visit http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/.

Vanessa Shadix Honored by National Builders Council

The National Association of Home Builders' Professional Women in Building Council has named Vanessa Shadix Woman of the Year for her exceptional leadership. Shadix is a member of the Oklahoma Land Title Association and the Oklahoma Mortgage Bankers Association. Congrats, Vanessa!

Celebrating Perle Mesta

Perle Fried Skirvin Mesta (1890 -1975) - Socialite, hostess, diplomat. Born Sturgis, MO. Combined politics with entertaining. Appointed by President Harry Truman as minister to Luxembourg (1949-1953). Named Oklahoma's "Ambassador to the World" at the 1965 World's Fair. An ardent feminist, Mesta was a member of the National Women's Party and helped start the World Women's Party. In 1944, she was partially responsible for getting an Equal Rights Amendment plank in the Democratic Party platform. Her remarkable entertaining skills were parodied by Irving Berlin in his play "Call Me Madame" thus earning her the title "the Hostess with the Mostess." With Robert Cahn, she published her biography Perle: My Story in 1960; you can read this book online by clicking here. Mesta returned to Oklahoma in 1973 and was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 1997. The Oklahoman ran a lovely article about Mesta in May of 2006 which you can read here.

Eight Women to be Inducted into Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame

The Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women will honor the eight newest inductees into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame ceremonies on April 7, 2011.

The inductees are Dr. Laura Boyd (Norman); Chloe L. Brown (Tulsa); Joy D. Culbreath (Durant); Marcia J. Mitchell (Tulsa); Ardina R. Moore (Miami); Dr. Cynthia S. Ross (Lawton); Kathryn L. Taylor (Tulsa); and Helen Harrod Thompson (Ardmore). You can view the class of 2011 inductee biographies by clicking here. The official press release is located here. Here are the details of the event:

2011 Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame

Thursday, April 7, 2011
3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Oklahoma History Center
800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73105

Ceremony will take place in the Chesapeake Event center, followed by a celebratory reception in the Devon Great Hall.

Mayor Patrice Douglas and Norma Nobles Honored

Congratulations to Edmond Mayor Patrice Douglas and Oklahoma State Deputy Secretary of Commerce Norma Noble on receiving the 2011 Kate Barnard Award. Given by the Oklahoma Commission of the Status of Women, the award was created in 1998 to honor the ranks of women that have made a difference in Oklahoma by becoming public servants. Nominees are from the ranks of elected or appointed salaried public officials in Oklahoma. You can read more about the award and the honorees at http://www.ok.gov/ocsw/The_Kate_Barnard_Award/

Shannon Miller Promotes Early Detection

"Make your health a priority," says Oklahoma's Olympic Gold Medalist Shannon Miller who  - due to a  "germ cell malignancy" - recently had one ovary removed. The most decorated gymnast in US history, an attorney and a busy motivational speaker, Miller focuses on health and fitness for women. Check out her website - Shannon Miller Lifestyle and read an excellent Sports Illustrated article about Shannon entitled "Shannon Miller views own cancer as opportunity to help others." Remember ladies, don't skip that gynocological check up.

Angie Debo Remembered

Remembering remarkable Oklahoma women during National Women's History Month:

Angie Debo (1890-1988) - Raised in Marshall, Oklahoma. Teacher, researcher, scholar. Leading author/scholar on Indian history. Published nine books including And Still The Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. The University of Oklahoma Press, fearing it was too controversial, refused to honor their publishing contract. It was later published by Princeton University Press. Shirley Leckie wrote her biography, Angie Debo: Pioneering Historian (Oklahoma Western Biographies, Vol 18). PBS did a remarkable documentary on Debo entitled Indians, Outlaws, and Angie Debo, that was broadcast in 1988. (Here is how American Experience summarized the show and the woman:

"As a child in 1899, Angie Debo was taken to Oklahoma in a covered wagon. She would become her state's most controversial historian -- her career threatened when she uncovered a cache of documents which proved a widespread conspiracy to cheat Native Americans out of oil-rich lands."

Debo's papers are housed at Oklahoma State Library. Her portrait hangs in the Oklahoma State Capitol. And there is a statue of her in front of the Stillwater Public Library.

If you want to leave a lasting impression, writer. The following list of Debo's writings comes from the Center for Great Plains Studies at University of Nebraska-Lincoln website:

Works by Angie Debo
(For additional information: www.library.okstate.edu/scua/debo.htm)
Dissertation
"History of the Choctaw Nation from the End of the Civil War to the Close of the Tribal Period." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oklahoma, 1933.
Books
(With J. Fred Rippy) The Historical Background of the American Policy of Isolation. Northhampton, Mass.: Smith College Studies in History, 1924.
The Rise and Fall of the Choctaw Republic. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1934, 2nd edition, 1961.
And Still the Waters Run. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940; reprint, Gordian Press, 1966; reprint, Princeton University Press, 1972; reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984.
The Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941; reprint 1979.
Tulsa: From Creek Town to Oil Capital. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1943.
Prairie City: The Story of an American Community. New York: Knopf, 1944; reprint, Norman: University Press of Oklahoma, 1998.
Oklahoma: Foot-Loose and Fancy-Free. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1949; reprint 1987.
The Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma: A Report on Social and Economic Conditions. Philadelphia: Indian Rights Association, 1951.
A History of the Indians of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
Geronimo: The Man, His Time, His Place. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976.
Edited Books
Oklahoma: A Guide to the Sooner State, edited by Angie Debo and John M. Oskison, compiled by Writers' Program, Work Projects Administration, State of Oklahoma. University of Oklahoma Press, 1941, 2nd edition, 1945, reprint, 1947; reprint, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1986.
The Cowman's Southwest: Being the Reminiscences of Oliver Nelson, Freighter, Camp Cook, Cowboy, Frontiersman in Kansas, Indian Territory, Texas, and Oklahoma, 1878-1893, by Oliver Nelson. Edited by Angie Debo. The Western Frontiersman Series, 4. Glendale, Calif.: A.H. Clark Co., 1953; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Natchez Indians, by Horatio B. Cushman. Edited with a foreword by Angie Debo. Redlands Press, 1962, reprint, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
With Five Reservations, by Dell O'Hara, edited by Angie Debo and Harold H. Leake. Creekside Publications, 1986.
Chapters in Monographs
"Apaches as Southeastern Indians." In Indians of the Lower South: Past and Present, edited by John K. Mahon. Gulf Coast History and Humanities Conference, 1975.
"Edward Everett Dale: The Teacher." In Frontier Historian: The Life and Work of Edward Everett Dale, edited by Arrell M. Gibson. University of Oklahoma Press, 1975.
"Major Indian Record Collections in Oklahoma." In Indian-White Relations: A Persistent Paradox, edited by Jane F. Smith and Robert M. Kvasnicka. Howard University Press, 1976.

March is Women's History Month

Happy Women's History Month. 

Check out http://womenshistorymonth.gov/  for LOTS of great history. 


There is information posted there from the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 


Image is from the Alice Paul Institute