Women’s Hall of Fame to honor 2 United Methodists in 2005
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (right) talks with Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher in this 2003 file photo.
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U.S.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (right) talks with United Methodist Bishop Sharon
Brown Christopher in this 2003 file photo, taken in Clinton�s Senate
office in Washington. The senator and former first lady-an active United
Methodist-will be inducted into the National Women�s Hall of Fame in
2005. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo number 04-472. Accompanies UMNS
story #468, 10/11/04. |
Oct. 11, 2004By Linda Bloom* NEW YORK (UMNS)-Two United Methodists are among the 10 women being inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005. U.S.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Betty Bumpers, former first
lady of Arkansas, will be honored, along with Rita Colwell, the first
woman and first biologist to lead the National Science Foundation, and
Maya Lin, the renowned architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington. Six
historical figures-Florence Ellinwood Allen, Ruth Fulton Benedict,
Mother Marianne Cope, Patricia Locke, Blanche Stuart Scott and Mary
Burnett Talbert-also will be inducted. The
accomplishments of the inductees demonstrates the "vision of women’s
potential" expressed by the women and men who convened the first women’s
rights convention in 1848, according to Clotilde Perez-Bode Dedecker,
hall president. The hall of fame ceremonies will take place Oct. 7-8,
2005. The
honorees join 207 women who have been inducted into the National
Women’s Hall of Fame since its founding in 1969 in Seneca Falls, N.Y.,
the site of the 1848 convention. Clinton
and her family were active members of First United Methodist Church in
Park Ridge, Ill., as she grew up. The 1973 graduate of Yale Law School
continued to be active in the denomination and was a member of First
United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Ark., when her husband, Bill
Clinton, was state governor. After Bill Clinton was elected president of
the United States, they and daughter Chelsea attended Foundry United
Methodist Church in Washington. Hillary
Clinton was elected U.S. senator from New York in November 2000, the
only first lady ever elected to the Senate. She is the first New York
senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee and also serves
on the Senate committees for environment and public works, and health,
education, labor and pensions. Her book, Living History, released in June 2003, has sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States and another 1.5 million copies abroad. Bumpers,
who lives in Bethesda, Md., is a United Methodist and another former
first lady of Arkansas. Her husband, Dale Bumpers, served as that
state’s governor from 1970 to 1974, then went on to a 24-year career in
the U.S. Senate. In
Arkansas, Betty Bumpers worked to improve the state’s low rate of
childhood immunization, helping to develop a system for immunizations
that became a national model. She continued that work in Washington,
teaming with first lady Rosalynn Carter. Their advocacy efforts led to
the first comprehensive childhood immunization initiative of the federal
government, launched in 1977, according to the National Institutes of
Health. Bumpers
and Carter also started a campaign in 1991, called "Every Child by
Two," which worked to ensure that all children in America are placed on
an immunization schedule from birth to age 2. The National Institutes of
Health is the home of the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research
Center. The
National Women’s Hall of Fame is a not-for-profit organization that
sponsors educational activities, special exhibits and events designed to
increase public awareness of the diverse contributions that women make
to society. *Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York. News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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