University Library News
Georgia State University

Sheroes of the Year 2010: Celebrating the Dauntless and the Dangerous!

Presented annually, the Shero of the Year Award recognizes an individual or individuals whose support has made a significant impact on the Women’s Collection. The 2010 Shero of the Year Celebration will take place at the home of State Representative Kathy Ashe on Sunday, October 10, from 2:00 pm-3:30 p.m.

Our dear friends Margaret Miller Curtis and Lucy Hargrett Draper are being honored as Sheroes of the Year by Georgia State University Library’s Women’s Collection. Both Lucy and Margaret have spent their lives supporting women’s rights, and were instrumental in establishing the Women’s Collection at GSU. By attending and honoring them, guests will make donations that will be used exclusively to support the GSU Library’s Women’s Collection, an archive dedicated to collecting, preserving and making available the documentary heritage of women in Georgia and the South.

Margaret Miller Curtis

Born in Florida in 1935, Margaret Miller Curtis earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Florida State University and taught elementary school in Florida and Ohio. In 1973, she moved to Georgia and became active in the women’s movement, expressing her Christian faith in her activism for women’s rights. A writer, speaker, lobbyist and fund-raiser for a number of organizations, she was chair of the Speaker’s Bureau for ERA Georgia, Inc. (1979-1980), president of People of Faith for the ERA in Georgia (1980-1982), and on the board of directors for the Council on Battered Women (1975, 1986-1988). Curtis “specialized” in newspaper publicity and letter-writing, and had hundreds of letters to the editor published, including those that she wrote for others. Many of these letters, which she continues to write, address the ERA and other women’s issues. One of the Women’s Collection’s earliest founding mothers, Margaret donated her personal papers to the Collection, served on its Acquisitions Task Force, and, along with Dorothy Gibson-Ferrey, established Our Mothers’ Fund. She wrote her memoir, Life as a Feminist In Georgia: A Personal Recollection, to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Women’s Collection and to raise funds to support the Collection.

Lucy Hargrett Draper

Known for her activism and support for women’s economic, educational, and legal equality, Lucy Hargrett Draper has advanced degrees in education, history, and law. She founded the Atlanta NOW Speaker’s Bureau (1969-1971), West Point NOW (1973-1976), Kansas WEAL (1977), Georgia WEAL (1978), and the Georgia Coalition for the Rights of Women (1997). Lucy served in various capacities in New York, Kansas and Georgia in efforts to ratify the Federal and state-level Equal Rights Amendments as well as the passage of Title IX, the admission of women to the service academies, and breast cancer treatment legislation. At Georgia State University, she played a pivotal role in creating the Georgia’s Women’s Movement Project (1996), and established the Lucy H. Draper Federal Equal Rights Amendment Research Collection as well as its accompanying endowment. Lucy was extremely active on the Women’s Collection Acquisition and Fundraising Task Forces, traveling across Georgia to raise funds and gather collections for the Georgia Women’s Movement Project. Elsewhere in Georgia, she established the University of Georgia’s Lucy Hargrett Draper Center & Archives for the Study of the Rights of Women in History & Law (1996) in the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Shero of the Year Celebration

The home of State Representative Kathy Ashe
82 Westminster Drive NE
Sunday, October 10, 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Kathy’s home is wheelchair accessible.
View directions to the event

Please RSVP by 10/1/2010
404-413-2880 / mgerrard@gsu.edu

Suggested attendee contribution: $100.00
(Click here to contribute) or contact Natalie Blake 404-413-2707 / nblake@gsu.edu

EVENT HOST COMMITTEE (this list will be updated weekly)
Downright Determined Donors ($1000.00)
Kathy Ashe
Roy and Marie Barnes
Donna and Michael Coles
Stephen E. Draper

Dangerous Donors ($500.00)
*Anonymous
*Anonymous
*Anonymous
Ingrid Saunders Jones
Marjorie F. Knowles

Dauntless Donors
($250.00)
Joanna Adams
Linda Bell
Margaret Clarkson
Ann Curry
Chrisy Erickson
Lucy T. Erickson
Diane L. Fowlkes
Joan Garner
Lynn Hunter Griley
Margaret & Michael Hale
Nancy Hall
Kate Hamilton
McKee H. Hamilton
Cheryl G. Hargrett
Doris M. Hargrett
Cathy Henson
Mary N. Long
Mickie McDaniel
Kathryn Miller
Jessie and Glenn Morris
Janet Paulk
Patricia A. Roberts
Sally Rosser
Polly and Charlie Simpson
Ann Stallard
Cathey W. Steinberg
Lisa Swanson
Judith Taylor
Sandy Welfare
Ruth West

Special Contributors
Anne Deeley Easterly
Beth S. Schapiro

Special GSU Guests
Laura Voisinet, First Lady
Nancy H. Seamans, Dean of Libraries

*Donors wish to acknowledge Morna Gerrard, Archivist, Women’s Collection, and the staff of Special Collections and Archives in the Georgia State University Library.