10th Women's Hall of Fame honors Kansas City women for accomplishments and influence
Today it's easy to look around the Kansas City area and see the women educators, legislators and businesswomen who have built our region to what it is today.
But it hasn't always been this way.
'Women's stories are left out of history books a lot,' said Amy Samaripa, director of external relations at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
That's why the 10th annual Starr Women's Hall of Fame is so important. A decade of acknowledgment to Kansas City women for their accomplishments and influence is one thing. But UMKC has archived the 45 inductees in its library, making all their materials electronic and available to researchers from around the world.
'This is a great way to be able to capture the region's history,' Samaripa said.
Seven more inductees will be added this year: Eliza Conley Jr., Muriel Irene McBrien Kauffman, Roshann Parris, Clara Reyes, Annabeth Surbaugh, Marian E. Washington and Marjorie A. Williams.
Four will receive posthumous awards, but the three living honorees sat down to speak with me about their impact to Kansas City. They are:
Roshann Parris, founder of Parris Communications, a Kansas City-based public relations and strategic communications firm specializing in strategic corporate communications, media relations, public affairs and crisis communications with clients including Fortune 50 companies nationwide.
Marian Washington, who pioneered the women's athletic program at the University of Kansas, where she served as athletic director and women's basketball coach. She also paved the way for Black women in sports in the U.S.
Marjorie Williams, known widely as Dr. Marj, has given nearly 40 years in service of schools, children, university scholars and teachers. Williams became the first African American superintendent in the 100-year history of Hickman Mills School District in 2000.
It must be noted that none of these women believed they were an automatic pick for the award.
Said Parris, 'One of my favorite all-time quotes is a John Wooden quote: 'You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who can never say thank you.'
'And there are women in our community every day who would be horrified to know they were ever nominated, let alone, actually going up to accept the award because they work with such humility and such passion and such dedication.'
Incredibly humble, their love for Kansas City and its people was evident. I'll let them tell their stories in their own words.
I was born and raised in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on a small farm. I think my life overall is an example for young people hopefully because I lived in a bus for my first 12 years of my life and a (then) home that my parents made for us.
I never thought that I would end up walking this yellow brick road to Kansas, but I attended West Chester State, and in 1969, I had a wonderful mentor, Carol Eggman, who had a vision to establish a national championship for college. It was because of her (that) I was a member of her team that won the very first national championships.
And from there, I was invited to try out for a national team, and it was coached by Alberta Lee Cox, who was from Raytown, Missouri. She is a legend here. And she integrated the U.S. national team when she elected to have myself and my teammate Colleen Bowser to be a part of that team. In '69, I was raising a daughter at a very young age. And so when Alberta, 'Bert,' asked me to come out to the Midwest, she really embraced me and my daughter as part of her family. And we were to be a part of the very first Olympic team.
Unfortunately the (International Olympic Committee) overscheduled the men and we were locked out, so I didn't make it in 1972, but God has had a way in my life. I ended up walking that yellow road to the University of Kansas.
I became the women's basketball coach in 1973. And that is a time where I gather they call me the Jackie Robinson of women's basketball coaching because it was the first time a Black woman ever coached at a predominantly white institution. And in 1974, I was named the first director of women's athletics at Kansas.
(Roshann Parris: Can I just interrupt? Am I the only one that is living through full body chills right now?)
(Washington smiles and continues): I was president of the Black Coaches Association for a few years and I utilized that position to make campaign and policy with the United States Olympic Committee, because prior to that time, this is in the '90s now, you would have U.S. teams go out representing our country, but the coaching staffs did not have a person of color on the staff. So you had young Black women playing, but they didn't have a Black coach to look at and to dream. So, I pushed the USOC to make a change in their policy. And so today, every team representing the United States will have a person of color on their coaching.
I thought, all those years I was trying to make the Olympics as an athlete, and here I was to be a part of an Olympic coaching staff.
My players, they have a sisterhood and they are part of my family. … They will call me check on me today, and when I see how far they've gone in their lives, they're doctors, lawyers, they are coaches, they are role models in their communities. I'm absolutely thrilled and proud of that, but I'm also so proud of the fact that I hope I made some a path for young women of color to go forward in the coaching profession.
I am a proud Kansas Citian of now over 40 years. I began my career in Washington, D.C., working in the United States Senate, and from there migrated to Kansas City, when I met my husband who was working next door at Bob Dole's office.
From there, I got my MBA and worked at the University of Kansas in a public policy role, having spent six years in Washington on behalf of KU. And then made the move to Kansas City, began my own firm now 37 years ago and have lived sort of a dual life ever since, running a small but energized PR and crisis communications firm here in Kansas City, while simultaneously serving in a national service role on three White House administrations.
So I have led White House negotiating teams around the world to over 75 countries on behalf of the president and first lady as they have conducted the nation's business around the world. And that has been a 46-year journey of sort of dual service in that regard.
I have had the privilege to represent presidents of both parties, but predominantly Democratic, and I have been privileged to watch the wheels of Air Force One land in over 75 countries as the United States seeks to conduct its diplomacy around the world to go into war-torn areas. These are complicated political zones, where we try to solve world problems that perhaps have not been solved for years or decades or generations, for that matter.
And every time I see that emblem of our country drop onto the ground, I am acutely aware that very few people have had the opportunity to pass this way. Does that make me deserving? I can say that in many of those countries, women were not considered at all valued members of society, particularly dating back four-plus decades ago. And so the struggles of leading teams as I did around the world were real, and I've got endless stories of places where they attempted to put me in my place on behalf of our country thinking that they could.
I was privileged to be a part of world history and be able to hopefully change the perception of what women are capable of doing on behalf of our country in all parts of the world.
I am an educator by purpose and passion, spending 40 years in the field. I still have my space in the world of education acting as a resource not only here in Kansas City, but throughout the country. I became the first African American superintendent in the history of the Hickman Mills school district, and during that time I'll say I served in the seat for 12 years.
If anyone knows anything about specifically urban education, to be a superintendent that long is unheard of. And then to be a female when there were very few people who look like me across the state and throughout the country. I often found myself in settings where I was the only one.
And so I had a double role: making sure that I was visible, and garnering respect because of where I came from, what I was doing and what my role in the field was not only for the children in Kansas City, but every child who entered public schools.
I am not originally from Kansas City, but I do consider it home. I've been here since I was in the fourth grade. And so, I am a product of KCPS. I still try to be involved with the school district as much as I can, from being a resource to every superintendent who not only was there when I was there, but those who have sat after me. And that extension goes not only for them, but most superintendents in this area. I have an opportunity to sit down with them and just kind of share a shoulder as it relates to education and the laws that are the governing bodies. I think my strongest role has been a mentor, and I don't do it just through the educational lens.
I do a lot of coaching in nontraditional places. So I find myself in the store and someone walks up and say, 'I I saw you on this or you spoke at this event.' And then some kind of way, we pivot into what they're doing and what they should be doing and how to get there.
I mentor a lot of the public sector of the city simply because leadership is leadership and what you bring to it. The characteristics of a good leader are transferred in any area of work that you do. So I'm honored to be here.
But when I see it all come together, for instance, I have two students who are government officials, one has a Ph.D., and they're really excited when they see me in the room and they get a chance to say she was my teacher. But it's even more exciting for me to know that these were young people who at one point in their lives may have been struggling in one area or the other, but it didn't stop them from moving forward. And hopefully being there even at that time in their young lives there was something that I did to make a difference.
So even though education doesn't pay a lot in dollars, the rewards I receive for having those young people find me.
But thousands of lives I've touched, and those that have been able to make the choices that they want to do just because I was in their life for whatever moment of time, is rewarding for me. Many occasions, I've gotten up on the podium and I've spotted them in the audience, and I'll say 'That one belongs to me.'
The Class of 2025 Induction Ceremony of the Starr Women's Hall of Fame is Thursday at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available at umkc.edu/starrhalloffame
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