Missionary martyr, Navy officer named to hall of fame

Two extraordinary Alabama women — one a martyred medical missionary and the other among the first female rear admirals in the history of the U.S. Navy — will be inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame (AWHF) March 1.

The AWHF is housed in A. Howard Bean Hall on the campus of Judson College in Marion.

The first inductee, Martha Crystal Myers, served 24 years as a physician at the 80-bed Jibla Baptist Hospital in Jibla, Yemen. She and two co-workers were shot and killed there by a Muslim extremist Dec. 30, 2002.

Myers, a Montgomery Baptist, survived a kidnapping by a militant group some years before her death but remained in Yemen to minister to the people she loved.

Myers was born in Birmingham in 1945 and earned degrees from Samford University in Birmingham and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Upon completing medical school, Myers interned and did her residency at the University of South Alabama Medical Center in Mobile and did further study at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

The second inductee, Rear Adm. Fran McKee, a native of Florence, was the first woman unrestricted line officer in the history of the U.S. Navy to be appointed to the rank of rear admiral. The appointment was made in 1976.

McKee, born in 1926, earned degrees from the University of Alabama and George Washington University in Washington. She began military education during the Korean War when she enrolled in the General Line Naval School in Newport, R.I. She planned to enter medical school following the war but later decided to remain in the military.

McKee was awarded the Legion of Merit with gold star, the Meritorious Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal with bronze star. Additionally she was awarded a doctorate in public administration (honoris causa) by the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Cape Cod and the Medal of Honor by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

McKee retired after 30 years in the U.S. Navy. She died in 2002 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

The ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. in Alumnae Auditorium on the Judson campus. For more information, call 334-683-5167 or visit www.awhf.org. (JC)