Women’s Hall of Fame inducts environmentalist, midwife

Women’s Hall of Fame inducts environmentalist, midwife

Alegendary rural-area midwife and an environmentalist whose work led to Alabama having the first national wilderness area were this year’s inductees into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame (AWHF).

AWHF board chair Cathy Randall called Mary Louise Ivy Burks and Margaret Charles Smith “extraordinary Alabamians.” Burks and Smith were inducted into the AWHF on March 4.

Burks, of Birmingham, who died in 2007, worked to establish the Sipsey Wilderness area in the Bankhead National Forest. This work was considered her crowning achievement. She tried, but failed, to have the Cahaba River designated a wild and scenic river.

However, her leadership was crucial in passing the U.S. Eastern Wilderness Areas Act in 1975 that designated 12,700 acres along the west fork of the Sipsey River as Alabama’s first national wilderness area.

Smith, of Eutaw, who died in 2004, was a medical pioneer who practiced midwifery in rural settings for those who could not afford hospitalization. She became a legend for delivering 3,500 babies and her compassion since the women she served were most often overworked and malnourished.

Smith was honored by the city of Eutaw, becoming the first black to receive keys to the city in 1983. Her story is told in her book, “Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife,” published in 1996.

The AWHF, founded in 1970, is housed in A. Howard Bean Hall on the campus of Judson College in Marion. The board of directors normally selects two women each year who have influenced the lives of others. Inductees are native to or closely associated with the state of Alabama and must have been deceased for two years or longer.

For more information, visit www.awhf.org.  (JC)