Vicksburg-Warren School Board honors local women

Vice President Sally Bullard opened the special called school board meeting on Thursday night with a tribute to local women in positions of leadership and service to our community in honor of National Women’s History Month.

Since 1987, March has been recognized as Women’s History Month, commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

Bullard invited accomplished and influential women from all walks of life to “recognize the work and worth of women in our community”.

“These ladies work tirelessly to keep us safe, to engineer new ideas, to build neighborhoods, to feed, to clothe and to comfort so many,” Bullard said. “Some of these women work to make changes in legislation for the better of our state. I’ll be honest with you, I look out and am kind of overwhelmed at the magnitude of these women.”

Bullard began with a nod to Zelmarine Murphy, who served on the Board of Trustees for over three decades, and Eva Davis, “who single-handedly saved the whole Courthouse Museum.”

“The story goes that the Board of Supervisors was going to tear it down,” Bullard said. “And she bugged them and bugged them until they just gave her the key and said, ‘You can have it, do what you want to do with it.’ And that’s fortitude.”

Bullard went on to recognize Shelley Tingle, engineer at ERDC; Linda Fondren, founder of Catfish Row Museum; Karen Morrison, Kelle Barfield, District 5 Supervisor; Jan Daige, Warren County Circuit Clerk; Ginger Donahue, Lynn Foley, Chairperson for United Way of West Central Mississippi; and Terri Frazier, journalist with The Vicksburg Post; along with all the women making a difference everyday in the Vicksburg Warren School District.

“I’m grateful to live in a community where you can pick up the phone and folks like this show up in support of each other,” Bullard said. “We don’t agree on everything, but I am proud to call this amazing gathering my friends.”