Amazing Women From Around the Region Honored in La Grange
The Texas Women’s League of South Central Texas held the 2026 Women Making History awards ceremony at Casino Hall in La Grange on Sunday, March 8.
The event recognized nine women from the local region for their history-making achievements. The League also presented three awards to student writing showcase winners, who wrote essays and poems about some of these great women.
Dr. Mary Fanett Wheeler of Cuero received an award under the category of steadfastness. Matthew Balhoff, Department Chair and Professor for the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin presented the award. Dr. Wheeler is a world-renowned expert in computational science. Her work has many applications, especially in the oil and gas industry, and it has helped the United States become a net oil exporter. Balhoff related how Dr. Wheeler’s third grade teacher in Cuero suggested holding her back a grade because she insisted on counting with her fingers. She would go on to become a faculty member at Rice University, the University of Houston, and the University of Texas, and she has mentored more than 50 doctoral students.
Connie Shortes of La Grange received an award under the category of courage. Larry Jackson, the retired editor and publisher of the Fayette County Record, presented the award. Shortes becan her career as an accountant before becoming a human resources professional. In 2017 Shortes discovered Braver Angels, a non-partisan movement dedicated to bridging the political divide in America. She organized the first Braver Angels Red/Blue workshop in Fayette County, where neighbors with opposing political beliefs can speak freely, so long as their words don’t demean or threaten.
Christi Opiela, a journalism teacher at Hallettsville High School, received an award under the category of determination. Her student Olivia Weiser presented the award. Opiela joined the Hallettsville faculty eight years ago. She soon recognised the need to offer journalism education at the school. She built a thriving journalism program from the ground-up, including a fully functioning studio, broadcast room, and podcast room. Today her work has resulted in multiple journalism classes, a biweekly community broadcast, podcasts, daily broadcast announcements, an online newspaper and print newspaper, and a marketing class.
The late Mary Bristow Willeford, born in 1900 in Flatonia, received a posthumous award under the category of heritage. Dr. Allyson Borgstedte of La Grange presented the award, and Willeford’s niece Ellen Ashby Kennard received the award on her aunt’s behalf. Willeford had the unique opportunity as a woman of her time to attend college. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1920 and then pursued advanced studies at John Hopkins University and Walter Reed Army School of Nursing. She would be one of the founding nurses of the Frontier Nursing School – the legendary “nurses on horseback” who tended to the sick in poverty-stricken southeastern Kentucky. She also established a nurse-midwifery program for the African-American community in Alabama. She died from cancer in 1941 at just 41 years of age.
Alice Berry of Columbus recieved an award under the category of initiative. Janice MacBride was the presenter. Berry worked as a dental assistant early in her career, which brought her into contact with many elderly patients at nursing homes. She went on to get a degree in gerontology and began work in senior care centers as an activity director. In 2013, she moved to Columbus and began volunteering at local care centers. She joined the Columbus Christian Women’s Organization and met a woman who decorated doors at nursing homes. Their volunteer work transformed into a movement called Senior Smile that brings volunteers into nursing homes to visit residents on a regular basis. What makes her story even more remarkable is that Berry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her 20s. Despite her struggles, she finds a way to improve the lives of senior citizens in her community.
Tammy Collins of Flatonia received an award under the category of vision. Judy Pate presented the award. Following a career as a registered nurse and after moving to Flatonia, Collins began an extensive renovation to her new home. One day, she went to the Western Auto and discovered it closed and for sale. She bought the building an remodeled it. And then she purchased and remodeled several other historic buildings in downtown Flatonia. Her efforts have resulted in a revitalization in downtown Flatonia with several new businesses. Many of the new businesses in those restored spaces are women-owned or women-led. Now the town has rediscovered itself, Pate said, and many say that Collins was the spark that started it all.
Student Writing Showcase The League of Women Voters also recognized three women who were the subjects of this year’s student writing showcase. The students each received a $500 prize for their writings.Twoofthosestudents, sophomore Audrey Green and senior Vanessa Admas, both of La Grange High School, wrote about La Grange Mayor Jan Dockery, who is also the first African-American mayor of La Grange.
Green wrote an essay about Dockery’s strong work ethic and her diverse career in education, business and local government. Adams’ poem, titled “I’m Proud to be a Woman,’ reflects on Dockery’s life from childhood through the present day. Each stanza focuses on different aspects of her family and work life.
Ellah Hill of La Grange High School, who penned an essay about the suffragist and educator Annie Webb Blanton.
Blanton was born in 1870 and lived and taught school in La Grange from 1886-1888. Later, she earned a bachelor degree from the University of Texas. Blanton served as Texas Superintendent of Schools and went on to complete a Ph.D. at Cornell University. She returned to the University of Texas as a professor in 1927. During that time she founded the Delta Kappa Gamma Society for female teachers. After her death in 1945, many public schools were named after her, along with a dormitory on the U.T. campus in Austin.
Mariel Arredondo, a sophomore at Yoakum High School, wrote an essay on Clara Bell Drisdale Williams.
Williams was born in Plum in 1885 to parents who were born in slavery. She attended Prairie View Normal and Independent College and graduated valedictorian in 1905. Later, she enrolled in the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. She endured hardships including professors who did not allow her into lecture halls because of her race. She would listen to the lectures and take notes in the hallway. She graduated in 1937 with a degree in English. Many years later, the New Mexico State University apologized for her treatment and awarded her an honorary doctor of laws degree. The University also named a street in her honor.