The 17th Annual Little Cities of Black Diamonds Day in October marked the Council’s kick off of its Women of the Little Cities theme. A day of special thematic activities included a panel discussion led by Mary Steinmaus entitled Growing Up, Growing Wise in the Little Cities; living history character Kathy Devecka performing as Corning shopkeeper and education advocate Bertha Levion; a timeline exhibit featuring artifacts, clothing and events and accomplishments for women through history locally and nationally; and an exhibit and program honoring six inspiring women of the Little Cities who were selected from a group of nominees to represent inspiring achievement by women in the Little Cities past and present.
The Growing Up, Growing Wise panel featured Shawnee businesswomen Brenda Shreeves, Trimble Local Superintendent Kim Jones; historian Sally Kozma, wife of the last surviving miner of the Millfied Mine Disaster Sigmund Kozma; and historians and sisters Wanda Wallace Martin and Myrna Wallace Martin of the New Straitsville History Group. A recurring theme among the group was the lessons of working hard to overcome the challenges of lean resources in their families and communities during their childhood. Also prevalent in the discussion was the importance of other women who served as mentors and role models for them.
Devecka gripped the attention of the audience in her role as Bertha Levion, focusing on her committment to education. Levion was the only women to serve on the Corning and Southern Local School Boards during her era, a library advocate and devoted time late in her life speaking to and mentoring students who were named to the National Honor Society Chapter named in her honor at the then new Miller High School. Past performances of Levion by Devecka have focused on her overall life as a business women, a politically active individual and a Jewish women being a leader in a community where the Christian faith was practiced by most.

Jean Andrews	Dianna McCauley	Ann Judy	Ida Mae Stoneburner	Sophia Mitchell	Mrytle Wallace

The introduction of the six women named as the featured Inspiring Women of the Little Cities for the event resulted in sincere gratitude being expressed by the modern day women who were honored, as well as by families representing their ancestors. The six women were selected by a committee of distinguished women from southeast and central Ohio who were recruited to the task based on their knowledge and interest in the region, but distance from day to day life here. They were Nancy Recchie, of the Benjamin D. Rickey Co., historic preservation consultants in Columbus; Pat Williamsen, Assistant Director of the Ohio Humanities Council; Carolyn Watkins of the Ohio Environmental Education Fund; Jarel Bartig, Partnerships Coordinator at the Wayne National Forest; Janet Carlson of Alden Library at Ohio University and Natalie Woodruff, former rural program officer with the national non-profit Association for Enterprise Opportunity, who has recently taken a position with the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The women selected and featured during the Little Cities Day program were local videographer and film producer Jean Andrews of Athens whose award winning film A Forest Returns: The Success Story of Ohio’s Only National Forest as told by Ora E Anderson has called attention to the microregion’s recovering natural environment; Nelsonville artist and civic leader Ann Judy who was a pioneer in the movement to turn Nelsonville’s public square into an arts district and continue to be a consistent driving force in the renaissance of Nelsonville’s Public Square as owner of Starbrick Gallery and organizer/promoter of Nelsonville’s Final Friday event; school teacher, administrator and master of educational practices Diana McCauley of Glouster, an educational consultant for the Ohio Department of Education whose career has spanned teaching at Miller High School, and principalships at Athens and Trimble High School after arriving in the area as a VISTA volunteer in the 1970’s, whose legacy is a laser focus on student learning and success in the classroom; the late Sophia Mitchell of Rendville who holds the distinction of being Ohio’s first African American mayor appointed in 1969; the late Ida Mae Stoneburner of Glouster, who organized and led the successful Glouster Project which has saved the Glouster Depot and turned it into a sewing, quilting and community center raising funds for various projects in Trimble Township; and the late Myrtle Wallace of New Straitsville whose efforts to save the history of the village in the middle decades of the 20th Century paved the way for the modern success of the New Straitsville History Group in telling the nationally significant role the miners of this community played in the nation’s labor movement.
An exhibit featuring these six women and the timeline of women’s achievements locally and in the nation is now on display at the Little Cities archive in Shawnee. Biographies and photos of the honored women are available on-line at www.littlecitiesofblackdiamonds.org.
The Women of the Little Cities theme will continue into 2011 during the Appalachian Spring Festival in May.