Charlotte Woman of the Year
The Charlotte Woman of the Year Award was sponsored by Charlotte's WBT Radio from 1955 until 1990. The project had a rocky start, but elicited a response from women's groups in Charlotte and the surrounding area that serves as evidence for its importance to Charlotte women. In 1955, WBT called on various women's organizations to submit nominations for women who served their communities beyond the call of duty, with the winner's name to be announced on WBT radio as the guest of honor for one night's broadcast.
The 1955 winner, Martha Evans, was Charlotte's only city councilwoman at the time, and she went on to serve as a consultant for the future decisions of Charlotte's Woman of the Year. Bonnie Cone, director of Charlotte College, was the 1956 Woman of the Year, and she too had a great impact on the selection in years to come. There had been plans to forgo the 1956 Woman of the Year award, but dedicated assistance from Jeanne Alexander at WBT ensured that the nominations were processed and that the award program survived.
Each year thereafter, women's clubs and organizations filled out nomination forms for the women they believed should win the title of Charlotte's Woman of the Year. These organizations' responses were extensive, covering the front and back of nomination forms in order to display nominees' offices in the community and qualifications for Woman of the Year. After the first few years, previous winners made up a committee responsible for choosing the next year's winner, as remained the tradition until 1990. Interest in the project grew every year, despite WBT's funding worries; by 1960, interest in attendance of the award banquet was so high that only representatives of (rather than entire) clubs were allowed attend the ceremony. The Woman of the Year award banquet involved various celebrated speakers over the years, from Good Housekeeping editor Charlotte Montgomery to United Nations representative Mary Pillsbury Lord.
Winners of the Charlotte Woman of the Year award, 1955-1969
1955 Martha Evans
1956 Bonnie Cone
1957 Louise Watkins
1958 Helen Hunter
1959 Beatrice Wallas
1960 Elizabeth Corkey
1961 Gladys Tillet
1962 May Rogers
1963 Lurlene Barnhardt
1964 Ruth Easterling
1965 Charlotte Kelly
1966 Ruth Wanzer
1967 Tempe Franklin
1968 Charlotte Watkins
1969 Jonnie McLeod
Winners of the Charlotte Woman of the Year award, 1970-1989
1970 Edyth Winningham
1971 Jacqueline Hairston
1972 Sarah B. Bryant
1973 Julia Mauldin
1974 Margaret Ray
1975 Elisabeth Hair
1976 Kathleen Crosby
1977 Ann Davis Thomas
1978 Elizabeth Randolph
1979 Mary Thomas Burke and Betty Chafin Rash
1980 Harriet Cuthbertson
1981 Freda H. Nicholson
1982 Louise Brennan
1983 Dorothy Tate
1984 Susan B. Green
1985 Caroline L. Myers
1986 Carrie C. Winter
1987 Deborah S. Harris
1988 Sally Robinson and Cynthia Marshall
1989 Carla E. DuPuy
1990 Susan Hancock
By 1990, WBT radio had decided that the annual Woman of the Year award was too much for the radio station to maintain. Although WBT dropped the project in 1991, Bonnie Cone and other winners rallied to save the Woman of the Year tradition, ensuring that there would continue to be a Charlotte Woman of the Year for years to come, even if her nomination was not sponsored by WBT.