Virginia Women in History
Virginia Women in History was an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honored Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation. The program began in 2000 under the aegis of the Virginia Foundation for Women and Delta Kappa Gamma Society International; from 2006 to 2020 it was administered by the Library of Virginia. In 2021, it was replaced by the Strong Men and Women in Virginia History program.
2000 honorees
- Ella Graham Agnew, Blacksburg, educator and social worker
- Mary Julia Baldwin, Staunton, educator
- Margaret Brent, Stafford County, planter
- Willa Cather, Frederick County, writer
- Jennie Dean, Manassas, educator
- Sarah Lee Fain, Norfolk, legislator
- Ellen Glasgow, Richmond, author
- Dolley Madison, Orange County, First Lady
- Pocahontas, Jamestown
- Clementina Rind, Williamsburg, printer
- Lila Meade Valentine, Richmond, reformer and suffragist
- Maggie Lena Walker, Richmond, entrepreneur and civil rights leader
2001 honorees
- Rosa Dixon Bowser, Richmond, educator and civic leader
- Elizabeth Pfohl Campbell, Arlington, public television pioneer
- Thomasina Jordan, Alexandria, American Indian advocate
- Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly, Dinwiddie County, seamstress and author
- Theresa Pollak, Richmond, artist and educator
- Sally Louisa Tompkins, Richmond, hospital administrator
- Elizabeth Van Lew, Richmond, spy
- Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, Wytheville, First Lady
2002 honorees
- Rebecca Adamson, Fredericksburg, Native American advocate and business developer
- Janie Porter Barrett, Hanover County, educator
- Patsy Cline, Winchester, singer
- Hannah Lee Corbin, Westmoreland County, planter
- Christine Mann Darden, Hampton, engineer
- Lillian Ward McDaniel, Richmond, educator and civic leader
- Mary-Cooke Branch Munford, Richmond, social reformer and community activist
- Jessie Manfield Rattley, Newport News, mayor and social activist
2003 honorees
- Nancy Langhorne Astor, Albemarle County, member of Parliament
- Pearl Bailey, Newport News, singer and actor
- Anna Whitehead Bodeker, Richmond, woman suffrage advocate
- Mary Ann Elliott, Fairfax County, entrepreneur
- Annabelle Ravenscroft Gibson Jenkins, Richmond, philanthropist
- Frances Benjamin Johnston, Fredericksburg, photographer
- Anne Dobie Peebles, Sussex County, civic leader
- Anne B. Spencer, Lynchburg, poet
2004 honorees
- Grace Arents, Richmond, philanthropist
- Cockacoeske, Middle Peninsula, Pamunkey chief
- Katie Couric, Arlington County, television journalist
- Ann Makemie Holden, Accomack County, planter
- Mary Draper Ingles, New River Valley, frontierswoman
- Sarah Garland Boyd Jones, Richmond, physician
- Elizabeth "Annie" Snyder, Manassas, preservationist
- Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, Fairfax County, First Lady
2005 honorees
- Clara Leach Adams-Ender, Prince William County, chief of the United States Army Nurse Corps
- Caitlyn Day, Craig County, community activist
- Bessie Blount Griffin, Princess Anne County, inventor and forensic scientist
- Nora Houston, Richmond, artist and social reformer
- Barbara Johns, Prince Edward County, Civil Rights activist
- Mary Johnston, Bath County, writer and suffragist
- Lee Marshall Smith, Roanoke, writer
- Mary Belvin Wade, Richmond, civic leader
2006 honorees
- Katherine Harwood Waller Barrett, Henrico County, physician and educator
- Sister Marie Majella Berg, Arlington County, president of Marymount University
- John-Geline MacDonald Bowman, Richmond, business executive
- Grace Brewster Murray Hopper, Arlington County, computer scientist and rear admiral
- Mary Tyler Freeman Cheek McClenahan, Richmond, civic leader
- Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, Haymarket, media executive and Olympic gold medalist
- G. Anne Nelson Richardson, King and Queen County, Rappahannock chief
- Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune, Amelia County, writer
2007 honorees
- Mary Willing Byrd, Charles City County, planter
- Maybelle Addington Carter, Scott County, singer
- Laura Lu Scherer Copenhaver, Smyth County, founder of Rosemont Industries and Lutheran lay leader
- Mary Alice Franklin Hatwood Futrell, Lynchburg, educator
- Mary Jeffery Galt, Norfolk, preservationist
- Sheila Crump Johnson, Loudoun County, founder of Black Entertainment Television and sports franchise owner
- Opossunoquonuske, Chesterfield County, Appamattuck leader
- Camilla Williams, Danville, opera singer
2008 honorees
- Frances Culpeper Berkeley, James City County, leader of the Green Spring faction
- Lucy Goode Brooks, Richmond, founder of the Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans
- Providencia Velazquez Gonzalez, Dale City, community activist
- Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy, Richmond, judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia
- Sharyn McCrumb, Roanoke County, writer
- Patricia Buckley Moss, Waynesboro, artist and philanthropist
- Isabel Wood Rogers, Richmond, moderator, General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
- Edith Turner, Southampton County, chief of the Nottoway
2009 honorees
- Pauline Adams, Norfolk, suffragist
- Caroline Bradby Cook, King William County, Pamunkey leader and Unionist
- Claudia Emerson, Fredericksburg, poet
- Drew Gilpin Faust, Clarke County, historian and president of Harvard University
- Joann Hess Grayson, Harrisonburg, educator and advocate for abused children
- Mary Randolph, Chesterfield County and Richmond, writer
- Virginia Estelle Randolph, Henrico County, educator
- Mary Sue Terry, Patrick County, attorney general
2010 honorees
- Mollie Holmes Adams, King William County, Upper Mattaponi leader
- Ethel Bailey Furman, Richmond, architect
- Edythe C. Harrison, Norfolk, civic leader
- Janis Martin, Danville, singer and composer
- Kate Mason Rowland, Richmond, writer
- Jean Miller Skipwith, Mecklenburg County, book collector
- Queena Stovall, Lynchburg and Amherst County, artist
- Marian A. Van Landingham, Alexandria, civic leader
2011 honorees
- Lucy Addison, Roanoke, educator
- Eleanor Bontecou, Arlington County, attorney
- Emily White Fleming, Fredericksburg, preservationist
- Pearl Fu, Roanoke, civic leader
- Lillian Lincoln Lambert, Mechanicsville, businesswoman and author
- Bessie Niemeyer Marshall, Petersburg, botanical illustrator
- Felicia Warburg Rogan, Albemarle County, vintner
- Elizabeth Henry Campbell Russell, Saltville, Methodist lay leader
2012 honorees
- Susie May Ames, Accomack County, historian
- Monica Beltran, Woodbridge, army Bronze Star Medal recipient
- Christiana Burdett Campbell, Williamsburg, innkeeper
- Betty Sams Christian, Richmond, business executive and philanthropist
- Elizabeth Peet McIntosh, Woodbridge, intelligence agent
- Orleana Hawks Puckett, Patrick and Carroll Counties, midwife
- Judith Shatin, Charlottesville, composer
- Alice Jackson Stuart, Richmond, principal in a 1935 civil rights turning point
2013 honorees
- Mary C. Alexander, Lynchburg, aviator
- Louise A. Reeves Archer, Vienna, educator
- Elizabeth Ambler Brent Carrington, Richmond, civic leader
- Ann Compton, Roanoke, news correspondent
- JoAnn Falleta, Norfolk, musician
- Cleo Powell, Brunswick County, judge
- Inez Pruitt, Tangier Island, physician assistant
- Eva Mae Fleming Scott, Amelia County, legislator, recipient of the VABPW Foundation Business Leadership Award
2014 honorees
- Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford, Fredericksburg, antislavery activist
- Naomi Silverman Cohn, Richmond, civic activist
- Elizabeth Ashburn Duke, Virginia Beach, banker, recipient of the VABPW Foundation Business Leadership Award
- Rachel Findlay, Wythe County, principal in a freedom suit
- Christine Herter Kendall, Bath County, artist and patron of the arts
- Mildred Delores Jeter Loving, Caroline County, principal in a 1967 civil rights turning point
- Deborah A. "Debbie" Ryan, Albemarle County, basketball coach and cancer treatment advocate
- Stoner Winslett, Richmond, artistic director and choreographer
2015 honorees
- Nancy Melvina Caldwell, Carroll County, legislator
- Nikki Giovanni, Blacksburg, poet
- Ruth Coles Harris, Richmond, business professor
- Dorothy Shoemaker McDiarmid, Fairfax County, legislator
- Rebekah Dulaney Peterkin, Richmond, philanthropist
- Vivian W. Pinn, Lynchburg, pathologist and women's health advocate
- Elizabeth Bray Allen, also known as Elizabeth Bray Allen Smith Stith, Isle of Wight County, planter and philanthropist
- Karenne Wood, Fluvanna County, Virginia Indian scholar and advocate
2016 honorees
- Flora D. Crittenden, Newport News, educator and legislator
- Mary Elizabeth Nottingham Day, Staunton, artist
- Sarah A. Gray, Alexandria, educator
- Edwilda Gustava Allen Isaac, Farmville, civil rights pioneer
- Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, Hampton, mathematician
- Ana Ines Barragan King, Richmond, founder and Artistic Director of the Latin Ballet of Virginia
- Betty Masters, Salem, photojournalist
- Meyera Oberndorf, Virginia Beach, mayor
2017 honorees
- Corazon Sandoval Foley, Fairfax County, community activist
- Nora Houston, Richmond, artist and social reformer
- Cynthia Eppes Hudson, Nottoway County, Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia
- Mary Virginia Jones, Prince William County, mechanical engineer
- Louise Harrison McCraw, Buckingham, author and executive secretary of the Braille Circulating Library
- Doris Crouse-Mays, Wythe County, labor leader
- Undine Smith Moore, Ettrick, educator and composer
- Martha Rollins, Richmond, community activist and philanthropist; recipient of the VABPW Foundation Business Leadership Award
2018 honorees
- Gaye Todd Adegbalola, blues singer and guitarist, teacher, lecturer, activist, and photographer
- Rita Dove, poet and essayist
- Isabella Gibbons, teacher and minister
- Marii Kyogoku Hasegawa, peace activist
- Kay Coles James, president of The Heritage Foundation
- Barbara Kingsolver, novelist
- Mary Aydelotte Rice Marshall, Virginia House of Delegates
- Temperance Flowerdew Yeardley, settler of the Jamestown Colony
2019 honorees
- Sharifa Alkhateeb Muslim writer and teacher
- Queen Ann (Pamunkey chief)
- Claudia Lane Dodson, women's sports advocate
- India Hamilton, educator
- Georgeanna Seegar Jones, American physician who with her husband, Howard W. Jones, pioneered in vitro fertilization in the United States
- Ona Maria Judge, Fugitive slave of US President George Washington, who successfully escaped Mount Vernon. The Washington family never pursued her, but never freed her.
- Lucy Randolph Mason, civil rights activist, labor activist and suffragette
- Kate Peters Sturgill, musician and folk song collector
2020 honorees
- Pauline Adams, suffragist
- Fannie Bayly King, social reformer and suffragist
- Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis, suffragist
- Sophie G. Meredith, suffragist
- Josephine Mathes Norcom, community activist and suffragist
- Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon, suffragist and labor economist
- Ora Brown Stokes, educator, probation officer, temperance worker, and clubwoman
- Lila Meade Valentine, reformer and suffragist
- Maggie Lena Mitchell Walker, entrepreneur and civil rights leader