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*Editor's Note: This article is a column by George Earl Johnson Jr., Director of Communications, Office of Communications for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. It will be published in the upcoming March 2004 issue of Inside OKDHS.
OKLAHOMA CAPITOL --March is National Women in History Month. So Inside OKDHS has gone through the OKDHS archives and poled a few active long-term employees to identify some of the thousands of women who have made a difference in the lives of those who have been served through the Oklahoma Department of Public Welfare -- known today as the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.
Some of the names are still familiar today, while others had more local impact in the communities where they lived and worked. The thing we know about each of these women is they were, and some still are, putting their Best Foot Forward to serve humanity.
Women have added the most to this Department of government during its 68-year history. More than 75 percent of OKDHS’ work force today are women -- a fact that has been constant for decades. While we most often focus on the person in the leadership position, the Human Services’ experience has shown that many of the leaders in this organization led from support staff positions. They were and still are today, the gatekeepers of the organization. They have worked behind the scenes providing the support upon which a healthy living organization grows in good times and survives during lean times.
In the “Weight of Glory,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”
The 12 women briefly highlighted in this article are no ordinary people. They had their flaws of character, as do we all, but one thing they did and did well was to dedicate much of their lives to the improvement of others, especially children.
By no means are they all of the women in Oklahoma Human Services’ history who have made real-life impacts on the tens of thousands of Oklahomans who have come through the doors of the OKDHS. However, as a part of our collective history, they made their mark on us all in their special ways.
Putting their Best Foot Forward in their work was a way of life and deeply rooted in their character. One was blessed to know them and could go a long way by following their examples of stewardship.
Inside OKDHS thanks all employees who sent in the more than five-dozen names for inclusion in this article; however, limited space would not allow using them all in the newsletter.
OKDHS Women Of History List …
Pauline E. Mayer of Child Welfare had the first and last word on children’s issues for nearly five decades. She worked throughout southeastern Oklahoma on the development of a social services system for the state beginning in 1934. She was among the first visitors (social workers) hired with a grand salary of $150 per month one month after the Department of Public Welfare started in August 1936.
She went wherever the Department needed her. She had time in the Administrative Review Unit, Medical Assistance and Eligibility Control Unit. She served as county director in Bryan, Pontotoc, McCurtain counties and a short run as acting county director in Seminole County. She served as chief of the Children’s Bureau for a number of years. Mayer retired in April 1980; however, special assignments and projects kept bringing her back to the payroll until June of 1983.
She was known for being strict and tough and spent the last years of her career as chief operating officer for social services and children’s programs. The Pauline E. Mayer Children’s Shelter in Oklahoma City was later named in her honor.
Laura E. Dester was considered to be the Mother of Oklahoma Child Welfare. When federal legislation was passed in the 1930s, it was aimed at helping children in rural communities and that is where Oklahoma’s children’s services efforts were focused. Dester was raised in Deer Creek in northern Oklahoma.
She attended the University of Chicago School of Social Work. Dester, a Mennonite who spoke fluent German, said she learned one of her most valuable lessons from her father and from Jane Addams the founder of Hull House in Chicago. The lesson was “the art of listening.”
Dester said learning to listen closely and carefully to a person proved to be one of her greatest skills as a social worker and supervisor. Dester returned to Oklahoma from her job working for the Shoshone Indian Reservation at Ft. Washakie, Wyo., to become the Oklahoma Children’s Services program director in January 1937 for $225 per month.
Dester, with editorial consultant Kay Boone, wrote “The Halo Girls: The Story of Oklahoma’s Child Welfare Division, 1936-1968,” (DHS Pub. No. 82-67). The 63-page book provides a number of personal insights into a number of children’s services pioneers. Copies of “The Halo Girls” are available upon request from the OKDHS Office of Communications.
OKDHS’ Laura Dester Children’s Shelter in Tulsa is named in her honor.
Lucille Farris was one of the first Child Welfare workers hired by Laura Dester. Dester called Farris and told her to go to El Reno in Canadian County the following Monday to set up shop as the Child Welfare worker for the county. Farris recalls feeling “ … so totally unprepared for the responsibility.”
When Farris arrived, the local judge had a case waiting for her. A 23-year-old mother dumped her three children and told her, “They’re yours!” Farris recalls having to find her first foster home for a young girl. When she did, the woman sent the child in to take a bath and after some time Farris and the foster parent went to check on her.
The child had not started to bathe because she had never had a bathroom in a house or a real tub. The short of this long story is that Farris kept up with the child all the way through school, college and advanced degrees to see her gain a responsible position in America’s aerospace program.
Deborah Ann Rothe of Child Welfare and the Developmental Disabilities Services Division came to the Department in 1950 in Washington County as a generic worker, but had to wait five months until she could learn how to drive and get a car; requirements for a social services visitor at the time.
While most of her career was in Child Welfare, OKDHS leadership tapped her strong administrative talents and compassionate heart to help close the Hissom Memorial Center in Sand Springs.
In retirement, she remained a strong advocate for children, serving on the University of Oklahoma School of Social Work Education Committee, Oklahoma County Child Welfare Advisory Committee and served as the Chairperson of the OKDHS Lou Hartpence Scholarship Committee. (P.S. The word is that no one ever passed Deborah Rothe on an Oklahoma highway.)
Carolyn Ziegenhorn moved in 30-plus years from supporting herself and three young children on public welfare to becoming the chief financial officer of OKDHS, overseeing the expenditure of more than $2 billion dollars in state and federal funds when the Department was at its zenith in numbers of employees, programs and budget.
The 25-year OKDHS veteran started in 1970 as a typist clerk at the Pauls Valley State School for the Mentally Retarded, now the Southern Oklahoma Resources Center.
When budgets were really beginning to get tight in the latter years of her career, she could always find something to smile about.
Vera Alder, long-time personal secretary to OKDHS Director Lloyd E. Rader, was known for her accuracy in writing, spelling and handling Mr. Rader and all who needed to do business with him.
She was short and to the point in conversation and action. No one saw Mr. Rader unless Vera let him or her. She was the one person who would have high-volume discussions with him and still had a job the next day.
She never knocked the ash off her cigarettes (back when smoking was permitted in government offices) and she typed every memo in ALL CAPS. Under Mr. Rader, all correspondence from the agency was signed Lloyd E. Rader, although a few trusted people like Pauline Mayer signed most of the routine letters and memos.
If you ever got a memo in ALL CAPS, you new it was from “the man.”
Dr. Bertha M. Levy became a practicing physician in 1939 and was known in the central Oklahoma medical community as the physicians’ pediatrician because many of the doctors took their children to her.
Dr. Levy was recruited in the mid-1960s by Lloyd E. Rader to head the Oklahoma Medical Assistance programs administered by OKDHS. It was the beginning of the federal Medicaid program. She accepted her post under the condition that she be able to maintain a part-time pediatric practice, which she did for many years.
She was an active volunteer in the community tutoring children how to read. The pediatric clinic at Variety Health Center, Inc. in Oklahoma City, which sees thousands of children from low-income families each year is named to honor Dr. Levy for her more than six decades of service as a practicing physician in the central Oklahoma community.
Lou Louise Hartpence began her career in Child Welfare and worked her way up the system to become a supervisor and Social Services administrator who set up the Title XX program, which later became the Social Services Block Grant.
We’ve all heard the expression, “Let your little light shine.” That’s exactly what Hartpence did. She left her entire estate (valued at more than $300,000) to OKDHS to fund post-secondary academic scholarships for children in OKDHS custody.
Hartpence devoted 33 years to public human service beginning her career in Child Welfare in 1950. Her gift was the exclamation point of showing her commitment to the well-being of Oklahoma children.
Not wanting the trust to be depleted, she specified that only the interest income from investments would be used for scholarships for children in the legal custody of OKDHS. The first Lou Hartpence Scholarships were given during the 1986-87 academic year to eight students. To date, more than 200 youth have attended colleges, vocational-technical schools and universities on Hartpence Scholarships. Many today are physicians, attorneys, social workers, engineers and other highly skilled professionals.
Effie Lee “Hildreth” Hudson was the first African-American to receive a Master’s of Social Work degree from the University of Oklahoma. Her $135 per month salary got her started as a visitor in December 1945. She left the agency for a while in the 1950s and came back in May 1961.
In October 1962, she was promoted to District XVIII Child Welfare supervisor and remained in the position until she moved to OKDHS State Office in 1966. She was also the first African-American to move into the Department of Public Welfare’s social services administration, where she headed the Child Care subsidy program through its infancy in 1978, then administered in the Division of Services to Adults and Families.
Hudson also led the Department’s affirmative action process. The Child Care Subsidy she nurtured to maturity today provides subsidies for nearly 75,000 Oklahoma children annually. During her last year, she was back in Child Welfare where she retired in January 1983. Reports were that no one loved to play bridge as much as Ms. Effie.
Prins E. Anderson started in 1965 as a social worker assigned to work eastern Oklahoma County. After completing a Master’s of Social Work degree on an OKDHS scholarship, she returned to work in the Office of Child Care and would later head the office for many years.
Anderson was the OKDHS Child Care administrator who led actions for Oklahoma’s development of the Nation’s first multi-tiered reimbursement system (the Stars program). The program also provided financial and technical assistance to ensure individual and program successes. Anderson was well-known for her quiet behind-the-scenes leadership in developing some of the best quality child care standards in the country, often used as examples by other states.
Honora Phelps held great influence as a human services administrator, especially during the mid-1960s. She worked for OKDHS for 42 years and passed away at age 90 on Jan. 26, 1994. She headed the Division of Long-Term Care for Nursing Homes, which had responsibilities for all patient certifications and nursing-home licensing before the latter function was transferred to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
At the time, there were about 300 nursing homes with some 32,000 patients. Phelps also served as state administrator for the state schools for the mentally retarded located in Enid, Pauls Valley and Sand Springs. She oversaw the opening of the Hissom Memorial Center in Sand Springs as a state-of-the-art intermediate care facility, serving the mentally retarded.
Vera J. Davis hit the ground running in May 1946 as a visitor in Stephens County for $145 per month. During her tenure, she worked various visitor, social worker and supervisory positions in Jefferson, Osage, Pittsburg, McCurtain and Adair counties.
She served as Tulsa County director between 1954-58. After taking educational leave in 1958-59 (that meant going to school full-time and working half time), she returned as assistant supervisor for Field Services in June 1959. She went on to become programs administrator for Oklahoma’s assistance payments programs for many years and was a major player in OKDHS’ entry into the electronic age.
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