Bossier Girls and Women in Sports

Today marks the 35th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which was first declared by President Ronald Reagan on Feb. 4, 1987, to recognize the history of women's athletics. It also recognizes the progress made by the Title IX Educational Amendment passed in 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or other education program that receives federal funding.

This annual day of observance acknowledges female athletes' accomplishments and honors the progress and continuing struggle for equality for women in sports. Every year the celebration inspires girls and women across the nation to play and be active and realize their full power.

Bossier Parish has seen its fair share of outstanding female athletes. Most recently is Sarah Robertson, who made history by becoming the first female football player at Haughton High School in 2018. She was the Junior Varsity football kicker for the Buccaneers and kicked her first game field goal on Sep. 17th scoring the extra point for the Buccaneers after their touchdown against Byrd High.

Crystal Smith

Another Haughton High School alumnus known for her skills on the basketball court is Crystal Smith. For four straight years, she was chosen for the Shreveport-Bossier All-City teams. In 2002 she was selected as the Scholar Athlete of the Year. She played 119 games during her high school basketball career, scoring an average of 26.2 points per game.

She played for the Iowa Hawkeyes in college, increasing her per-game average by 12 points between her sophomore and junior seasons, ranked as the second-best improvement among the nation's collegiate players. As a junior, she scored in double figures in 30 of 33 games and was named to the Women's National Invitation Tournament all-tournament team. As a senior, she was named the Hawkeyes' most valuable player and a consensus All-Big 10 selection after leading in her team with an average of 17.2 points per game. Scoring double figures in 27 of 29 games in her last season, she ended her career No. 14 on the school's career scoring list.

Scoring was not Smith’s only strength; she was recognized for her defensive play as well. She was a consensus selection to the league's all-defense team and was the only Iowa player to earn the team's defensive award for three straight seasons. While attending the University of Iowa, she held or shared six school records, including most points in a single game earning 46 points against Louisiana Tech. In 2006, after college, she was drafted to play for the Women's National Basketball Association team, the Phoenix Mercury. That year her team became the highest-scoring WNBA team ever.

Jackie Conner

Jackie Conner of Bossier City became a national Gold Medal winner at the age of 65 in the 1999 Northwest Louisiana Senior Olympic Games, playing shuffleboard and again in 2001. Since joining the Senior Olympics movement, she has been named Northwest Louisiana's Athlete of the Year and served on the local games' steering committee and the board of directors for the Louisiana Senior Olympic Games. For her contributions to the Senior Olympics movement, she was awarded the Hazel Gay Memorial Torch Award in 2002. She is also quite the marksman and served as chairperson of the shooting competition for the district games.

Over the years, Conner has earned numerous medals in the Northwest Louisiana Senior Olympic Games. In 2019, she took home a silver medal in table games; a bronze medal in the women's pistol marksmanship; a gold medal in the women's 85+ age category in washer pitching; a gold medal in the women's 85+ age category in shuffleboard, and a gold medal in the shuffleboard doubles with partner Shelly Quarles in the 55-59 age group. She's not only a competitor, but she is also an instructor conducting workshops and classes to teach the skills used in shuffleboard and other games to newcomers in the competitions for those age 50 and over.

When it comes to the Olympic games, we must not forget about Dolores "Dee" Beckmann. A member of the first U.S. women's track and field team to participate in the Olympics—chosen as the all-around sportswoman in 1936 by New York sports columnist for being the first female coach of the United States track and field team in Berlin. After her girls won both the 100-meter, breaking the world record, and the 400-meter relays, she was hailed by sports columnist as one of the best coaches, male or female.

Source: The Shreveport Journal, 28 March 1975

In 1940, she was the U.S. chairman of the 1940 Olympic women's track and field committee and was involved in the Olympics in some form or fashion for the rest of her life. Her contributions to girls and women in sports and her accomplishments are too numerous to include in this writing. Though Beckmann was not a native of Bossier City, she was from St. Louis, Missouri, but she did move here in 1973 to be close to family and lived here until 1978. During that time, she was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1976. In 1978 she was inducted into the Missouri Hall of Fame and the Missouri Track and Cross-Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

By: Amy Robertson

This Month In Bossier Parish History

 October: Through the Years

October 2020: High School Homecoming season begins! 

 Please enjoy the high school Homecoming photos from our parish. 

1990-91: Airline High School
Homecoming Court

1953: Haughton High School 
Homecoming Court

1980: Parkway High School 
Homecoming Queen and King

1945: Bossier High School 
Homecoming Court

Oct. 6, 1920: Since the passing of the 19th Amendment, 161 women for Bossier Parish had register to vote. Mary Bixler from Plain Dealing was the first woman to register in this parish.  Do you have an ancestor that was on the list of the 161 women to register? Contact us via message, email, or phone and we can look on the list for you. 

Bossier Banner: Oct.6, 1920

1900: Vashti Applewhite
0000.003.043 Pattillo Collection

1880's: Lillian Stinson Carter
2000.045.004 Shaver Collection

c.1900's:  "The Lawrence Sisters"
Hattie, Emma, Katie and Eva

Oct. 16. 1920: Weekly news from 100 years ago.

· Allendale store and resident  was destroyed by fire

Bossier Banner

  

Harvey Arnold 
1999.127.047B Jennings Collection

· Miss Athlene Cornish left to take charge of the Alden Bridge school

Bossier Banner

1936-1937 Bossier School Faculty: 
Athlene Cornish is on the 2nd row, 
6th from the right
2001.052.097 Saucier Collection

· Jim Giles been working on the roads

Bossier Banner

c.1900's: Road Crew Camp
0000.004.076 Scanland Collection

· J.A., Kate and Lucille Edwards returned home from Shreveport.

Bossier Banner

James A. Edwards Sr.,
Kate Carter Edwards,
and James A. Edwards Jr.
2009.044.006 Beekman Collection

Oct. 31, 2020: Happy Halloween! 

Please enjoy the photos relating to Halloween. 

Bossier Press: Oct.27, 1977

The Shreveport Journal: Oct.26, 1944

Bossier City Mothers Club.
Women dressed in costunes
1999.044.038-2 Pace Collection

1983: Preschool Halloween Party at
the Bossier Parish Libraries 
Central Branch
2020.001.0181

 

Grace H. Larkin: A Woman's Rise

On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was certified, granting women the right to vote. The culmination of a massive, peaceful civil rights movement by women formal beginnings dating back to 1848 at the world’s first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. The observance of Women’s Equality Day commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment and calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality.

The roles and rights of women in American society have changed over the centuries. The following article titled ‘Woman’s Rise,’ appeared in The Bossier Banner on Apr. 2, 1931, and it elaborates on some of the changes being seen right here in Bossier Parish with having just elected their first woman to the office of Clerk of Court.

“Probably a great many women in Bossier Parish are elated over woman’s rise to the position in national affairs she has attained in a very few years. For a long period of time women did not wield any influence in this nation, that is as voters or office-holders. Now, however, women are serving the nation in many places of responsibility, and are exercising their right to vote with telling effect.

Grace H. Larkin C. 1931.
Source: The Bossier Banner

“Here in Bossier Parish we have one of our first major office-holders, from the ranks of the women voters. She is Miss Grace H. Larkin, Clerk of Court. The voters showed no hesitancy in elevating her to this position of trust, although it was not many years ago that scores of people, in this very section, were bitterly opposed to the idea of giving women the right to vote.

“For those Bossier Parish people who now take women’s rights for granted, we might say that for nearly one hundred years after the Declaration of Independence no women were employed by the Government. This is shown in a recent statement by the president of the Civil Service Commission.

“The first law permitting the employment of women as clerks in Federal Government offices was passed during 1870. Today more than 28,000 women are employed in such offices, in Washington alone, and nearly 60,000 more are employed outside of the capital city.

“Women are being appointed to such government positions as bacteriologist, biologist, botanist, chemist, economist, educationist, patent examiner, pharmacologist, physicist, statistician, zoologist and technologists of various kinds. As is well known, many women hold postmasterships.

“The employment of women in private business has shown a steady increase also, the number of women wage-earners at present being nearly ten million.

“Whether this increasing activity of women in industry, business and the professions is an indication of an improved civilization depends upon one’s viewpoint. However that may be, women have shown their ability to engage successfully in nearly every vocation under the sun, and that they will continue to do so cannot be doubted.”

Larkin’s long career with the Bossier Parish Clerks office began in 1903 when Beverly A. Kelly, Clerk of Court, employed her as his assistant. Then in 1914, James M. Henderson became the Clerk of Court, and he kept her on. She was appointed Chief Deputy with the approval of Judge John N. Sandlin in 1920.

On Jan. 17, 1931, Judge J. F. McInnis appointed Larkin as ad interim Clerk of Court pending a special election to name the successor to the late James M. Henderson, who served as the clerk for the past 16 years before his death. In a special election held on Feb. 24th, Larkin defeated State Senator V.V. Whittington with 1326 votes to his 870.

Then, in the general election of 1932, she was re-elected without opposition after her opponent Mr. J. M. Emmons, withdrew his candidacy. After being defeated in the 1936 general election and thirty-three years serving the Bossier Parish Clerk office, Larkin retired.

Larkin joined the ranks of “first” in women’s equality, through her hard work and devotion in her career and to the community she served. Not only was she the first woman Clerk of Court in Bossier Parish, but she was also the first in Louisiana. And as one of the first women in Bossier Parish that registered to vote in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was certified, Larkin never took her right to vote for granted. 

To learn more about the women of Bossier Parish, visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Or, contact us by email at history-center@bossierlibrary.org or by phone (318) 746-7717.

By: Amy Robertson