Do you know Lubbock woman worthy to join these women in Texas Women's Hall of Fame?

Artistic renderings of (L-R) Sheryl Swoopes, Marsha Sharp, Louise Hopkins Underwood, Glenna Goodacre and Ginger Kerrick.

Marsha Sharp and Sheryl Swoopes are members – as are Louise Hopkins Underwood, Glenna Goodacre and Ginger Kerrick.

These women with deep ties to Lubbock and Texas Tech are members of the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame and the deadline to nominate more outstanding women from West Texas is coming soon.

The Governor’s Commission for Women is accepting applications for this year’s biennial Hall of Fame class until Friday May 2. A submission can be made on the governor’s website.

Lubbock’s Ashley Cash of The Cash Family Foundation is one of the commissioners voting on the applicants. She wants to spread the word to Lubbock and other West Texas towns.

“West Texas is the best part of Texas and I think that we need to be nominating more women from this part of Texas,” Cash said.

The application contains basic questions about the nominee and nominator. It also includes space for a narrative statement, which can be two pages long and is very important for the voting process. The only criteria is the woman must be a native or current resident of Texas.

Christina McKinney, the executive director of the Governor’s Commission said a panel of judges narrows the list down to about 10 or 15. Then commissioners vote for the final list, if they have any ties to one of the applicants they refrain from voting.

More West Texas representation is wanted by Cash and nominations are a big part of that. The Governor’s Commission goes through every application to verify them, they get up to 100 applications every other year.

“I think any woman who has made a huge impact in their community is somebody that would be a good person to nominate,” McKinney said.

The Governor’s Commission for Women brings all the inductees to have dinner. This year it’s held in Denton at Texas Women’s University, where the Hall of Fame is located. The hall is now housed in the Blagg-Huey Library on the second floor, but honors have been given since 1984.

Some with Lubbock connections:

Some others from Texas:

The Commission is trying to notify all the awardees by July at the latest McKinney said. The event is scheduled for early November, they get inducted at the dinner and get to make remarks McKinney said.

There are currently two nominations for women in Lubbock, one in Amarillo and another in Midland McKinney said. After the application closes, the panel will start voting.

Once finalists are chosen by the commissioners they are given a category. These are not fixed and are usually centered around the woman who’s chosen.

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