Highland County Women's Hall of Fame 2014 inductees announced
The Highland County Women’s Hall of Fame committee has announced that the 2014 Hall of Fame inductees are: Anna Spilker (dec.), Susan Davis Thompson and Elsie Young.
This year's Hall of Fame dinner will be Tuesday, Aug. 19 at 6 p.m. in the Southern State Community College atrium.
Tickets are $16 and are available at the Highland County Chamber of Commerce; the Leesburg and Lynchburg branches of Southern Hills Community Bank; and Home Building and Loan in Greenfield.
The following are excerpts from the biographies of the Hall of Fame class of 2014.
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Anna Spilker was born in Pendleton, Ky. and lived in Highland County for over 40 years. Along with her husband, Dick, Spilker had a long history of community service, including serving as foster parents from 1996-2006 and organizing two local food ministry programs.
The Spilkers started Soup & Sandwich (aka Saturday Lunch) in the late 1990s to serve free lunches two Saturdays a month. This program currently serves over 250 individuals at no cost. Wanting to do more, the Spilkers later organized Our Daily Bread, which serves free food on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
According to a letter of recommendation from Hillsboro First United Methodist Church (HUMC) pastor Derek Russell, Spilker was "tireless in working on behalf of hungry people all over Highland County through her efforts at Our Daily Bread," organizing "a host of agencies, churches and volunteers in order to offer a hot meal free of charge every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the year."
Spilker also had a love of education, teaching Sunday school and eventually getting an associate's degree in early childhood education to teach preschool at HUMC. She served as a 4-H adviser and youth leader at HUMC from 1968-85. She was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award in 2013 by the American Red Cross at their Heroes Breakfast.
Spilker passed away Aug. 28, 2013 and was survived by her husband, along with their four children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
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Susan Davis Thompson was born in Hillsboro and is a lifelong Highland County resident. She is a graduate of Hillsboro High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and head drum major of the school band; earned a bachelor's degree at Miami University; and earned a Juris Doctorate from Ohio Northern University.
Thompson has operated her own law office since 1986 and is a member of the Highland County Bar Association, where she served as president, and the Ohio State Bar Association, where she currently serves on the Real Estate Documents Committee. Thompson also owns Preferred Midwest Title, LLC, which provides full-service closings. She is an approved agent for the Ohio Bar Title Insurance Company and is an approved closing agent for many local banks and organizations.
Thompson is also active in the community, serving as a member of the Highland County Chamber of Commerce; the Highland District Hospital Foundation Board, where she currently serves as vice chairman; the Hillsboro Uptown Renaissance Project (HURP); and the Scott House Restoration and Preservation Board. She is a former member of the Hillsboro Civil Service Commission, Highland County Board of Health and the Board of Otterbein Homes.
Thompson is also the founder of Soles for Students, a foundation providing shoes for Highland County students in need. She has raised $5,500 since April 2012 to purchase shoes for students. In March 2014, she received the 7th Masonic District Community Service Award for her work with the foundation.
Thompson and her husband, Steve (owner of Thompson Funeral Homes) are also part owners of Star Cinemas in Hillsboro and Grove City and run Masterpiece Farms, an internationally known breeder of quarter horses. Thompson is the current president of the National Snaffle Bit Association Foundation, through which she has been involved in a number of community service projects, and is a member of the American Quarter Horse Association and the Ohio Quarter Horse Association.
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Elsie Annetta Roberts Young was born in Washington Court House and has lived in Highland County for 80 years.
Widowed four times, Young is the mother of nine (of whom six are still living), grandmother of 33, great-grandmother to 100, great-great-grandmother to 89 and great-great-great-grandmother to three, according to her recommendation letter by Eleanor Cumberland.
In addition to raising her extensive family during the Depression in the 1930s, Young has worked as a domestic worker for local families and has worked at Highland District Hospital and the Highland County Welfare Department.
Young was one of several local mothers who peacefully marched upon the white grade schools for two years to get them to integrate when she thought African-American children were getting a substandard education at the segregated Lincoln Elementary school, Cumberland wrote. Young herself left school in the 11th grade, but she completed her GED exams successfully in 1970.
Young has served in many different roles at the New Hope Baptist Church since joining the church in 1948, including teaching Sunday School classes for women; serving as treasurer, as a member of the Hattie E. Jackson missionary society and as a delegate to the Eastern Union Association; serving on the Deaconess Board; working as a Guild Girls leader and Ladies Aide; and singing in the choir.
Young has been a longtime member and officer of the Magnolia Twig in support of Highland District Hospital and a member of the Highland County African-American Awareness Research Council, where she has served as treasurer and was honored in 2006 for her efforts. Young has also served as a member of other community organizations, including Church Women United, WCTU, Cedar Grove Stars Chapter 18 (Greenfield), St. Elizabeth Stars Chapter 6 (Chillicothe) and RV Summers Club. She has worked many years at the polls on Election Day and campaigning for local candidates as an active member of the Highland County Democratic Party.
Now 98, Young remains involved in her church and the community.