Tennessee Women's Hall of Fame Archives

Elizabeth Rona

Elizabeth Rona, a former nuclear physics teacherÂ at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, will be inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame on Monday, October 26.

Before she immigrated to the United States, RonaÂ was the first woman to teach chemistry in any university in Hungary.

Once in the U.S., she was on the frontlines of the discoveries of isotopes and fission, and later contributed to work in the Manhattan project. She later taught on theory and methods of nuclear physics at the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies.

Rona is one of two inductees to be honored posthumously. The ceremony will honor a total of eight women from all three grand divisions of the state (East, Middle, and West), including an astronaut, judge, and civil rights pioneer. [Read more…]

Shirley Raines

Shirley Raines of Oak Ridge has an amazing and inspiring story to tell.

Now president emeritus of the University of Memphis, she will describe her career and provide advice on leadership at the third in a series of Roane State Community Collegeâ€“Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Education Intergenerational Lectures.

Her talk begins at 3 p.m. Thursday, April 30, in the large lecture hall (Room 107) in the Goff Health Sciences and Technology Building on Roane Stateâ€™s Oak Ridge campus at 701 Briarcliff Avenue. Raines will speak on â€œHow a Kindergarten Teacher Became a University President.â€

Born in Jackson in West Tennessee, she grew up on a cotton farm outside Bells, where she picked cotton by hand for the family business. She recalled that her mother was very smart and could have been a teacher or lawyer but lacked the opportunity to get a higher education. [Read more…]

Former nuclear physics teacher in OR to be inducted into TN Women’s Hall of Fame

From cotton picker to college president