A pilot, a professor and two lawyers have been inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. Lori Schrader-Bacher of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women says Jasper County native Phyllis Propp Fowle is recognized for her advancement in the military’s legal corps.Propp Fowle, who died last year, was the first female Judge Advocate General, earning the post in 1944. After World War Two, all women were discharged from the service, but Propp Fowle was invited to stay on in the JAG office as a civilian attorney. Honoree Dr. Ursula Delworth, who is deceased, was a professor at the University of Iowa. While other women had been professors at the U-of-I, none had reached tenure status until Delworth did in 1976. Eighty-nine-year-old Phyllis Josephine Hughes of Manchester is honored for her work as an attorney and political activist. Hughes was a lawyer in New York and Europe, landing a job with a major corporation — they thought she was a man when they hired her.Hughes returned to Manchester in 1950 to help her dad run the family store. She practiced law at night, and during the 1980s she volunteered her legal services to farmers. Pilot Ann Dearing Holtgren Pellegrenoof Story City is best known for retracing the route Amelia Earhart flew when the famous pilot disappeared.Holtgren, who refuses to disclose her age, was the first women in the nation to serve on a state transportation commission. The Cristine Wilson Medal for Equality and Justice goes to Jane Elliott, a retired teacher from Osage who gained nationwide fame for a discrimination exercise called “blue eyes/brown eyes.” The exercise was performed on the Oprah show several years ago and was re-run this summer. A special induction ceremony honoring the five women was held Saturday in Des Moines.
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