Elizabeth Hicks

is honored with a Brick from Ruby Kuhns and Peg Vines.

As a pharmacist, Liz Hicks has dispensed medicines to the Wichita community for years. She's also given of her talents to serve on boards of local and state pharmaceutical associations, to consult with and provide medicines and services for nursing homes, and to serve on the county Board of Health.

But that's just one aspect of her life that deserves recognition. Our longtime friendship with her prompts us to focus on her "other career": leadership in advancing women in society.

In that career, she is good medicine!

We've known her enough years to attest to the important difference she makes both in organizations and as a private citizen working for equal rights. In meetings, she moves beyond our hang-ups with minor problems and calmly gets to the heart of controversial issues under discussion. She is organized, even in the midst of loosely organized organizations! When solutions depend upon ready workers, she volunteers her time, energy, and money - and always with an upbeat, positive attitude. That's good medicine for us all.

Looking back at her early involvement in the women's movement, it was the difficulty of getting credit in her own name after her husband' s death that opened her eyes to one type of sex discrimination. Once involved in righting a wrong, it was just natural for Liz to explore remedies for other injustices. Her approach was the calm, unruffled voice of reason. We recall, with admiration, an incident in the early 1980s as she delivered a speech to supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment at a local rally. ERA protesters, seeing TV cameras taping Liz, pushed huge signs in front of her and tried to drown out her voice with loud songs. Did she fume and retaliate with venom? Or, being intimidated, slink off the scene? Neither. She stood her ground and kept on with her message of encouragement to us.

Some avenues for her efforts were through the National Organization for Women (NOW), Women's Equality Coalition, and Wichita Commission on the Status of Women. With NOW, she chaired committees and served as local president and state coordinator. She represented our state at national functions and also gave generously of her time and knowledge to any Kansan seeking information or support. Sometimes that meant driving a carload of women to a state legislative session for citizen lobbying. Or gladly accepting late-night phone calls from school girls questioning the women's movement. Somehow, people she helped always felt that she truly enjoyed their contact. That's what we mean by saying "she's good medicine!"

Liz also initiates personal projects that educate and entertain audiences about women's history. She has developed two slide shows of "Kansas Women You'll Wish You Had Known" and also personally portrays some of those colorful women in presentations at schools, clubs, and political events.

Liz Hicks, nee Mary Elizabeth Coughlin, grew up and was educated in Oklahoma. Her daughter, Felicia, is a social worker in Minnesota. Her cat (or, sometimes, cats) coexists harmoniously with her, usually exhibiting the calm, unruffled "Liz trait" when disturbed by events or brash strangers. Seems appropriate.

For all the above, and so much more, we honor Liz.

Submitted by Ruby Kuhns and Peg Vines

September 18, 1998