Remarkable women honored at Sterling Awards ceremony

JACKSON, Tenn. — This year’s Sterling Awards event was held at Lane College’s Chambers McClure Academic Center.

The event honors 22 women, with 20 receiving a Sterling Award, one female attorney receiving a Sue Shelton award, and another receiving an Outstanding Woman Military Veteran award.

“All the different things they do outside of just work and that’s what we look for when we look for our Sterlings is to find people that are community-minded and are doing things for others. And sometimes, they never get recognized,” said Margaret Taylor, President of Jackson Area Business and Professional Women.

Taylor says it’s important for women to get recognized because they are not just workers in the community.

“We’re doing a little bit of everything. So, we don’t just get to go home and sit down after a hard days work, our work just never ends,” said Taylor.

We spoke to Gloria Holiday, who won the award for Outstanding Woman Military Veteran.

She is a veteran of the Marine Corps who joined in 1973, and retired with the rank of Master Sergeant.

“It’s an amazing feeling and I truly enjoyed it, yes. If I had to do it all over again, I would,” said Holiday.

Holiday says when she joined the Marines toward the end of the Vietnam War, there was only 15-hundred women serving in the Marines at the time.

Among her many medals and accolades she also spent time as a senior drill instructor.

“Once a Marine, is always a Marine. No matter what. The training we did, I would go through all of it again. The grenades I’ve thrown, I would do it again. The troops I’ve trained, I would do it again,” said Holiday.

Along with the awards, two women earned 15-hundred dollar college scholarships.

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