FORT WALTON BEACH — The Okaloosa County Commission on the Status of Women has named three inductees to the Okaloosa County Women’s Hall of Fame.
Niceville native Rogene Anchors Hasty served as Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce's first newcomer greeting hostess and is its first former executive director. Former Gov. Bob Graham appointed her to a regional education committee, and she was appointed to a committee that helped secure a four-year nursing program at Northwest Florida State college.
Mary E. Burnette, a DeFuniak Springs native, was the first African-American teacher in the current Okaloosa County school system. She lobbied for and directed the local Head Start program for 22 years, and provided property for the Burnette-Harmon-Wood Community Resource Center in Fort Walton Beach.
Destin Mayor Sarah “Sam” Seevers — who has served on Destin’s city council and chaired the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency — was the Northwest Florida League of Cities president and an executive board member. She attended the 56th Annual National Security Forum through Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base and was the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron’s honorary commander on Eglin Air Force Base.
The women were named during a ceremony Monday at Northwest Florida State College’s Costa Leadership Institute.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 3 inducted to Okaloosa Women’s Hall of Fame