Dearborn Resident to be Inducted into Michigan Women's Hall of Fame

Submitted by Anne Gautreau

Katherine Cushman will be the first woman from Dearborn inducted into the Michigan Woman’s Hall of Fame during a special ceremony on Oct. 17.

Cushman will be honored posthumously at the 30th annual awards dinner and induction ceremony in Lansing.

Cushman was one of the “Con-Con Eleven,” having been elected to represent the city of Dearborn. Of the 144 delegates at the 1962-1962 Michigan Constitutional Convention, only 11 were women. At the first constitutional convention in 53 years, women participated for the first time in the writing of Michigan’s constitution. Subsequently, the document was approved by the voters and was effectuated in 1963.

Michigan’s Constitution had been amended 70 times and no longer supported the nature of the state as it had evolved into an industrial leader.

“For eight months, the delegates listened, proposed, debated, and compromised. The document they produced greatly changed the workings of Michigan’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. Significant revisions were also made in the powers granted to local government, the administration of public education, and the terms of office for elected officials. The new constitution revitalized the guarantee of civil rights to every Michigan citizen and established a civil rights commission to safeguard those rights.”

Cushman, a lifelong resident of Dearborn, graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1933 at Dearborn High School, the same year the American Association of University Women-Dearborn was founded.

In addition to serving as a Con-Con delegate, Cushman was elected to the 1977 Dearborn Charter Commission as top vote-getter and served two terms on the Planning Commission in the 1980s.

Having served as president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan, the Detroit Metropolitan Area League of Women Voters, the Detroit League of Women Voters, and the Dearborn League of Women Voters, Cushman naturally attributed her interest and knowledge in constitutional government to the League of Women Voters. Her daughter Betsy Cushman currently serves as president of the Dearborn League of Women Voters.

The final two decades of Cushman’s life were largely devoted to environmental education and conservation. She served on the Governor’s Study Commission and on the Conservation Commission, among other activities. At the time of her death in 1991, she was working diligently to save Rouge Woods, a natural area in the Lower Rouge Valley.