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 Sallie
Bingham ’54
2007-08 Recipient
»Biography
»Acceptance Speech
Biography
Sallie Bingham ’54 has spent her life pursuing her vision
“to support work that in some way advocates, describes
or shows social change, and to fulfill a life long dream.”
Sallie left Louisville in 1954, graduating from Radcliffe
in 1958, Magna Cum Laude in English, clearly showing a commitment
to the core principles of academic achievement stated in Louisville
Collegiate School’s mission.
Her dreams blossomed and she moved to New
York City in 1963 where she became a prolific writer. Sallie
has written numerous books, been published in collections
and magazines that include, Redbook, McCalls,
Ladies Home Journal and nine plays produced throughout
the United States and England.
Sallie later returned to Louisville in 1977.
In 1985, she founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women. By
creating the KFW, among the first foundations nationwide for
women, she supported individual artists and organizations
working for social justice in Kentucky. Since its inception
the foundation has provided financial support to feminists
of different backgrounds and disciplines and currently grants
$200,000 each year to promote social change through feminist
art. Sallie has served on the KFW Board of Directors for over
20 years. Sallie believes documenting women’s lives
and work is crucial for women to attain equal rights and respect.
To further demonstrate her dream, Sallie
was able to establish the Sallie Bingham Archive for Women’s
History at Duke University. Among her accomplishments, Sallie
has been a book editor for The Courier-Journal, publisher
for The American Voice since 1985, founder of Santa
Fe Stages and Director of National Book Critics Circle.
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Acceptance
Speech
Distinguished Alumnae
Award
- May 2008
I’m honored and delighted to accept
this award on behalf of the fourth grader I once was not so
long ago…She was new to the school and its ways, and
not very comfortable with it, or them. The building seemed
huge, compared to the small elementary school she had attended
before, and it was a long way from her home, in what was then
the country. It seemed to her that everyone else knew what
to do, how to act—even what to wear! Her uniform felt
tight and stiff and scratchy, and she couldn’t keep
her shirt tail tucked in. Even worse, she was prone to creating
diversions—pouring water in a teacher’s chair
for instance (I don’t remember whether the teacher sat
down in it), or talking, or noodling around. But in this wild
child lay the seeds of the writer I would become, of the good
student and leader the school would teach me how to be. So—on
behalf of all the wild children whose inner strengths and
gifts Collegiate will uncover, thank you! Sallie Bingham
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