Cape Girardeau native Patricia Washington, now a resident of St. Louis and press secretary to St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr., has been named the 1994 recipient of St. Francis Medical Center's Womancare Award.
The award is presented in conjunction with the medical center's Womancare Conference. It recognizes women from the Cape Girardeau area who demonstrate outstanding professional achievement.
The award was presented Saturday during the luncheon of the Womancare Conference at the Cape Girardeau Holiday Inn. Presentation was made by Debra Mitchell-Braxton, assistant director of the Campus Assistance Center at Southeast Missouri State University.
Mitchell-Braxton and her husband, Dr. Frank Braxton, served as corporate sponsors of this year's Womancare Conference along with the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. of Marion, Ill.
Washington is a 1984 graduate of Southeast Missouri State and worked as a St. Louis area journalist until joining the mayor's office last June. Last spring she was appointed to a six-year term on the Southeast Missouri State University Board of Regents.
Washington began her journalism career as an intern at the St. Louis Argus, the oldest African-American newspaper west of the Mississippi River. She then moved on to the Suburban Journals where she worked for about a year and a half covering East St. Louis city government and the East St. Louis Board of Education. She joined the St. Louis American in 1986 and was named managing editor of that publication in 1989, a position she held until becoming Bosley's press secretary.
She has also served as a radio talk-show host and the host of a cable television program. She served as president of the Greater St. Louis Association of Black Journalists and is a volunteer for a community program called The St. Louis Public School Role Model Program.
In her current position, Washington writes speeches for the St. Louis mayor and most of his press releases and position papers. She also accompanies the mayor to his public appearances.
Washington is the daughter of Booker T. Washington, who now lives near Washington, Mo., and the late Essie Mae Washington. Her aunt and uncle, Clarence and Genevieve Dockery, still live in Cape Girardeau. She grew up in the family's home on Olive Street and graduated from Cape Girardeau Central High School in 1979.
Washington is the fifth recipient of the Womancare Award. Previous recipients have included astronaut and Jackson native Linda Godwin; international opera singer and Cape Girardeau native Judith Farris; Cape Girardeau businesswoman Judith Wilferth; and well-known local journalist Judith Crow.
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