10/23/2015
BLACK GIRLS ROCK WOULD LIKE TO SALUTE OUR 2015 LEGENDARY AWARD WINNER- MRS. MARTHA HUDSON PENNYMAN
Lightening watched her run, hoping to be as fast but it was not to be. Her name is Martha Hudson Pennyman and in 1960, she won a Gold Medal in Track and Field in Rome, Italy. She was known as Martha Hudson or “Pee-Wee” as her friends called her then and greatness has never outpaced her.
It all started at Twin City Elementary and High School where Martha’s uncanny speed caught the attention of one of her coaches. At that time, Martha was a star basketball player but was encouraged to focus her attention of Track as one of her coaches suggested. It was this decision, which ultimately changed Martha’s life and gave the World one of the great athletes of our time. Due to Martha being a standout track star in eighth grade, she was invited to the Tuskegee Relays in Alabama. While there, tearing up the track as she was blowing away the competition, Martha once again caught the eye of another coach, this time it was Coach Ed Temple of the famed Tennessee State University Tigerbelles; and he recruited Martha to come and be part of the renowned team. After graduating from Twin City High School as Salutatorian in 1957, she won the AAU 100-yard dash and set the record for the 75-yard dash while at Tennessee State. Furthermore, while setting the stage for her history-making run, Martha and her relay team set a record by winning the 4×100 in the 1959 Pan Am Games in Chicago. However, it was in 1960 when Martha and her teammates, Lucinda Williams Adams, Barbara Jones Slater, and Wilma Rudoph, would run before the World and, in this sprint, dash the hopes of all who dared to run against them. Once again, time was no match as they sliced through the Italian night air and set a world record in this Gold Medal run with a time of 44.3 seconds. Martha must have yearned for the big stage; she must have craved the competition, as she was responsible for running the first leg of the relay. However, anxiety would find no quarter with the world class athlete as even though she was the shortest competitor, she set a pace so fast, that although two of her teammates faltered, the record and Gold was still theirs.
After the Olympics, Martha continued to compete in all parts of the world, even the Soviet Union as she was on the first U.S. track team to visit the Communist World power while competing in the Goodwill Games and in 1962, Martha graduated from TSU with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. After which, Martha moved to Thomaston where she changed the lives of countless children each year as she enlightened them for 37 years as an elementary school teacher. The Tennessee State Hall of Fame inducted Martha in 1983; the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame did the same in 1986 as well as the Thomaston Upson Sports Hall of fame in 2005 and the Bob Hayes Hall Fame in Jacksonville Florida in 2006. Also in 2006, Upson Lee High School held the inaugural Martha Hudson Pennyman Invitational Track Meet and on the same day both the city of Thomaston and the county of Upson declared March 26, Martha Hudson Pennyman Day. In 2010, Martha was honored with a monument placed at track where the Upson Lee Track team performs and the Macon Telegraph awards the Martha Hudson Pennyman Scholar Athlete of the Year to a deserving High School Athlete each year.
Just as everything else she raced against, Martha’s record setting days are behind her. Although, Mrs. Pennyman stops by from time to time and we always enjoy her company. She is always so very kind and humble and if to meet, one would have to know of her success beforehand, as she is not one to brag. Therefore, if Gold Medals were given for being an incredible person, Martha Hudson Pennyman would win every time.
MRS. MARTHA HUDSON PENNYMAN- YOU ARE DEFINITELY A BLACK GIRL WHO ROCKS!
