Local artist Jane Semple Umsted will be inducted into the 2024 Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women announced.
The Southeastern Oklahoma State University alumna will be one of six inductees who will be honored during a ceremony Sept. 27 at the Omni Hotel and Resort in downtown Oklahoma City.
“It is such a great honor for me to be receiving this award,” Umsted said. “I have always been so proud to have been born and raised in Oklahoma. My family always encouraged me to do my best.”
She received a B.F.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1969 and an M.Ed. from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1989. Umsted retired from the Durant Public Schools where she was the Durant Middle School art teacher until 2007. She is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and has been a professional artist for more than 50 years.
Umsted is the curator of the Semple Family Museum of Native American Art on the Southeastern campus, owner of the Indian Territory Art Gallery in Durant, and in 2023, was appointed by President Joe Biden to the Board of Trustees of the Institute of American Indian Arts.
She is the creator of the “Two Brothers” statute which will be unveiled in the Legacy Plaza on the Southeastern campus as part of the Homecoming weekend on Friday, October 3.
The university said this larger-than-life sculpture celebrates the legacy, history and contributions of sovereign tribal nations to Southeastern.
Umsted serves on the Durant Board of Education and during a Monday meeting, Superintendent Mark Moring congratulated her.
“What an honor, Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame,” Moring said. “Congratulations.”
Umsted told the board it is a very big honor.
“I do feel really special,” she said. “I really do. They were saying it had been a long time since anybody in this part of Oklahoma has been named and that really made me feel good.”
Board Member Joyce Northcutt said, “You make all of us shine.”
Event tickets and sponsorship levels for the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony can be found at the OCSW website or by calling the Oklahoma Commission on the Status of Women at (405) 401-6970.
