Martha McCarty Wells expands her philanthropic support
EL DORADO — For almost 20 years, Martha McCarty Kimmerling Wells and her parents, the late Edward and Madelyne McCarty, have awarded thousands and thousands of dollars through the Union County Public Trust of the Union County Community Foundation to non-profit groups in El Dorado.
And Martha McCarty Wells continues to give to Union County.
Just recently, it was announced that she is the principal donor for the seventh annual Girls Learning About Math and Science (GLAMS) conference, set to be held on May 16 at the El Dorado Conference Center and South Arkansas Community College. The day-long event is for eighth grade girls who will be inspired and learn from local and area business women in the fields of engineering, technology, math and science.
On April 4, the Union County Community Foundation announced that Wells and the Madelyne M. and Edward C. McCarty Fund of the UCCF are underwriting a free luncheon and lecture at the El Dorado Golf and Country Club beginning at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.The event is for women interested in learning more about heart disease, which is the number one killer of women in America.
Wells has secured Dr. Jean McSweeney, a research pioneer in the field of women’s cardiovascular disease, and a professor and associate dean for research at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Nursing, to present the lecture, said Elise Drake, executive director of the UCCF.
Drake said the lecture is the result of a meeting between McSweeney and Wells which took place a few months ago in Dallas, where Wells lives and works. “Martha is the representative of the McCarty Fund established by her mother – who was born and grew up in Union County – approximately 18 years ago. Her mother (Madelyne McCarty) wanted to improve and enhance our region via philanthropic support,” Drake said. “We value her philanthropy on behalf of El Dorado and we value her as a good friend.”
The UCCF began as an affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation and became a separate entity in
1997, Drake said. Throughout the years, the McCarty fund has granted awards to the Union County Animal Protection Society, the Boy Scouts, Camp Fire, Boys and Girls Club, South Arkansas Fights AIDS, El Dorado Connections, Fairview Community Development Association, Salvation Army, El Dorado Habitat for Humanity, HOPE Landing and many other non-profits to fund summer camps for children, revitalization grants for communities, therapeutic horseback riding program, homebound elderly assistance, smoke detectors for homebound seniors and a number of other programs to benefit the community.
During an awards ceremony held in El Dorado in the past to present grants to local non-profits, Wells said, “It’s a pleasure to come back every year to see family and friends. My mother left El Dorado in 1930, but always kept up with what was going on here. El Dorado is my second home and I’m thrilled to be a part of this ceremony.” Wells said that her mother established the fund in 1999 with the UCCF, because she wanted to concentrate her philanthropic endeavors on Union County. “I have happy memories visiting here,” she said.
Wells, president of the Martha McCarty Kimmerling Wells Foundation, presented a lecture on American visionary artist Alexandre Hogue (1989-1994) and his “The Erosion Series” in 2015 in the Callaway Theatre of the South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado. Wells made a short presentation about Hogue and his “Erosion” series from the 1930’s and the early 1940’s. The lecture was based on the Dallas Museum of Art exhibit and was made possible by Drake and the Madelyne M. and Edward C. McCarty Fund.
“Martha’s philanthropy is far reaching; she supports many educational, medical and fine art institutions throughout the USA through her foundation in Dallas. Her work as a docent, for 36 years, at the Dallas Museum of Arts is what led to the lecture series on Alexander Hogue that she presented to the community via the SAAC,” said Drake.
“The Union County Community Foundation began our relationship with Martha Kimmerling Wells in 1999, when she visited us with her mother, Madelyne Murphy McCarty. Mrs. McCarty was a descendant of pioneer Union County settlers, and although she’d lived most of her life in Texas, she was born and reared in Union County and she wanted to establish a philanthropic fund to help the community of her childhood. Mrs. McCarty, who was in her 90s when she established the Madelyne M. and Edward C. McCarty Fund (Mrs. McCarty met Edward C. McCarty, a native of north Arkansas, when he moved to El Dorado as a young man to work for First National Bank, and they married in 1930) passed away not too long after, and it was Martha who continued her mother’s work to support the local nonprofit community by recommending the McCarty Fund underwrite our annual grant awards from the Union County Public Trust Fund. Martha is important to us as a generous donor, but our friendship is equally important. Martha is a lot of fun to be with; doing good things with her is always accompanied by a lot of laughter.”
Wells graduated from Newcomb College with an English degree in 1963 and she established the Martha McCarty Kimmerling Wells chair in Women’s Literature at Newcomb. When the chair was first announced, Tulane President Michael Fitts said, “Martha Wells has made an impact on this university that will be felt this year and for decades to come.”
When the chair was announced, English department chair, Michael Kuczynski at Newcomb said, “It feels like a privilege to be here today, celebrating the inception of the Martha McCarty Kimmerling Chair in Women’s Literature, envisioned and supported by one of Tulane’s most generous graduates and occupied by a scholar whose work and example advance the study of literature written by, for, and about women.”
Sally Kenney, executive director of Newcomb College, said when the chair was announced, “Martha Wells’s generous gift is a significant step towards ensuring that women take their rightful place in the academy as writers and scholars who shape institutions.”
To register to attend the free lecture at 11 a.m. on Wednesday regarding heart disease among women at the El Dorado Golf and Country Club, email Deanie Connor at UCCF at deanie@uccf. org.