Summitt receives Medal of Freedom
Glenn, Albright among those awarded Medal of Freedom
Tennessee women’s head coach emeritus Pat Summitt was among political and cultural icons honored Tuesday with the Medal of Freedom.
WASHINGTON — From civil rights to public service, from the author of Beloved to the composer of The Times They Are A-Changin’, President Obama honored 13 individuals who have made singular contributions to national life, awarding them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“What sets these men and women apart is the incredible impact they have had on so many people,” Obama said Tuesday during the White House ceremony. “Not in short, blinding bursts, but steadily over the course of a lifetime.”
Among the recipients were well-known cultural icons and pioneers.
Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison, 81, author of Beloved, Jazz and Song of Solomon, has a new book on the best-seller lists: Home, the story of a Korean War veteran who returns to his racially segregated town in Georgia.
Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, 71 — who wore sunglasses while receiving his medal — is still recording albums, five decades after Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin’ became anthems of the civil rights movement.
Madeleine Albright, 75, the first female secretary of State, won Obama’s praise for her “courage and toughness” in pursuing peace in the Balkans and Middle East.
John Glenn, 90, the first American astronaut to orbit Earth and later a U.S. senator, went back into space at age 77 in 1998. Obama also honored: -Attorney John Doar, 90, who represented the government in some of the toughest civil rights cases of the 1960s. Obama described Doar as “the face of the Justice Department in the South” during that era. “I think it’s fair to say that I might not be here had it not been for his work.”
-Dolores Huerta, 82, who helped organize migrant farmworkers with Cesar Chavez.
-John Paul Stevens, 92, retired as the thirdlongest-serving Supreme Court justice, who wore his trademark bow tie for the ceremony.
-William Foege, 76, a physician who led the charge to eradicate smallpox during the 1970s.
-Pat Summitt, 59, recently retired Tennessee women’s basketball coach — “the all-time winningest leader among all NCAA basketball coaches,” Obama said — now waging a personal and public battle against Alzheimer’s disease.
-Shimon Peres, 88, president and former prime minister of Israel, who did not attend the ceremony because of obligations back home.
Three of this year’s honorees were awarded the medal posthumously:
-Gordon Hirabayashi, who defied the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. He died in January at age 93.
-Jan Karski of Poland, who first told the world about Nazi atrocities against Jews there. He died in 2000 at 86.
-Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts a century ago this year. She died in 1927.