Rhonda Russell founded Military Moms — an organization to support mothers of Lake Highlands High School grads serving in Iraq and Afghanistan — because it helped her cope with her son’s deployment in 2005.

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She wanted to help others who felt the pain she understood all too well, and she never sought recognition for her efforts.

“When you are doing something you feel passionate about, you don’t really realize if other people notice what you are doing.” So she was “blown away,” she says, when a representative from the Prudence Alexander (Dallas) Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Toni Wirth, called to tell her she had been selected as the district candidate for the national organization’s prestigious Woman in American History Award.

The chapter selected Russell based on her contribution to our community. And there is quite a bit of competition because both living and historical (no longer living) women are eligible for the honor.

According to Wirth, the organization seeks candidates “who are or have been intellectual, educational, social, religious, political, scientific or cultural innovators.” Candidates will be judged at the state level then go on to a final round in Washington, D.C.