International Women's Day: Celebrate these Knoxville and East Tennessee trailblazers

There's plenty of girl power in East Tennessee.

Friday marks the more than 100 years of International Women's Day, a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. 

But how about East Tennessee? 

The region has been home to women who have knocked down barriers, inspired us and changed this region — and the world — for the better.

Here are just a few of those women to celebrate.

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Pat Summitt 

Legendary Lady Vols basketball coach Pat Summitt is probably one of the first that comes to mind for many in not only Tennessee, but sports.

In her 38 seasons as head coach at Tennessee, the hall of fame coach established the Lady Vols as a blue blood in women's basketball as she recorded an overall record of 1,098-208 — more wins than any NCAA Division I program in both women's or men's hoops history.

However, she was known for more than the program's accomplishments on the court. She was an ambassador for women's basketball, the university and state, and an advocate for the illness she faced herself.

After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's-type early onset dementia in 2011, she opened up about her struggle and became an advocate for the disease. President Barack Obama honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She also received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

She lost her battle with Alzheimer's on June 28, 2016, at the age of 64. Since Summitt's death, Alzheimer's disease awareness continues worldwide through the Pat Summitt Foundation and its highly successful "We Back Pat" campaign. 

Pat's Legacy:New book revives inspirational quotes of Lady Vols' Pat Summitt

Phoebe 'Febb' Ensminger Burn

The 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote in the United States, was signed into law on August 18, 1920, but not if it wasn't for an East Tennessee mother.

By the summer of 1920, the measure was just one short of the required 36 states for ratification, which stated that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

After quickly moving through Tennessee's Senate, the proposed amendment was deadlocked in Tennessee's House of Representatives. 

Phoebe "Febb" Ensminger Burn, the mother of East Tennessee representative Harry Burn, wrote a letter to her son, urging him to "be a good boy" and vote in favor of the measure.

Harry Burns' last-second flip was the deciding vote which ratified the 19th Amendment. 

“I know that a mother’s advice is always safest for her boy to follow,” Harry Burns explained afterward, “and my mother wanted me to vote for ratification.”

Miss Febb:New Knoxville statue marks Tennessee's pivotal role in the 19th Amendment

Lizzie Cozier French

Before "Miss Febb" penned a history-changing letter, one East Tennessee woman helped lay the groundwork for a women's right to vote. A statue of her now resides in Market Square. 

Lizzie Cozier French devoted most of her life to crusading for women's rights. She's best known for championing women's right to vote although she was active in other women's issues and the prohibition movement. 

"If there is any punishment to be meted out, the women are included in it," she said, "but if there is any reward, (the law) does not include them."

Among her successes, French became the first woman to address Knoxville's City Council when she stood up to demand the city hire a police matron to look after female jail inmates. When no takers stepped forward, she volunteered for the job.

She lived to see Tennessee ratify the 19th Amendment, to cast her vote and even run unsuccessfully for City Council in 1923. She died three years later, while on a trip advocating for women's rights — this time on behalf of working women. She was 75.

"Mrs. French gave her life for her ideals," the News Sentinel wrote in a front-page obituary. "She had a rare organizing ability and wisdom enough to see that ideals are not realized by dramatic strokes bringing immediate victories but that they must be brought about through careful cultivation and education."

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Faith Fancher

University of Tennessee alumna Faith Fancher not only made history in Knoxville, but left a lasting legacy as an advocate for breast cancer awareness.

Fancher became Knoxville's first African American woman television reporter when she began her award-winning journalism career at WBIR. Her resume includes stints as a reporter at stations in Nashville and Washington, D.C., NPR and CNN before becoming a San Francisco local news staple where she documented her very public battle with breast cancer.

After her diagnoses in 1997, Fancher established Friends of Faith, which still raises money for cancer research and for help for low-income women suffering from the disease today, according to her obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

She continued to chronicle her breast cancer battle with Bay Area viewers until she succumbed to the disease in 2003. She was 53.

Capt. Rosemary Mariner

Although Capt. Rosemary Mariner didn't call East Tennessee home until the last few years of her life, the University of Tennessee lecturer was the Navy's first woman jet pilot and helped open the door for women in military aviation.

The Navy honored her last month with the military branch's first ever all-female flyover during her funeral in Maynardville. 

Her long list of achievements include being one of the first women in the Navy to earn her pilot wings in 1974, the first woman to fly a tactical fighter jet in 1975 and the first woman to command a naval aviation squadron in 1990.

She also went on to become one of the first women to serve aboard a Navy warship.

She died on Jan. 24, at the age of 65, following a five-year battle with ovarian cancer.

Opinion:Capt. Rosemary Mariner was a leader among leaders

More:Navy to honor first woman fighter pilot, UT lecturer with all-female flyover at Tennessee funeral

Historical memorial:All-female flyover makes history to honor groundbreaking Capt. Rosemary Mariner

Dolly Parton

No surprise here. Music icon Dolly Parton, 73, is adored for her wit, charm and continued influence on East Tennessee: spanning from charity efforts to her long list of attractions.

She rules graciously over her empire. 

The Tennessee darling has philanthropy efforts such as The Dollywood Foundation along with her well-established Imagination Library program, which gives free books to children. Her work with the LeConte Medical Center features the 30,000-square-foot Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services and the Dolly Parton Birthing Unit on its campus. 

When disaster devastated her home, the My People Fund gave more than $8 million to those who lost their homes in the deadly Gaitlinburg wildfire in 2016.

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News Sentinel reporters Brittany Crocker and Ryan Wilusz also contributed to this report.