Celebrating 70 Years of Clergywomen Shaping Methodism in Texas

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, United Methodists are also marking 70 years since the 1956 General Conference decision that granted women full clergy rights and annual conference membership — a milestone that followed decades of advocacy by women already serving in ministry.

The impact of that decision is evident in the legacy conferences that now form the Horizon Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church, where women answered calls to ministry years before full institutional recognition followed.

In the North Texas Conference, Velma Hart Franklin was ordained as early as 1946, but limitations placed on women at the time meant she could not receive full conference membership until 1960, when she was the first woman admitted to the North Texas Conference. She faithfully served small, rural churches across what became the Wichita Falls and Sherman-McKinney Districts until her retirement in the mid-1960s. She passed away in 1996 at the age of 86. A conference resolution adopted at the time of her death honored her "service, sacrifice, and life" as a pioneer clergywoman.

The second woman admitted to the North Texas Conference was Barbara Hart Siekman, ordained in 1965 and appointed as associate minister at then-Highland Park Methodist Church in Dallas. A graduate of Southwestern University and Perkins School of Theology, she was the youngest of eleven children who grew up on a farm in Brazoria County, Texas. She passed away in 1998.

In the Central Texas Conference, Karen Greenwaldt broke new ground as the first ordained female clergy in the conference, ordained as a Deacon in 1975 and as an Elder in 1978. Beginning her ministry as an associate pastor at Handley United Methodist Church, she went on to serve the broader denomination through the General Board of Discipleship for more than three decades, ultimately rising to serve as its General Secretary and CEO, one of the highest leadership positions in all of United Methodism, before retiring in 2013.

In the Northwest Texas Conference, June 1, 1978 was a night that made history. At the closing service of the annual conference meeting in Midland, Texas, Hazel House and Sammie Ellis Teeter became the first two women admitted to full ministerial membership in the conference, on the same night, at the same service. In Hazel House’s own theological examination written the year before her ordination, she captured her sense of call with quiet conviction: "I did not choose my task in serving (God), but (God) has chosen me." Both women went on to serve West Texas congregations.

Together, these five women entered ordained ministry at a time when church structures were still adapting to women’s leadership. Their ministries helped shape congregations, conferences and denominational life long after the 1956 decision opened the door to women’s ordination.

As the Horizon Texas Conference marks the 70th anniversary of that decision during Women’s History Month, their stories stand as reminders that change within the church is often carried forward first by individuals — and only later by institutions.