Uncrowned Community Builders

Loretta Y. (Blunt) Jackson is the seventh child born to Lillie Bell (Curry) Blunt and the late Clarence Blunt. Mr. Blunt was born in Earlsboro Township, Pottawatomie County, 1905. Loretta is also the great great-granddaughter of Charlie and Judy (Wallace) Jones. Charlie Jones was born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. As a descendant, she has been recognized and granted membership to the First Families of the Twin Territories, by the Oklahoma Genealogical Society.

Mrs. Jackson is a native of Chickasha, and completed grade and high school at Lincoln School, Chickasha. School activities included Girl Scouts, Girls V-Teen Club, Girls Glee Club, Girls Basketball Team, Drum Majorette High School Band, narrator for school fashion shows, radio skits and a number of other programs. Loretta represented Lincoln School in a State Class A, proficiency in Scholarship Interscholastic Oration contest winning second place in the state at Langston University, 1952. Jackson received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration/Sociology with a minor in Economics from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. She pursued post graduate studies in Public administration from the University of Oklahoma.

Loretta has worked in the area of Real Estate, mortgage banking and banking since 1967. She has served as a Manager and Assistant Manager of the second mortgage and consumer loan department, which included servicing personal and second mortgage loans. While working in the origination department, she was a loan officer, mortgage loan processor, and loan processing supervisor. She also worked as a chief-teller, savings account clerk and assistant loan supervisor for American Express International Banking, Heilbronn, Germany, 1969 through 1971. She earned a Real Estate Diploma from Blackwood Business College, Oklahoma City, Sales Associate license in 1978, and a Broker's license in 1988. She established the Jackson Real Estate shortly thereafter.

In 1991 Loretta was certified as a Real Estate Instructor for the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission and worked for 14 years as a real estate instructor. She taught the pre-license course, post-license, broker courses and continuing education courses at Canadian Valley Vocational and Technical School in Chickasha. The Broker and Basic Real Estate courses were offered in open form classroom and on the interactive Television Network.

Mrs. Jackson has dedicated more than 45 years of leadership and service to her community, state and nation. Since 1953, she has been involved in efforts to bring about understanding to improve the quality of life and promote positive societal change. She has held memberships in the Association South Central Oklahoma Governments' Council on Aging; Older Women's Initiative; Board Member NTU Art Association.

For the past 25 years plus, Mrs. Jackson has been documenting the history of African Americans in Chickasha and Grady County. She has written two African-American pictorial history books, of Chickasha and Grady County and is executive producer of three television documentaries. The African-American museum and One room school restoration and The Chickasha's and Grady County African-American Heritage and Culture pictorial history book have been accepted as Official Oklahoma 2007 Centennial Projects. She submitted the initial application for New Hope Baptist Church of Chickasha to be placed on the national Register of Historical Places; the church was accepted and placed on the National Register June 6, 2003. Loretta also submitted The One room Verden Separate School and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places December 16, 2005.

Loretta Y. Jackson is a two time Hall of Fame recipient; The Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women's Hall of Fame (1996) and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Alumni Association Hall of Fame (2000). She has been listed five times in Who's Who; to include Who's Who of American Women and the World's Who's Who of Women. She is one of the first women to serve in leadership positions on many local and state boards. She is the first African American female to serve as Chairman of the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) Board of Regents.

As chairman of the board she was host for the groundbreaking for the most ambitious renovation project in USAO's 90 year-year history, the $ 5.2 million demolition and reconstruction of the historic Nellie Sparks Hall. The dormitory was originally constructed in 1914. Her induction to the USAO Alumni Hall of Fame brings her this distinctive honor; she's the first person to earn both the Young Alumni Award (1993) and the Hall of Fame medallion (2000). She is the first woman in state history to serve on the Oklahoma State Banking Board. She served on President Jimmy Carter's Conference on Black Community Concerns 1979.

As an early advocate of civil rights, she was the first black elected as a Democratic Party official in Grady County and the only individual elected to sere as the county chairperson, co-chairperson and secretary/treasurer of the Grady County Democratic Central Committee. She was the first black to work at the election polls as counter, judge, inspector, in her ward, and a tabulator for the Grady County Election Board. She has organized and participated in mass voter registration drives locally and statewide. In 1991 the first black elected as a member of the Board of Directors for the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce.

In 1991, she was one of 20 women nationally to receive the National Women's Political Caucus Women of Color Achievement Award in Washington, D. C. In 1992, she received the Kate Barnard Social Activist Award and was selected as one of the Martin Luther King Jr's "Keepers of the Dream" Award in 2001 Ebony Tribune. She was recognized as one of the "50 Making a Difference" in the Oklahoma Business Community by the Journal Record, Sept. 1998.

Loretta received the State of Oklahoma Minority Task Force on Aging's highest honor, the Betsy D. Smith Award for lifetime achievement in minority elder advocacy in 2002. The following year, she received the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Outstanding Lifetime Volunteer Service Award and the Donna High Volunteer Award. She is a graduate of Leadership Chickasha and Leadership Oklahoma. She is one of the most decorated African American Women to serve in Oklahoma politics. Jackson was a member of the electoral college of 1980 and 1988. She is truly an advocate for women and minorities in education, housing, politics and public service.

Jackson was the first African American to serve as president of the Oklahoma Association of University Women (AAUW), and the first elected to the AAUW National Foundation Board of Directors. She also served on the National Diversity Advisory Group. Jackson was the first black to be elected president of the Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women and the first to be elected District President of what was the Fourth Congressional District in Oklahoma. In 1991 she was first black elected as a member of the Board of Directors for the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce. In 1991 was elected President, restored and received a Charter for a Local NAACP Branch. Another first, she was charter member and president of the Chickasha Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.
At age seven, Loretta became a member of the Church of The Living God Pillar and Ground of the Truth, served and held offices until 1969, when she traveled with my husband to Europe. Upon her return to the United States, she has continued to serve in the Baptist Church and attended the New Post Chapel, Ft Sill, Oklahoma.
She was married to the late Harold W. Jackson, Army Retired Sergeant First Class. The couple had two children, Cynthia W. Jackson Anderson and Limon Jackson.

Jackson states "I was significantly influenced by my mother, Lillie Bell Blunt, who would never allow us to say, 'I can't. Every worthy endeavor deserves a diligent try." Her Personal philosophy is best captured in these statements, often overheard by her friends and colleagues: "I work to find the best in every individual I meet. From so many I have gained so much."