During National Women’s History Month, we celebrate Lucy Bramlette Patterson, whose life of service a century ago to Winston-Salem and North Carolina remains an inspiration for those nonprofit organizations working today to continue making our community a better place for all citizens to live. A graduate of Salem Academy in 1882, she engaged our community and state through her work in education, literature, patriotic commemoration, historical preservation, dramatic arts, and many other areas of civic service during an era when women were not expected to be so publicly active.