Sarah Stephenson, right, accepts the Alabama 4-H Hall of Fame Award on behalf of her grandmother, Mildred Stephenson, from Lamar Nichols, assistant director of the 4-H Youth and Development Center. | Special to the Enquirer

Melson joined 4-H as a fourth grader and remained active in the program through high school. Her special interests were in poultry science and dairy foods exhibits.

She placed first in the state in poultry science competitions and won first place at the district level in dairy foods exhibits for three years in a row and was runner-up in the state in two of those three years.

As a 4-H leader, she was the first in the state to begin a Science Engineering and Technology Club, with the Lego Mindstorm robots. After five years, Morgan County Schools recognized the value of the project and implemented a robotics program for the school system. Subsequently, S.E.T. clubs were started in all of the county’s middle schools.

Melson is also a recipient of the Achievement in Education Award, which is presented by the Optimist Club in Decatur.

In nominating Melson, Fisher stated, “It has been a joy for me to work and get to know Karen Melson. She is one of the genuine people on this earth. To her I owe a debt of gratitude.”

Stephenson, who celebrated her 100th birthday on Dec. 12, 2012, traces her lifelong association with 4-H work to the 1920s and recalls that her club projects included canning, cooking and sewing.

She credits 4-H with making it possible for her to venture outside of Morgan County for the first time in her life.

“I was one of two 4-H’ers chosen to go to Auburn (then the Alabama Polytechnic Institute) to attend a 4-H meeting,” she recalled. “It was 1926, I was 14 and we made the trip by train.”

“We had so much fun going to classes, playing games and having devotions,” she added. “We had lessons of how to become better homemakers and when we left we were much wiser.”

The skills she learned were put to good use when she married in 1931. Those were depression times and homemakers had to can, cook and sew to help their families get by.

As a mother, she encouraged her two children to be involved in 4-H and volunteered to serve as a leader. She also was an active member of Hopewell Homemakers for 80 years and served as librarian at West Hartselle Baptist Church for 35 years.