Marshall's Top Ladies of Distinction on Saturday honored Jean Perry Birmingham as the chapter's "Top Lady of the Year."

It might be more appropriate to call her a Top Lady, period.

Mrs. Birmingham, 76, was reared on a 25-acre Coldspring-area farm. Father Willie Perry was forced to quit elementary school so he could work. Mother Edna Perry graduated from high school and even attended "normal school," an institution that trained teachers.

But the family was so poor Ms. Perry had to make her four daughters' dresses because the family could not afford to buy them, and the family had to raise almost everything they ate.

Yet Ms. Birmingham and her five brothers and sisters all earned master's degrees.