If you don’t live in Memphis, you may not know the legion story of Martha Ellen Maxwell. Or maybe you do. Her impact on this city has been huge, but her influence has not been merely local.

“I had it all,” she says, referring to the fact that she was a stay-at-home mom in the years when her children needed her guiding hand. She was also a volunteer for many causes who built the network of contacts that allowed her to launch her career in 1978. And what a career it has been! Martha Ellen was in on the ground floor of the organizations and events that are frequently referred to as the city’s crown jewels. And through them her impact was national and international.

Her first job was as assistant to the dean of women at Southwestern (Rhodes), and she always had a notion that she would return to the college in some capacity. So far, at least, that has not come to pass. Instead, after several years as a consultant to and board member of various non-profits, she was recruited in 1978 to become the first executive director of Memphis in May, a festival that has brought the city international acclaim.

Five years later she staged the Arts in the Park premiere, then took on the challenge of raising the funds to expand the Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Next came stints with the Memphis/Shelby County Film, Tape and Music Commission and the Memphis Arts Festival. In 1993, she returned to her first love, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and served as executive director of the Memphis Orchestral Society for 10 years.

In her early days as a volunteer for the symphony, Martha Ellen pioneered a program that sent docents into the city schools to talk about youth concerts. The program won a national award and attracted the attention of the National Symphony Orchestra League which Martha Ellen served as a board member and as chair of its national conference in 1974. During her volunteer years she also served on an advisory panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, founded the Association of Tennessee Symphony Orchestras and was a panelist for the Tennessee Arts Commission. Later she served on the board of Tennesseans for the Arts and chaired the organization for three years.

Not surprisingly, her magic touch has been recognized with many awards and honors, beginning at her alma mater where she was tapped by Phi Beta Kappa and Mortar Board, won the Belk Bible Medal and Panhellenic Award and was named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Colleges and Universities. As a “grown-up” she was listed in Who’s Who Among American Women and received the Outstanding Citizen Award and the President’s Host Award from the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Francisco de Miranda Medal from the Government of Venezuela, the Performing Arts Series Tribute from Shelby State Community College and the Chi Omega Community Service Award. She was listed among the “Women You Need to Know” by Memphis magazine and “Fifty Women Who Make a Difference” by Memphis Woman magazine.

“It never occurred to me that I was doing anything special,” she says. “I just did what I wanted to do and was enthusiastic about doing.”

For one who broke many gender barriers, it’s surprising that she can say sincerely, “I never felt intimidated or discriminated against.” This from the “token” white woman on the Memphis in May board, the first female president of the Memphis Orchestral Society and the third female member of the Downtown Rotary Club. There were probably more “firsts” but she didn’t keep count of such things.

Pushed to name her proudest achievements she hardly pauses. “My family,” comes first. Second was holding together the Memphis Symphony Orchestra during the six years it was without a concert hall and installing it triumphantly in the new Cannon Center.

As for the rest, “There were thrills and challenges involved in everything I did,” she says. “I have had a wonderful ride.”