A pair of deserving seniors at Columbia High School were presented $1,000 college scholarships from the Columbia Historical Museum at the West Columbia high school’s senior awards program Thursday night. Taryn Fojtik received the Emma Womack Memorial Scholarship from Emma’s granddaughter Laura-Sue Womack Karl while Jamarcus Higgins was given the Bill Womack Memorial Scholarship from Bill’s son Randy Womack.
The Columbia Historical Museum Board of Directors voted to create the new scholarships at the suggestion of board member Chris Gilbert at a 2022 board meeting. It was Gilbert’s recommendation that the West Columbia museum’s first college scholarship be named for Emma Womack, one of the founders and driving forces behind the original creation of the Columbia Historical Museum around 1990. Then earlier this month Emma’s son, Bill Womack, passed away suddenly at the age of 75, leaving museum board members stunned by the loss of someone so vital to the management of the museum and Rosenwald School for many years.
Photo by Jeremy Hill/The Facts
Taryn Fojtik, 2022 Brazoria County Fair Queen, received the first Columbia Historical Museum Emma Womack Scholarship at Thursday night’s Columbia High School Senior Awards program in the auditorium at the local high school. Taryn will attend Texas Tech University in the fall where the $1,000 Columbia Historical Museum scholarship will come in handy.
The museum board approved awarding the second college scholarship at a special meeting held earlier this week. CHM President Naomi Smith informed the museum board that, thanks to private donations from individuals who wanted to remain anonymous, another $1,000 scholarship was created to honor the memory of Bill Womack who had played such a large role in having the dilapidated old building in East Columbia that had been used for many years as a hay barn moved down the highway to the center of West Columbia’s business district for display behind the Columbia Historical Museum. It turned out that the old hay barn was originally a Rosenwald School that had been constructed around 1920 for use as a schoolhouse for Black children. Bill Womack, along with the late Morris and Lois Richardson and others, supervised the renovations to the Rosenwald School while serving on the Columbia Historical Museum Board of Directors.
Bill Womack was still an active board member involved with the day-to-day operations of both the West Columbia museum and the Rosenwald School at the time of his tragic death on May 2, 2023. One of his last acts as a museum board member was overseeing the installation of a new sign in front of the Rosenwald School.
Photo by Jake Dowling/The Facts
Columbia Roughnecks multi-sport athlete Jamarcus Higgins (number zero) received the first Bill Womack Scholarship from the Columbia Historical Museum at Thursday night’s Senior Awards program at the Columbia High School auditorium. Randy Womack, the son of Bill and Crystal Womack and a 2003 graduate of Columbia High, presented Jamarcus with a $1,000 museum scholarship at the May 18th program.
It was announced at Thursday night’s CHS Senior Awards program that over $1.3 million in college scholarships had been distributed among many deserving students who will be receiving their high school diplomas at the end of this month.
Roughnecks football and basketball standout Jamarcus Higgins, who plans on attending Prairie View A&M University in the fall, received the Bill Womack Scholarship while Columbia High School’s featured twirler Taryn Fojtik has already been accepted at Texas Tech University where she will continue twirling for the Red Raiders marching band.
Roughnecks senior free safety and wide receiver Jamarcus Higgins of Brazoria was the first recipient of the Columbia Historical Museum Bill Womack Memorial Scholarship. Bill’s son Randy Womack presented Jamarcus with a $1,000 college scholarship at Thursday night’s Senior Awards program at Columbia High School.
Columbia High School senior featured twirler Taryn Fojtik of Damon was presented the first Columbia Historical Museum Emma Womack Scholarship at Thursday night’s CHS Senior Awards program. Laura-Sue Womack Karl, the granddaughter of the late Emma Womack and daughter of Bill Womack, took the stage at the Columbia High School auditorium to hand Taryn her $1,000 scholarship to Texas Tech University where she will continue displaying her baton twirling skills in front of much, much larger audiences than Taryn did at Griggs Field in West Columbia.