(playful music) - Hi, I'm Edie Hand, creator of "Women of True Grit."

I wanna share with you stories of two women that have overcome obstacles and found their way to extraordinary successes in their lives.

A pearl.

It begins like a speck of grit that over time is irritated and becomes something of great beauty.

Like a pearl, these two women know how to do hard things and turn them into beautiful situations.

(soft background music) I understand the pearl story.

I have overcome unimaginable losses.

Take a look at pieces of my story.

- I grew up in the gritty South, in these rural backwoods there was a family whose faith and hard work destined them for great triumph and deep tragedy.

Matriarch was my mother, Edith Blackburn, who has inspired generations.

Her three brothers and sisters shared a deep love.

Edith was the oldest, she leaned on faith to help her as she sacrificed to take care of the boys.

Through determination and loss she became the leader of the family.

♪ There'd be no nightmares, only dreams ♪ ♪ There'd be no evil people with angel wings ♪ ♪ There'd be no war zones, just simple things ♪ ♪ There'd be more love than diamond rings ♪ ♪ I see it when I close my eyes ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and peace of mind ♪ - Edith Hand, has made such difference with her foundation and for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and internationally actually, because the long arm of St. Jude and everything that she does with her foundation, reaches all the children and that's what she's about.

(triumphant music) - My first story is about a woman of true grit, Dr. Bobbie Knight, president of Miles College.

She knows how to push through her fears with courage.

Take a look.

- My favorite quote is a quote by Barbara Bush, former first lady Barbara Bush.

And its, "You don't just luck into things as much as you think you do, you build step-by-step."

And I think that's what I've done.

I've done that in my career.

I've just built on things that I've done in the past.

(upbeat music) The most special mentor in my life was actually my mother.

She was a fantastic woman, she could do everything.

She could sew, cook, she worked full time jobs, she raised 5 children and she was absolutely incredible.

There was nothing she couldn't do and she always told my sister and I that we would never have to depend on a man.

That she wanted us to go to college and get an education so that we could take care of ourselves.

She had high expectations of me.

(triumphant music) I knew what I wanted to do early on.

I knew I wanted to be in journalism in some way.

Journalism or broadcasting.

The thought was that I'd have my own radio show.

So I majored in communications at the University of Alabama, and Tuscaloosa.

Then when I got out of college, the real world hit me and I had this radio show I was gonna do, it was gonna be called, "The Knight-Owl."

(soft jazz music) And it would have been jazz late at night.

- [Edie] Bobbie is a lifelong lover of the arts.

Early on she decided to try and build a career combining her love of music and her interest in broadcasting.

- And so I tried to sell my show.

Well, little did I know that, you have to bring your advertisers with you during those days, so, I couldn't sell my show.

I was struggling to sell it.

And so my mom said, "Why don't you find a new job and do something and you can still work on trying to sell your show."

And so I looked in the paper and there was a position at Alabama Power Company, and I said, "Oh mom I'm gonna apply for this," and I did.

And I got the job.

And so I started working from 2 in the afternoon until 10 at night and still trying to market my show.

But what ended up being just looking in the paper for a job, ended up being a very lengthy career for almost 38 years.

- [Edie] During her time at Alabama Power, Bobbie served in a variety of leadership and management roles, including Vice President of the Birmingham division.

Alabama Power's largest division.

Vice President of Public Relations and General Manager of the supply chain.

- When I was coming up in the company, I had some advice and that advice was, "You don't always have to go straight up, you need to go out and make some lateral moves and that you needed to be deep and wide."

And that was one of the things I decided I wanted to do for myself, is I wanted to learn as much about the company that I could.

And then use that to catapult my way up the ladder.

I was a single woman for a long time, I didn't get married the first time, until I was 34 years old.

A lot of the energy that I had during those days went toward my career and, you know, when a lot of people wanted to take off for the holidays or what have you, well I would work because they had children and I didn't.

And so it was easy for me to raise my hand and say, "Hey, I'll take that shift, and you don't have to worry about it."

One of the things that I tell young women now is, you've got to really factor in your career plus your family.

I didn't have that to do early on so it didn't affect me, but I've seen it affect other women and I just believe that you and your significant other have to make decisions about what's the right thing for you.

(soft jazz music) I met my husband at a golf tournament.

- Well, the first time I met her, I wasn't supposed to meet her.

- He likes to tell the story and he tells it so much better than I do.

- I had a celebrity golf tournament over in Atlanta.

Joe Cribbs came over and played and saw how well run our tournament was and he asked me to help him develop his.

He said if I would get him some players and help him, he would get me a suite at Ross Bridge.

- I had buried my mother and I was in sort of a...

I was in a funk and so my coworker said, "Bobbie why don't you come out and play in this golf tournament?"

It was a golf tournament, Joe Cribbs who played in the NFL.

It was his golf tournament to raise money for some charities.

- And I got over and I saw this beautiful city and we played golf.

- I didn't wanna play golf.

And so they said well why don't you just come out and go to the spa?

I said "Okay."

- And there was a reception following the tournament.

- And they called me after they finished playing golf and said, "Come down and have lunch," and so I went down.

- And it was about 250 people at the reception.

- And I looked around the room and there was 1 empty chair.

- And there's one chair.

- 1 empty chair - 1 chair left in the whole place.

- And I walked up to the table and I asked this big burly man, (fairy twinkles sound effect) "Is there anyone sitting here?"

And he said... - "Ma'am of course."

I said, "Of course you can sit here."

I said, "But first, I noticed the sadness in your eye, would you mind sharing with me what put it there?"

(soft music) - And a tear came down my cheek.

- And a single tear rolled down her face.

- And I said, "You know, I recently buried my mother."

- And I said, "I know that look because I've buried mine."

- I was in shock that this stranger could see inside my soul.

- We started talking and when we were done, a room full of 250 people was down to 2.

- And we started talking and we haven't stopped.

- 6 months later, we were engaged.

- We were engaged and 6 months later we were married.

And we are 15 years, almost 15 years married.

(parade music) Coming out of retirement was a struggle for me.

One of the things that I didn't know was gonna happen was that I was gonna fall in love with those students.

Nobody could have told me that.

I just did not know it was gonna happen and it happened so quickly.

And when I realized that everything I do, every decision I make has to be with the student in the center.

- I came to Miles College for track and field and I ended up getting an academic scholarship.

I did want the big college experience, but after coming here, I loved the small college experience.

You definitely get to meet more people and have more experiences, more opportunities, so this is definitely the right choice.

- So everything I do is about them.

- At first when I came here, I didn't know much about Dr. Bobbie Knight, but knowing her longer, I noticed that whenever she is around, its such a presence of strength and leadership.

And I noticed that she's always so happy, you know, and everyone loves her.

And its just everyone wants to be her, and she's such an inspiration and so motivating and I just love that she's here.

She's done so much for this campus.

She really has.

- At the end of the day, its about those students and about impacting their lives.

Edie, we have students that are homeless and so Miles College becomes their home.

They've aged out of foster care and when we had to shutdown in March of 2020, for the pandemic, some of them were in tears and they did not have a place to go.

So again, we had to get ourselves in motion to help our students transition not just to online learning, but also to, you know, living somewhere.

It has been quite extraordinary to see how family and friends and former coworkers have stepped up to the plate to help me and to help the students at Miles College.

- Bobbie Knight was able to help students in being able to afford college.

I have several friends who came up to me and they informed me about how they were able to receive different types of scholarships.

I know there's a lot of grants out there that students were able to receive and because of that they will not have that much to pay after college.

- I'm so excited I am here because we're gon' have a women's event.

- Yes.

- Oh yes.

- We gon' create one.

Can we have a women's event?

- We are having one.

We actually have one tomorrow.

- What?

Okay.

- Where I'll be talking with our freshman students, our new female students about women's, female empowerment.

- Wow.

I love it.

- Now, will you be there?

- Yes!

(all laugh) (soft music) - So a long time ago somebody told me, Bobbie you don't press the flesh enough.

And they said you need to be out there.

You've gotta learn how to work a room better than anybody.

And the only way you learn to do that is to put yourself out there.

And so, when they ask for volunteers to serve on United Way or all of these other committees, I was very happy to do that and that lead eventually, to me being considered for positions that were externally focused because for years, I was focused internally.

And, you know what, I'm excited when I go downtown Birmingham and I see those initiatives that I touched in some way by helping raise money.

Railroad Park, The Lyric Theater, The Alabama Theater, The Birmingham Civil Right Institute.

So many initiatives that I'm extremely proud of, and I'm still working in the community now, but not as much as I did.

My focus now is on Miles College and my students.

(soft music) I love to tell women, young women in particular, follow your passion, figure out what that is, and follow that.

I didn't realize what my passion was until I went to Miles College.

I had a great career, it was a fabulous career.

It afforded me a great life, but I believe that my passion, really is to help young people.

I'm Bobbie Knight and I am a Woman of True Grit.

(soft music) - Some of the Women of True Grit knew what they wanted to be when they were young girls.

Dr. Kimberly Robinson fits that category.

She is the first woman to be the CEO of the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Take a look.

- I had a great childhood with a loving mother and father and to begin with I was quite shy and I liked to do a lot of things quietly and on my own, I guess you could say.

It came to my attention though that that may not be the way the world likes people to be.

In first grade, my teacher had a conference with my mother thinking that something was wrong because I hadn't spoken a word.

You know, that registered with me that this is a problem.

People think that somethings wrong, even though I was very happy being very quiet and in my own world, if you would.

And so I pushed myself to go out there and do things and talk to people, start conversations and overcome my shyness that I had, that I struggled with early on.

(triumphant music) Well, my mother was a stay at home mother.

My father worked for an airspace company working on planes for military aircraft.

I believe I got my engineering skills from him.

He took care of everything, he took everything apart, and put it back together many, many times.

And so I was right at his elbow.

Love my father and stayed by him most of the time when he was busy with something.

So, I was always right there with him handing him the wrenches and so forth.

When I was a senior in high school, I was told to show up, that I was going to get an award.

I didn't know what or how or when or what have you.

And so when I showed up, they presented me an award from the Society of Women Engineers, which I'd never heard of.

I did not know that a woman could be an engineer.

Wasn't sure what an engineer was and a female astronaut showed up in her blue flight suit and she was the one that presented me with the award.

And I was in awe of her.

And so I asked her how she got to be an astronaut and I just thought how wonderful it would be to be able to climb onto a rocket or a spacecraft and to blast off.

(spaceship roaring) To me that was the ultimate in travel, in finding new places, and exploring.

And so she told me that she got to be an astronaut because she was an engineer and she got an engineering degree and then she went to work for NASA and applied for the astronaut corp. And so from that moment on, that was what I was gonna do.

I was going to follow in her footsteps and I was gonna be an engineer, whatever that was, and I was going to work for NASA and I was going to become an astronaut.

And so that's how I got originally started in my career of becoming a mechanical engineer and then going to work for NASA.

Which then eventually led me here, to the U.S. Space Rocket Center.

(soft music) And so when this job opportunity became available at the Space and Rocket Center, it seemed like a natural for me.

I had already had in mind that when I retired from NASA, that I would like to do something for a non-profit.

You know, what can I do to give back, because I feel like I've been given so much that I never would of thought of, dreamed of, when I was younger.

And so how can I give back?

And so I wasn't quite retirement age when this opportunity came up but it seemed to make so much sense to me.

And it appealed to me on so many different levels because it was an opportunity to do what I love and to try and give back and to try and inspire others and I'm so happy to say its wonderful nowadays to see young women that were even younger than I am that already possess this knowledge and have this self confidence.

And so just to keep building upon that, but also to instill it in those that don't see themselves in that light, to me, is extremely rewarding.

- [Edie] At the Space and Rocket Center, Kimberly finds herself working with people who are legendary figures in the U.S. Space Program.

- I was a soldier, I flew helicopters in Vietnam.

I came back home and became an experimental test pilot.

And, you know, experimental test pilot's motto is higher and faster.

Well, I did that.

Flew the jets, but then rockets could go higher and faster than jets.

So, I saw this blue notice on the bulletin board one day that said NASA was looking for space shuttlers.

I applied, I was the first Army guy ever selected as an astronaut.

And then, as I got to the end of my military career, I was saying where should I go now?

Well, here's my two loves, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center is here and the United States Army Redstone Arsenal.

This is the logical place for me.

And they talked about this new CEO that was coming in here, Kimberly Rob... Robinson.

And I found out that she was quite an interesting lady herself.

- You all know, I'm the CEO now here at the US.. Space and Rocket Center, which is a wonderful fun job, as you can imagine.

But before I got here, I worked for 31 years at NASA.

And so I'm an engineer by training.

I joined NASA because I wanted to be an astronaut.

That's exactly why I got to NASA and unfortunately I wasn't able to make it.

But I did try, 3 times.

Still, hate that I didn't get to do it.

But, I got to do so many wonderful things.

The plan for my life was in a different direction.

One of the many jobs that I did, I built rockets, I developed payloads, I did things for station and special and other things.

But one of the main things I do that applies here, is that I was an astronaut trainer.

- [Student] Wow!

- So I trained astronauts on about 6 or 7 shuttle missions and we would train in modules that had simulators that would be like they would have on orbit.

And I would train them the experiments they had to do and how they had to perform them and what they were trying to get out of the experiment.

And so we would practice for all of that and I made many good friends with the astronauts during that time.

It was wonderful and it was a lot of fun and they paid me to do it.

And they basically paid me to be at space camp, is what they did.

(all laughing) (soft music) I've worked on giving speeches and going out across the country and talking about NASA and space exploration and what we do and talking to a lot to groups of women about helping them to understand their potential.

And that women make really good engineers, they are very good problem solvers, they usually have very good, what we call soft skills, interpersonal skills, because its also extremely important to be a good communicator because at NASA, we work on extremely large projects and you have to be able to communicate with a wide slot of people doing different jobs in order to have success.

I'm usually so impressed with people coming behind me because they seem to have more confidence and I take that as a good sign, that things are improving.

Sometimes change is slower than we would like, but that it does happen and we have to keep pushing for it.

(soft music) One of the ways that I volunteer is that I help a very near and dear friend of mine, who was also an engineer that I met at Vanderbilt and she has an overwhelming passion for saving animals.

(upbeat music) And she has a wonderful army of volunteers that help foster those animals until they can be adopted out and have good homes.

I definitely share her passion and her passion if you know her, is contagious.

She asked me to come onboard of an organization that she founded herself.

Its doing very well, its called "A New Leash on Life," and I'm helping her, I'm Vice President of that, currently.

The idea is we raise money to help these animals.

We have expanded now to 3 different locations where we have thrift shops that are very popular, that raise money for these animals and, like I said, its wonderful to see them.

They are so helpless and they depend on us and they're such good friends to all of us.

They're part of our family.

(upbeat music) To me, true grit means resilience.

And it means that you're going to get back up when you've been knocked down.

So, its about keeping on keeping on.

Its about keeping the faith and staying the course and not being distracted by the negativity.

Not being distracted by situations that are outside of your control.

And it also means to me, I think a big part of being resilient and having true grit is being grateful.

And understanding what that means.

- [All] We love Women of True Grit!

(all cheering and laughing and clapping) - I'm Dr. Kimberly Robinson and I am a Woman of True Grit.

(soft slow music) - Thank you for joining Women of True Grit, a True Grit sisterhood experience.

Check us out on womenoftruegrit.org for our upcoming events.

To everyone out there, just know that we are all stronger together and we can build a better tomorrow.

(soft music) ♪ There'd be no sadness to cry ♪ ♪ There'd be no selfish to lie ♪ ♪ There'd be no reason for crying ♪ ♪ There's be no empty, no why ♪ ♪ I see it when I close my eyes ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and peace of mind ♪ ♪ Let it go ♪ ♪ We have to restore this planet's soul ♪ ♪ Teach it something more than what we know ♪ ♪ Give it water, give it sun, room to grow ♪ ♪ We can build a better tomorrow ♪ (upbeat music) (people harmonizing) ♪ I can see a better tomorrow, yeah ♪ (people harmonizing) ♪ I can see a better tomorrow ♪ (playful music)