Kate Sessions - Honors

Honors

"Botanically speaking, I would call Miss Sessions a perennial, evergreen and everblooming."

—George Marston, at a 1935 garden dedication in her honor

Her work with plant introduction, as well as her extensive writing on the subject, won her international recognition. At the California Pacific International Exposition on September 22, 1935, the day was dedicated to Sessions, where she was named the "Mother of Balboa Park". In 1939 she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Frank N. Meyer medal of the American Genetic Association.

In the San Diego area, the Kate Sessions Elementary school in Pacific Beach bears her name, as does Kate O. Sessions Memorial Park on Mount Soledad, located less than a mile from the school and constructed only a few years later.

A statue of Sessions, dedicated in 1998, is situated in a prominent location in Balboa Park, in the southwest corner of Sefton Plaza, near the Sixth Avenue entrance to the park.

In 2006 Women's History Museum of California induced Kate Sessions into the Women's Hall of Fame for the title of Trailblazer hosted by Women's Museum of California, Commission on the Status of Women, University of California, San Diego Women's Center, and San Diego State University Women's Studies.