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Leah Marie Rawls Atkins was born in Birmingham, Alabama and spent her early childhood on the North Highlands where her great-grandfather's antebellum farm was once located. Dr. Atkins has deep roots in north Alabama history: three of her great-great-grandfathers arrived in Jones Valley before Alabama was admitted to the Union.

 Dr. Atkins holds the Ph.D. degree in history from Auburn University and taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Samford University and Auburn University. Leah Rawls Atkins is the historian and director emerita of the Auburn University Center for Arts and Humanities. She is the author, co-author and editor of numerous works on Alabama history.   

Dr. Atkins was Alabama's first world's water skiing champion. She dominated the sport from 1951 to 1958. Her first year, at age 16, she won first place overall at the Ontario Championships in South Hampton, Canada. She went on to establish records and win championships, both nationally and internationally. Dr. Atkins became the first woman to be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. (Book Jacket, Auburn University Center for the Arts & Humanities Website, The Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Website)

Bibliography:
An Alabama Legacy 
Alabama: the History of a Deep South State 
A Belle of the Fifties
Blossoms Amid the Deep Verdure
Caroline Marshall Draughon
The Club: a History, 1951-1986
John M. Harbert III
The Jones Family of Huntsville Road 
A Manual for Writing Alabama State and Local History
Nineteenth Century Club
The Romantic Ideal: Alabama's Plantation Eden
The Valley and the Hills

Website:
Alabama Sports Hall of Fame

Last Updated:
26 July 2007

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