Four years after her death, Durangoan Elizabeth Morley Cowles Ballantine has been named to the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.

"Not only was Morley Cowles Ballantine a noted journalist," said Colorado Women's Hall of Fame Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Heid, "she was selected for the Hall because she was an outstanding community and civic leader who made a tremendous contribution to the entire Southwestern Colorado region."

The honor was announced Monday.

"I'm thrilled," said Rochelle Mann, who, along with Debra Parmenter, nominated Ballantine.

The women heard about the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame after Susan Lander invited representatives to introduce at the Rochester Hotel in spring.

Ballantine was the first female chairwoman of the Colorado Press Association in 1968, was named the Durango Area Chamber of Commerce's Citizen of the Year in 1990 and Colorado Philanthropist of the Year in 2000 and was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame in 2002.

She was a founder of the Women's Resource Center in Durango and the Women's Foundation of Colorado.

While Ballantine served on countless local and state boards, education was a priority, and she was a trustee of Fort Lewis College, the University of Denver and Simpson College in Iowa.

Ballantine's family is pleased her contributions and accomplishments are still being recognized, and at a statewide level at that.

"She would be pleased that women are giving her this honor," her daughter Helen Ballantine Healy said. "She supported women's rights through the years in many ways, voting, equal pay, domestic-violence prevention, women's reproductive rights through Planned Parenthood."

Morley Ballantine is one of a handful of women from the Western Slope to be inducted into the hall out of 132 women. The hall was founded in 1985.

Ballantine is a historical (or posthumous) inductee in the Class of 2014, along with Julia Archibald Holmes, a women's rights advocate; Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, an architect; and Helen Ring Robinson, the first female Colorado senator. Six living inductees also will be honored.

Past inductees include former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, athlete Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias and singer Judy Collins.

Ballantine will be inducted at a ceremony in Denver on March 20, 2014.