Why Someone Should Write a Novel About First Lady Grace Coolidge

Eleanor Roosevelt. Jackie Kennedy. Hilary Clinton. Those are the names most often heard when folks talk about first ladies. Those are the ladies we think of the most.

Grace Coolidge. Can't say that name has ever been at the forefront of my mind. I have a coworker to thank for inadvertently bringing this former first lady to my attention. It all started with her US Mint (coin) catalog. In it, I saw a coin with the finger spellings of USA on one side. The front of this coin, however, has a picture of Grace Coolidge. "What did this first lady have to do with the deaf?" I wondered.

The answer: she was a lip-reading instructor at the Clarke School for the Deaf. 

It was at this very school that she met Calvin Coolidge, her future husband. She was apparently watering the flowers one day when she looked up at the next-door boarding house and saw her future husband and president of the U.S. shaving in front of a mirror in his long underwear, a hat, and nothing else. Her laughter caught his attention...and love story takes off from there. Even as a first lady, her interest in the education and methods of communication for the deaf and hard of hearing continued.

Coolidge was at first a Vice President. His lovely wife was said to be an excellent hostess, the most popular lady in the capitol. She was voted one of America's twelve greatest living women in 1931 in Good Housekeeping and received a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Science as well as an honorary degree from Smith.

There's something secretive too, in her college years. She had to drop out and live with a widowed aunt due to some "health problem". And of course, every marriage has its strife. It seems the president perhaps put her under strict orders not to share her opinions with the American public, giving the impression she had no opinion, which I seriously doubt was the case. She may have had some influence behind closed doors, however. There was also a tiny hint of scandal or an incident blown out of proportion with a handsome single secret service agent. Her husband may have had a jealous streak, evident perhaps also in the fact he would not let her take a flight with the dashing Charles Lindbergh.

She was the mother of two children, was involved extensively in the Red Cross and loved animals and sports.

There's a lot that could be done with a novel about this remarkable lady. Come on, historical writers!

Read more about her here. I found this site to be the most enlightening and educational. They also share a remarkable video of Mrs. Coolidge meeting Helen Keller. Photos are from Wiki Commons.

Nell Donnelly Reed: More Than Just a Fashion-Starter

I learned about this woman on Mysteries at the Museum too. She invented the housedress, survived an abduction, started a very successful dress-making business, provided her employees with benefits (not common during her time), and had a long-standing love affair with a powerful senator. Why there isn't a movie about her or a historical novel *hint, hint, darling authors* is beyond me.

She married at 17, yet that didn't stop her from going to college and then selling her dress designs at a local store. What started as two women sewing 216 dresses in Nell's attic in 1916 became the Donnelly Garment Company, which by 1953 "was the largest manufacturer of women's clothing worldwide."

Her workers actually resisted becoming unionized, and that's rare. She had a scholarship fund for her workers, financially supported their evening classes, provided insurance and medical financial aid, pensions, and even an on-site cafeteria and recreation center. And being a size 16 herself, Nell was adamant that her dresses look good on bigger women as well as small.

The abduction (at gunpoint) of her and her chauffeur was all about ransom. It was her secret (hm. Perhaps not so secret, considering she'd had a baby with him and her husband at the time knowingly adopted the child...) lover, former mayor and senator James A. Reed, who came to her aid by involving the local Kansas City mafia. The big man, a John Lazia tracked her down, but at that point, the perps had gotten wind that Lazia was after them and except for two lone waters, they'd hightailed it from the scene of the crime.

A mere two years later, she divorced her first husband and married Reed, recently widowed. After her retirement in 1956, the company she had worked so hard to build could not survive without her savvy designs and went bankrupt in 1978.

Nell lived to be 102. What a fascinating woman! Way ahead of her time. A designer, a survivor, a lover, a kind-hearted employer, and a successful woman who did what she wanted. Someone, write a novel based on her!

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nell_Donnelly_Reed
http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/r/reed/ *Picture can be found on their site*

Dear Authors, Please Write a Historical Novel about Frances Glessner Lee

I have another episode of Mysteries at the Museum to thank for bringing this woman to my attention. Someone could have some seriously awesome fun with this...

Photo from Glessner House Museum
website.

Who she was: a Chicago heiress who was not allowed to pursue to her dreams due to her sex. It wasn't until she was in her fifties, in the 1930s that she was finally able to pursue her interests in forensics. Until then she was the creator of finely detailed miniatures. She could recreate the entire Chicago Symphony in a box.

Because she was a fan of mysteries and crime stories, a family friend, a chief medical examiner, began taking her to visit different crime scenes and often complained to her about the lack of education in America's police force. Detectives weren't properly maintaining crime scenes and crucial evidence was getting away or being compromised or missed.

So, how in the world did this lady's love of making miniatures come into forensics? Frances began making mini dioramas of different crime scenes, detailed immaculately with lights, moving windows, and covering all kinds of different scenarios. According to the show, she spent at least a year making these.

She then went on to fund with her own money week-long conferences in which her boxes were used to educate and test detectives from all over the U.S.

The boxes were called Nutshells Studies of Unexplained Death and are still used to this day at Harvard, where she founded its department of legal medicine. There are 18 of them. You can view them for yourself here. Can you figure out who dunnit?

In 1943 she was honored with a title of caption with the New Hampshire State Police. No other women had held a position such as this until then.

Think of the potential here. A woman fascinated with death--or least finding the answers, not the least intimidated by crime scenes and gruesome murder details. There's a failed marriage that produced three children (there really was) and lots of frustration with a society that looks down on her sex and denies her dreams. Perhaps, one could even contrive a romance with a medical examiner...or at least a frustrating attraction to a doubtful detective who comes to her seminar...

Regardless, if anyone ever decides to write a novel based on her, you can be certain I'll read it.

If you live in the Chicago area, you can take a tour of her family home. It's the oldest still standing. See the first link below.

Sources:
http://www.glessnerhouse.org/Glessners.htm (photo is from and completely belongs to this site)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Glessner_Lee
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/galleries/biographies/lee.html

Dear Historical Authors, Please Write a Novel Featuring Louise Boyd, Woman Explorer

With Downton Abbey and Mr. Selfridge and Call the Midwife all done for the year, I've been left to watch American TV. *gasp* But I've become quite hooked a show called Mysteries at the Museum, and in this show, they share different stories surrounding different objects in museums all over the United States.

It's some incredibly fascinating history, complete with re-enactments. The other night, the episode I watched just briefly mentioned Louise Boyd. It was a mere sentence, but it said she was an arctic explorer. I immediately had to hit the internet and find out more. Here is what I discovered about her:

-After growing up in CA with two brothers, she inherited her father's fortune at the age of 33 in 1920. (They were claimed by heart disease, her brothers.)

-(This makes me think of the Van Buren sisters) In 1919, just three years after the VBs did their cross-country trip, Louise drove a touring car across the U.S. Remember, there were no paved roads and whatnot.

-She traveled to Europe and Egypt that year as well and worked as a nurse.

.She was hunting polar bears with chartered boats by 1926.

-She was awarded the Chevalier Cross of the Order of Saint Olav (first American woman) by the Norwegian government after traveling 10k miles across the arctic ocean in search of a missing Norwegian Explorer. She did not find him, and apparently this trip was actually a pleasure trip at first, but while on the ocean, she found out about the missing explorer and said, “How could I go on a pleasure trip when those 22 lives were at stake?” (How awesome is that?)

-She discovered an underwater mountain ridge and had a piece of land named after her. She also penned three books. (One, the U.S. gov't actually held back from publication, not wanting the data (her research about the area) to end up in enemy hands.

The Fiord Region of East Greenland (1935)
Polish Countrysides (1937)
The Coast of Northeast Greenland (1948)

-Did work for the government, studying the effects of polar magnetic fields on radio communications before she finally retired to a scholarly life in California. During WWII, she did some secret assignments as well. Naturally, I can't find more details on that. LOL

-In 1955, she was the first woman for fly over the North Pole in a chartered aircraft.

I found no mention of a romance or marriage. It was very unusual for women to remain unattached back then. I feel there must be a story there! No woman goes an entire lifetime without some romance. I'm sure you historical romance writers could have some fun with this. Hint, hint.

Even without romance, there's a lifetime of wonders and stories here. And just how many novels are there about women explorers? We've got cowgirls, vikings, seamstresses, mill workers, whores, actresses, and queens, but what about arctic explorers, or just explorers?

I hope you all have found her as interesting as I do.

Resources: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/explorers/page/b/boyd.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Boyd
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Louise_Arner_Boyd.aspx

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: The Rosa Parks Story

I recently watched this movie. It's a very powerful one telling the Rosa Parks story, not just the bus, but so much more...and Angela Bassett does an incredible acting job--as usual.

The story begins with a very young Rosie attending a Quaker school. She makes a friend who is later a NAACP leader. The time is the 1920s and we see right away the racial tension, or at least hear about it in the movie. (The Quaker teacher's school was burned down.) The movie very subtlely informs of major racial problems that occur before the Rosa Parks bus story, but doesn't miss a beat.

We go on to learn about the funny romance between Rosa and Raymond Parks. I thought it was interesting how he was pretty passionate and vocal about African-American rights until Scottsdale. Scottsdale seemed to change him, and he didn't care to act anymore, just voice his displeasure. This made me really curious to go read more about the incident.

There are so many powerful scenes in this movie...Rosa trying to get registered to vote. Her determination was incredible. She went not once, but three times.

The children lined up in the "whites only" library... I didn't know whether to cry that they had to do that for something every one takes for granted nowadays--the right to read--or cheer because these kids were taking such a wonderful stand.

The real Rosa Parks

And then the movie takes us to the bus...and how she handled herself with the utmost dignity and poise. She was arrested, the buses were boycotted, the country was changed. And this woman lost her job and almost lost her marriage...but just think what the world would be like if she hadn't done this.

She wasn't the first to do it...but she was the first to convince others to stand behind her.

Favorite line, from an old lady boycotting the bus:

"I ain't getting on 'til Jim Crow gets off!"

Rosa Parks has been called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". She was arrested in December of 1955 for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Though she was not the first, she was the first the NAACP felt could stand a court trial and possibly win--and she did. She was a secretary of the Montgomery NAACP. She is the first woman and second non-U.S. government official to be buried at Capitol Rotunda.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past/Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story

I watched a biographical movie on TV last month and it introduced me to a woman I'd never heard of before but will never forget.


In 1954, this girl was the first person to ever swim across Lake Ontario, from the NY side to the Canadian side. 21 hours in the water, over 32 miles. She passed out three times. Fell asleep...and trudged on when American swimming starlet Florence Chadwick was forced to bail due to hypothermia.

In the movie, we meet a sixteen-year-old Marilyn. She has a horrid mother, a mother that tells her she's not good anything...so it's best to not try. Naturally, this drives Marilyn to be good at something. I think driving her along was def the desire the please that awful mother.

Marilyn approaches a coach known for making swimmers into champions. He refuses to take her on at first and she proceeds to stay in the pool and swim for two hours straight. She's persistent.

The real Marilyn.

Meanwhile, the CNE (some kind of Canadian entertainment people) hire the famous Florence to swim lake Ontario, as they're desperately trying to compete with television and draw in the crowds. This was funny, actually. A very nice touch, the two competing publicity people. You'd have to see it to understand it. It's even more hilarious when their plans go awry and they suddenly sing a different tune. At first, when Marilyn announces she's competing against the starlet, the CNE people are mad...but they sorta betrayed their own people by bringing in an American to cross their lake.


So Marilyn has a heck of a lot to proof--to her mother, her country, her coach, herself...and that stuck up Florence who waited like 4 days to do the swim...ugh. Long story.

The movie Marilyn

The last half of the movie is Marilyn actually swimming it...and I swear I didn't think she'd make it. I felt my own muscles ache as I watched her. I got mad at her coach as he yelled at her. I wanted to scream at her mother, "Are you happy now?? Oh, NOW that's your girl?" I felt the eels around her legs.

And...this is a true story! At the age of sixteen, Marilyn Bell was the first to swim across Lake Ontario. She proceeded to become the youngest to swim the English Channel and she retired at 19 to be a teacher.

This is a woman worth learning about. I recommend watching this incredible movie (released in 2001 and starring Caroline Dhavernas, Amy Sloan, and Ron White--not the comedian) or just taking a moment of your day to think about this incredible feat.

This...is a prime example of strong is sexy! It's a woman with HEART. Sometimes, that's what we need most of all.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Anke-Eve Goldmann

http://silodrome.com/anke-eve-goldmann/
Tons of photos can be found on Pinterest
as well. I have no idea about copyrights.

First of all, this woman actually inspired a movie character!!! How cool is that?

The movie is a 1968 film, The Girl on a Motorcycle. Anke-Eve was a woman biker who competed in endurance and circuiting racing. Heck, she even rode in winter, warranting a specially manufactured leather suit just for her.

Her accomplishments do not stop there. She was multi-lingual and taught German on an Air Force Base, but she apparently knew more languages than that. She wrote magazine articles for Cycle World.

She owned and rode the fastest BMW bike available in her time, going 100 mph.

She founded the Women's International Motorcycling Association.

Truly a woman of many accomplishments. Sadly, I found more photos than information, but I'm impressed with what I did find and I must admit, she was a looker! LOL

She def fits the strong is sexy theme.

Now, has anyone see the movie she inspired? I was looking at it on Amazon and cannot find the close captioning data. If anyone knows, do tell.

Madam Curie, The Movie, The Woman

I learned about this week's Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past from a movie I saw on TCM. It really resonated with me. Made me laugh, made me cry, and taught me something at the same time.

Radium was discovered by a woman.

It's a chemical that in the movie, comes from a rock. It has a glow. It's used in  gases, it treats cancer, it can be found in glowing paints.

A woman (Marie) made this possible, at serious cost to herself. The movie from 1943 show us a young woman (Greer Garson) attending school far away from her father and country of Poland, a lone women among many men, do experiments and working toward her degree. Professor Curie at first declares a woman has no place in the lab, but she soon wins him over with her witty intellect.

He convinces her to marry him. Together, they discover a "magic rock" that accidentally "took a photo." Or I guess it was an X-ray.

Greer Garson as Madam Curie

The school is not willing to give them much resources to find this radium this crazy woman and her enamored husband speak of. They work endlessly in a rundown building leaking water. They shovel, they cook, they sweat, they separate chemicals pain-stakenly for years.

Their passion just literally comes off the screen. Their love for each other, their love for their work, their drive to find it. When they do, tragedy strikes. Very sad. This is the point I cried. And Madam Curie had to carry on.

The real Curie

Superb acting and a terrific story about a very determined woman who faced down hardships and said, "You can't stop me!"

Madam Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel prize. From what I can tell, the move did take a few variations from the real-life story. Instead of going home to Poland and coming back to marry him after things didn't work out professionally for her there, the movie Curie agrees to marry Pierre a lot sooner. However, the movie portrayed the tragic death of Pierre to a T.

The real Madam Curie died from her exposure to radium. This was not in the movie. Rather I did more research online, having been inspired by her story.

Random:

-She graduated high school at 15 with honors.

-She was a governess for three years and taught the "lower class" children to read as well as her charges. This was a crime then.

-She earned much of her own money for college.

The next time this is on TCM, be sure to record it.

Strong is Sexy...Lady Bullfighters...Movies and Real Life

Found on Wiki. 

I watched a movie on Turner Classic Movies recently about a woman who jumps in the bullfighting ring in place of her twin brother. It was awesome.


It's called Fiesta from 1947 and stars Esther Williams. The movie starts with a famous bullfighter, Mario Sr., being told his wife is in labor. He rushes to her side and is terribly disappointed to be presented with a daughter. But a son is born minutes later... OLE!

It's a classic case of parents wants one thing, child wants another. Mario Jr. just wants to compose music. The father stands in his way at every turn, wanting his son to follow in his footsteps. Crap hits the fan and Mario goes missing, the Morales named branded for cowardism... I'm not going to ruin it for you, but Maria the sister jumps in the ring and fights in place of her brother, not once, but twice!

The movie is dubbed a musical due to a few singing and dancing scenes, but it wasn't that much. I actually fast forwarded all but the incredible dance scene between Mario and Conchita. That was fantastic. 

Terrific movie. It was filmed in 1947. Check your TCM guides for its next showing. 

And while I'm on the subject of lady bullfighters...now, wait a minute...I don't condone the killing of bulls, but one must confess there's something awful ballsy about this...and fascinating.

Book found on Amazon

There was a very famous real-life lady bullfighter named Conchita Cintrón, "The Blonde Goddess." She was part Puerto Rican, born in Chile, and became a bullfighter in Peru. She killed her first bull at the age of 15. Imagine the ruckus that caused! This occurred in 1936! She was badly gored twice, refused medical treatment, and walked back into the ring and killed that horned mofo, both times...


In the late 40s, Spain had laws banning woman matadors in the ring...but there was nothing preventing her from being in the ring on horseback. When she approached the president and requested permission to finish her task aka kill the bull, he denied her. She dismounted anyway, took the sword away from her novillero (the young man assigned to do the dirty work, as she was but a mere woman) and proceeded to stimulate a kill. She was actually arrested for this.

The uproar from the crowd assured she was not charged. Instead, she was gifted with the bull's ears and tail, a high honor.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Clara Maass

She was a nurse in the late 1800s, one of the first to graduate from Newark German Hospital's Christina Trefz Training School for Nurses in 1895 at the age of nineteen. Within three years she was a head nurse. 

She served as a voluntary nurse in the Spanish American Civil War. She ended up in Cuba, where yellow fever was a raging epidemic. She and a few others voluntarily donated their very own lives for the purpose of finding the cause and manner in which the disease was spread. Volunteers only received a hundred bucks with an extra hundred added if they became ill. Now, as you can see, that would have bought quite a few stamps back then, but still... (stamp was made after her death, but you get my drift. I believe stamps were one cent in the early 1900s)

After her second infectious mosquito bite, she died, putting a stop to the human experiments on American subjects altogether. She was only 25 years of age. She was not the only one to die, but she was the only woman to die from this.

There is a medical center in New Jersey named after her and she was buried with full military honors for her sacrifice and service.

I must say, that seems awful brave to me, to give your life in the hopes of saving others, to sacrifice the chance of family, love, children.

Find more information on the following sites:

http://www.aahn.org/gravesites/maass.html

http://www.nurses.info/personalities_clara_maass.htm

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Kitty O'Neil

This woman came to my attention via a FB page liker of mine. I'm so pleased she mentioned this lady, a former stunt woman and racer who also happened to be deaf. Naturally, she warrants a post.

Having been growing deaf since I was four years old myself, I'm amazed and inspired by Kitty O'Neil. I know how very hard it is not to let naysayers deter you, to face blockade after blockade because of your disability, so the fact she achieved her dreams and did so much in a male-dominated industry blows me away. As a matter of fact, I found a quote from her that says it was BECAUSE of employers not wanting to hire her that she ended up in a very nontraditional career.

She became deaf at the age of four due to illness. According to History Website, she was a diver in her younger years and almost made the Olympics. She contracted spinal meningitis, which was predicted to paralyze her, but didn't, and even battled cancer twice before the age of 28. I highly recommend you read the article. Incredible.

She was a stunt woman in Hollywood and in 1977, she drove a rocket dragster The Motivator in the Mojave Desert. She drove speeds up to 412 mph. The year previously, she set the land-speed record for women in Oregon.

Upon her retirement she held 22 land and water speed records.

There is a movie about her life, but I cannot find it on DVD. It's called Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neil Story.

I've had a heck of a time finding a photo I may be able to use. I'm just going to have to go photoless this time. To see a photo, you can go here.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Lola Rodriguez de Tio

Her name isn't bandied about much, at least not in the States, but in Puerto Rico, they know who she was.

She fought for the rights of women, slaves, the island itself, and did this often through her words.

Born in 1843, she was a bit of a renegade, even going so far as to wear short hair when that wasn't done on women.

She was a writer and so outspoken in her beliefs, much of it against the Spanish government, that they exiled her. Hey, never say the written word doesn't have power. Her poems apparently caused a ruckus. She lived in Venezuela, New York, and Cuba while her heart was still with Borginquen.

She is responsible for the revolutionary song/poem La Borinquena. I'm not sure I can post it on a blog though. The Spanish and English versions, both, can be read on Wiki.

Rumor has it that she is also responsible for the Puerto Rican flag. It was her suggestion that the island she so loved have the same colors, reversed, as the other island which adopted her: Cuba.

What I appreciate about this woman...how to say this? Normally I feature women that fly, fight in wars, work as spies...but strength and fight and passion and bravery come in many forms. You can fight with words too.

Picture was a free download.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Lydia Litviak "The White Rose of Stalingrad"

I first came across this in a book, a historical fiction, and in it, this woman pilot had a series of white roses painted on the fuselage of her aircraft, each one marking a kill. Further digging into  history sites informs me they were actually lilies, but easily mistaken for roses and this led to the false nickname. Technically, she was the "White Lily of Stalingrad" and numerous sites call her one or the other.

Anyway, while America was just permitting women to ferry airplanes, Russia was allowing them to fly in combat.


-She began flying at the age of 14, even joined a club.
-She botched her flying hours to join the all female Fighter Regiment
-It's said she had 12 solo victories. *There's some debate surrounding this, but regardless, everything points to her being incredibly fierce and a force to be reckoned with*
-She had a female mechanic as well.
-She loved to buzz the aerodomes and piss off her commander.
-She was shot down at least twice in German territory before her unfortunate last flight, and each time, she managed to walk back to her own base. Even hospitalization for brief periods did not deter her from getting back in the cockpit.
-She was shot down and her body never found, though she was decorated with three medals and her mechanic and friend is said to never have gave up trying to find her body.
-She was quite proud of her femininity, continuing to dye her hair throughout the war. Pictures show a very lovely looking woman when she was off duty.

You want more? Check out this site: http://www.stalingrad.net/russian-hq/lilya-litvyak/ruslitvyak.html

Personally, I find this woman's record and persistence incredibly sexy. I mean, shot down twice, and still she got back up? That's quite brave. Many legends I found related stories about her standing up to enemy pilots, in the sky and on the ground. Not sure how true they are so I didn't relay them here. I encourage you to do a Google search.

'Til the next Woman of the Past post, be sexy and be strong. Over and out. :)

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Mabel Cody

Ya'll have heard of Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show...but did you know he had a niece? Her name was Mabel and she was a stunt woman! Considering she was hanging off airplanes in 1921, I'd say she was one of the first.

This photo is from Florida State Archives.
She's shaking a pilot's hand. The webpage
contains some great pictures, the only ones
I could find. Please go there.
I cannot take credit for it, but 
this should be shared.

She was a part of Mabel Cody's Flying Circus. One time, she stood in a moving automobile going 70 mph and grabbed a ladder hanging from a passing airplane. The ladder broke and she fell to the sand, sustaining a dislocated shoulder and a broken forearm.  But she got back up and even attended the premiere of the video.

She wing walked, parchuted, and changed planes midair. She was also pretty darn feisty judging by the quotes I dug up. I first came across her name in a history book, but it told me very little so I came online to find out more. There's a good page dedicated to her here and I have taken these quotes from it. 

"Every time I sit down to sew or to write a letter, some timid member of my sex wants to tell me what she thinks about me risking my own neck!

"For heaven's sake! It's my neck, and I guess I'll risk it any time I feel like taking a chance," she told the Times-Union.

And here's a video. How cool is this?

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Ida B. Wells-Barnett

Most of you probably think the fight for integration in the U.S. started with Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat. In truth, this battle was waged in 1884 on a train.


While on a train, a conductor asked her to give up her seat and move to a crowded smoking car. She refused. Ida was then dragged off the train. It's said that the surrounding white passengers laughed.

Upon her arrival in Memphis, she set out to sue the railway, becoming a figurehead in Memphis society. And she was only twenty-five at this time. She won in the local court, but when the Supreme court overthrew the ruling and forced her to pay the money back, she complied...yet not with her tail between her legs.

She was persistent, having long ago grew fed up with being paid 30 bucks a month while white women doing the same job made 80. She was a teacher who dropped out of school to keep her and her orphaned siblings together.

She went on to become an editor and wrote under a paper with a pen name, constantly empowering African Americans and voicing the injustices being done to her race on a daily basis. Her focus was on the public act of lynching. She raised money to investigate the more suspect and started anti-lynching campaigns. Ida even took her cause and her fight to Great Britain.

What I like about her: Even mobs, anger, and beatings did not stop this woman from speaking her mind. And  guess what else? She was one of the first American woman to keep her own last name along with her husband's. She was a woman who lived before a close-minded world was ready for her.

She was one of the first African American women to run for public office before her death a year later.

This is def an inspiring woman in history for African Americans and WOMEN both. She fought for African American rights, and at the same time, was an example of all a single determined woman could accomplish.

Want to know more: I found this site superbly helpful: http://www.duke.edu/~ldbaker/classes/AAIH/caaih/ibwells/ibwbkgrd.html

'Til next Saturday, ladies, remember you have just as might right as the next person, stand up for yourself, and don't take "NO" for an answer. Oh, and don't forget, STRONG IS SEXY.

Strong is Sexy Woman of the Past: Blanche Stuart Scott

This woman came to my attention via my dear friend, Amanda Watson. Knowing my passion for aviatrixes, she found an envelope postmarked 1980 at a flea market. On it is a picture of this woman, the wooden airplane she flew in, and a stamp with her likeness.

She was the Tomboy of the Air and the *first American woman to fly solo.*

You can read the photo for yourself, but if not, it says she had her first flying lesson in 1910. She was part of a group of barnstormers and did air acrobatics at air shows and fairs. She hoped first and foremost that she could help open new aviation opportunities for women. She later became a filmwriter, radio commentator, and station manager, as well as a special consultant to the USAF.

From digging deeper on the Internet, I also discovered:

-She was the first (or second. I'm finding conflicting reports) woman to drive an automobile across the United States.
-She was instructed by Glenn Curtiss himself, the only woman he taught.
-She was the first woman to fly long distance and the first woman to fly in a jet, with Charles Yeager, the man himself.
-*Her first solo flight is not official as it was a 40-foot  hop in the air, but her reputation reached amazing heights.*
-She did "death dives" from 4,000 feet.
-She was a test pilot too! For Glenn L. Martin.
-She got behind the wheel of an automobile at 13!

 Much more data can be found on this page: http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/scott.html
Of the pages I browsed, I found this one to be the neatest and easiest to follow. Photo below is also on their site.

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/scott.html

What I like about her: She set out to do something and she did it. This wasn't an easy feat back then. Heck, it still isn't.

'Til next Saturday, ladies, remember: think it, achieve it, do it. Don't let naysayers stand in your way and don't forget STRONG IS SEXY.