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FAMOUS WOMEN II
Susan B. Anthony • Marie Curie • Edna Ferber

FIRST LADIES
Eleanor Roosevelt • Bess Truman

These educator's favorites have received many accolades from both teachers and students and feature groundbreaking women who were not afraid to wear boots or get their feminine hands dirty.

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FAMOUS WOMEN I Clara Barton   •   Annie Oakley   •   Amelia Earhart

Clara Barton "Angel of the Battlefield" Teacher, nurse, political activist and founder of the American Red Cross. A teacher and later a founder of the first free school in Bordentown New Jersey, she became the first woman to work at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington DC. Soon after the onset of the Civil War she went to the battlefields, not as the soldier she’d dreamed of being, but as a nurse. She became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" and the Superintendent of Nurses. Later, a trip to Europe for her health led her to the discovery of the International Red Cross and the journey which would lead to worldwide fame as the founder of the American Red Cross.

Annie Oakley World famous sharpshooter with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A song from the renowned musical "Annie Get Your Gun" may be featured ! At about 8 years old, Annie picked up her father’s gun and shot it. Amazingly, she hit what she aimed at. Soon she provided for the family by shooting game and selling it. She bested and married her first shooting match opponent, Frank Butler, and the two became a team on the entertainment circuit. Later they joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show with Annie as the star attraction and Frank as her manager. In her long performing career, nobody in the world ever beat Annie Oakley.

Amelia Earhart First woman to solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she mysteriously disappeared over the South Pacific during her famous around the world flight attempt. After Amelia Earhart’s father gave her a present of a ride in an airplane she decided to learn to fly. She soon won many flying contests and George Putnam hired her to write flying stories for "Cosmopolitan" and they married in 1931. In 1932 she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo. She wrote a book, "The Fun of It" about that flight. She continued to break flying records, write articles and give speeches to raise money for her flights, and in 1937 attempted to fly around the equator, but disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

Nancy on FAMOUS WOMEN I I was thinking of my women, Clara, Annie and Amelia, and how I am not at all athletic as they each were. Then the thought came to me that they were also, each one, very aware of being women; and loved to dress up and wear pretty clothes. When they went to Europe they bought expensive clothes in Paris. Clara even wore rouge and eyeliner and dyed her hair when it began to go gray. People don't think of them with fancy clothes, looking beautiful, or with ladylike manners ~ but those are their other sides; not just the tomboys, living in men's worlds, breaking molds, setting records. They were each caring, good women, who gave over most of their lives to consciously inspiring and encouraging others. They are to be followed not just for the prominent and famous feats of their lives; but even more for the subtle, everyday examples they were. Not that they didn't become vocal on issues important to them. They did. They were very outspoken on women's rights and on treating all people with love and respect. We think we know people and like to put them in neat little boxes ~ but they, and we, don't fit. We keep oozing out and filling up another box, only to move from that, to still another box. Like the kaleidoscope ~ we keep changing, and yet are still the original that we are, no two alike, constantly recreating beautiful colors and patterns. Isn't it amazing ~ and yet so amazingly simple?

FAMOUS WOMEN II Susan B. Anthony   •   Marie Curie   •   Edna Ferber

Marie Curie Historic Scientist who discovered the elements Radium and Polonium. She was the First woman to win a Nobel Prize, and also the first woman to win a second Nobel Prize. Born in Warsaw, Poland ~ under Russian domination ~ Marie went to Paris to study science at the Sorbonne, after financing her older sister’s education. She married scientist, Pierre Curie, and began work to discover new elements in pitchblende left from uranium mining. From this work she discovered Polonium and Radium. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize ~ but because they couldn’t conceive of a woman being that smart, she had to share it with her husband, who was her assistant. After Pierre’s death she raised her two daughters alone and continued her work, winning a second Nobel Prize, the only woman yet to have ever done that.

Susan B. Anthony Champion of women's rights, she fought for women's economic, personal and voting rights ~ and is the only woman to be featured on the head of a silver dollar. As a young teacher, abolitionist and temperance worker, Susan met Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, women’s rights’ movement leaders. Soon Susan and Elizabeth became a team, with Susan traveling, giving speeches and collecting signatures to change laws against women. Getting women the right to vote became "The Cause" to which she gave the rest of her life. Maligned, harassed and laughed at in the early years, by the end of her long life she had attained the respect of most Americans, if not the vote for women, which came in 1920, 14 years after her death.

Edna Ferber First woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and author of many great novels, short stories and plays . A musical number from Show Boat may be featured. Edna wanted to be an actress but family finances prevented her from going to college so she got her first job as a reporter, highly unusual for a woman of her generation. She was a journalist for many years ~ and it shows in the multigenerational sagas for which she became famous. She won the Pulitzer Prize for So Big ~ and Show Boat was written into the first musical play. Show Boat, Cimarron, Giant and Saratoga Trunk, among others, were made into movies. Show Boat was recently brought back to Broadway and on world tour. Her plays, short stories and novels are still relevant today.

Nancy on FAMOUS WOMEN II Susan, Marie and Edna seem not to have a common denominator. Susan, tall and brash, her "cause" like an obsession; Marie, small, quiet, shy, yet science was her obsession; and Edna, who’s motto was to work hard and have fun. Susan and Edna never married but for different reasons. Susan didn’t want to be held down and saw marriage as a prison for women. Edna said she would have loved to be married to someone she loved, but the men she fell in love with didn’t love her ~ and the ones who loved her, she didn’t love, at least not romantically. But Marie did find the big romantic love of her life, the one man who was like a part of herself. But he died early, leaving her in a depression that lasted the rest of her life. So, perhaps it is that their differences are the key, political activist, scientist and writer because each one furthered the rights of women in her own way. The lesson here is, I think, that we don’t have to all fall from the same tree to accomplish similar ends. We can each walk our own individual path, be true to our own inner voice and be magnificently successful. Now that, Friends, is inspiring to me!

FIRST LADIES Eleanor Roosevelt   •   Bess Truman

Eleanor Roosevelt The quintessential First Lady and world champion of Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt was not a born speaker or fighter for the rights of women. She heartily conformed with the ladylike rules of her day by refusing to attend college or work for the women's vote or to express her opinions in public. It was only after Franklin's polio forced her outside her home and onto speaker's platforms that she found her voice and changed her mind about her role and the roles of all women. She was a vocal and untiring adviser to her husband, the president; and she set an example of how strong and influential women can be.

Bess Truman "Bess" will also sing songs from the Depression Era. Bess Truman was always a tough lady, first as just about the best athlete in Independence Missouri and later as the unannounced adviser to her husband, Harry Truman. She and Harry were in their 30s when they finally married after a very lengthy courtship. Her duties were multiple: to her widowed mother, her husband, her daughter and her schooling, her brothers and their families. She was responsible for it all. She vigilantly kept Harry's famous temper from doing damage and almost everything he wrote passed her editing before it went out. She detested publicity and reporters and so stayed away from them with an angry vengeance for most of her life.

Nancy on FIRST LADIES Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman were much similar and yet very different from each other. They were both significant, active women in their own rights, as well as wives of presidents. The same age, both lost their fathers tragically and never really got over it. Both came from political families and both were blond and blue-eyed; but Eleanor was incredibly wealthy, born into New York society. Bess’ family was reasonably well off and prominent (but in Independence, Missouri; not New York). Both married men against family wishes and both had problems with overbearing, domineering mothers; in Eleanor’s case, her mother-in-law. Eleanor bore six children and Bess, only one. Bess and her daughter were wonderfully close buddies, in fact; while Eleanor’s children, especially her only daughter, were not close with her at all. Both Eleanor and Bess were very involved with their husbands’ decisions in politics ~ but with completely different styles, and neither woman wanted to be First Lady. Eleanor, of course, was "way out there in front", while Bess guarded her privacy over just about anything else. Bess had no interest in being in the line of fire while Eleanor thrived there. Yet it was Bess who was the warmer mother and wife, while Eleanor was noted for her stiffness and seeming coldness. Bess was an excellent athlete and sports fan, whistling and screaming at games; while Eleanor never learned to play any games to any amount of satisfactory performance. Both wrote letters and both at one time destroyed them to keep their contents forever secret. Two very important First Ladies, at a crucial time in our history.

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