Quilt History: Noteable Women

I made it to quilt history class last week and we had a discussion about noteable women from the war period who were making history in a time when women had little opportunity to make history. The first one was Frances Perkins who was the U.S. Secretary of Labor.


She helped set up unemployment benefits, minimum wage, overtime, pensions, welfare, etc. and was a champion for workplace safety and child labor laws. There is an autiobiography about her I might have to locate called "The Woman Behind the New Deal" by Kirstin Downey.
May Craig was a journalist on the war and politics. She was a southerner but she worked for a Maine newspaper and was a Washington corruspondent. Her column was called "Inside Washington." She spent a lot of time in Europe and as a woman was often told by men that they didn't have the facilities for a woman. She perservered anyway. She was on Meet the Press and always wore her hat and gloves to make a good impression.
Jeanette Rankin was the first woman in Congress, she was 36.

She was the only congressperson to vote against WWII (she had also voted against WWI). There is a movie about her life called "A Single Woman."

Ethel Waters was a blues and jazz singer most noted for "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and was the second African American nominated for an Academy Award. She had a difficult life and overcame it.

She became an actress but was unhappy about the depiction of black characters at the time and so she left the TV series "Buella" because of it. Of all of the gals we learned about this was the only one I had any prior knowledge of...I have heard that beautiful song.

Dr. Leona Libby was a brilliant scientist who earned a PHD and worked on the Manhatten Project. She is the founder of high energy physics. She disguised her pregnancy and worked up until a week before the birth of her first child and then went right back to work!

I just wanted to find pictures of these ladies and say a bit about them so I might remember them down the line. We were supposed to discuss Anne Lenz and Bernice McPherson but our leaders didn't find any information on either of them. If you know anything about those two please share with me. I did a quick google search but nothing came up. Not sure I will get a chance to do a more academic search but I am now curious who they were.

Roberta also shared with us a fascinating story about a member of her husband's family who died in WWII. She shared actual Vmails with us and told a story that should really be in a book. I can't do it justice, but it was worth going to the meeting just for that story.

I haven't done much sewing this week. I had a couple of terrible migraines and barely made it through work this week. I am so relieved for only three hours of work tomorrow and then the weekend. I need to get my Designer BOM cut and sewed up this weekend. Tomorrow is October and September isn't even cut! I am also thinking about using my Flea Market Fancy fabric to do some more hexagons to hand sew. And I am going to join in a sock knitalong...we will see if I can make it farther than the last time I tried to make socks!