The James Logan Courier

From wikipedia:
Anne Elisabeth Jane "Liz" Claiborne (March 31, 1929 – June 26, 2007) was a Belgian-born American fashion designer and entrepreneur. Claiborne is best known for co-founding Liz Claiborne Inc. which in 1986 became the first company founded by a woman to make the Fortune 500. Claiborne was the first woman to become chairperson and CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Claiborne was born in Brussels to American parents. She came from a prominent Louisiana family with an ancestor William C.C. Claiborne having been Governor of Louisiana during the War of 1812. In 1939, at the start of World War II, the family returned to New Orleans. She attended St. Timothy's, a boarding school then in Catonsville, Maryland and currently in Stevenson, Maryland. Rather than finishing high school, she went to Europe to study art in painters' studios. Her father did not believe that she needed an education, so she studied art informally.

Since 1991 Liz Claiborne Inc. has been working to end domestic violence. Visit it's Love Is Not Abuse website.

From wikipedia:
Pearl Mae Bailey (March 29, 1918 – August 17, 1990) was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946.[1] She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968. In 1986, she won a Daytime Emmy award for her performance as a fairy godmother in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairy Tale.

Her rendition of "Takes Two to Tango" hit the top ten in 1952.

Watch Pearl Bailey sing on the Bob Hope show, free from YouTube.com.

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From wikipedia:
Dorothy Adelle DeBorba (March 28, 1925 – June 2, 2010) was an American former child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang series of short subjects as the leading lady from 1930 to 1933.

DeBorba was a native of Livermore, California. Of Portuguese Azorean ancestry, she came from a show business background. Her mother was a singer-dancer-actress, and her father was a drummer in Paul Whiteman's band.

Watch Dorothy DeBorba, free from YouTube.

Patty Smith Hill (27 March 1868 — 25 May 1946) is perhaps best known for co-writing the tune which became popular as Happy Birthday to You. She was an American nursery school, kindergarten teacher, and key founder of the National Association Nursery Education (NANE) which now exists as the National Association For the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Patty Smith Hill was born in 1868 in Anchorage, Kentucky, just outside of Louisville. Her parents were passionate people who instilled in Patty and her siblings the importance of education, the value of play, and the necessity of advocating for others. Her father, William Wallace Hill, was born in Bath, Kentucky, graduated from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1833, and earned a doctorate of Theology from Princeton University in 1838. He dedicated his entire life to ministry and education, which took the Hill family from Kentucky to Missouri to Texas. Her mother, Martha Jane Smith, was William’s second wife (his first died in childbirth), and was born in Pennsylvania, but as an adolescent moved with her brother to live with their aunt and uncle on their plantation in Danville. Martha Jane was intent on learning and passing along education to others, evidenced, for example, by the fact that she taught the slaves on the Grimes plantation to read and write.

Read an interview with Patty Smith Hill.

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From wikipedia:
Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In the latter years of her tenure, she was regarded as having the swing vote in many cases.

Prior to O'Connor's appointment to the Court, she was an elected official and judge in Arizona. On July 1, 2005, she announced her intention to retire effective upon the confirmation of a successor. President George W. Bush first unsuccessfully nominated Harriet Miers to replace O'Connor, then nominated Justice Samuel Alito to take her seat in October 2005. Alito joined the Court on January 31, 2006.

Visit iCivics, an educational website founded by Sandra Day O'Connor.

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From wikipedia:
Eileen Ford (born March 25, 1922) is a model agency executive and co-founder, in 1946, with her late husband Gerard William "Jerry" Ford, of Ford Models, one of the earliest and internationally best known modelling agencies in the world.

Eileen Ford, née Otte, grew up on the north shore of Long Island, New York. Eileen was a model during the summers of her freshman and sophomore years at Barnard College, modeling for the Harry Conover modeling agency, one of the first in the United States. She graduated from Barnard in 1943. In 1944, she met her future husband Jerry (Gerard Ford), at a drugstore near the Columbia University campus and married him in November 1944 in San Francisco. After eloping, Jerry, who was in the Navy, was shipped out for WWII. While Jerry was gone, Eileen became photographer Elliot Clark's secretary, a fashion stylist, a copywriter, and a fashion reporter for the Tobe Report.

Visit FordModels.com.

Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage (Cicero, New York, March 24, 1826 – March 18, 1898 in Chicago) was a suffragist, a Native American activist, an abolitionist, a freethinker, and a prolific author, who was "born with a hatred of oppression".

Matilda Gage spent her childhood in a house which was a station of the underground railroad. She faced prison for her actions under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which criminalized assistance to escaped slaves. Even though she was beset by both financial and physical (cardiac) problems throughout her life, her work for women's rights was extensive, practical, and often brilliantly executed.

Read The History of Woman Suffrage, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage, available in three volumes free from Project Gutenberg.

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From wikipedia:
Bette Claire Graham (23 March 1924 – 12 May 1980) was an American typist, commercial artist, and the inventor of Liquid Paper. She was also the mother of musician and producer Michael Nesmith, a member of the Monkees.

Graham was born as "Betty Clair McMurray" in Dallas, Texas to Jesse McMurray, an automotive supply company manager, and Christine Duval. She was raised in San Antonio and graduated from Alamo Heights High School. She married Warren Audrey Nesmith (1919–1984) before he left to fight in World War II. While he was overseas she had a child (Robert Michael Nesmith, born 30 December 1942). After Warren Nesmith returned home, they were divorced (1946). In the early 1950s, her father died, leaving some property in Dallas to Betty. She, her mother, Michael, and her sister Yvonne moved there. To support herself as a single mother, she worked as a secretary at Texas Bank and Trust. She eventually attained the position of the executive secretary, the highest position open at that time to women in the industry.

Read more about Bette Claire Graham, free from the Texas State Historical Association.

From wikipedia:
Greta Kempton (March 22, 1901 - December 10, 1991) born Martha Greta Kempton in Vienna, Austria. American artist. She served as the White House artist during the Truman administration.

She studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts before emigrating to the United States circa 1926 and in the 1930s was a student at the National Academy of Design and Art Students League both in New York City.

Visit GretaKempton.org.

From wikipedia:
Rose Stone (or Rosie Stone) (born Rosemary Stewart, March 21, 1945, in Vallejo, California) is an African-American singer and keyboardist. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly & the Family Stone, a popular psychedelic soul/funk band founded by her brothers, Sly Stone and Freddie Stone. She often wore a platinum-colored wig while performing with the band, and was noted for her strong vocals.

Visit RoseStoneUniverse.com

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By Matt Krupnick
Contra Costa Times (MCT)

WALNUT CREEK, — The threat of more budget cuts has led the California State University system to shut out thousands of midyear applicants for spring terms starting in January.

Only eight of the system's 23 campuses — including Cal State East Bay, but not San Jose State _ will accept transfer students for the spring 2013 term, and none will accept new freshmen, said Robert Turnage, the university's budget chief.

From wikipedia:
Pamela Beryl Harriman (née Digby; 20 March 1920 – 5 February 1997), also known as Pamela Churchill Harriman, was an English-born socialite who was married and linked to important and powerful men. In later life, she became a political activist for the United States Democratic Party and a diplomat. Her only child, Winston Churchill, was named after his famous grandfather.

Pamela Beryl Digby was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, England, the daughter of Edward Digby, 11th Baron Digby, and his wife, Constance Pamela Alice, the daughter of Henry Campbell Bruce, 2nd Baron Aberdare, a peer in the House of Lords. Pamela Digby was educated by governesses in the ancestral home at Minterne Magna in Dorset, along with her three younger siblings. Her great-great aunt was the nineteenth-century adventurer and courtesan Jane Digby, notorious for her exotic travels and scandalous personal life. Pamela was to follow in her ancestor's footsteps, being frequently cited as "the 20th-century's greatest courtesan."

Read "The Prime of Pamela Harriman," free from Vanity Fair.

From wikipedia:
Edith Nourse Rogers (March 19, 1881 – September 10, 1960) was an American social welfare volunteer and politician who was one of the first women to serve in the United States Congress. She was the first woman elected to congress from Massachusetts. Until 2012, she was the longest serving Congresswoman, now having been surpassed by Barbara Mikulski, and in her 35 years in the House of Representatives she was a powerful voice for veterans and sponsored seminal legislation, including the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (commonly known as the G.I. Bill), which provided educational and financial benefits for soldiers returning home from World War II, the 1942 bill that created the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), and the 1943 bill that created the Women's Army Corps (WAC). She was also instrumental in bringing federal appropriations to her constituency, Massachusetts's 5th congressional district.


Learn more about Edith Nourse Rogers, free from womenincongress.house.gov.

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Julia Mullock (born 18 March 1928) became a disputed member of the Korean Imperial Household with the title Her Imperial Highness Princess Julia Lee of Korea when she became the de-facto wife of Gu, Prince of Korea. The two were never legally married by Korean custom, in that Mullock was not included in the Yi family registry, and because of this Mullock later had trouble processing a divorce application in the United States from Prince Gu.

Learn more about Julia Mullock, free from Triptokorea.com.

From wikipedia:
Myrlie Evers-Williams (March 17, 1933- ) is a civil rights activist and journalist who worked tirelessly to seek justice for the murder of her well-known civil rights activist husband Medgar Evers in 1963. In addition, Myrlie Evers-Williams ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from California, actively participated in and became chairwoman of the NAACP, and published several books on topics related to civil rights and her husband’s legacy.


Learn more about Myrlie Evers-Williams, free from the NAACP.

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From wikipedia:
Ursula W. Goodenough (b. March 16, 1943) is a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the best selling book Sacred Depths of Nature. This highly regarded book has resulted in her teaching the paradigm of Religious Naturalism and the Epic of Evolution around the world and also her participation in television productions on PBS and The History Channel, as well as NPR radio broadcasting. In December 2009, Goodenough began participating in a National Public Radio blog Cosmos And Culture.

Read an interview with Ursula Goodenough, free from Beliefnet.com

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From wikipedia:
Marjorie Merriweather Post (March 15, 1887 – September 12, 1973, Springfield, Illinois) was a leading American socialite and the founder of General Foods, Inc.

She was the daughter of C. W. Post and Ella Letitia Merriweather. At age 27, when her father died, she became the owner of the rapidly growing Postum Cereal Company, founded in 1895. She was subsequently the wealthiest woman in America, when her fortune reached approximately USD $250 million.

Read more about Marjorie Merriweather Post, free from the Hillwood Museum.

Lucy Hobbs Taylor (March 14, 1833 – October 3, 1910) was the first American woman to graduate from dental school (Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1866).

Lucy Hobbs was born on March 14, 1833 in Constable, New York. She entered the working world by teaching school for ten years in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati, intending to become a dentist. When she was refused admission to dental school, she began a private program of study with a professor from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.

Learn more about Lucy Hobbs Taylor, free from Ohio History Central.

From wikipedia:
Donella H. "Dana" Meadows (March 13, 1941 Elgin, Illinois, USA - February 20, 2001, Hanover, New Hampshire) was a pioneering American environmental scientist, teacher and writer. She is best known as lead author of the influential book The Limits to Growth, which made headlines around the world.

Born in Elgin, Illinois, Meadows was educated in science, receiving a B.A. in chemistry from Carleton College in 1963, and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard in 1968. After a year-long trip with her husband, Dennis Meadows, from England to Sri Lanka and back, she became, along with him, a research fellow at MIT as a member of a team in the department created by Jay Forrester, the inventor of system dynamics as well as the principle of magnetic data storage for computers. She taught at Dartmouth College for 29 years, beginning in 1972.

Visit the Donella Meadows Institute.

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Johnnie Mae Young (born March 12, 1923) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler and currently WWE Ambassador.

Young was an influential pioneer in women's wrestling, helping to increase its popularity during World War II and training many generations of wrestlers. She wrestled throughout the United States and Canada, and won multiple titles in the National Wrestling Alliance.

Learn more about Johnnie Mae Young, free from the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame.

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Althea Louise Brough Clapp (born March 11, 1923) was a World No. 1 American female tennis player.

She was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma but moved to Beverly Hills, California when she was four years old. She was taught by Dick Skeen and had a classic forehand and backhand and a paralyzing American twist serve. She was one of the great volleyers in history. She won thirteen titles at Wimbledon, seventeen titles at the U.S. Championships, three titles at the French Championships, and two titles at the Australian Championships. Her 35 Grand Slam titles ties her with Doris Hart for fifth on the all-time list, behind only Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, and Margaret Osborne duPont.

Read an article about Althea Louise Brough Clapp and Althea Gibson.

Marion Hutton (10 March 1919 - 10 January 1987) was a United States singer and actress.

Born as Marion Thornburg, the elder sister of actress Betty Hutton, their father abandoned their family when they were both young: he later committed suicide. Their mother worked a variety of jobs to support the family until she became a successful bootlegger.

Watch Marion Hutton: Merry Maid of Song, free from YouTube.

From wikipedia:
Keely Smith (born Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, March 9, 1932)[1][2] is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.

Smith showed a natural aptitude for singing at a young age. At 14, she started singing with a naval air station band led by Saxie Dowell. At 15, she got her first paying job with the Earl Bennett band.

Read more about Keely Smith, free from SwingMusic.net.

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From wikipedia:
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American sororities.

Louise Beavers was a breakthrough actress for African Americans. Beavers became known as a symbol of a “mammy” on the screen. A mammy archetype “is the portrayal within a narrative framework or other imagery of a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, and loud”.

Watch Louise Beavers in Imitation of Life, free from YouTube.com.

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From wikipedia:
Madame Sul-Te-Wan (March 7, 1873 – February 1, 1959) was an American actress. The daughter of freed slaves, she began her career in entertainment touring the east coast with various theatrical companies and moved to California to become a member of the fledgling film community. She became known as a character actress, appeared in high profile films such as Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), and easily navigated the transition to the "talkies".

In an age when film roles for African Americans were limited, Madame was consistently employed in the industry as stereotypical slaves, mammies, and native witch women. She appeared in King Kong (1933) as the native handmaiden and was critically praised for her performance as Tituba in Maid of Salem (1937). Her appearance in Carmen Jones (1954) excited the rumor she was star Dorothy Dandridge's grandmother. Her last role was the charm vendor in The Buccaneer (1958).

Read more about Madame Sul-Te-Wan, free from Jet Magazine and Google Books.

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From wikipedia:
Anna Margarethe "Molla" Bjurstedt Mallory (March 6, 1884[1] in Oslo – November 22, 1959 in Stockholm) was a Norwegian tennis player, nationalized American.

Tennis career
Although she had won a bronze medal in singles for Norway at the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, and was the many-time champion of her homeland, Mallory was relatively unknown when she arrived in New York City to begin work as a masseuse in 1915. She entered the U.S. Indoor Championships that year unheralded and beat three-time defending champion Marie Wagner 6–4, 6–4, which was the first of her five singles titles at that tournament. She also won the title in Cincinnati in 1912.


Learn more about Molla Mallory, free from Bleacher Report.

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Lynn Margulis (born Lynn Alexander) (March 5, 1938 – November 22, 2011) was an American biologist and University Professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is best known for her theory on the origin of eukaryotic organelles, and her contributions to the endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted for how certain organelles were formed. She is also associated with the Gaia hypothesis, based on an idea developed by the English environmental scientist James Lovelock.

Read The Subversive Biology of Lynn Margulis, free from The Alien Next Door, a blog written by SF Writer and Ecologist Nina Munteanu.

Rebecca Gratz (March 4, 1781 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - August 27, 1869 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was a preeminent Jewish American educator and philanthropist.

Gratz was the seventh of twelve children born to Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz. Her mother was the daughter of Joseph Simon (1712-1804), a preeminent Jewish merchant of Lancaster, while her father was descended from a long line of respected rabbis. Miriam and Michael were observant Jews and active members of Philadelphia’s first synagogue, Mikveh Israel.

Read letters written by Rebecca Gratz, free from familytales.org.

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From wikipedia:
Beatrice Wood (March 3, 1893 – March 12, 1998) was an American artist and studio potter, who late in life was dubbed the "Mama of Dada," and served as a partial inspiration for the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's 1997 film, Titanic. Beatrice Wood died nine days after her 105th birthday in Ojai, California.

Childhood
Beatrice Wood was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of wealthy socialites. Despite her parents' strong opposition, Wood insisted on pursuing a career in the arts. Eventually her parents agreed to let her study painting and because she was fluent in French, they sent her to Paris where she studied acting at the Comédie-Française and art at the prestigious Académie Julian.

Visit the Beatrice Woods Center for the Arts.

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From wikipedia:
Susanna Madora "Dora" Salter (March 2, 1860 – March 17, 1961) was a U.S. politician and activist. She served as mayor of Argonia, Kansas, becoming the first woman elected as mayor and the first woman elected to any political office in the United States.

Susanna Madora Kinsey was born near the unincorporated community of Lamira in Smith Township, Belmont County, Ohio, the daughter of Oliver Kinsey and Terissa Ann White Kinsey, the descendants of Quaker colonists from England. At age 12, she moved to Kansas with her parents. Eight years later, she entered Kansas State Agricultural College (present-day Kansas State University) in Manhattan, and was able to skip her freshman year, having taken college-level courses in high school, but was forced to drop out six weeks short of graduation due to illness.

Read more about Susanna Madora Salter, free from the Kansas Collection.

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From wikipedia:
Harold George Belafonte, Jr. (born March 1, 1927) is a Jamaican American musician, actor and social activist. One of the most successful popular singers in history, he was dubbed the "King of Calypso," a title which he was very reluctant to accept (according to the documentary Calypso Dreams) for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing the "Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". Throughout his career, he has been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes. He has been a vocal critic of the policies of the Bush Administration.

Listen, watch or read Harry Belafonte's speech accepting the 2004 Human Rights Award by Global Exchange in San Francisco, free from Democracy Now!.