04-14-1995 Women of Achievement and Herstory My research leads me on many trails and lately I have been spending time with newspaper microfilm looking at old obituaries. In the 07-04-1990 edition of the _New York Times_ was the headline, "Marion R. Hart, 98; Made 7 Solo Flights Across the Atlantic." The article written by Joan Cook starts off: "Marion Rice Hart, a sportswoman and author who sailed a ketch around the world and in her later years made seven solo flights across the Atlantic, the last at 83 years old ... died at 98." Marion Hart was 54 when she learned to fly and 70 in 1962 when she flew a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza nonstop across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland for the first time. "A little fatigued from the 1,500 mile flight, which she made with a navigator, she was reported to have walked into the airport lounge upon her arrival, downed a large glass of whisky and said, `Now I feel better.'" Marion Hart flew alone until she was 87, traveling across the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. She logged more than 5,000 hours in three decades. In 1976 she received the prized Harmon International Trophy "for her consistently oustanding performances as a private pilot operating small aircraft on a global scale. Before becoming an aviator, Marion Hart captained a 71-foot ketch around the world during the 1936-1939 period, most of it alone. She became a ham radio operator and served in the Army Signal Corps in WWII. She authored several books, including _I Fly as I Please_ (1953) and _How to Navigate Today_ (1940) which went through at least six printings. Marion Hart was born in London in 1913 and was the first woman to graduate in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a masters in geology from Columbia University. Her short marriage ended in divorce. 04-14 anniversaries ............................................... B. 04-14-1849, Isabella Stewart Gardner, art collector, began collecting art with her husband. Continued collecting after his death, designed the mansion to house it and then donated the finished museum which bears her name to the people of Boston in 1903. It houses one of the world's great collections of Dutch and Renaissance paintings. Her will specifies the collection remain exactly as she placed it. An absolutely facinating place and this tourist loved it! B. 04-14-1866, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, educator best known as the teacher of Helen Keller. Event 04-14-1910, Dr. Elinor McGrath graduated from the Chicago Veterinary College to become the first woman veterinarian in the United States. She served for many years as the president of the Women's Veterinary Medical Association. Event 04-14-1912, the Unsinkable Margaret "Molly" Brown, earns her knickname by rowing a group of passengers away to safety from the sinking Titanic. Event 04-14-1975, Madine Steele of Tallahassee was suspended from her teaching position for participating in ERA activities (marching in a parade>) Quotes du jour ............................................... "Though woman needs the protection of one man against his whole sex, in pioneer life, in threading her way through a lonely forest, on the highway, or in the streets of the metropolis on a dark night, she sometimes needs, too, the protection of all men against this one." -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there weren't notable and effective women throughout history. They were always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so that each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.