""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" November 20 / 21, 1995 - Episodes 479 / 480 Women of Achievement and Herstory compiled by Irene Stuber """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" This is OUR weekend edition; we email two days in advance. Nov. 20, Anniversaries ........................................... B. Nov. 20, 1827, Emily Howland received an honorary doctorate by the University of the State of New York at age 99 for her services to educating black students, which included helping establish or aiding more than 30 institutions of learning in the South and schools in New York and Virginia. B. Nov. 20, 1858, Selma Lagerlof, Swedish writer, was translated into 30 languages and the first woman member of the Swedish Academy. B. Nov. 20, 1885, Olive D. Wetzel Dennis, service engineer with Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. She is responsible for such unheard of things as air conditioning, reclining seats, and dressing rooms to be installed on trains. She had an MA in mathematics and a civil engineering degree. B. Nov. 20, 1912, Carman Dee Barnes, her first novel _Schoolgirl_ (1929) published at 16 got her expelled from a private New York City school because it was so "risque." It is still considered readable by some critics, but the play adaptation turned the novel into white bread. Her daughter is Diantha Barnes, Southern poet and folklorist. B. Nov. 20, 1923, Nadine Gordimer, South African writer, winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for literature. One of her most notable books is _A Guest of Honor_. 11-21 Anniversaries ........................................... B. Nov. 21, 1835, Henrietta Howland Green, (Hetty Green), miserly financial genius believed to have been the richest woman in the United States, called the Witch of Wall Street because of her ability to make money while living and raising her children at poverty level. Since she lent money to over-extended financiers, being labeled the witch may have been as a result of threatened foreclosures and fear of having their loans called in. She inherited $10 million and invested it into more than $100 million. B. Nov. 21, 1850, Isabel Florence Hapgood, pioneer translator of Russian literature, brought Tolstoy, Dostoevski and Chekhov to English readers. Editorial writer for the magazine _Nation_. B. Nov. 21, 1870, Mary Johnston, novelist of extraordinary power, wrote primarily Virginia period pieces although her works became more complex as time went on. She was an active suffragist and peace advocate. Her second novel _To Have and To Hold_ was a runaway bestseller in 1900. In all she published more than 20 novels and had one play produced on Broadway _The Goddess of Reason_. Close (*?) friend of Ellen Glasgow. B. Nov. 21, 1902, Phoebe Jane Fairgrave Omlie, aviator, used an inheritance at age 17 to buy her own plane and then sold stunt flying to a movie studio to justify the expense. Her mother supported her endeavors. Her diminutive size handicapped her. She and her husband did barn- storming, which included walking on wings and other death-defying acts that were the mainstays of early aviation exhibitions. She was the first woman to get a federal pilot's license. With Amelia Earhart she painted markers on roofs throughout the country that guided pilots to the nearest airport (long before radar and plane-to-ground radios); headed and coordinated a project to train 5,000 airport ground personnel. She also opened a school for the training of women instructors after the Civilian Pilot Training schools fired all women instructors. They then tried to hire the women back to put Omlie out of business. B. Nov. 21, 1904, Louise Yam, Korean underground leader against Japan in World War II, active in establishment of the Interim government, and founder and president of Central Women's College in Seoul. Quotes du jour ................................................ "All women hustle. Women watch faces, voices, gestures, moods. She's the person who has to survive through cunning." -- Marge Piercy, _Small Changes_, 1973 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>(C) 1995, All Rights Reserved, Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, voice mail or fax, 501-624-5262 ID #300, or email irenestuber@delphi.com with comments and suggestions. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-profit use. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting WOA.<<