In
celebration of Women's History Month,
WDIY pays tribute to the achievements
of extraordinary women.
With support from our members and Panera Bread®
WDIY
salutes worthy women like: |
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Isadora
Duncan |
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Influential modern dancer Isadora Duncan. Born in this country, she studied
dance in Europe and created an art form that rejected the traditional modes of
ballet and theater, replacing them with improvisations inspired by nature and
Greek art. Duncan combined dance with her love of classical music, often dancing
barefoot accompanied by the works of the masters.
Isadora Duncan, Mother of
modern dance, creative genius in her time - an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Juliette
Gordon Low |
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Founder
of the Girl Scouts USA Juliette Gordon Low. Low met Sir Robert Baden-Powell,
founder of the Boy Scouts, while in England and was eager to give girls the same
opportunity for nature appreciation, service to the community and self-reliance.
In 1912, she started two patrols of 16 girls in Savannah, Georgia. The organization,
open to girls of all races and economic backgrounds, has grown to become the largest
female volunteer organization in the world today. Juliette Gordon Low, advocate
for young women, a leader in her time - and inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Margaret
Bourke-White |
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American
photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White. The first female photojournalist
for Life Magazine, Bourke-White was also the first Westerner to photograph the
industrial heart of the Soviet Union. During World War 2, she became the first
female war correspondent to cover the front lines. She used her camera to record
social injustice at home and abroad and brought the public's attention to the
atrocities of Nazi concentration camps and apartheid in South Africa.
Margaret
Bourke-White, creative pioneer, a leader in her time - and inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Marian
Anderson |
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Opera
great Marian Anderson. This African-American contralto broke color barriers
in the world of opera and was the first Black singer to perform at New York's
Metropolitan Opera in 1955. Her most infamous performance came in 1939 when she
sang before 75,000 people outside the Lincoln Memorial after the all-white Daughters
of the American Revolution refused to permit her sing at Constitution Hall. Marian
Anderson, courageous vocalist extraordinaire, a leader in her time - and inspiration
in ours.
Listen |
Babe
Zaharias |
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Great
athlete Babe Zaharias. Founder of the LPGA and winner of more than 40 tournaments
in 4 years, Zaharias excelled in multiple sports. In the 1932 Olympics she set
world records in javelin and 80-meter hurdle competition. "The Babe"
started and toured with her own basketball team, played with the all-male House
of David baseball team and competed in national diving, bowling and billiard events.
One sportswriter said of her, "Babe is likely the most talented athlete -
male or female - ever developed in our country. Babe Zaharias, outstanding athlete,
breaking barriers in her time, an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Maya
Ying Lin |
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American
artist Maya Ying Lin. Working in sculpture and landscape art, Lin won a
public design competition in 1981 at the age of 21 and became the designer of
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. The black cut-stone masonry wall,
with the names of fallen soldiers carved into its face, opened to the public on
Veterans Day 1982. Lin's concept was to create an opening or a wound in the earth
to symbolize the gravity of the loss of the soldiers. The design was originally
controversial but has since been much acclaimed and is visited by hundreds of
thousands of tourists every year. It has also become an important pilgrimage site
for relatives and friends of the American military casualties in Vietnam, and
personal tokens and mementos are daily left at the wall in their memory. Lin has
also designed a Civil rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama and the Wave Field
at the University of Michigan. Maya Ying Lin, minimalist designer for maximum
impact, an inspiration for our time.
Listen |
Mother
Teresa of Calcutta |
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International humanitarian Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She founded the Missionaries
of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950. For over 40 years she ministered to the
poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion,
first throughout India and then in other countries. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1979 for her humanitarian work, Mother Teresa led expansion of the Missionaries
of Charity, and at the time of her death, it was operating 610 missions in 123
countries, including hospices and homes for people with HIV/AIDS, leprosy and
tuberculosis, soup kitchens, children's and family counseling programs, orphanages,
and schools. Following her death she was beatified by Pope John Paul 2nd. Mother
Teresa, spiritual healer, a leader in her time - an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Rachel
Carson |
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Author
and ecologist Rachel Carson. A marine biologist, Carson was the first woman
scientist to work for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. She wrote several wildlife
books during that time and uncovered cases of birds dying in wildlife sanctuaries
after aerial spraying with DDT.
Following her four-year investigation, she
authored her award-winning book "Silent Spring," in 1964. The book spurred
a reversal in national pesticide policy-leading to a nationwide ban on DDT and
other pesticides-and the grassroots environmental movement it inspired led to
the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Carson was posthumously awarded
the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Rachel Carson, raiser of consciousness for
nature, a leader in her time - an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Katharine
Graham |
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Media
mogul Katharine Graham. Graham broke several "glass ceilings"
and became one of the most powerful women in the US in 1971 when she was named
chairman of the Washington Post. Her media empire included, not only the highly
regarded Post, but also Newsweek magazine and at least a half-dozen television
stations. She led her family's newspaper for more than two decades, overseeing
its most famous period, --during Watergate-- that eventually led to the resignation
of President Richard Nixon. As the only woman to be in such a high position at
a publishing company, she had no female role models and had difficulty being taken
seriously by a many of her male colleagues. The character of newspaper owner Margaret
Pynchon on the TV drama Lou Grant was said to have been loosely based on Graham.
Katharine Graham, pioneer publisher, a leader in her time -- an inspiration in
ours.
Listen |
Maya
Angelou |
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Contemporary
poet and novelist Maya Angelou. Through her powerful writings, Angelou
has inspired generations of women, African-Americans and all people who struggle
to overcome prejudice, discrimination and abuse. Throughout her life, Angelou
has defied social norms. After being raped by her mother's boyfriend, she withdrew
and was mute for five years. However, encouraged by her grandmother, she emerged
as a talented artist. In 1970, her first autobiographical work, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings, became a best seller and provides powerful insights into the
evolution of black women in the 20th century. Angelou recited her poem, "On
the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Maya
Angelou - provocative voice for our time; inspiration for generations to come.
Listen |
Majorie
Allison |
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Allentown
banker and philanthropist Majorie Allison. The daughter of former Allentown
Mayor Henry Willard Allison, she began her association with the Lehigh Valley
Trust Company in 1913 and became the first woman in Pennsylvania to hold an executive
position in banking. She became a member of the American Institute of Banking
and was regional vice-president of the Pennsylvania Association of Bank Women.
A
fierce advocate for quality education, she became one of the founders of The Swain
School and served on the school's board of directors. Her tireless attention to
community activities marked her as one of Allentown's most generous volunteers,
serving as a director for the Allentown Art Museum and the Allentown Symphony
and other civic organizations. In 1959 former PA Governor David Lawrence named
Allison a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania in honor of her contributions
to business and her community.
Marjorie Allison, banker and community advocate
- a leader in her time, an inspiration in ours.
Listen
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Elizabeth "Mammy" Bell
Morgan |
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Local
pioneer legal and medical advisor Elizabeth "Mammy" Bell Morgan.
Born in 1761, "Mammy" lived a long life and was described as "Mother
to the Whole Township."
While she ran a successful tavern for 46 years,
she also provided legal, medical and educational assistance to her neighbors in
Williams Township, south of Easton.
Armed with two sets of law and medical
books, Morgan became the arbiter of all disputes in Williams Township. People
came from miles around to have their differences settled by her.
In 1820, 14
years before Gov. George Wolf established public schools in the state, she contributed
land and money for the Hope School House in Williams Township, with the understanding
that it would be free to all children. She died in 1839 and was buried in the
Reformed Cemetery, the current site of the Easton Library - her tombstone one
of only two still remaining on the front lawn of the library. In her honor, the
hill and road she lived on still bears her name. Elizabeth Bell Morgan, counsel
and healer - a leader in her time; an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Marjorie
Berlin Fink |
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local
ballet teacher and child advocate Marjorie Berlin Fink. Hailed as the "First
Lady of Ballet in the Lehigh Valley," Fink brought the art to the area in
the late 1950s and was a teacher for more than 50 years. She founded the Marjorie
Berlin Fink School of Dance in 1922 and went on to organize the Ballet Guild of
the Lehigh Valley, bringing top ballet teachers and fine cultural performances
to the area. Annual free performances for school children of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker
were begun in 1966. For 22 years, Fink served as a playground director, enriching
the lives of countless children living in public housing. In 1982, the Bethlehem
Housing Authority dedicated a new recreational building for the Pembroke-Fairmount
communities in her honor.
Marjorie Berlin Fink, dancer, teacher, child advocate.
A leader in her time; an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
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"Grandy" Miller |
(no
photo found) |
local community activist "Grandy"
Miller. Women in the 1700s were taught to be courteous and retiring, deferring
to men in matters of politics and law. Miller hardly fit that mold. Strong-minded
and confident enough to retain her maiden name, Miller openly rebelled against
unfair tax practices of her time. A resident of Millerstown --- now known as Macungie
- Miller led the "Hot Water Rebellion" in 1799. Enraged by a new federal
law which taxed houses according their size and number of windows, she and some
neighbors doused appraisers with steaming water when they came to collect information.
The act of civil disobedience made her a local hero in her time."Grandy"
Miller, early political activist; courage for her time and for ours.
Listen |
"H.D"
Doolittle Aldington |
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(H.
D. and Marianne Moore at Bryn Mawr College. Silver print, probably 1905. Gift
of Mildred Pressinger Von Kienbusch '09. H.D. stands in the background (on the
left, partially obscured) and Marianne Moore is second from the right.) |
Bethlehem
poet Hilda "H.D" Doolittle Aldington. Born in Bethlehem in 1886,
Aldington, who wrote under the pen name of H.D., - for Hilda Dolittle - achieved
great notoriety as an Imagist poet and explored perennial themes of nature, art,
love and war. She studied with Ezra Pound and her work included many volumes of
poetry as well as essays and novels. Hilda Dolittle is described in "Twentieth
Century Authors" -- "among American women poets, only Emily Dickinson
ranks as her superior." While she lived and studied in England and Switzerland,
her ashes are buried in Nisky Hill Cemetery in Bethlehem . Hilda Dolittle Aldington,
distinguished writer, interpreter for her time, inspiration for ours.
Listen |
U.S.
Congresswoman Barbara Jordan |
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Former
U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. Jordan, a Democrat from Texas, was the first
African American from a southern state to serve in the US House of Representatives,
holding office from 1973 to 1976. An eloquent Civil Rights activist and an inspirational
speaker, Jordan was also the first African American to serve as keynote speaker
at the Democratic National Convention. Many historians considered hers to be the
best convention keynote in modern history, as she roused delegates in support
of Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Barbara Jordan, champion of the underserved, winner
of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a leader in her time - an inspiration in
ours.
Listen |
Edith
Wharton |
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American
novelist, short story writer and designer -Edith Wharton. Her first novel,
The House of Mirth was published in 1905 and was a scathing indictment of the
hypocrisy of American high society as she wrote of "trophy wives." Wharton
penned The Age of Innocence in 1920 and captured the Pulitzer Prize for literature,
making her the first woman to win that coveted award.
Edith Wharton, provocative
author and pioneer, a leader in her time - an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Elizabeth
Blackwell |
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American abolitionist and women's rights activist Elizabeth Blackwell.
Denied admission by 29 colleges, in 1849 she became the first female doctor
in the United States. "I stand alone," she wrote after being shut out
of hospital and office space in New York City. Undaunted, Blackwell opened her
own hospital and later a medical school, Women's Medical College, where women
students could train. Elizabeth Blackwell, activist and healer, a leader in her
time - an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Dolores
Huerta |
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Union
activist Dolores Huerta. In the mid-1960s, Huerta worked with Cesar Chavez
to organize the United Farm Workers. The union protested against poor wages, the
use of dangerous pesticides and living conditions in the California grape-growing
industry. The union's successful boycott of California grapes led the industry
to increase wages and improve working and housing conditions. Today, at age 75,
she is president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, supporting organizations working
for fair and equal access for disadvantaged communities with an emphasis on women
and youth. Dolores Huerta, organizer and activist, a leader in challenging times
- an inspiration in ours.
Listen |
Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross |
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Psychiatrist
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Appalled by the hospital treatment of patients who
were dying, Kubler-Ross began giving a series of lectures featuring terminally
ill patients, forcing medical students to confront people who were dying. Her
extensive work with the dying led to her book, "On Death and Dying",
written in 1969. The model, still used extensively by grief counselors thorughout
the world today, outlines the five stages of how people process grief and tragedy.
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, explorer of the mind, a leader in her time - an inspiration
in ours.
Listen |
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