Women.Bourne.Works | US-AR | Arkansas

1860s

Fay Templeton (25 dec 1865 – 03 oct 1939 | Little Rock AR – San Francisco CA) singer, actress, comedienne, music writer / author

Jenny Eakin Delony Rice (13 may 1866 – 01 apr 1949 | Washington AR – Little Rock AR) painter, educator, aka Jenny Myrowitz


1870s

Josie Bassett Morris (17 jan 1874 – 01 may 1964 | Hot Springs AR – Jensen UT) potter, pioneer, basket maker, cattle rancher, folk figure affiliated with The Wild Bunch Gang, rumored to have been Butch Cassidy’s sweetheart

Katharine Susan Anthony (27 nov 1877 – 20 nov 1965 | Roseville AR – New York NY) author, feminist, biographer

Karle Wilson Baker (13 oct 1878 – 08 nov 1960 | Little Rock AR – Nacogdoches TX) poet, author, teacher, pen name Charlotte Wilson


1880s

Sonora Smart Dodd (18 feb 1882 – 22 mar 1978 | Jenny Lind AR – Spokane WA) poet, painter, businesswoman, Father’s Day founder, aka the Mother of Father’s Day

Florence Beatrice Price (09 apr 1887 – 03 jun 1953 | Little Rock AR – Chicago IL) solo / choral / orchestral / symphonic composer, first African-American woman recognized as symphonic composer and to have composition played by major orchestra

Mary McCormic (11 nov 1889 – 10 feb 1981 | Belleville AR – Amarillo TX) operatic soprano, opera professor, operatic artistic director


1890s

Dorothy Shaver (29 jul 1893 – 29 jun 1959 | Texarkana AR – Kingston NY) interior decorator, fashion industry leader, founding member of the Fashion Group, president of Lord & Taylor, Shaver Doll maker / innovator, promoted American Look designs / designers

Mary Sybil Kidd Lewis (29 jan 1897 – 31 dec 1941 | Hot Springs AR – New York NY) operetta / vaudeville / grand opera singer

Charlie May Simon (17 aug 1897 – 21 mar 1977 | Monticello AR – Little Rock AR) artist, author, biographer, children’s book writer

Sippie Wallace (01 nov 1898 – 01 nov 1986 | Plum Bayou AR – Detroit MI) singer, pianist, organist, songwriter, choir director, aka The Texas Nightingale, born Beualh Belle Thomas


1900s

Minto Cato (23 aug 1900 – 26 oct 1979 | Little Rock AR – New York NY) teacher, operatic mezzo-soprano, member Harlem Renaissance

Esther McCoy (18 nov 1904 – 30 dec 1989 | Horatio AR – Santa Monica CA) author, journalist, short fiction writer, architectural historian

Gracie Bowers Pfost (12 mar 1906 – 11 aug 1965 | Harrison AR – Baltimore MD) realtor, first female state representative (ID), elder housing advocate

Mildred Edie Brady (03 jun 1906 – 27 jul 1965 | Little Rock AR – Mount Vernon NY) editor / reporter, freelance journalist

Patsy Montana (30 oct 1908 – 03 may 1996 | Beaudry AR – San Jacinto CA) memoirist, country musician, born Rubye Rebecca Blevins

Anna Harriet Heyer (30 aug 1909 – 12 aug 2002 | Little Rock AR – Fort Worth TX) musicologist, bibliographer, distinguished academic music librarian, head of Music Library at University of North Texas for 26 years


1910s

Mary Imogen Carpenter (02 feb 1912 – 24 mar 1993 | Hot Springs AR – Los Angeles CA) actress, musician, composer, music lecturer

Celia Alta Haskins Faubus (31 aug 1912 – 09 aug 2002 | Combs AR – Huntsville AR) newspaper publisher, First Lady of Arkansas

Mary Katherine Linaker (19 jul 1913 – 18 apr 2008 | Pine Bluff AR – Keene NH) actress, screenwriter, film studies professor, volunteer teacher / drama coach for exceptional children

Allie Beth Dent Martin (28 jun 1914 – 11 apr 1976 | Lawrence County AR – Tulsa OK) librarian, director of Tulsa City-County Library, ALA president

Daisy Lee Gatson Bates (11 nov 1914 – 04 nov 1999 | Huttig AR – Little Rock AR) civil rights activist, journalist, lecturer, publisher, autobiographical author

Gertrude Jeannette (28 nov 1914 – Urbana AR) African-American film / stage actress, young actors’ mentor, H.A.D.L.E.Y Players founder / theatre director, first female NYC licensed motorcyclist

Margaret Hunt Hill (19 oct 1915 – 14 jun 2007 | Lake Village AR – Dallas TX) heiress, philanthropist, resort owner, landscape artist, founder / director Dallas County Heritage Society

Mamie Phipps Clark (18 apr 1917 – 11 aug 1983 | Hot Springs AR – Hastings-on-Hudson NY) author, psychologist, civil rights advocate, child / race identity development researcher

Geraldine Hamilton McCullough (01 dec 1917 – 15 dec 2008 | Kingston AR – Oak Park IL) artist, sculptor, teacher


1920s

Helen Marie Gurley Brown (18 feb 1922 – 13 aug 2012 | Green Forest AR – New York NY) author, editor, publisher, magazine journalist, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine

Caroline Rose Hunt (08 jan 1923 – 13 nov 2018 | El Dorado AR – Dallas TX) author, heiress, hotelier, philanthropist

Mayme Agnew Clayton (04 aug 1923 – 13 oct 2006 | Van Buren AR – Los Angeles CA) librarian, African-American books / resources / memorabilia collector, founder / president / leader of Western States Black Research and Education Center (WSBREC)

Martha S. Lewis (24 feb 1924 – 02 jul 2007 | Kensett AR – Albany NY) social worker, civil rights activist, NY State Deputy Commissioner of Social Services, highest ranking African-American official in any US state government (1970s)

Elizabeth [Betty] Callans Flanagan Bumpers (11 jan 1925 – 23 nov 2018 | Grand Prairie AR – Little Rock AR) teacher, pacifist, world peace activist,  former First Lady of Arkansas, childhood immunizations advocate

Johnnie Lee Percy Tillmon Blackston (10 apr 1926 – 22 nov 1995 | Scott AR – Los Angeles CA) African-American, writer, feminist, welfare rights activist, Aid to Needy Children founder, National Welfare Rights director

Edith Mae Irby Jones (23 dec 1927 – 15 jul 2019 | near Conway AR – Houston TX) first black intern in Arkansas State, first African-American medical student in desegregated classes in US South, first female president of National Medical Association, co-founded two international hospitals in Haiti and Mexico

Irene Stuber (01 nov 1928 – 20 jan 2010 | Cleveland OH – Hot Springs AR) founded and facilitated Women of Achievement and Herstory (WOAH)

Rachel Marilyn Laird Lloyd (03 jan 1929 – 19 sep 2018 | Fort Smith AR – Chattanooga TN) state politician, business woman, domestic violence victims advocate, former owner of radio station and aviation company


1930s

Jocelyn Elders (13 aug 1933 – Schaal AR) author, professor, pediatrician, memoirist, née Minnie Lee Jones, public health administrator, pro-legalization of marijuana advocate

Gloria Long Anderson (05 nov 1938 – Altheimer AR) chemist, professor of chemistry, known for studies of fluorine-19 and solid rocket propellants


1940s

Nannerl [Nan] Overholser Keohane (18 sep 1940 – Blytheville AR) author, political theorist, women’s right advocate, former president Duke University / Wellesley College

Minnijean Brown-Trickey (11 sep 1941 – Little Rock AR) author, social worker, original Little Rock Nine desegregationist, civil rights / First Nations / minority rights activist

Elizabeth Eckford (04 oct 1941 – Little Rock AR) journalist, history teacher, welfare worker, civil rights activist, original Little Rock Nine member, Army information specialist

Melba Joyner Pattillo Beals (07 dec 1941 – Little Rock AR) African-American diarist, memoirist, journalist, Little Rock Nine integration activist

Amina Claudine Myers (21 mar 1942 – Blackwell AR) vocalist, organist, composer, arranger, jazz pianist

Gloria Ray Karlmark (26 sep 1942 – Little Rock AR) magazine editor, documentation expert, US school integration / Little Rock Nine member

Carlotta Walls LaNier (18 dec 1942 – Little Rock AR) African-American, memoirist, youngest member of Little Rock Nine high school integration activist

Margot Adler (16 apr 1946 – 28 jul 2014 | Little Rock AR – New York NY) author, Wiccan, lecturer, journalist, public radio correspondent

Sarah Rachel Hudson-Pierce (22 feb 1948 – Sulphur Springs AR) author, journalist, publisher, former cable television host

Barbara Hendricks (20 nov 1948 – Stephens AR) African-American operatic soprano / concert singer, humanitarian, international refugee advocate

Carolyn Doris [C.D.] Wright (06 jan 1949 – 12 jan 2016 | Mountain Home AR – Barrington RI) poet, professor, MacArthur Fellowship recipient

Norris Church Mailer (31 jan 1949 – 21 nov 2010 | Atkins AR – Brooklyn NY) artist, model, painter, literary figure, born Barbara Jean Davis, autobiographical author

Alice Louise Walton (07 oct 1949 – Newport AR) heiress, art collector, philanthropist


1950s

Iola Vivian Johnson (10 oct 1950 – Texarkana AR) former talk show host, first African-American news anchor for Dallas TX television station

Roseanna Vitro (28 feb 1951 – Hot Springs AR) jazz vocalist, master teacher, retired vocal jazz professor

Mary Lambert (13 oct 1951 – Helena AR) film director

Janis Faye Kearney (29 sep 1953 – Gould AR) author, lecturer, publisher, US Presidential diarist [first such appointment in US Presidential history]

Susan Dunn (23 jul 1954 – Malvern AR) spinto soprano, vocal music professor

Gina Ferris Vaughn Wilkins (20 dec 1954 – Little Rock AR) romance novelist

Helen Frances James (22 may 1956 – Hot Springs AR) paleontologist, ornithologist

Lisa Suzanne Blount (01 jul 1957 – 27 oct 2010 | Fayetteville AR – Little Rock AR) actress, producer

Lori Bryant-Woolridge (25 may 1958 – Arkansas US) author, speaker, anthologist, chick lit novelist, Chinese-African-American, co-founded Mothers Off Duty non-profit, teen pregnancy prevention advocate

Carla Killough McClafferty (11 jul 1958 – Lonoke County AR) biographer, children’s science / history author, former radiology technician

Ann Veasman Clemmer (10 aug 1958 – Wilson AR) politician, political scientist, first woman to preside over Arkansas House

Nancy A. Collins (10 sep 1959 – McGehee AR) sci-fi / fantasy / horror novelist / short story writer, aka Nanzi Regalia