1780s
Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln (13 dec 1788 – 12 apr 1869 | Elizabethtown KY – Coles County IL) pioneer, educational mentor, political family figure, Abraham Lincoln’s step-mother
1790s
1800s
1810s
Ann Mayes Rutledge (07 jan 1813 – 25 aug 1835 | Henderson KY – New Salem IL) US folk figure, aka [US President Abraham] Lincoln’s First Love
Sarah Tittle Bolton (18 dec 1814 – 05 aug 1893 | Newport KY – Indianapolis IN) poet, author, women’s / property rights activist, aka Indiana’s Pioneer Poet
Mary Todd Lincoln (13 dec 1818 – 16 jul 1882 | Lexington KY – Springfield IL) political family member, US Presidential First Lady, born 30 years to the day after Abraham Lincoln’s step-mother Sarah Bush Lincoln
Louisa [Lou] Hawkins Canby (25 dec 1818 – 27 jun 1889 | Paris KY – Portland OR) humanitarian, Union Army wife, charitable activist, aka The Angel of Santa Fe, converted Santa Fe home into hospital to nurse Confederate soldiers during US Civil War
1820s
Virginia Penny (18 jan 1826 – 04 apr 1913 | Louisville KY – Wards Island NY) author, economist, suffragist, social reformer, employment agency owner for women, first to study women’s labor markets
1830s
Mary Jane McAfee Atkins (22 oct 1836 – 13 oct 1911 | Harrodsburg KY – Colorado Springs CO) heiress, teacher, philanthropist, founded Kansas City Art Museum [now known as Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art]
Mary Barr Clay (02 oct 1839 – 12 oct 1924 | Lexington KY – Richmond KY) poet, author, pioneering Kentucky feminist / suffragist, aka Mary B. Clay and Mrs. J. Frank Herrick
1840s
Carrie Amelia Moore (25 nov 1846 – 09 jun 1911 | Garrard County KY – Leavenworth KS) author, speaker, newsletter publisher, radical temperance activist, aka Carrie Nation and Carry A. Nation
Elizabeth Harrison (01 sep 1849 – 31 oct 1927 | Athens KY – San Antonio TX) educator, non-fiction author, autobiographical author, founding president National Louis University, early childhood / teacher training pioneer, founding member of International Kindegarten Movement, sponsored first Mothers’ Convention [later became National Parent Teachers Association]
1850s
1860s
Nancy [Nannie] Jones (28 jan 1860 – unknown | Hopkinsville KY – unknown) born in slavery, college graduate, first unmarried Baptist African-American female missionary commissioned by American Board of Foreign Missions
Corinne Knight True (01 nov 1861 – 03 apr 1961 | Louisville KY – Chicago IL) Baha’i, pacifist, religious leader, organized first American Baha’i temple building, aka Mother of the Temple
Lucy Wilmot Smith (16 nov 1861 – 01 dec 1889 | Lexington KY – Lexington KY) editor, teacher, historian, journalist, suffragist, social activist, women’s rights activist, unfinished book: Women and Their Achievements, one of first female office holder of American National Baptist Convention
Ellen Churchill Semple (08 jan 1863 – 08 may 1932 | Louisville KY – West Palm Beach FL) author, geographer, Presidential advisor, president American Geographers, first female president of any US academic organization
Fannie Caldwell (22 nov 1863 – 06 jan 1941 | Shelbyville KY – Louisville KY) prolific novelist, focus on Japanese life, pen name: Frances Little
Anne Hazen McFarland Cromwell Sharpe (10 oct 1867 – 13 dec 1930 | Lexington KY – Tallahassee FL) physician, medical journal editor, lunacy law reformer, focused on care of insane
Emma A. Sampson (01 dec 1868 – 07 may 1947 | Louisville KY – Richmond VA) author, pen name: Nell Speed, children’s / young adult novelist
1870s
Alice Caldwell Hegan Rice (11 jan 1870 – 10 feb 1942 | Shelbyville KY – Louisville KY) novelist
Anne Laziere Crawford Flexner (11 jan 1874 – 11 jan 1955 | Georgetown KY – Providence RI) playwright
Cora Wilson Stewart (17 jan 1875 – 02 dec 1958 | Farmers KY – Columbus NC) educator, social reformer, founded Moonlight Schools to teach illiterate adults
Marie Mattingly Meloney (08 dec 1878 – 23 jun 1943 | Bardstown KY – Pawling NY) socialite, journalist, magazine editor, housing activist, founded Better Homes in America, friend / confidante of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the leading female journalists of her time
Effie Waller Smith (06 jan 1879 – 02 jan 1960 | Pikeville KY – Neenah WI) African-American poet
Mary E. Sweeney (11 oct 1879 – 11 jun 1968 | Lexington KY – Lexington KY) author, educator, clubwoman, home economics professor / national president
1880s
Lena Madesin Phillips (15 sep 1881 – 22 may 1955 | Nicholasville KY – Marseille, France) lawyer, clubwoman, philanthropist, autobiographical author
Katherine Tupper Brown Marshall (08 oct 1882 – 18 dec 1978 | Harrodsburg KY – Georgia US) autobiographical author
Jennie Maas Flexner (06 nov 1882 – 17 nov 1944 | Louisville KY – New York NY) author, librarian, leader in adult education, focus on reader-centered libraries
Virginia Tyler Hudson Brightman (07 jan 1886 – 1916 | Gratz KY – US) journalist, screenwriter
1890s
Florence Katherine Shoemaker Thompson Riney (30 oct 1892 – 13 apr 1961 | Louisville KY – Owensboro KY) first female US sheriff to carry out an execution by hanging
Esther Walker (18 oct 1894 – 26 jul 1943 | Peewee Valley KY – Dallas TX) singer, philanthropist, musical comedy performer, co-founded Hoblitzelle Foundation
Caroline Gordon (06 oct 1895 – 11 apr 1981 | Todd County KY – San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico) novelist, literary critic
Edith Wilson (02 sep 1896 – 30 mar 1981 | Louisville KY – Chicago IL) singer, actress, social icon, aka Aunt Jemima for Quaker Oats
1900s
Mary Caperton Bingham (24 dec 1904 – 18 apr 1995 | Richmond KY – Louisville KY) newspaper publisher, civil rights activist, philanthropist
Willa Beatrice Brown (22 jan 1906 – 18 jul 1992 | Glasgow KY – Chicago IL) aerospace pioneer, first African-American female commercial pilot and Civil Air patrol officer
Olivia Joyce Compton (27 jan 1907 – 13 oct 1997 | Lexington KY – Los Angeles CA) nurse, actress, memoirist, devout Christian, protested ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype
Eleanor Flexner (04 oct 1908 – 25 mar 1995 | Georgetown KY – Worcester MA) author, scholar, activist, feminist
1910s
Christine Johnson Smith (08 sep 1911 – 09 jun 2010 | Hopkinsville KY – Owensboro KY) actress, operatic contralto
Mary Eugenia Wharton (12 oct 1912 – 28 nov 1991 | Jasmine County KY – Lexington KY) author, botanist, environmental activist, founded Floracliff Nature Sanctuary
Dorothy Grider (19 jan 1915 – 18 feb 2012 | Bowling Green KY – Bowling Green KY) artist, children’s book illustrator
Helen LaFrance (04 nov 1919 – 22 nov 2020 | Graves County KY – Mayfield KY) African-American, outsider artist, self-taught painter, focus on memory painting of disappearing lifestyle of rural South
1920s
Juanita Morris Kreps (11 jan 1921 – 05 jul 2010 | Lynch KY – Durham NC) author, economist, women’s economic status researcher, US Presidential Cabinet Secretary
Jean Ritchie (08 dec 1922 – 01 jun 2015 | Viper KY – Berea KY) author, folk music singer-songwriter, Appalachian dulcimer player
Patricia Louise Neal (20 jan 1926 – 08 aug 2010 | Packard KY – Edgartown MA) actress, arts supporter, autobiographical author, stroke / spinal cord / brain injury activist / spokesperson
Eula Hall (29 oct 1927 – Pike County KY) aka the Hillbilly Activist, Appalachian activist, healthcare pioneer, Mud Creek Clinic founder / social director
1930s
Shelby Hearon (18 jan 1931 – 10 dec 2016 | Marion KY – Burlington VT) novelist, short story writer
Betty Lentz Siegel (24 jan 1931 – 11 feb 2020 | Cumberland KY – Keenesaw GA) author, academic, first female president University System of Georgia [State], former President Kennesaw State University
Karen Kruse Anderson (16 sep 1932 – 18 mar 2018 | Erlanger KY – Los Angeles CA) poet, editor, novelist, philologist, first to use term ‘filk music’ in print, first to write scifaiku [science fiction haiku]
Mary Allin Travers (09 nov 1936 – 16 sep 2009 | Louisville KY – Danbury CT) memoirist, folk musician / icon, singer-songwriter
Bonnie Strickland (24 nov 1936 – Louisville KY) author, academic, feminist, psychologist, former president American Psychological Association [APA]
Martha Lane Hall Collins (07 dec 1936 – Bagdad KY) academic administrator, former politician / businesswoman, first / only female governor of Kentucky [1983-1987], executive scholar-in-residence at Georgetown [KY] College
Sallie Bingham (22 jan 1937 – Louisville KY) poet, author, activist, novelist, memoirist, teacher, feminist, playwright, short fiction writer, philanthropist
1940s
Julie Parrish (21 oct 1940 – 01 oct 2003 | Middlesboro KY – Los Angeles CA)author, essayist, tv / film / stage actress, domestic violence recovery activist, née Ruby Joyce Wilbar
Judi Jane Conway Patton (23 nov 1940 – Pikeville KY) former First Lady of Kentucky, women’s safety / child abuse protection activist / advocate
Vicki Rogosin Lansky (06 jan 1942 – 15 jan 2017 | Louisville KY – Plymouth MN) author, publisher, cookbook writer, contributing editor, Sunday newspaper columnist, practical parenting author, parent / child read-together book writer
Mary Sue Coleman (02 oct 1943 – Kentucky US) former university president, former professor of biological chemistry, president of Association of American Universities [AAU]
Laura Clayton (08 dec 1943 – Lexington KY) pianist, composer, doctor of musical arts
Diane Sawyer (22 dec 1945 – Glasgow KY) tv host / broadcast journalist
Roxana Barry Robinson (30 nov 1946 – Pine Mountain KY) novelist, biographer
Jude Gilliam Deveraux (20 sep 1947 – Fairdale KY) historical romance novelist
Marsha Norman (21 sep 1947 – Louisville KY) novelist, playwright, screenwriter, fine arts professor
Joan McCall (31 jan 1948 – Kentucky US) actress, producer, screenwriter, Science of Mind minister, former Spiritual Director for Creative Arts Center for Spiritual Living [CACSL]
Gayl Jones (23 nov 1949 – Lexington KY) African-American poet, novelist, playwright, professor, literary critic
1950s
Susan Elaine Eisenhower (31 dec 1951 – Fort Knox KY) author, consultant, international energy / security / space policy expert
bell hooks (25 sep 1952 – Hopkinsville KY) poet, author, speaker, feminist, social activist, née Gloria Jean Watkins
Jessie Gruman (07 dec 1953 – 14 jul 2014 | Berea KY – New York NY) nonfiction author, health consumer advocate / researcher
Mary Gaitskill (11 nov 1954 – Lexington KY) novelist, essayist, short fiction writer
Allison Anders (16 nov 1954 – Ashland KY) independent film director / producer
Barbara Ann Perry (24 jan 1956 – Louisville KY) author, feminist, professor, biographer, national media commentator, US Presidency and Supreme Court expert / specialist
Martha Barnette (18 nov 1957 – Louisville KY) author, etymologist, radio producer, radio personality, co-host / co-producer weekly language program A Way with Words