Women | US-MT | Montana

1880s

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (11 jun 1880 – 18 may 1973 | Missoula MT – Carmel CA) pacifist, first woman in U.S. Congress


1890s

Ethel Hays (13 mar 1892 – 19 mar 1989 | Billings MT – New Mexico US) syndicated cartoonist, children’s book illustrator

Grace McKee Goddard (01 jan 1894 – 28 sep 1953 | MT – Los Angeles CA) film folk figure, Marilyn Monroe’s mother figure


1900s

Irene Maud Lentz (15 dec 1901 – 15 nov 1962 | Baker MT – Los Angeles CA) aka Irene and Irene Gibbons, fashion designer, costume designer, death by suicide

Helmi Dagmar Juvonen (17 jan 1903 – 18 oct 1985 | Butte MT – Elma WA) Finnish-American artist, arts activist, puppeteer, dollmaker, illustrator, printmaker, Pacific Northwest specialist

Rose Hum Lee (20 aug 1904 – 24 mar 1964 | Butte MT – Phoenix AZ) author, sociologist, researcher, short story writer, first female Chinese-American sociology department head

Myrna Adele Williams Loy (02 aug 1905 – 14 dec 1993 | Helena MT – New York NY) actress, autobiographical author, WWII Red Cross administrator, UNESCO member-at-large, co-chair US National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing

Dorothy Dodds Baker (21 apr 1907 – 17 jun 1968 | Missoula MT – Terra Bella CA) novelist, playwright, scriptwriter

Mary Oppen (28 nov 1908 – 14 may 1990 | Kalispell MT – Berkeley CA) poet, artist, activist, writer, photographer, autobiographical author


1910s

Martha Raye (27 aug 1916 – 19 aug 1994 | Butte MT – Los Angeles CA) nurse, comic actress, aka Colonel Maggie, USO entertainer WWII / Korea / Viet Nam, honorary member Green Beret Special Forces, US Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, born Margaret Yvonne Teresa Reed

Alma Smith Jacobs (21 nov 1916 – 18 dec 1997 | Lewistown MT – Bozeman MT) librarian, civil rights activist, first African-American Montana State Librarian, co-founded the Montana Committee for the Humanities

Evelyn Genevieve Sharp (01 oct 1919 – 03 apr 1944 | Melstone MT – Allen PA) aka Sharpie, pioneering aviatrix / barnstormer / military pilot


1920s

Elizabeth [Bette] Ruth Stadler Wallace (23 apr 1924 – 04 dec 2016 |  Taylor Creek MT – Mountain View CA) pharmacist, travel agent, world traveler, philanthropist, WWII US Army civilian worker

Anna Lee Waldo (16 feb 1925 – Great Falls MT) historical novelist, known for novel about Sacajawea / series of novels about Druid prince

Oleta [Lee] Kirk Abrams (12 jul 1927 – 08 jan 2005 | Bozeman MT – Oakland CA) educator, social activist, co-founded BAWAR (Bay Area Women Against Rape) first US rape crisis center, first victim-witness advocate Alameda County CA

Lee Minto (11 oct 1927 – Hamilton MT) women’s health activist, sex education advocate, former Executive Director of Seattle-King County Planned Parenthood

Ruth Anderson (21 mar 1928 – 29 nov 2019 | Kalispell MT – Bronx NY) Zen flutist, sound poet, orchestrator, electronic music composer


1930s

Norma Rae Beatty Ashby (27 dec 1935 – Helena MT) live tv show co-host, broadcast journalist, documentary filmmaker

Patricia Nell Warren (15 jun 1936 – 09 feb 2019 | Helena MT – Los Angeles CA) poet, editor, novelist, journalist, pen name: Patricia Kilina

Clara Mae White Hip Nomee (12 may 1938 – 31 jan 2012 | Crow Agency MT – Billings MT) politician, tribal leader, worked for Bureau of Indian Affairs, first female Chair of Crow Nation (1990-2000), birth name Xooxaashe iisaashe itshe [Good Corn Stock]


1940s

Jaune Quick–to–See Smith (15 jan 1940 – Confederated Salish and Kootenai Indian Reservation MT) abstract painter / printmaker, collaborative public installation artist, Native American artist / arts activist / curator / organizer

Mary K. Rothbart (22 may 1940 – Lewistown MT) author, essayist, professor emerita of psychology, founded Birth to Three parent support / education program, research focus temperament and social-emotional development

Barbara Alexander Ehrenreich (26 aug 1941 – Butte MT) author, memoirist, social critic, political activist, aka veteran muckraker and myth-buster by trade

Kathryn Posin (23 mar 1943 – Butte MT) professor, choreographer, focus on fusion of ballet and modern dance genres

Elouise Pepion Cobell (05 nov 1945 – 16 oct 2011 | Blackfeet Reservation MT – Great Falls MT) banker, activist, rancher, tribal elder, aka Yellow Bird Woman, lead plaintiff in class-action suit challenging US mismanagement of individual Native American trust funds

Mary Overlie (15 jan 1946 – 05 jun 2020 | Terry MT – Bozeman MT) author, dancer, theater artist, choreographer, originator of Six Viewpoints technique for dance and theater, co-founder of Danspace Project / the Studies Project / Movement Research / Experimental Theater Wing at NYU


1950s

Ann Hould-Ward (08 apr 1954 – Glasgow MT) dance / theatre costume designer