Women | US-SC | South Carolina

1750s

Martha Laurens Ramsay (03 nov 1759 – 10 jun 1811 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) diarist, genealogist, letter correspondent, private memoirs published by husband six weeks after her death


1760s


1770s

Isabella Maria Hazzard Floyd (03 jan 1773 – 18 aug 1859 | Beaufort SC – Saint Marys GA) settler, member Daughters of American Revolution


1780s


1790s

Floride Bonneau Calhoun (15 feb 1792 – 25 jul 1866 | Charleston SC – Pendleton SC) poet, plantation mistress, US Vice-Presidential Second Lady, social-political Petticoat Affair member

Sarah Moore Grimké (26 nov 1792 – 23 dec 1873 | Charleston SC – Boston MA) writer, lawyer, speaker, suffragist, abolitionist, feminist, women’s laws / legal activist

Maria Martin Bachman (03 jul 1796 – 18 dec 1863 | Charleston SC – Columbia SC) artist, naturalist, Audubon illustrator

Penina Moise (23 apr 1797 – 13 sep 1880 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, hymnist


1800s

Angelina Emily Grimké Weld (20 feb 1805 – 26 oct 1879 | Charleston SC – Hyde Park MA) suffragist, abolitionist, letter correspondent, women’s rights advocate


1810s

Mary S. B. Dana Shindler (15 feb 1810 – 1883 | Beaufort SC – Nacogdoches TX) poet, author, editor, hymnist, letter correspondent, born Mary Stanley Bunce Palmer

Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord (03 dec 1810 – 23 nov 1879 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, author, suffragist, playwright, translator, political essayist

Ann Pamela Cunningham (15 aug 1816 – 01 may 1875 | Rosemont Plantation SC – Rosemont Plantation SC) historical preservationist, founded The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union

Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson (13 feb 1817 – 22 sep 1875 | Willington SC – Pendleton SC) folk figure, philanthropist, co-founder Clemson University

Angelica Singleton Van Buren (13 feb 1818 – 29 dec 1877 | Wedgefield SC – New York NY) youngest acting First Lady / White House hostess, charitable activist / philanthropist


1820s

Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut (31 mar 1823 – 22 nov 1886 | Stateburg SC – Camden SC) diarist, novelist, political family member

Harriet Starr Cannon (07 may 1823 – 29 mar 1896 | Charleston SC – Peekskill NY) religious, school founder, children’s advocate, spiritual leader / organizer, founded Episcopalian Sisterhood of St Mary

Phoebe Yates Levy Pember (18 aug 1823 – 04 mar 1913 | Charleston SC – Pittsburgh PA) memoirist, medical pioneer, Civil War nurse, Confederate hospital administrator

Julia Caroline Ripley Dorr (13 feb 1825 – 18 jan 1913 | Charleston SC – Rutland VT) poet, prose author


1830s


1840s

Clara Louise Kellogg (09 jul 1842 – 13 may 1916 | Sumterville SC – New Hartford CT) memoirist, operatic prima donna, opera company founder / director

Malvina Sarah Black Waring (12 nov 1842 – 1930 | Newberry SC – Platteville WI) serial novelist

Elizabeth Waties Allston Pringle (29 may 1845 – 05 dec 1921 | Pawley’s Island SC – Charleston SC) author, diarist, publisher, rice farmer, slave holder, aka Patience Pennington


1850s

Clarissa Minnie Thomason Allen (01 oct 1859 – 23 nov 1841 | Columbia SC – Milam TX) author, educator, short fiction writer, focus on high society African-American families


1860s

Miriam Elizabeth Benjamin (16 sep 1861 – 1947 | Charleston SC – Boston MA) teacher, inventor, patented Gong and Signal Chair for hotels, second black woman to receive US Patent [note: found no images of the inventor herself; image used is one of an unidentified 19th c. black woman]

Anna DeCosta Banks (02 sep 1869 – 29 nov 1930 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) nurse, nursing school superintendent, civic / civil rights activist


1870s

Ella Broadus Robertson (19 apr 1872 – 05 dec 1945 | Greenville SC – Louisville KY) nonfiction author

Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass (13 feb 1874 – 12 apr 1969 | Sumter SC – Los Angeles CA) educator, civil rights activist, newspaper editor / publisher, first African-American woman nominated for Vice President as candidate of Progressive Party

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (10 jul 1875 – 18 may 1955 | Mayesville SC – Daytona Beach CA) author, educator, school founder, African-American civil rights activist / leader

Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt (29 dec 1875 – 16 nov 1935 | Camden SC – Philadelphia PA) physician, public health worker, eye-ear-nose-and-throat specialist

Anna Heyward Taylor (13 nov 1879 – 04 mar 1956 | Columbia SC – Columbia SC) artist, painter, printmaker, WWI Red Cross worker in France, leading artist of Charleston Renaissance movement


1880s

Julia Peterkin (31 oct 1880 – 10 aug 1961 | Laurens SC – near Fort Motte SC) poet, novelist, Pulitzer Prize laureate

Jane Edna Hunter (13 dec 1882 – 19 jan 1971 | Pendleton SC – Cleveland OH) African-American social worker, children / family advocate, autobiographical author

Lily Strickland Anderson (28 jan 1884 – 06 jun 1958 | Anderson SC – Hendersonville NC) writer, painter, composer, songwriter, aka South Carolina’s Gift to Music

Elizabeth Hawley Gasque Van Exem (26 feb 1886 – 02 nov 1989 | Blythewood SC – Ridgeway SC) author, lecturer, politician, first female SC State Representative, longest lived member of US House or Senate

Elizabeth [May] Adams Craig (19 dec 1889 – 15 jul 1975 | Coosaw Mines SC – Silver Spring MD) journalist, suffragist, children’s equal education activist, WWII / Korean War / US political correspondent


1890s

Anita Lily Pollitzer (31 oct 1894 – 03 jul 1975 | Charleston SC – New York NY) suffragist, photographer, National Chair of National Women’s Party

Josephine Lyons Scott Pinckney (25 jan 1895 – 04 oct 1957 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) poet, novelist, founded Poetry Society of South Carolina

Gamel Woolsey (28 may 1895 -18 jan 1968 | Aiken SC – Malaga, Spain) poet, novelist

Katherine Ball Ripley (20 mar 1898 – 24 jul 1955 | Charleston SC – Charleston SC) novelist, memoirist, short story writer

Septima Poinsette Clark (03 may 1898 – 15 dec 1987 | Charleston SC – St Johns Island SC) educator, civil rights activist, autobiographical author


1900s

Gertrude Sanford Legendre (29 mar 1902 – 08 mar 2000 | Aiken SC – Berkeley County SC) WWII spy, socialite, explorer, memoirist, environmentalist, big-game hunter, Southern plantation owner

Gwen Bristow (16 sep 1903 – 17 aug 1980 | Marion SC – New Orleans LA) author, journalist

Georgia Harris (29 jul 1905 – 30 jan 1997 | near Rock Hill SC – Dallas GA) potter, traditional Catawba pottery preservationist


1910s

Juanita Redmond Hipps (01 jul 1912 – 25 feb 1979 | South Carolina US – Saint Petersburg FL) author, memoirist, US Army officer, WWII Army nurse

Grace Beacham Freeman (18 feb 1916 – 28 oct 2008 | Spartanburg SC – Asheville NC) poet, columnist, educator, short story writer

Alice Childress (12 oct 1916 – 14 aug 1994 | Charleston SC – New York NY) actress, playwright

Henrietta Boggs (06 may 1918 – 09 sep 2020 | Spartanburg SC – Montgomery AL) author, activist, memoirist, journalist, former First Lady of Costa Rica

Sara Dunlop Jackson (28 may 1919 – 19 apr 1991 | Columbia SC – Washington DC) archivist, historian, focus on military history, pioneer Africa-American employee of US National Archives and Records Administration


1920s

Dorothy Hollingsworth (29 oct 1920 – Bishopville SC) social worker, early childhood educator, first director Seattle Public Schools’ Head Start program

Lois Rhame West (05 sep 1921 – 06 may 2014 | Camden SC – Hilton Head Island SC) activist, philanthropist, health / physical fitness advocate, First Lady of South Carolina

Ophelia DeVore (12 aug 1922 – 28 feb 2014 | Edgefield SC – Manhattan NY) newspaper publisher, non-white inclusion activist, first African-American model in US, co-founded one of first US black modeling agency

Anita Cornwell (23 sep 1923 – Greenwood SC) feminist author, wrote first collection of essays by African-American lesbian

Myrtle [Kay] Thompson Cagle (03 jun 1925 – 22 dec 2019 | South Carolina US – Georgia US) pilot, writer, astronaut, flight instructor

Susan Reed (11 jan 1926 – 25 apr 2010 | Columbia SC – Greenport NY) author, harpist, zitherist, folk singer, hootenanny movement pioneer / performer

Eartha Kitt (17 jan 1927 – 25 dec 2008 | North SC – Weston CT) singer, dancer, author, activist, memoirist, comedian, voice artist, née Eartha Mae Keith, German-Cherokee-African-American

Catherine Ponder (14 feb 1927 – Hartsville SC) Unity minister, prosperity author


1930s

Sarah Mae Flemming Brown (28 jun 1933 – 16 jun 1993 | Eastover SC – Eastover SC) domestic worker, civil rights activist, bus action / lawsuit preceded Rosa Parks

Alexandra Ripley (08 jan 1934 – 10 jan 2004 | Charleston SC – Richmond VA) novelist, pseudonym: B. K. Ripley

Martha Rivers Ingram (20 aug 1935 – Charleston SC) patron of arts, philanthropist, business executive, chair Vanderbilt University board

Gloria Conyers Hewitt (26 oct 1935 – Sumter SC) essayist, mathematician, professor emerita, focus on group theory, fourth African-American female PhD in Mathematics, first African-American female to chair US math department

Bennie Lee Sinclair (15 apr 1939 – 22 may 2000 | Greenville SC – Greenville SC) poet, novelist, short story writer, South Carolina Poet Laureate (1986-2000)

Marion P. Hammer (26 apr 1939 – Columbia SC) pro-gun activist, first female president of National Rifle Association (NRA)

Marian Wright Edelman (06 jun 1939 – Bennettsville SC) author, children’s rights activist


1940s

Horacena J. Taylor (21 nov 1940 – Columbia SC) theatre director, stage manager

Charlayne Hunter-Gault (27 feb 1942 – Due West SC) journalist, civil rights activist, former NPR foreign correspondent

Jean H. Toal (11 aug 1943 – Columbia SC) attorney, former /  first woman / first Roman Catholic Chief Justice of Supreme Court of South Carolina, aka Madame Chief Justice

Josephine Humphreys (02 feb 1945 – Charleston SC) Southern historical novelist

Alice R. Ballard (16 jun 1945 – Florence SC) ceramicist

Rosa Pam Durban (04 mar 1947 – Aiken SC) novelist, professor, short fiction writer, Five Points journal founding co-editor

Carol Hampton Rasco (13 jan 1948 – Columbia SC) US political aide, advocate for literacy / children / disability rights, former Director of US Domestic Policy Council

Louvenia [Kitty] Black Perkins (13 feb 1948 – Spartanburg SC) Chief Designer of Fashions and Doll Concepts for Mattel’s Barbie, created first Black Barbie / line of African-American dolls

Kathryn Frost (07 nov 1948 – 18 aug 2006 | Latta SC – Latta SC) Major General US Army-Air Force Exchange Service, at retirement, highest ranking US Army female officer

Jacquelyn Grant (19 dec 1948 – Georgetown SC) African-American author, professor, feminist, reverend, theologian, founding member of ‘womanist theology’

Marshall Chapman (07 jan 1949 – Spartanburg SC) author, actor, singer-songwriter

Dorothy Allison (11 apr 1949 – Greenville SC) writer, speaker, feminist, lesbian femme

Lurma M. Rackley (24 apr 1949 – Orangeburg SC) author, journalist, publicist, civil rights activist

Mildred Elizabeth [Millie] Maree Horn (08 nov 1949 – 03 mar 1993 | Round SC – Silver Spring MD) murder victim, senior airline attendant, mother of special needs child


1950s

Monica F. Helms (08 mar 1951 – Sumter SC) author, activist, short fiction writer, US Navy veteran, model rocket builder, Transgender Pride Flag creator

Blondell Reynolds Brown (16 oct 1952 – Sumter SC) community activist, city council politician, women’s rights advocate

Robin Stender Swicord (23 oct 1952 – Columbia SC) essayist, film director, screenwriter

Gloria Bromell Tinubu (22 feb 1953 – Georgetown County SC) author, educator, applied economist, first to attend college in her family, African-American Georgia State legislator

Darla Dee Moore (01 aug 1954 – Lake City SC) author, financier, philanthropist, partner of private investment firm Rainwater Inc

Debra L. Lee (08 aug 1954 – Fort Jackson SC) businesswoman, Chair / CEO of BET Black Entertainment Television, board member of Revlon, Marriott, and Twitter

Pernessa C. Seele (15 oct 1954 – Lincolnville SC) immunologist, interfaith public health activist, CEO and founder of Balm in Gilead, Inc.

Catherine [Cat] Bauer (27 jul 1955 – Greenville SC) novelist, art / culture / architecture Italian newspaper writer

Vanna Marie Rosich White (18 feb 1957 – Conway SC) actress, tv hostess / personality, knitting / crochet yarn entrepreneur

Leeza Kim Gibbons (26 mar 1957 – Hartsville SC) author, children’s advocate, tv talk show host, former Entertainment Tonight co-host / correspondent

Joann [Jo] Jorgensen (01 may 1957 – Greenville SC) professor, psychology lecturer, former US Libertarian Party vice-presidential candidate

Lynn Carol [Nikky] Finney (26 aug 1957 – Conway SC) poet, professor, short fiction author, social justice / cultural preservation advocate