1800s
Sarah Childress Polk (04 sep 1803 – 14 aug 1891 | Murfreesboro TN – Nashville TN) US Presidential First Lady, active Presbyterian, Presidential consultant, hosted first annual Thanksgiving Dinner at the White House
Emily Donelson (01 jun 1807 – 19 dec 1836 | Donelson TN – Nashville TN) shortest-lived US First Lady, White House Hostess
Mary Ramsey Lemons Wood (20 may 1809 – 01 jan 1908 | Knoxville TN – Hillsboro OR) pioneer, died as oldest person (disputed), aka Oldest Methodist in the World, First Mother Queen of Oregon Pioneers
1810s
Eliza McCardle Johnson (04 oct 1810 – 15 jan 1876 | Telford TN – Greeneville TN) US Presidential First Lady, informal Presidential tutor / educator
1820s
Ann Eliza Worcester Robertson (07 nov 1826 – 19 nov 1905 | Brainerd TN – Muskogee OK) author, editor, teacher, missionary, translator, Muscogee / English linguistics scholar
Pamela Clemens Moffett (13 sep 1827 – 31 aug 1904 | Jamestown TN – Greenwich CT) musician, music teacher, literary family figure
1830s
Lucy Petway Holcombe Pickens (11 jun 1832 – 08 aug 1899 | La Grange TN – Edgefield SC) author, socialite, flag seamstress, Confederate icon, aka Queen of the Confederacy
Elizabeth Lyle Saxon (02 dec 1832 – 14 mar 1915 | Greenville TN – Memphis TN) speaker, memoirist, women’s rights activist, pioneer Southern suffrage leader
Larcena Ann Pennington Page Scott (10 jan 1837 – 31 mar 1913 | Nashville TN – Tucson AZ) pioneer, Western folk heroine, Indian kidnap survivor
1840s
1850s
Mary Susan Noailles Murfree (24 jan 1850 – 31 jul 1922 | Murfreesboro TN – Murfreesboro TN) novelist, short story writer, aka Charles Egbert Craddock
Margaret Elizabeth [Lizzie] Crozier French (07 may 1851 – 14 may 1926 | Knoxville TN – Washington DC) educator, suffragist, social reform activist
Virginia E. Walker Broughton (01 mar 1856 – 21 sep 1934 | Nashville TN – Memphis TN) African-American author, teacher, essayist, preacher, religious scholar, Baptist missionary
Mary Boyce Temple (06 jul 1856 – 16 may 1929 | Knoxville TN – Knoxville TN) socialite, biographer, philanthropist, first president of the Ossoli Circle
Matilda Lotz (29 nov 1858 – 21 feb 1923 | Franklin TN – Tata, Hungary) painter, world traveler, animal portrait artist
Elizabeth Lee Bloomstein (08 jan 1859 – 02 jan 1927 | Nashville TN – Nashville TN) suffragist, clubwoman, history professor, university librarian
1860s
Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (18 nov 1861 – 16 dec 1951 | Montgomery TN – New Orleans LA) journalist, crime reporter, advice columnist, aka Dorothy Dix
Willie Betty Newman (21 jan 1863 – 06 feb 1935 | Murfreesboro TN – Nashville TN) portrait artist, worked / exhibited in Paris salons and in her native Tennessee and throughout the US
Virginia Frazer Boyle (14 feb 1863 – 13 dec 1938 | Chattanooga TN – Memphis TN) poet, author
Mary Eliza Church Terrell (23 sep 1863 – 24 jul 1954 | Memphis TN – Annapolis MD) suffragist, civil rights activist / leader, first female African-American college graduate
Claribel Cone (14 nov 1864 – 20 sep 1929 | Jonesboro TN – Baltimore MD) German-American art collector, physician, pathologist
Mary Frances Isom (27 feb 1865 – 15 apr 1920 | Nashville TN – Portland OR) librarian, community activist
Janie Brady Jones (29 oct 1866 – 21 nov 1958 | Jackson TN – Jackson TN) US folk figure, wife of legendary railroad engineer Casey Jones
Emma Azalia Hackley (29 jun 1867 – 13 dec 1922 | Murfreesboro TN – Detroit MI) singer, author, lecturer, musician, child prodigy, school teacher, music publisher, civic / social / civil rights activist, founding executive director Colored Women’s League, founded Hackley Choral Society and Voice Normal Institute
1870s
Sarah Jane Layton Walker Cahier (08 jan 1870 – 15 apr 1951 | Nashville TN – Manhattan Beach CA) master teacher / vocal coach, contralto / mezzo-soprano opera and lieder singer, dual American-Swedish citizenship
Etta Cone (30 nov 1870 – 31 aug 1949 | Jonesboro TN – Baltimore MD) heiress, literary figure, modern art collector
Mary Magdalena Lewis Tate (05 jan 1871 – 28 dec 1930 | Vanleer TN – Philadelphia PA) African-American, author, preacher, Bishop Mother, religious leader, Church of the Living God, Pillar and Ground of Truth founder
Alice Nielsen (07 jun 1872 – 08 mar 1943 | Nashville TN – Far Rockaway NY) operatic lyric soprano
Mary Engle Pennington (08 oct 1872 – 27 dec 1952 | Nashville TN – New York NY) author, egg carton inventor, bacteriological chemist, one of first female refrigeration engineers, aka The Ice Mother and The Mother of Refrigerated Shipping
Mary Carr Moore (06 aug 1873 – 09 jan 1957 | Memphis TN – Inglewood CA) author, vocalist, composer, conductor, music educator
Jeannette Augustus Marks (16 aug 1875 – 15 mar 1964 | Chattanooga TN – Westport NY) author, lecturer, educator, feminist
Hattie Ophelia Wyatt Caraway (01 feb 1878 – 21 dec 1950 | Bakerville TN – Falls Church VA) educator, politician, first woman elected full term US Senator
Anne Bradshaw Clopton (22 jul 1878 – 04 feb 1956 | Shelbyville TN – Huntsville AL) artist, cobweb painter, school teacher, Girl Scout activist
Henrietta Crawley Myers (10 nov 1878 – 25 mar 1968 | Nashville TN – Nashville TN) contralto singer, choral director, directed Fisk Jubilee Singers
Mary Susan James Barr (17 jun 1879 – 11 oct 1935 | Nashville TN – Kansas City MO) folk figure, daughter of Zerelda Mimms and outlaw Jesse James | women.born.today © susan.powers.bourne
Beth Slater Whitson (01 dec 1879 – 26 apr 1930 | Goodrich TN – Nashville TN) poet, lyricist, short fiction author
1880s
Maude Mary Hawk Fealy (04 mar 1883 – 09 nov 1971 | Memphis TN – Woodland Hills CA) actress, lecturer, playwright
Mary Ross Calvert (20 jun 1884 – 25 jun 1974 | Nashville TN – Nashville TN) author, astro-photographer, astronomical computer, Yerkes photographic plate collection and a high-level assistant at Yakes Observatory
Sue Shelton White (25 may 1887 – 06 may 1943 | Henderson TN – Washington DC) editor, author, lawyer, aka Miss Sue, reformer, suffragist, public official, National Women’s Party leader
1890s
Evelyn Dunn Scott (17 jan 1893 – 03 aug 1963 | Clarksville TN – New York NY) poet, critic, novelist, essayist, playwright, aka Daughter of Tennessee
Alberta Hunter (01 apr 1895 – 17 oct 1984 | Memphis TN – Roosevelt Island NY) nurse, composer, jazz / blues singer-songwriter, aka May Alix, Josephine Beatty
Lil Hardin Armstrong (03 feb 1898 – 27 aug 1971 | Memphis TN – Chicago IL) jazz singer, pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader
Mary Willie [Grace] Moore (05 dec 1898 – 26 jun 1947 | Del Rio TN – Copenhagen, Denmark) operatic soprano, film / musical theatre actress, autobiographical author, aka Tennessee Nightingale
1900s
Florence Patton Reece (12 apr 1900 – 03 aug 1986 | Sharps Chapel TN – Knoxville TN) poet, folk songwriter, labor / civil rights activist
Ida Lou Anderson (06 nov 1900 – 16 sep 1941 | Morgantown TN – Oregon) professor of speech, polio victim, pioneer in field of radio broadcasting, critic / mentor / guide / compass for legendary Edward R. Murrow
1910s
Elsie Quarterman (28 nov 1910 – 09 jun 2014 | Valdosta GA – Nashville TN) author, essayist, plant ecologist, rediscovered Tennessee coneflower (1969) thought extinct
Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon (25 oct 1912 – 04 mar 1996 | Centerville TN – Nashville TN) memoirist, comedienne, aka Minnie Pearl, cookbook writer, autobiographical author
Carman Dee Barnes (20 nov 1912 – 19 aug 1980 | Chattanooga TN – Salzburg, Austria) novelist, studied with esotericist P. D. Ouspensky
Catherine Sarah Wood Marshall Le Sourd (27 sep 1914 – 18 mar 1983 | Johnson City TN – Boynton Beach FL) inspirational fiction / nonfiction author
Cornelia Clark Fort (05 feb 1919 – 21 mar 1943 | Nashville TN – Merkel TX) aviator, first woman flight instructor (TN) / civilian pilot instructor at Pearl Harbor (HI), second one to join WAFS [Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron], first female pilot in US history to die on active duty
1920s
Betty Jayne Schultz (12 feb 1921 – 22 nov 2018 | Greenville TN – Santa Monica CA) actress, operatic singer
Mildred T. Stahlman (31 jul 1922 – Nashville TN) essayist, researcher, professor pediatrics and pathology, founded first newborn intensive care unit in the world, initiated Angel Transport mobile intensive-care for newborns
Mary Elizabeth McHughes Ferrell (26 oct 1922 – 20 feb 2004 | Memphis TN – Dallas TX) historian, legal secretary, independent researcher, JFK assassination expert, namesake for Mary Ferrell Foundation
Muriel Davis Wilkins (06 dec 1923 – 01 oct 1990 | Memphis TN – Memphis TN) pianist, musician, woman referred to in song Walking in Memphis
Nancy Roman (16 may 1925 – Nashville TN) US educator, astronomer, public speaker, women-in-science activist / advocate, one of first female executives at NASA, aka Mother of Hubble
Margaret [Peggy] Doris Hawkins Keane (15 sep 1927 – Nashville TN) artist, painter, known for her big-eyed waifs portraits
Anita Jean Grilli (13 oct 1927 – Memphis TN) singer, pianist, author, arranger, memoirist, composer, conductor, music producer, aka Anita Kerr
Mignon Dunn (17 jun 1928 – Memphis TN) dramatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher / coach / judge, faculty member Manhattan School of Music
Joan Williams (26 sep 1928 – 11 apr 2004 | Memphis TN – Westport CT) author, novelist, literary figure
Selwa Carmen Showker [Lucky] Roosevelt (13 jan 1929 – Kingsport TN) author, journalist, freelance writer, Lebanese-American, longest-serving US Chief of Protocol
Billie Nipper (22 nov 1929 – 24 feb 2016 | Cleveland TN – Cleveland TN) horse breeder, horse portrait artist
1930s
Mary Costa (05 apr 1930 – Knoxville TN) operatic soprano, voice actress, children’s / teen motivational speaker, Childhelp anti-child abuse activist
Polly Bergen (14 jul 1930 – 20 sep 2014 | Knoxville TN – Southbury CT) author, actress, tv host, entrepreneur, née Nellie Paulina Burgin
Margaret A. Newman (10 oct 1933 – Memphis TN) nurse, author, professor, nursing theorist, focus on theory of health as expanding consciousness
Kathleen Armstrong Thomerson (18 feb 1934 – Jackson TN) organist, hymnist, organ teacher, church music director
Bette Greene (28 jun 1934 – Memphis TN) reporter, essayist, screenwriter, short fiction writer, children’s / young adult novelist
Jane Wagner (26 feb 1935 – Morristown TN) writer, director, producer, Lily Tomlin’s wife / writer / collaborator
Jennie M. Forehand (17 dec 1935 – Nashville TN) teacher, statistician, Maryland State legislator, businesswoman, juvenile court probation counselor, founded Forehand Antiques and Interiors
Marilou Awiakta (24 jan 1936 – Knoxville TN) poet, essayist, translator, short story writer, US Air Force officer, Eastern Band Cherokee
Dorothy Butler Gilliam (24 nov 1936 – Memphis TN) journalist, columnist, first female African-American reporter at Washington Post
Jeanette Brooks Priebe (04 jul 1937 – Bolivar TN) civil rights / affirmative action activist, first female Director of Louisville KY Civil Service Board
Mary Frances Berry (17 feb 1938 – Nashville TN) historian, non-fiction author, civil rights activist, history / social thought professor
Beverly Fey Lowry (10 aug 1938 – Memphis TN) novelist, educator, short story writer
Lara Parker (27 oct 1938 – Knoxville TN) actress, novelist, born Mary Lamar Rickey
Naomi C. Matusow (31 oct 1938 – Nashville TN) lawyer, state politician, former public school mathematics teacher
Tina Turner (26 nov 1939 – Nutbush TN) singer, dancer, author, actress, born Anna Mae Bullock, dual American-Swiss citizenships
1940s
Wilma Glodean Rudolph(23 jun 1940 – 12 nov 2012 | Saint Bethlehem TN – Brentwood TN) Olympic runner, elementary teacher, sports broadcaster, autobiographical author, civil rights / women’s rights pioneer, aka The Tornado, The Fastest Woman on Earth
Lucy Morgan (11 oct 1940 – Memphis TN) reporter, editorialist
Paula Robison (08 jun 1941 – Nashville TN) flutist, music teacher, founding member Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Sandra Cecelia Seaton (10 jul 1942 – Columbia TN) librettist, playwright
Yolanda Cornelia [Nikki] Giovanni Jr. (07 jun 1943 – Knoxville TN) poet, writer, activist, educator, essayist, commentator, member of Black Arts Movement
Sondra Louise Smith Locke (28 may 1944 or 1947 – Shelbyville TN) singer, actress, film director
Lisa Alther (23 jul 1944 – Kingsport TN) author, novelist
Patricia [Pat] McKissack (09 aug 1944 – 07 apr 2017 | Smyrna TN – Bridgeton MO) biographer, children’s book author, aka L’Ann Carwell, Pat McKissack, Patricia C. McKissack
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (22 aug 1944 – Nashville TN) author, sociologist, professor, pioneer developer of portraiture social science methodology, first African-American female to have Harvard and Swarthmore endowed professorship named in her honor
Mary Jo Nye (05 dec 1944 – Nashville TN) editor, author, science historian, humanities professor, scientific discovery and social / political phenomena specialist
Nancy Deborah Goldring (25 jan 1945 – Oak Ridge TN) artist, etcher, professor, multi-media / foto-projections artist
Shirley Raines (15 apr 1945 – Jackson TN) retired academic, leadership consultant, motivational speaker, former professor of early childhood education, former president of University of Memphis
Rita Coolidge (01 may 1945 – Lafayette TN) singer, painter, memoirist, songwriter, recording artist, founding member of Walela Cherokee / Native American music trio
Judith Lang Zaimont (08 nov 1945 – Memphis TN) pianist, educator, composer, performer, female composer advocate
Dolly Rebecca Parton (19 jan 1946 – Sevier County TN) actress, memoirist, singer-songwriter, philanthropist, instrumentalist, children’s book author
Frances Bagley (07 apr 1946 – Fayetteville TN) mixed-materials sculptor
Beverly Guy-Sheftall (01 jun 1946 – Memphis TN) author, editor, feminist scholar
Barbara Barg (29 apr 1947 – 22 may 2018 | Memphis TN – US) poet, writer, musician
Jean Rosenberg Feldman (15 mar 1947 – Milan TN) aka Dr. Jean, author, teacher, musical artist, focus on children’s learning songs
Margaret Sloan-Hunter (31 may 1947 – 23 sep 2004 | Chattanooga TN – Oakland CA) poet, public speaker, editor of Ms. magazine, civil rights advocate, black feminist lesbian, co-founded Women’s Foundation, National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), Berkeley Women’s Center and Feminist School for Girls
Margaret Rhea Seddon (08 nov 1947 – Murfreesboro TN) physician, clinical researcher, retired NASA astronaut, one of first women on US space shuttles
Kathleen Doyle [Kathy] Bates (28 jun 1948 – Memphis TN) actress, director, producer
Lee Wilson McGeorge Durrell (07 sep 1949 – Memphis TN) author, naturalist, zookeeper, television presenter, known for work at Isle of Jersey Zoological Park
1950s
Kay George Roberts (15 sep 1950 – Nashville TN) orchestral conductor, professor of music, founder / musical director of the New England Orchestra
Debbie Willhite (28 dec 1951 – Memphis TN) political activist / consultant
Ellen McLain (01 dec 1952 – Nashville TN) opera singer, voice actress
Lynne P. Sullivan (25 dec 1952 – Kingsport TN) author, curator, archaeologist, feminist / gender archaeology movement activist / contributor
Mary Alice McEvoy (13 mar 1953 – 25 oct 2002 | Knoxville TN – Eveleth MN) author, educator, campaign manager, plane crash victim, childhood disabilities / education scholar and researcher
Deborah Lynn Thurmond (30 sep 1953 – Memphis TN) author, actress, producer, publisher, singer-songwriter, aka Deborah Allen
Mary Rebecca Wadsworth Brandewyne (04 mar 1955 – Knoxville TN) romance novelist
Rosanne Cash (24 may 1955 – Memphis TN) author, memoirist, singer-songwriter
Dee Bagwell Haslam (05 jul 1955 – Knoxville TN) philanthropist, tv producer, businesswoman, NFL team co-owner, CEO / executive producer RIVR Media
Carol S. Batey (11 sep 1955 – Nashville TN) author, aesthetician, lifestyle coach, reflexologist, entrepreneur, massage therapist, professional speaker
Joan Jeanrenaud (25 jan 1956 – Memphis TN) avant-garde cellist, former member of Kronos Quartet
Park Overall (15 mar 1957 – Nashville TN) actress, environmental / women’s rights activist, former US Senate candidate
Leigh Allison Wilson (23 oct 1957 – Rogersville TN) novelist, short story writer, writing professor
Teresa Wynn Roseborough (28 nov 1958 – Memphis TN) lawyer, former US Deputy Assistant Attorney General
Tamara [Tammy] Jernigan (07 may 1959 – Chattanooga TN) scientist, former NASA astronaut, veteran of five shuttle missions