Women | US-VA | Virginia

1750s

Elizabeth [Betty] Zane McLaughlin Clark (19 jul 1759 – 23 aug 1823 | Moorefield VA – St Clairsville OH) pioneer, folk figure, Colonial heroine


1760s

Mary Randolph (09 aug 1762 – 23 jan 1828 | Manakin VA – Washington DC) cookbook / housekeeping author, women’s domestic freedom advocate


1770s


1780s


1790s

Eliza Maria Posey Street (26 aug 1792 – 02 feb 1847 | Fredericksburg VA – Agency IA) pioneer, folk / historical figure, settler wife of US Indian Agent, deeded 640 acres of Sac / Fox land

Emily Austin Perry (22 jun 1795 – 15 aug 1851 | Austinville VA – Jones Creek TX) pioneer, heiress, font innovator, religious / educational philanthropist


1800s


1810s

Mary Greenhow Lee (09 sep 1819 – 25 may 1907 | Richmond VA – Baltimore MD) author, Civil War diarist, Confederate activist, known for despising / snubbing Union soldiers and Northerners


1820s

Letitia Tyler Semple (11 may 1821 – 28 dec 1907 | Cedar Grove Plantation VA – Baltimore MD) founder / principal Eclectic Institute for Young Women, White House hostess for father President John Tyler

Cornelia Peake McDonald (14 jun 1822 – 11 jan 1909 | Alexandria VA – Louisville KY) author, Confederate Civil War diarist, aka One of the Devil Diarists of Winchester

Virginia Louisa Minor (27 mar 1824 – 14 aug 1894 | Caroline County VA – St Louis MO) suffragist, social activist, co-founder / first president Woman’s Suffrage Association of Missouri

Jessie Ann Benton Frémont (31 may 1824 – 27 dec 1902 | Rockbridge VA – Los Angeles CA) author, memoirist, abolitionist, political activist, short story writer

Lucy Virginia French (16 mar 1825 – 31 mar 1881 | Accomack County VA – McMinnville TN) poet, author, songwriter, pen name L’Inconnue

Abby Howland Woolsey (16 jul 1828 – 07 apr 1893 | Alexandria VA – New York NY) author, Civil War Union nurse, nursing educator, American relief worker


1830s

Oriana [Orie] Russell Moon Andrews (11 aug 1834 – 26 dec 1883 | Viewmont VA – Scottsville VA) aka Dr. Orie Moon, Civil War Confederate doctor, Bedouin missionary doctor

Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur (30 aug 1837 – 12 jan 1880 | Culpeper VA – New York NY) soprano concert singer, Confederate sympathizer, wife of 21st US President [died before husband took office so posthumous US First Lady]


1840s

Eleanor Agnes Lee (27 feb 1841 – 15 oct 1873 | Arlington VA – Lexington VA) poet, diarist, memoirist, folk figure, Confederate military family daughter

Constance Cary Harrison (25 apr 1843 – 21 nov 1920 | Vaucluse VA – Washington DC) aka Refugitta, fiction / nonfiction author, co-creator / seamstress first American Confederate Battle Flag

LaSalle Corbell Pickett 16 may 1843 – 22 mar 1931 | Nansemond VA – Richmond VA) US author, lecturer, biographer Civil War Confederate memoirist

Mary Virginia Wade (21 may 1843 – 03 jul 1863 | Gettysburg VA – Gettysburg VA) Civil War Union supporter, lone civilian casualty at Battle of Gettysburg

Isabella Maria [Belle] Boyd (09 may 1844 – 11 jun 1900 | Martinsburg VA [now WV] – Kilbourne [now Wisconsin Dells] WI) spy, lecturer, memoirist, aka Cleopatra of the Secession, Siren of the Shenandoah

Sallie Swepson Sims Southall Cotten (13 jun 1846 – 04 may 1929 | Lawrenceville VA – Winchester MA) poet, author, speaker, educator, historian, civic activist, North Carolina Woman’s Club leader


1850s

Celestia Susannah Parrish (12 sep 1853 – 07 sep 1917 | Pittsylvania VA – Clayton GA) author, educator, child psychologist, university professor, aka Georgia’s Greatest Woman


1860s

Anna J. Hardwicke Pennybacker (07 may 1861 – 04 feb 1928 | Petersburg VA – Austin TX) activist, pacifist, Chautauqua speaker, women’s suffrage leader, public school textbook author, president of American General Federation of Women’s Clubs, director of National Women’s Committee of Near East Relief

Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower (01 may 1862 – 11 sep 1946 | Mount Sidney VA – Abilene KS) mother of US President Dwight Eisenhower, active Jehovah’s Witness prosleytizer Amelie Louise Rives Troubetzkoy (23 aug 1863 – 15 jun 1945 | Richmond VA – Cismont VA) poet, novelist, playwright 

Varina Anne [Winnie] Davis (27 jun 1864 – 09 sep 1898 | Richmond VA – Narragansett Pier RI) diarist, novelist, daughter of Confederate President

Maggie Lena Walker (15 jul 1864 – 15 dec 1934 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) African-American teacher, social activist, businesswoman, newspaper founder, first US female bank owner / president

Addie Waites Hunton (11 jun 1866 – 21 jun 1943 | Norfolk VA – Washington DC) author, educator, biographer, suffragist, peace activist, political organizer, race / gender activist

Edna Henry Turpin (26 jul 1867 – 07 jun 1952 | Mecklenburg VA – Richmond VA) author, novelist, poetry / fiction / non-fiction editor

Vivian Louise Aunspaugh (14 aug 1869 – 09 mar 1960 | Bedford VA – Dallas TX) painter, art editor, art teacher, art school founder


1870s

Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (22 apr 1873 – 21 nov 1945 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) poet, novelist, short story writer, Pulitzer Prize laureate, autobiographical author

Virginia Estelle Randolph (06 aug 1874 – 16 mar 1958 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) author, schoolteacher, social / legal / educational activist, pioneer community vocational training advocate / innovator

Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor (19 may 1879 – 02 may 1964 | Danville VA – Grimsthorpe UK) American-born British pacifist, society figure, WWI activist, social reformer, Christian Scientist, political pioneer, created hospital for Canadian soldiers on her estate, first woman to sit (unelected) in UK’s House of Commons


1880s

Lucy Randolph Mason (26 jul 1882 – 06 may 1959 | Clarens VA – Atlanta GA) aka Miss Lucy, social reformer, union / consumer / civil right activist

Nannie Helen Burroughs (02 may 1883 – 20 may 1961 | Orange VA – Washington DC) orator, activist, educator, religious leader, African-American, founded National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC

Joanna Mary Berry Shields (07 jul 1884 – 02 feb 1965 | Catharpin VA – New York NY) educator, civic activist, co-founded first African-American sorority

Lucy Diggs Slowe (04 jul 1885 – 21 oct 1937 | Berryville VA – Washington DC) educator, college dean, tennis champion, founding member Alpha Kappa Alpha [first sorority for African-American women]

Aline Murray Kilmer (01 aug 1888 – 01 oct 1941 | Norfolk VA – Stillwater Township NJ) poet, children’s author


1890s

Peggy Hopkins Joyce (26 may 1893 – 12 jun 1957 | Berkeley VA – New York NY) dancer, actress, folk figure, artist model, autobiographical author

Amaza Lee Meredith (14 aug 1895 – 01 jan 1984 | Lynchburg VA – Petersburg VA) African-American artist, educator, architect, co-created black leisure community


1900s

Corinne Malvern (17 jul 1901 – 09 nov 1956 | Accomack County VA – Weston CT commercial artist, children’s book illustrator

Louisa Venable Kyle (11 aug 1903 – 24 oct 1999 | Norfolk VA – Virginia Beach VA) author, journalist, historian

Doris Eaton Travis (14 mar 1904 – 11 may 2010 | Norfolk VA – Commerce MI) dancer, rancher, memoirist, stage / film actress, dance instructor, last of the Ziegfeld Girls

Undine Smith Moore (25 aug 1904 – 06 feb 1989 | Jarratt VA – Petersburg VA) pianist, composer, professor, aka Dean of Black Women Composers

Dorothy Louise Burnett Porter Wesley (25 may 1905 – 17 dec 1995 | Warrenton VA – Broward Country FL) curator, scholar, librarian, African-American history bibliographer, built collection at Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University

Sarah Patton Boyle (09 may 1906 – 24 feb 1994 | Charlottesville VA – Arlington VA) civil rights activist, autobiographical author

Ruby Altizer Roberts (22 apr 1907 – 24 may 2004 | Alum Ridge VA – Christiansburg VA) editor, memoirist, publisher, children’s book author, first / only female Poet Laureate of Virginia

Marcella Bannett Rabwin (15 may 1908 – 25 dec 1998 | Richmond VA – New York NY) memoirist, dressmaker, executive assistant


1910s

Dorothy Leigh Maynor (03 sep 1910 – 19 feb 1996 | Norfolk VA – West Chester PA) soprano, concert singer, Harlem School of the Arts founder

Dorothy Irene Height (24 mar 1912 – 20 apr 2010 | Richmond VA – Washington DC) educator, social reformer, women’s and civil rights activist / administrator

Alice Jackson Stuart (02 jun 1913 – 13 jun 2001 | Richmond VA – Richmond VA) teacher, professor, educational avocate, first female African-American to apply [and be denied] for graduate school at University of Virginia, earned Master of Arts at Columbia University

Ruth Stone (08 jun 1915 – 19 nov 2011 | Roanoke VA – Ripton VT) poet, author, teacher

Esther Cooper Jackson (21 aug 1917 – Washington VA) author, social worker, civil rights activist, Freedomways journal editor / co-founder / precursor of Black Arts Movement

Pearl Mae Bailey (29 mar 1918 – 17 aug 1990 | Newport News VA – Philadelphia PA) singer, memoirist, cookbook author, aka America’s Ambassador of Love

Ella Fitzgerald (25 apr 1918 – 15 jun 1996 | Newport News VA – Beverly Hills CA) jazz singer, social / musical icon


1920s

Gemze de Lappe (28 feb 1922 – 11 nov 2017 | Portsmouth VA – Manhattan NY) dancer, teacher, choreographer, dance reconstructionist

Nell Blair Walden Blaine (10 jul 1922 – 14 nov 1996 | Richmond VA – New York NY) artist, watercolorist, landscape painter

Virginia Cleo [V. C.] Andrews (06 jun 1923 – 19 dec 1986 | Portsmouth VA – Virginia Beach VA) Gothic horror and family saga series novelist

Janette Carter (02 jul 1923 – 22 jan 2006 | Maces Spring VA – Kingsport TN) autoharpist, memoirist, singer-songwriter, Appalachian music preservationist

Naomi Cornelia Long Madgett (05 jul 1923 – 05 nov 2020 | Norfolk VA – West Bloomfield MI) African-American poet, poetry editor

Evelyn Thomas Butts (22 may 1924 – 11 mar 1993 | Norfolk VA – Norfolk VA) social reformer, political activist, civil rights leader

Willie Anne Wright (06 jun 1924 – Richmond VA) photographer, born Willie Anna Boschen, known for colorful cibachrome and grayscale pinhole photography

Ruth Jean Baskerville Bowen (13 sep 1924 – 21 apr 2009 | Danville VA – New York NY) president of Queen Booking Company, first black female professional talent agent

Eva Mae Fleming Scott (06 may 1926 – 28 mar 2019 | Amelia County VA – Amelia County VA) pharmacist, politician, businesswoman

Diana Adams (29 mar 1926 – 10 jan 1993 | Staunton VA – San Andreas CA) ballerina, New York City Ballet principal dancer, School of American Ballet teacher / dean

Alice Adams (14 aug 1926 – 27 may 1999 | Fredericksburg VA – San Francisco CA) novelist, short story writer, university professor

Alma Fairfax Murray Carlisle (09 jul 1927 – Alexandria VA) African-American architect, architectural historian

June Carter Cash (23 jun 1929 – 15 may 2003 | Maces Spring VA – Nashville TN) dancer, actress, memoirist, comedian, cookbook author, singer-songwriter, autobiographical author


1930s

Sally Miller Gearhart (15 apr 1931 – Pearisburg VA) political activist, radical feminist, science fiction writer, women and gender study program pioneer

Shirley MacLaine Beaty (24 apr 1934 – Richmond VA) singer, dancer, actress, activist, autobiographical author, known for spiritual beliefs / exploration / reincarnation

Claudia [Sue] Edwards Powers (23 jul 1935 – 17 jun 2004 | Leesburg VA – Las Vegas NV) psychometrist, cold war historian, history museum activist

Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr (14 apr 1936 – Charlottesville VA) clarinetist, music educator

Geraldine Claudette Darden (22 jul 1936 – Nansemond County VA) mathematician

Hazel R. O’Leary (17 may 1937 – Newport News VA) attorney, politician, first / only female African-American appointed US Secretary of Energy

Betty Blayton Taylor (10 jul 1937 – 02 oct 2016 | Newport News VA – Hampton VA) activist, advocate, artist, lecturer, social entrepreneur, arts administrator / educator

Eleanor Camp Criswell Hanna (12 may 1938 – Norfolk VA) author, psychologist, focus on yoga / somatics / biofeedback, founded Equine Hanna Somatics, edited Course of Miracles, co-founded Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training

Mildred Jeter Loving (22 jul 1939 – 02 may 2008 | Central Point VA – Central Point VA) civil rights / inter-racial marriage activist, Supreme Court litigant, social / political figure


1940s

Ruth C. White (15 mar 1942 – 08 jun 2017 | Whitewood VA – Hummelstown PA) teacher, librarian, children’s / young adult novelist

Marguerite Ross Barnett (21 may 1942 – 26 feb 1992 | Charlottesville VA – Wailuku HI) educator, administrator, first black / first female president of University of Houston

Elaine R. Jones (02 mar 1944 – Norfolk VA) civil rights activist / attorney, first female director-counsel / president of NAACP Legal Defense Fund [LDF]

Joellyn Duesberry (30 jun 1944 – 05 aug 2016 | Richmond VA – Greenwood Village CO) artist, author, landscape painter

Sherryl Woods (23 jul 1944 – Arlington VA) serial mystery, romance novelist, pen names: Alexandra Kirk, Suzanne Sherrill

Barbara Joan [Bobbi] Johnson (24 mar 1945 – Alexandria VA) computer programmer, applications engineer, former beauty pageant title holder

Carol Lorraine Sutton (03 sep 1945 – Norfolk VA) painter, multi-disciplinary artist, American living in Toronto, Ontario

Pamela E. Bridgewater (14 apr 1947 – Fredericksburg VA) US diplomat, professor of political science

Millie Criswell (26 mar 1948 – Virginia US) serial romance novelist

Cynthia Clarey (25 apr 1949 – Smithfield VA) music educator, operatic soprano and mezzo-soprano


1950s

Harriett L. Stanley (30 mar 1950 – Arlington VA) professor, politician, investment banker

Kathryn Harrold (02 aug 1950 – Tazewell VA) former actress, psychological counselor

Susan Loy (26 feb 1951 – Moneta VA) artist, author, speaker, historian, geographer, calligrapher, watercolorist, mandala painter, ‘Literary Calligraphy’ innovator and illustrator

Sally Turner Munger Mann (01 may 1951 – Lexington VA) author, photographer

Kate Daniels (02 jul 1952 – Richmond VA) poet, professor, prose author

Caroline Sidney Abady Aaron (07 aug 1952 – Richmond VA) actress, film producer

Carol Miller Swain (07 mar 1954 – Bedford VA) author, media host, former professor, conservative television analyst

Gillian Marucha Bradshaw (14 may 1956 – Falls Church VA) historical / fantasy / science-based novelist for adults and children

Stacy Horn (03 jun 1956 – Norfolk VA) memoirist, journalist, non-fiction author, online bulletin board founder

Megan Carroll Beyer (05 jun 1957 – Alexandria VA) journalist, civil leader, commentator, gender equality advocate, Executive Director of US Committee on Arts and Humanities

Susannah [Susie] Bright (25 mar 1958 – Arlington VA) feminist, author, journalist, critic, editor, publisher, producer, performer, aka Susie Sexpert

Jane Rachel Brucker (14 may 1958 – Falls Church VA) actress, screenwriter

Susan Tatum Woodhouse (07 aug 1958 – Suffolk VA) historical romance novelist, pen name Liz Carlyle

Deborah Baker (28 mar 1959 – Charlottesville VA) essayist, biographer

Linda Maguire (07 may 1959 – Newport News VA) music / sensory therapies researcher, opera / classical singer / recording artist

Leanne Banks (14 may 1959 – Roanoke VA) romance novelist