1810s
Margaret A. E. Parkinson McLure (24 mar 1811 – 31 jan 1902 | Parkersburg WV – St Louis MO) aka Mother McLure, US Civil War Confederate sympathizer, founded Missouri Confederate Home, co-founded Daughters of the Confederacy
Eugenia Price (22 jun 1916 – 28 may 1996 | Charleston WV – Brunswick GA) historical novelist, community activist
Juliet Ann Opie Hopkins (07 may 1818 – 09 mar 1890 | Jefferson County WV – Washington DC) US Civil War Confederate nurse, aka Florence Nightingale of the South
1820s
1830s
Eugenia Scholay Washington (27 jun 1838 – 30 nov 1900 | Charles Town WV – Washington DC) historian, civil servant, co-founded Daughters of American Revolution / Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America
1840s
Caroline [Carrie] Watson Fleming (29 apr 1844 – 19 jul 1931 | Fairmont WV – Fairmont WV) First Lady of West Virginia, civic / cultural / religious activist
Myra Horner Camden Atkinson (21 jul 1844 – 13 apr 1925 | Lumberport WV – Clarksburg WV) First Lady of Virginia, genealogist / family historian
1850s Olivia America Davidson Washington (11 jun 1854 – 09 may 1889 | Mercer WV – Boston MA) teacher, Tuskegee Institute co-founder
1860s
Frances Benjamin Johnston (15 jan 1864 – 16 may 1952 | Grafton WV – New Orleans LA) pioneering photographer, early female photojournalist
Anna Marie Jarvis (01 may 1864 – 24 nov 1948 | Webster WV – West Chester PA) Mother’s Day founder, opposed holiday commercialization, founded Mother’s Day International Association
Edna Brady Cornwell (26 may 1868 – 01 dec 1958 | Romney WV – Romney WV) newspaper publisher, West Virginia State First Lady
Edith Lake Wilkinson (23 aug 1868 – 19 jul 1957 | Wheeling WV – Huntington WV) printmaker, Provincetown MA artist, committed to mental hospitals in 1924 till her death
1870s
Mary Miller Glasscock (08 sep 1872 – 12 apr 1925 | Arnettsville WV – Morgantown WV) civic activist, First Lady of West Virginia
Mabel Gordon Dunlop Grouitch (13 aug 1874 – 13 aug 1956 | Clarksburg WV – Washington DC) archaeologist, WWI nurse, fundraiser for Serbian Red Cross
Pattie Ruffner Jacobs (02 oct 1875 – 22 dec 1935 | Malden WV – Birmingham AL) suffragist, social reformer, Birmingham (Alabama) Equal Suffrage Association leader / founder
Drusilla Dunjee Houston (20 jan 1876 – 08 feb 1941 | Harpers Ferry WV – Phoenix AZ) author, musician, educator, journalist, columnist, screenwriter, independent historian, co-founded Oklahoma City chapters of YWCA / Red Cross / NAACP, one of first leaders of Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, contributing editor to Oklahoma Black Dispatch [first black newspaper in Oklahoma City founded by brother Roscoe Dunjee]
Mary Elizabeth Price (01 mar 1877 – 19 feb 1965 | Martinsburg WV – Trenton NJ) American Impressionist painter
Alma Bennett Morgan (24 jun 1877 – 05 apr 1960 | Monongalia WV – Morgantown WV) suffragist, temperance advocate, women’s rights activist, First Lady of West Virginia
[Nettie] Blanche Lazzell (10 oct 1878 – 01 jun 1956 | near Maidsville WV – Bourne MA) artist, etcher, painter, printmaker, known for white-line woodcuts, founding member of Provincetown Printers
1880s
Lavinia Norman (14 dec 1882 – 22 jan 1983 | Montgomery WV – Washington DC) lifelong educator, French / English / Latin teacher, original founding member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority / first sorority founded by African-American women at Howard University
Anna May Hardman Gilruth (19 jul 1885 – 23 oct 1962 | Jane Lew WV – Chicago IL) oil, pencil, woodcut, watercolor artist
Edna Hall Scott Kump (18 apr 1887 – 19 jan 1957 | Elkins WV – Elkins WV) gardener, First Lady of West Virginia
1890s
Ann Henshaw Gardiner (03 jul 1890 – 03 oct 1982 | Hedgesville WV – Alexandria VA) scientist, WWI nurse, director of nursing, nursing education innovator, first full-time faculty member of Duke University School of Nursing
Pearl S. Buck (26 jun 1892 – 06 mar 1973 | Hillsboro WV – Danby VT) author, novelist, teacher, humanitarian, philanthropist
Elizabeth Simpson Drewry (22 sep 1893 – 24 sep 1979 | Motley WV – Welch WV) teacher, educator, state politician for eight terms in WV House of Delegates, first African-American woman elected to West Virginia Legislature
Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith (14 aug 1894 – 01 feb 1984 | Alderson WV – New York NY) singer, dancer, aka Bricktop, vaudevillean, saloon-keeper, autobiographical author
1900s
Julia Davis Adams (23 jul 1900 – 30 jan 1993 | Clarksburg WV – Ransom WV) author, journalist, social worker, mystery novelist, young adult / historical / biographical novelist, pen name: F. Draco
Jean Lee Latham (19 apr 1902 – 13 jun 1995 | Buckhannon WV – US) children’s / young-adult biographical author
Lee Haws Patteson (28 may 1902 – 02 aug 1955 | Romney WV – Mt. Hope WV) pilot, First Lady of West Virginia (1949-1953)
Virginia Keys Jones Coffey (14 dec 1904 – 26 dec 2003 | Wheeling WV – Cincinnati OH) educator, social reformer, civil rights activist, member of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], national / international organizational leader / adviser / consultant
Corma Alice Mowrey (10 oct 1907 – 01 mar 1984 | Big Isaac WV – Leesburg FL) educator, clubwoman, National Education Association leader
1910s
Eleanor Steber (17 jul 1914 – 03 oct 1990 | Wheeling WV – Langhorne PA) operatic soprano, opera voice teacher, autobiographical author
Catherine Shipe East (15 may 1916 – 17 aug 1996 | Barboursville WV – Ithaca NY) feminist, researcher, women’s rights activist, aka The Midwife to the Women’s Movement
Constance Emily Polan [Connie] Wald (13 aug 1916 – 10 nov 2012| Parkersburg WV – Beverly Hills CA) socialite, Beverly Hills / Hollywood dinner hostess
Mary Alice Tieche Smith (25 jun 1918 – 13 apr 1987 | Beckley WV – Beckley WV) WV State First Lady, public health / early education advocate
Mary Lee Settle (29 jul 1918 – 27 sep 2005 | Charleston WV – Ivy VA) novelist, memoirist, nonfiction author, university professor, founded annual PEN-Faulkner Award for Fiction
Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson (26 aug 1918 – 24 feb 2020 | White Sulphur Springs WV – New port News VA) African-American mathematician, orbital mechanics expert, calculations essential to successful spaceflights
1920s
Phyllis Curtin (03 dec 1921 – 05 jun 2016 | Clarksburg WV – Great Barrington MA) artistic advisor, master voice teacher, concert / operatic classical soprano
Virginia Mae Brown (13 nov 1923 – 15 feb 1991 | Pliny WV – Charleston WV) lawyer, US civil servant / government official, first female US insurance commissioner, first female appointed to Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), aka the First Lady of Transportation
Saralyn Ruth Daly (11 may 1924 – Huntington WV) writer, professor, translator
Mary Alice Kemery (19 apr 1925 – 21 oct 1995 | Morgantown WV – Colorado Springs CO) poet, author, palmist, astrologer, numerologist, aka Linda Goodman
Hazel Jane Dickens (01 jun 1925 – 22 apr 2011 | Mountcalm WV – Washington DC) memoirist, singer-songwriter, union activist, folk / bluegrass musician
Doris Summers Piserchia (11 oct 1928 – Fairmont WV) sci-fi / feminist novelist
1930s
Mary Norton Kratt (07 jun 1937 – West Virginia US) poet, historian, biographer, historical writer, US Southern history specialist expert
Anne Montague (15 jul 1939 – Huntington WV) social activist, founder / director veterans training non-profit, founder / executive director West Virginia Rosie the Riveter Project
1940s
Patricia Roth Schwartz (12 oct 1946 – West Virginia US) poet, editor, playwright, psychotherapist, creative writing teacher
Harriet [Hattie] Coons Babbitt (13 nov 1947 – Charleston WV) attorney, former US government official, former US Ambassador to Organization of American States, Vice Chair of National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Charlotte Pritt (02 jan 1949 – Charleston WV) educator, state politician, businesswoman
1950s
Denise Giardina (25 oct 1951 – Bluefield WV) Appalachian novelist
Jayne Anne Phillips (19 jul 1952 – Buckhannon WV) novelist, short fiction writer
Julia [Judy] Bonds (27 aug 1952 – 03 jan 2011 | Marfork Hollow WV – Charleston WV) organizer, environmental activist, community leader, aka ‘the godmother of the anti-mountaintop removal movement’
Cynthia Rylant (06 jun 1954 – Hopewell WV) poet, librarian, children’s book writer, autobiographer
Cynthia Louise Bissett Germanotta (30 aug 1954 – Wheeling WV) activist, philanthropist, businesswoman, president of Born This Way Foundation [co-founded with daughter Lady Gaga]
Vicky Hamilton (01 apr 1958 – Charleston WV) artist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker