Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis is like the Hollywood Walk of Fame for history nerds. The list of notable people buried there is so long that the walking brochure can only spare room for a few words about each one. My friend and I went exploring the cemetery last summer, following the brochure from the… Continue reading Kate Brewington Bennett
Category: St. Louis
Susan Louise Marsh
Susan Marsh was appalled. A fifteen year old girl living in an orphan asylum in St Louis had to hand over her wages to her father, to support his drinking habit. Because of antiquated sole guardianship laws still on the books in Missouri in 1912, any wages that a child made were legally her father's. … Continue reading Susan Louise Marsh
Anna Maria von Phul
Some of the first sketches that exist of early St. Louis (between 1818-1823) were done by Anna Maria von Phul, an artist in her 30s, who came to St. Louis from Lexington, Kentucky. An unmarried woman, she came to visit her brother and lived with various family members in the area. She filled sketchbooks with… Continue reading Anna Maria von Phul
St. Louis’ Kate Chopin Bust
The Writer's Corner at Euclid and McPherson in St. Louis now includes a bust of Kate Chopin. Thanks to The Kate Chopin International Society, for allowing this reprint of their interview with sculptor Jaye Gregory. How were you selected to do the bust? The West End Association is responsible for creating the "writer's corner" at… Continue reading St. Louis’ Kate Chopin Bust
Just 100 Years
When I read Kate Chopin, I always think to myself that the only thing separating us is time - just 100 years. The experience, the challenge of being female is the same. Connecting to a woman of the past is a powerful and inspiring thing, a reminder that I'm not alone, a reminder that as… Continue reading Just 100 Years
Virginia Johnson
Virginia Johnson, of Masters & Johnson, pushed for a better life and ended up revolutionizing the way the world looked at-- and practiced-- sex. She wasn’t a physician or an academic. She was simply a woman who wasn’t afraid to give her perspective on sex, in a field full of men who already thought they… Continue reading Virginia Johnson
Betty Grable
Conn and Lillian Grable had a pact - no more children. It was 1916 - Marjorie was 6 and their little son John had just died. But when Lillian found herself pregnant again she was not going to give up her baby- no matter what Conn said. Lillian's dream was to be a dancer. She… Continue reading Betty Grable
The Mysterious Tale of Patience Worth
by Jean Schiffman San Francisco Arts Monthly September 2011 Vol. 21 No. 3 Seances were held; novels, poems, short stories and plays were published, all of which were supposedly dictated by the garrulous Patience, a 17th-century English immigrant to America. (No proof was ever found that such a person existed.) Pearl and her husband, John… Continue reading The Mysterious Tale of Patience Worth
Ginger Rogers
In the middle of the summer, 1911, Lela McMath gave birth to a little girl in the front room of a 2 bedroom house on Moore Street in Independence, Missouri. Shortly after, Lela divorced her husband, left her daughter with her parents and went to Hollywood to write movies. Lela's little girl, Virginia Katherine McMath, or "Ginja" would become a Hollywood legend… Continue reading Ginger Rogers
Teresa Willis & Missouri Women in Trades
Teresa Willis is making history. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Missouri Women in Trades, a group she founded in 2007 to support women working in the construction trades. Missouri Women in Trades is challenging women and girls to think outside traditional gender roles and empowering them to consider a career in a traditionally men's field: construction… Continue reading Teresa Willis & Missouri Women in Trades
Missouri Women 