The ABCs of Famous South Carolina Women

1. The ABCs of Famous South Carolina Women

2. Created by: James Bryan

3. Sara Lee Harris Sanders Ayers Sara Lee Harris Ayers was born on the Catawba Reservation near Rock Hill, daughter of a former chief of the nation. She learned to make the famous Catawba pottery selling at the Cherokee Reservation in North Carolina and later in Pennsylvania. She later moved to West Columbia, but continued making the Catawba pottery. Ayers received many awards and honors for her work, examples of which are in the Native American Museum Aa

4. Catherine Moore Barry Margaret Catherine (Kate) Moore, a Patriot, was born in 1752 in Ireland, and later she and her family made a new life for themselves in the Piedmont region of South Carolina. At the age of fifteen, she married Andrew and settled in Spartanburg County, across the Tyger River, about two miles from Walnut Grove. Kate Barry was an excellent horsewoman, and she was very familiar with the wilderness and the Indian trails around her plantation. The Moore family became the leaders of the patriot cause in that part of the upcountry. Their home, Walnut Grove Plantation, became the focal point of anti-loyalist forces during the Revolutionary War. When General Daniel Morgan assembled his troops at Hanna's Cowpens, thirteen miles from Walnut Grove, Kate Barry rode out to give the call to arms to the Patriots in the surrounding countryside. Bb

5. Charlotta Bass Charlotta Amanda Spears Bass, born in Sumter, was an American educator, newspaper publisher-editor, and civil rights activist. Bass was probably the first African American woman to own and operate her own newspaper in the United States; she published the California Eagle from 1912 until 1951. In 1952 Bass became the first African American woman nominated to run for national office as the Progressive Party's Vice Presidential candidate. Bb

6. Mary McLeod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune was born in Mayesville, SC on July 10, 1875, one of 17 children born to Samuel and Patsy McLeod, former slaves. She was educated at the Presbyterian Mission School in Mayesville, Scotia Seminary and the Moody Bible Institute. Her interest in education led her in 1904 to found the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls (now Bethune-Cookman College ) in Florida, where she served as president from 1904-1942 and from 1946-47. Her honors include the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit, and the Commander of the Order of the Star of Africa from Liberia. She was the first African American woman to be involved in the White House, assisting four different presidents. Bb

7. Mary Boykin Chesnut Mary Boykin Chesnut was born on 31 March 1823 in Pleasant Hill, South Carolina. Her father, Stephen Miller, was the governor of South Carolina, and her mother was Mary Boykin. Mary was opposed to slavery and believed in the southern states' right to secede from the Union. Between February 1861 and July 1865, Mary kept a 400,000 word diary of the War for Southern Independence. Mary died on 22 November 1886, but her diary was not published until 1905. It is titled A Diary from Dixie. Cc

8. Septima Pointsette Clark Septima Poinsette Clark is considered to be one of the mothers of the civil rights movement. As an active member of the NAACP, she helped the organization fight to obtain equal pay for Black teachers who were paid substantially less than White teachers. As a teacher and state employee, Clark was prohibited from being a member of the NAACP and was fired in 1956 for refusing to relinquish her NAACP membership. Later, Mrs. Clark moved to Tennessee to work for Highlander Folk School where one of the participants was Rosa Parks. Between 1957 and 1970, with the assistance of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), she had established and trained teachers for 897 citizenship schools in the South. Cc

9. Carol Connor Carol Connor was born January 2, 1950 in Kingstree. She graduated from Converse College in 1972 and received her Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina in 1976. Upon graduation from Law School, Judge Connor worked as an Assistant South Carolina Attorney General from 1976 to 1977, and, in 1977 she joined the Richland County Public Defenders Office until 1981 when she entered private practice in Richard County. She was elected to the South Carolina Family Court in 1983 and served until 1988. She became the first woman to serve as a South Carolina Circuit judge, having been elected in 1988, and was also the first woman to serve as an acting member of the South Carolina Supreme Court. She was elected to the South Carolina Court of Appeals in 1993 where she served until her retirement due to illness. Cc

10. Ann Pamela Cunningham Ann Pamela Cunningham (1816-1875), America’s first historic preservationist founded the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, to save President George Washington’s home. Ann Pamela Cunningham received a letter from her mother in 1853 informing her of the deplorable conditions of President George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. Cunningham immediately began a campaign to save the home site by writing to the Charleston Mercury, asking Southern women to save the home, and soon she sought support of women in the North resulting in 1854, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union was created. In 1858 the Association was able to purchase and to preserve George Washington’s home. Cc

11. Hattie Logan Duckett Hattie Duckett is best remembered for the Phyllis Wheatley Association that she organized in 1919, Hattie Duckett is one of Greenville's most important leaders. Not only did she direct efforts to give African Americans opportunities to further their development, she opened her heart and home to those who needed any kind of help. Mrs. Duckett was honored by the board of trustees of the Greenville County School System by naming the Fine Arts Center building after this fine leader. Duckett was born in 1885 and died in 1956. Dd

12. Marian Wright Edelman Born in Bennettsville the youngest of five children of a Baptist preacher, Edelman attended Spellman College in Atlanta and Yale University, where she received her law degree in 1963. She began her career as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, serving as the director of the Jackson, Miss., office and becoming the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi bar. In 1968 she moved to Washington, D.C., and started the Washington Research Project, which later (1973) became the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), a child advocacy lobby. Ee

13. Mary Lillian Ellison Mary Lillian Ellison, better known by her ring name, The Fabulous Moolah, was an American female professional wrestler. Born in Kershaw County, she grew up in Tookiedoo, twelve miles from Columbia. She won the NWA World Women's Championship in 1956 and was the most prominent holder of the title for approximately the next thirty years. In the 1980s, she joined the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection storyline, feuding with Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter, the latter of whom defeated her for the WWF Women's Championship in 1984. She was inducted into the WWF Hall of Fame in 1995, becoming the first woman to be inducted. Ee

14. Sarah Mae Flemming Mae Flemming Brown (June 28, 1933-June 16, 1993[1]) was an African American woman who was expelled from a bus in Columbia, seventeen months before Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat on an Alabama bus in 1955. On June 22, 1954, Flemming boarded a bus to go to work. She took the only empty seat, which she believed began the rows in which black riders were allowed to sit. The driver challenged her, and humiliated, she signaled to get off at the next stop. The bus driver blocked her attempt to exit through the front of the bus and punched her in the stomach as he ordered her out the rear door. Flemming's lawsuit against the bus company played an important role later in the Parks case. Ff

15. Susan Pringle Frost In the post-Civil War period, a notable "new woman" was Charleston's Susan Pringle Frost . A member of an illustrious old family, Frost constantly challenged convention, as a federal district court stenographer, as a real estate woman with an office in the professional district, as a women's rights advocate. She helped get women admitted to the College of Charleston and headed city and state National Woman's Party efforts to achieve women's suffrage. In a rapidly expanding sweep, beginning about 1909, Miss Frost bought and renovated numerous houses in the historic East Battery district. Indebtedness mounted, and to aid her efforts she founded and for many years headed the Preservation Society of Charleston. Ff

16. Emily Geiger As General Nathaniel Greene retreated before the British from Ninety-Six during the Revolutionary War,, he was anxious to send an order to General Thomas Sumter, the Fighting Gamecock, who was then encamped on the Wateree. No one was willing to run the risk of traveling a section of country that was controlled by Tories. Finally a young girl, Emily Geiger, offered her services. Greene wrote a message, which he gave to the girl, but he also asked her to memorize it. Emily set out, and was safe until the second day, when she was caught by British scouts. She was held by them, waiting to be searched. Emily used the time to eat the written message. Finding nothing on her, the British released her. By taking another route, she succeeded in delivering her message. Soon, Sumter soon joined the main army at Orangeburg. Gg

17. Althea Gibson Althea Gibson was born in the rural community of Silver, and her family later moved to Harlem where she came to the attention of Dr. Walter Johnson who became her patron. She was the first African American to win championships at Grand Slam tournaments such as Wimbledon , the French Open and the US Open. Gibson won a total of 11 major titles in the 1950s including singles at the French Open (1958), Wimbledon (1957, 1958) and US Open (1957, 1958). She was the Associate Press Female Athlete of the Year (1957, 1958) and the first black female to receive the award. Following her retirement from tennis she continued to serve on various boards and commissions related to athletics. Gg

18. Wil Lou Gray One of the most important women in South Carolina educational history, Wil Lou Gray dedicated her life and career to creating opportunities to learn for the disadvantaged people of South Carolina. She rose above the race and class barriers in her native state by focusing her energy on the eradication of illiteracy through progressive educational programs designed for adults. In a state rife with bigotry and segregation, she “championed equal education for both races without being dismissed as an idle dreamer or revolutionary. Gg

19. Grimké Sisters The Grimké sisters, Sarah and Angelina, grew up on a slave owning plantation in South Carolina, but strongly disapproved of the practice of slavery. They spoke out against both slavery and the exclusion of women from public life. Sarah Moore Grimké (1792-1873) went to Philadelphia in 1821 where she joined the Quakers. Her sister Angelina (1805-1879) followed in 1829. Lucretia Mott was an important influence on their development as reformers with the formation of the. Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Gg

20. Lauren Hutton Lauren Hutton was born in Charleston, and she is an former model and actress. She attended Ashley Hall before graduating from Tulane University. In the 70s she was a successful model for the Ford Agency before moving to acting. She is best known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo , Zorro, the Gay Blade, and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career. Hh

21. Issaqueena, a legend Issaqueena fell in love with David Francis, a silversmith who lived in what is now the town of Ninety Six, South Carolina. Learning that her people planned a surprise attack on the settlement, Issaqueena mounted her horse to warn the settlers. Issaqueena and David fled to what is now Stumphouse Mountain north of Walhalla to escape the fury of her betrayed tribe. The lovers lived in a large, hollowed-out tree or Stumphouse. Finally tracked down by her tribesmen, Issaqueena raced to a nearby falls (now Issaqueena Falls) and plunged out of sight into the cataract. Believing her dead, the warriors gave up the search. Ii

22. Henrietta Johnson Henrietta de Beaulieu Dering Johnston (ca. 1674 – March 9, 1729) was a pastelist of uncertain origin active in the South Carolina colony in North America. She began to work as a portrait artist in Charles Town (now Charleston), making her the first known professional woman artist in America. She is both the earliest recorded female artist and the first known pastelist working in the English colonies. About forty portraits by Johnston are known to survive; these tend to depict members of her social circle and, later, of her husband's Charleston congregation. Many of her South Carolina portraits depict members of Huguenot families that had settled in the New World, including the Prioleaus, Bacots, and duBoses. Jj

23. Mammie “Peanut” Johnson Peanut Johnson, born in Ridgeway, played professional baseball for three seasons, from 1953 to 1955. Mamie tried out, and made the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro League team.  At the time, the Clowns were the only team in the league to feature women as players, so Johnson played against all-male teams.  While she was pitching her first game with the Clowns, Hank Baylis, a batter on the opposing team, yelled to her, "What makes you think you can strike a batter out? Why, you aren't any larger than a peanut!" Mamie struck him out, and from that day was known as "Peanut." During her tenure, she won thirty-three games and lost eight. Her batting average ranged from .262 to .284.   Jj

24. Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt was born on a cotton plantation in South Carolina, but was given away by her mother and sent to live with an aunt in Harlem, at the age of eight. With an enduring career that has spanned theater, cabaret, television, and the recording industry, Eartha Kitt has become nothing less than a household name. Many people remember her best as the original Catwoman in the Batman television series. She is an international star who has given new meaning to the word versatility. Also, she is one of only a handful of performers to be nominated twice for both a Tony Award and a Grammy Award as well as for an Emmy.  Kk

25. Martha Daniell Logan Martha Daniell Logan was born in Charles Town, daughter of a landgrave. She inherited her father’s property. After her husband’s death, her passion was gardening, and with this she wrote Gardner's Kalendar, the first American treatise on gardening. She earned a reputation not only as a woman of letters but also as a savvy businesswoman and a gifted horticulturist. Logan's writings are an essential source for information about women's culture in the colonial South. Her treatise on gardening, for example, not only describes the sort of work expected of women in the colonial South but also expresses many shared cultural values. Logan's writing and gardening allowed her access to some of the most influential horticulturists of her day. Ll

26. Darla Moore Moore was born to in Lake City. She graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1975 with a BA in Political Science. After school, she worked for a political research firm in Washington, DC. In 1981, Moore received an MBA from George Washington University and joined other MBAs at the Chemical Bank’s training program. During the 1980s, Moore made a name for herself by taking over companies in bankruptcy and making them profitable. By the early 1990s, she was the highest paid woman in banking. In 1991, Moore married Richard Rainwater. She was named president of Rainwater, Inc in 1993, aged 39. Fortune Magazine named Moore one of the 50 Most Powerful Women In Business in 1998 and 1999. Mm

27. Rebecca Motte Rebecca Motte was the daughter of Robert Brewton, an English gentleman who settled in Charles Town. In 1758 Rebecca married Jacob Motte, and settled at Buckhead, situated on the south side of the Congaree became her summer residence. After the Americans gained Camden, the British turned Motte’s plantation into a small fort, surrounding it with a deep trench end inside raised a lofty parapet. Soon the Americans saw that the home must be burned. Mrs. Motte had in her possession a bow & several arrows brought from the East Indies, especially prepared to carry combustible material. The arrows set fire to the roof in three different places forcing the British to surrender; soldiers from both armies climbed to the roof and extinguished the fire. Mm

28. Annie Green Nelson Born in Darlington County, Annie Green Nelson was the oldest of 14 children. Her parents instilled honesty, truth, devotion, and love into their children. Her education started at a five-month school on the Parrot's Plantation in her home state; later she attended Benedict College and Voorhees College. Annie Green Nelson studied drama at the University of South Carolina when she was 80 years old. Nelson's first published work, a poem titled "What Do You Think of Mother?" appeared in the Palmetto Leader newspaper in 1925. Nelson's books, After the Storm (1945), The Dawn Appears, Don't Walk on My Dreams, and others portray the lifestyles of average black people. She is the first African American South Carolina woman to have novel published. Nn

29. Mary Simms Oliphant As the granddaughter of William Gilmore Simms, she was a natural choice to update his 1840 history of the state. Her work on this project was begun shortly after her graduation from the College for Women in Charleston. By the next year, shortly after her marriage to Albert D. Oliphant, the book was finished. Mrs. Oliphant made a successful presentation to the Board of Education which adopted her book as a text for use for the next five years. This was in 1917 (before women had the right to vote) and thus began a long career of writing history texts. After updating her grandfather's book for many years, in 1932 she wrote one of her own. This text book spanned the generations in its use by SC middle school students from the 1930's until 1985. Oo

30. Julia Mood Peterkin Julia Mood Peterkin won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1929 for her feminist comedy Scarlet Sister Mary. Raised by a Gullah-speaking nurse in South Carolina, Peterkin was a native speaker of the language, and wrote with a richness of texture that was not found in works by white authors. She was praised for avoiding the racist stereotypes that other white writers commonly employed when writing of black culture. In the mid-1930s, Peterkin was employed by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) to collect folklore from the African Americans in her community and white communities on Waccamaw Neck and Sandy Island in Georgetown County, and the Freewoods and Holmestown Road in Horry County, just up the Waccamaw River, from Murrells Inlet. Pp

31. Eliza Lucas Pinckney Eliza Lucas Pinckney, probably the first important agriculturalist of the United States! She was still quite young, her family moved to a farming area near Charleston, South Carolina, where her mother died soon after. By age sixteen, Eliza was left to take care of her siblings and run three plantations when her father, a British military officer, had to return to the Caribbean. Starting in 1739, she began cultivating and creating improved strains of the indigo plant from which a blue dye can be obtained. Eliza also experimented with other crops. She planted a large fig orchard, with the intention of drying figs for export and experimented with flax, hemp and silk. At age twenty-two she married Charles Pinckney. Pp

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33. Dorcas Nelson Richardson Dorcas Nelson was the daughter of Captain John Nelson of South Carolina, a native of Ireland. At the age of 20, Dorcas Nelson married Captain Richard Richardson in 1761, and moved to her husband's home, about twenty miles up the river, near the junction of the Congaree and the Wateree. Following the fall of Charleston, the county was overrun with British troops and Tories who took possession of the Richardson plantation, which they made British headquarters. When the British officers discovered that Captain Richardson had gathered patriots around him and joined forces with Marion, they made offers of pardon, wealth, and promotion to Dorcas if she would use her influence to have her husband join forces with them. She refused to even lay the matter before her husband. Rr

34. Marie Cromer Seigler Marie Cromer Seigler (1882 - 1964), educator and national pioneer in agricultural instruction. In 1910, as teacher and principal of Talatha School, she founded a Girls' Tomato Club, the first of many such clubs nationwide and a forerunner, along with the Boys' Corn Clubs, of the national 4-H Clubs, supported by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Marie Cromer said of her efforts to encourage girls and young women interested in agriculture, "I made up my mind I was going to do some­thing for country girls." With the support of Aiken Superintendent of Education Cecil H. Seigler, whom she married in 1912, she established Home Demonstration clubs and created Home Economics courses in Aiken schools. She was honored by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953 for her role as a founder of 4-H Clubs. Ss

35. Lily Strickland Composer, writer, artist. Lily Strickland was born in 1884 in Anderson. Her father died when she was young, leaving Lily and her brothers to grow up in the Anderson home of her grandparents, Judge and Mrs. J. Pinckney Reed. She attended Anderson schools and began studying piano at the age of six. Encouraged by her family, she published her first composition while still in her teens and studied piano and composition at Converse College . In 1905 she received a scholarship for study at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York (the forerunner to Julliard). Strickland spent the rest of her life composing, writing, and painting all over the world as she followed her husband to his various jobs. Strickland published 395 musical works for popular, church, and children’s performances. Her early works displayed the influences of life in the South. Ss

36. Inez Tenenbaum Inez Moore Tenenbaum is currently serving as the Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Ms. Tenenbaum was elected South Carolina's State Superintendent of Education in 1998 and completed her second term in 2007. Throughout her career, Ms. Tenenbaum has been an energetic and determined advocate for children and families and has extensive experience in administrative and regulatory matters. During her tenure as South Carolina's State Superintendent of Education, student achievement in South Carolina improved at the fastest rate in the nation, with scores increasing on every state, national, and international tests administered. At the end of Ms. Tenenbaum's tenure, the prestigious journal Education Week ranked South Carolina number one in the country for the quality of its academic standards, assessment, and accountability systems. Tt

37. Jean Toal Born in Columbia, Jean Hoefer Toal is the first woman and the first Roman Catholic to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina. Toal graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1965 and the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1968, where she was Managing Editor of the South Carolina Law Review. As a lawyer, she argued before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the Catawba Nation. She represented Richland County as a Democrat in the South Carolina House of Representatives for 13 years before being elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court in 1988. She was elected Chief Justice in 2000. She served as the President of the Conference of Chief Justices from July 2007-July 2008. Tt

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39. Angelica Singleton Van Buren Born in Wedgefield, Angelica Singleton Van Buren, born Sarah Angelica Singleton was the daughter-in-law of the 8th United States President Martin Van Buren. She was married to the President's son, Abraham Van Buren. She assumed the post of First Lady because the president's wife had died 17 years earlier. and he remained unwed throughout the rest of his life. She was related by marriage to Dolley Madison, and as first lady she brought an air of sophistication. She married Abraham Van Buren on November 27, 1838, in Wedgefield. After Martin was defeated for re-election in 1841 , Angelica and her husband lived at the Van Buren home in Kinderhook, NY, wintering at her family home in South Carolina. From 1848 until her death, she lived in New York City. Vv

40. Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Elizabeth O’Neill Verner was born in Charleston, daughter of a prosperous rice factor and lived a life of privilege mid-1890's. In 1900 her parents, recognizing her talent, sent her to Philadelphia to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art under Thomas Anchutes. She returned to Charleston in 1903 at the time of her father's death, to that her father’s business was unstable. Her etchings, drypoints and pastels of Charleston are her best known works. She also made many drawings in Charleston and in other places around the world. The South Carolina Arts Commission awards the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts in her honor. Vv

41. Juanita Willmon-Goggins Juanita Willmon-Goggins is a trailblazer. Four years after the first black men since Reconstruction were elected to the South Carolina legislature in 1970, Willmon-Goggins became the first African-American woman elected to the state's general assembly. That same year, 1974, she was appointed as the first African-American woman to serve on the United States Civil Rights Commission. A native of Pendleton, South Carolina, Willmon-Goggins graduated from the Anderson County Training School. At South Carolina State University, she earned a degree in home economics education, graduating in 1957. Ww

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43. Virginia Durant Covington Young Virginia D. Covington Young was born in Georgetown, but the family moved to Marion where much of her life was spent. .During the Civil War, she began to write short stories and novellas under pseudonyms for magazines. She moved to Mississippi where her husband died. Returning to South Carolina, she married again and began the patter followed by many suffragists. She joined the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. Her activism continued with the founding of the SC Equal Rights Association, which became affiliated with the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The rest of her life was dedicated to attaining the right to vote, which came after her death with the federal amendment in 1919. She continued writing during her life and is credited with three novels. Yy

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45. South Carolina’s history is filled with women who contributed to the advancement of our state. This PowerPoint addresses only a few of the many women who have left a mark on each page of our history. South Carolina