Josephine Porter Winter: Ambulance Driver in War

Posted on October 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

By Linda Harris Sittig

I have found in life that nothing really happens by pure chance, and the people you meet come into your life for a reason.

Two weeks ago, I met a fellow writer, and during the discussion of “So what is your current project?” he mentioned a young woman who was an ambulance driver in France during WWII. Then he elaborated to say that she left her studies at the Sorbonne and drove for the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

I knew nothing about the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps, but my antennae went up with the prospect of discovering a new Strong Woman.

Josephine Porter Winter was 25 years old, finishing her third year at the Sorbonne, when Hitler was storming through Europe. And, like many young, idealistic people, she wanted to do something meaningful. Helping in the war effort by driving an ambulance intrigued her.  

Born in 1915 into a well-to-do family in St. Louis, Missouri, Josephine’s father was a world-renowned dentist and former President of the American Dental Association. Her mother was a socialite. Josephine’s older sister had stayed stateside when Josephine went off to France to study political science and history at the Sorbonne. Josephine lived in the American House with other American students.

To refresh your memory on WWII, Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. By May of 1940, the Nazis had also invaded Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.

On June 3, 1940, the Paris air raids began.

Josephine went into action. After reading an ad in Harry’s Bar, she ventured to the American Hospital in Paris, where an all-female Ambulance Transport Service had already been established. From there, she became a driver for the American Volunteer Ambulance Corps, started by members of the American Legion in Paris. The Corps was one of approximately eight services established in France, primarily by expatriate Americans and British citizens.

Having been raised as a young lady in Missouri with access to a farm, Josephine could already drive a tractor, which helped her with driving a Ford ambulance and maintaining the vehicle. But now, as a volunteer driver, she had to navigate during blackouts, carrying wounded soldiers from the front lines to the nearest train station for transport to a hospital.

To say the missions were dangerous would be an understatement.

Twice she found herself under a prolonged bombardment—each time for a duration of 10 days of continual bombing.

By late November of 1940, the intrigue of war had given way to pure exhaustion, and Josephine had missed both her sister’s wedding and the untimely death of her father. It was time to return home. Carrying official papers that allowed her to travel throughout France, she headed southwest to Spain.

She was arrested at the Spanish border in Frejus on suspicion of being a spy. Why else would a single woman be carrying so many suitcases? (Remember, she had been living in Paris for three years, so numerous suitcases would not be unusual). Sent as a political prisoner, she entered a jail cell that was 30 x 40 feet, designed to hold several prisoners. In fact, Josephine and 80 other women were put there together.

The days dragged on over Christmas, and finally, after eleven days of imprisonment, the U.S Consulate in Barcelona obtained her release with orders for her to return to America. How she was connected to him is not reported. As soon as she left the prison, she managed to escape to Madrid, where she boarded with some influential friends. After a few months, Josephine set out for Lisbon with the hopes of booking passage back to the States. She returned to St. Louis on July 24, 1941.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted her as saying she had learned more Spanish and information about Spanish history in her eleven days in the Spanish prison than she had in 3 years at the Sorbonne. She also mentioned her admiration for the other female political prisoners (all Spanish) for their passionate beliefs in the end of tyranny in Spain.

It is interesting to note that the newspaper felt compelled to mention that Josephine was a slender blonde, weighing only 100 pounds.

The drivers in the American Field Service and other volunteer ambulance drivers continued their efforts throughout World War II. Josephine Porter Winter was just one person who contributed to the cause of defeating Nazism.

Thank you, Larry Roeder, Jr., who is working on a novel based on Josephine’s life. I’m sure it will be fascinating to read, especially since Josephine was part of his extended family and his father was also a volunteer ambulance driver during World War II.

If you enjoyed reading Josephine’s story and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right hand side bar and you will receive the blog once a month in your email.

While working on my newest book, Chasing the Tides, not yet in print, I have found myself fascinated with the historical details of WWII. The people involved and how the war changed their lives.

~ Linda:)

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Marion Harland: a.k.a. Mary Terhune

Posted on September 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

By Linda Harris Sittig

I discovered Marion purely by accident.

Last month, I stumbled upon a used book warehouse that advertised old, historic books. The temperature outside blistered at 98 degrees, and the AC inside the cavernous space was temporarily out of order, but several fans blew air around. I couldn’t resist. The owner asked what area of history I liked, and I replied that I write about Strong Women.

He pointed me to an area of stacks, and off I went. Not long afterward, I discovered an old book, first published in 1893 and then reprinted in 1903. The title was “Women Authors of Our Day in Their Homes.” Intrigued, I opened to the Table of Contents and saw the first chapter devoted to Marion Harland. I had never heard of her, but her residence was listed as Pompton, New Jersey – fourteen miles from my childhood home.

I recognized Pompton, not only for its proximity to our family house, but also because it was where the celebrated author Albert Payson Terhune had lived. And I knew all about Albert Payson Terhune because his books made me a reader. He penned three novels about his beloved collie, Lad, and I had read and reread each one.

Now, could it be a coincidence that Marion Harland and Albert Payson Terhune both lived in the same area and knew each other?

I quickly googled Mr. Terhune in the hopes that Ms. Harland might be mentioned. But, no. Then I dove into the chapter of the Women Authors book that focused on Marion Harland and read that her summer home was known as Sunnybank.

Whoa, Sunnybank was the setting for the Lad stories. This could not be a coincidence. I knew every detail about Sunnybank from the Lad novels. For my 10th birthday, my father even drove me to Pompton to stand at the foot of the drive to Sunnybank, where Lad had roamed the fields.

HOW I FINALLY FOUND MARION

I read the entire chapter on Marion, and A.P. Terhune was never mentioned, but her husband’s name was Dr. Terhune. The plot thickened. Next, I googled Marion Harland. Her real name was Mary Virginia Terhune, born in late December 1830 in Amelia County, Virginia. Mary must have been a remarkable child, as her first novel was published at the age of fifteen.

At the age of 26, she met and married Edward Payson Terhune, who had recently been ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Mary was now the busy wife of a minister, but she continued to write and kept her pen name, Marion Harland. By 1859, the Terhune family had moved from Virginia to New Jersey and, in 1861, decided to build a summer home overlooking Pompton Lakes in Wayne, New Jersey. Mary christened the estate Sunnybank because she loved watching the sunlight shimmer on the banks of the lake.

Throughout her entire life, as a minister’s wife and mother of six children, Mary never stopped writing. In the 1870s, she wrote A Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery. It became an instant bestseller, and stayed in print for another 50 years. Although Mary already had several novels to her credit, she switched to cookbooks, biographies, travel guides, and histories, where her trademark practicality and witty text encouraged readers to broaden their knowledge.

Sadly, three of her children did not survive childhood, and Mary openly admitted that she channeled her grief through writing. Mary Virginia Terhune died in her nineties, and despite eventually going blind, she completed her last novel at the age of 88 and dictated her final works to a secretary. During her lifetime, Mary wrote twenty-five novels, twenty-five homemaking books, three volumes of short stories, an 18-year newspaper column for female readers, several nonfiction books, as well as numerous essays and articles for magazines.

And she passed her love for writing onto her three surviving children, all of whom became authors themselves. Albert Payson Terhune was her youngest child.

Today, in northern New Jersey, there are nine elementary schools named after her son, Albert Payson Terhune, including Payson Road, Terhune Avenue, and even a Ladd Street.

MARION/MARY AND HER LEGACY

However, it seems that the only lasting tribute to Mary Virginia Terhune is the existence of Sunnybank, which was donated by the Terhune family to the town of Wayne for development into a public park in 1969. Mary’s writings are now only available through rare book channels, and the house at Sunnybank was razed. But the sunlight still shimmers on the banks of Pompton Lakes.

I am so grateful to two people for this month’s blog: Judith Gage and Steve Herring, who guided me to Steve’s warehouse, The Alcove, in Tarboro, NC, where I discovered Marion.

If you enjoyed learning about Marion/Mary, and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. You will receive the blog once a month via email.

As I sit in my writing office today, the heat of summer has finally broken, and I am doing my last ‘read through edit’ of my next to be published book. Here is the blurb to entice readers: In CHASING THE TIDES, two women separated by eighty years find refuge and strength at the same weathered beach cottage on the windswept Georgia coast. Bound by blood, bravery, and the tides, past and present collide at Comraich-by-the-Sea.

STAY TUNED!!

~ LINDA😊

CUT FROM STRONG CLOTH

           LAST CURTAIN CALL

COUNTING CROWS

B-52 DOWN

OPENING CLOSED DOORS

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                        Ho Sau-Mei: The Last Artisan

Posted on August 2, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

Tiles of mahjong board game

I usually do not write about women who are still alive, but in this case, I want to make an exception because Ho Sau Mei is the last known master craftsperson in Hong Kong who creates beautiful tiles by hand.

Tiles, you might ask, what kind of tiles?

She designs beautiful tiles for Mah Jong.

Now you are probably thinking, Mah Jong, really?

A year ago, I might have had dubious interest, too. Wasn’t Mah Jong just an afternoon club for old women?

Well, the American Mah Jongg group I belong to is all women, and we meet in the afternoons for a game that is challenging, requiring focus, concentration, and careful planning. And, I might add, none of us would call ourselves ‘old’—we’re wise women, maybe, but definitely not old.

Part of what sets Mah Jong apart from many other games is the presence of unique tiles.

The History of Mah Jong

Starting back in the mid-1800s, the Chinese created the game based on skill, strategy, and chance. It quickly became a favorite, especially around Shanghai, and was popular in primarily urban areas with both the elite and the general public.

By the 1920s, the game was firmly established in China, often played by multiple generations within families. In 1923, Joseph Babcock, working for Standard Oil (the predecessor of Exxon, Mobil, and others), started importing Mah Jong sets to the United States.

Mah Jong was standardized in the U.S. through the efforts of the National Mah Jongg League, founded in 1937 in New York City. Spearheaded by Dorothy Meyerson, who elicited help from other Jewish women to establish an American standardized approach that would guarantee consistent rules to be followed, regardless of where the game was played. In America, the game is often spelled with a double G at the end, or the more contemporary practice of putting the two words together to create – mahjong.

Today, Mah Jong is played worldwide. The game includes 144 tiles featuring Chinese characters, symbols, and numbers. Players start with 12 tiles and discard and draw new ones throughout the game in the hopes of forming a winning hand. Typically, there are four players at each table.

The National Mah Jongg League publishes a Standard Hands and Rules card annually. This current year, there is the possibility of 72 winning hands. Sounds simple, right? But the complex rules make the game a real challenge to win.

And the tiles? Think of a Scrabble tile, only bigger. Imagine the mahjong tile as creamy white, with characters, symbols, and/or numbers, usually one of three colors: black, red, or green (but I have also seen blue).

About Ho-Sau Mei

Ho Sau-Mei is recognized as a master Mah Jong carver in Hong Kong and is the last female artisan still practicing there. Ho began working at her father’s shop, Kam Fat Mahjong, when she was 13, aiming to continue the family tradition of hand-carving Mah Jong tiles.

 Despite the decline of this traditional craft due to mass production, she has maintained her artistry for five decades. However, she now works at a slower pace because of reduced stamina, fading eyesight, and weaker hands.

Traditionally, the tiles Ho worked with were made from wood, ivory, or bamboo. But today, most Mah Jong tiles are made from plastic, and sets are mass-produced in mainland China.

With her precise carving and painting, a set from Ho takes 10 – 14 days to design, and she often uses Bakelite for the tiles.

If we could visit her shop in Hong Kong, it might appear to the Western eye as a small, cramped storefront on a busy street, tucked between two larger businesses.

Ho would be sitting at the entrance, on her stool, leaning over her worktable, and concentrating on the current set she is carving. Examples of her sets are stacked as high as the ceiling, and she works alone.

In China, family sets are still handed down through generations, but the sets created by Ho Sau-Mei are now regarded as works of art.

Soon, hers will be a lost art.

A strong woman with a passion for creating the beautiful.

Thank you to fellow mahjong player, Sherri Heuer, who alerted me about Ho Sau-Mei and her story.

Mea Culpa: I strive very hard to ensure the accuracy of the stories I highlight and often consult four or more sources in writing my drafts. HOWEVER, just because a story appears almost verbatim in multiple sources does not always guarantee authenticity, especially in stories about women of the past.

Last week, my husband and I traveled to Edenton, N.C., and visited the Penelope Barker House. You may remember Penelope’s name associated with the Edenton Tea Party of 1774, or more accurately, the Edenton Tea Resolves.  In my January 2025 blog post, I shared how Penelope Barker had enlisted the signatures of 51 women stating they would boycott tea and other imports from England. In every source I read, it said the women came together in person in support of their ‘tea party’.

At Penelope’s home, now a museum, the docent explained to me that yes, Penelope did secure the signatures of 51 women from Chowan County, N.C.  to boycott tea, and yes, they were the first group of women in the colonies to band together and sign their names to a paper that would go to the King. HOWEVER, the 51 women were not in the same house at the same time, all signing the resolves together. Penelope would have gone door to door, or farm to farm, so to speak, eliciting the signatures. But a political cartoonist back in 1775 did a sketch of the ladies assembled together and signing a paper. And that gave rise to the notion of a tea party.

I loved standing in Penelope’s house and imagining the sensation of courage and anxiety she had about gaining the signatures for the resolves. And, I tried to imagine the reaction of old King George when he read them! Women indeed!

Yes, women indeed.

Hats off to both Ho Sau-Mei and Penelope Barker.  

~ Linda

If you are not yet a follower of this blog, simply sign up on the right-hand sidebar, and you will receive the monthly story in your email.

I am already hard at work, researching my next Strong Woman😊

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Marie Cromer and the Early 4-H Clubs

Posted on July 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

By Linda Harris Sittig

This summer, when you bite into a delicious ripe tomato, I want you to think about Marie Samuella Cromer.

Born in 1882 in rural Abbeville County, South Carolina, Marie grew up surrounded by farmland in a life punctuated by the crops. Encouraged to attend college by her parents, she took a job as a rural schoolteacher in 1907 in a one-teacher school in Aiken County, South Carlina.

Two years later, while attending a state teachers’ meeting, she listened to a speech by a representative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He spoke about the virtues of the Boys’ Corn Clubs of America, where boys from farm families were being taught to use agricultural resources more efficiently in their families’ lives.

THE REAL STORY BEGINS

Marie apparently thought of raising her hand and asking the question, “But what are we doing to help farm girls?” She didn’t verbalize that thought that day. But the incident nurtured an idea. Within one year, she organized the Aiken County Girls’ Tomato Club – the first of its kind anywhere in the United States.

Marie wasn’t trying to compete with the Boys’ Corn Clubs; she wanted a way for girls from rural backgrounds to learn more about agriculture, become involved, and earn money for themselves.

To encourage participation, Marie offered a $140 scholarship to Winthrop College for the girl who planted, grew, and harvested the most tomatoes on their 1/10-acre plot. Because of the restrictive Jim Crow laws, only White girls initially took part.

Within one year of the Tomato Club starting, 47 girls had enrolled.

The U.S. Farm Demonstration Service took note and awarded Marie’s program $5,000.00 for canning equipment and instructors who would teach the girls how to can. During the first summer of 1910, Katie Gunter won the scholarship by putting up 512 cans of tomatoes and received $40 from her tenth of an acre, equivalent to $1,276.00 in today’s economy —an astounding amount of money earned by a young girl in 1910. For many girls, the money earned from canning tomatoes was the first step toward having their own bank account.

By 1913, some twenty thousand girls throughout the southern states were participating. The General Education Board of New York City awarded the clubs $25,000 for equipment, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed instructional literature. The following year, the U.S. government, with the federal Smith-Lever Act of 1914, provided funding through land-grant colleges, including Clemson College.

MARIE CONTINUES TO INNOVATE

Marie Cromer married Cecil Seigler, the superintendent of Aiken County schools, in April 1912. She remained active with the Girls’ Canning Clubs while raising her children. With her husband’s help, she established Home Demonstration Clubs in Aiken and initiated Home Economics courses in Aiken County schools. She eventually pivoted to the background of the movement and let others take on the leadership.

It would not be until 1933 that the Girls’ Tomato Clubs in America began welcoming girls of color to join their programs.

Marie’s efforts eventually led to the formation of a co-ed organization called 4-H Clubs, which still exists in many rural counties today, providing experiences in agricultural leadership and social opportunities.

 In 1953, at the national 4-H camp, President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored Marie Cromer Seigler for her role in founding the precursor to the 4-H program.

MARIE’S LEGACY

 Marie died on June 14, 1964, and was buried in the Seigler family cemetery near Johnston, South Carolina. By then, thousands upon thousands of young women from rural backgrounds in the South had benefited from the idea that girls could participate in family farming and earn their own money.

So, bite into that juicy summer tomato and think of Marie Cromer Seigler.

Thank you to blog follower Harley Gamble for alerting me to the story of Marie, and who, by the way, also loves a good summer tomato.

Don’t forget to share the blog with friends. If you are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar.

Right now, I am working feverishly to complete the final editing of my latest novel, Chasing the Tides, about women on the home front in WWII. Stay tuned and in the meantime, check out my other five books – all with strong women. My books are available in bookstores and online.

Cut From Strong Cloth – Civil War 1861

Last Curtain Call – 1890s coal mining wars

Counting Crows – 1918 flu epidemic

B- 52 DOWN – 1964 Cold War

Opening Closed Doors – 1957 early Civil Rights Movement (ages 8 -12)

Linda😊   www.lindasittig.com

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Ashley White-Stumpf: Holding Freedom

Posted on June 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

By Linda Harris Sittig

Although Memorial Day is only a few days behind me, I am still thinking about all the service men and women who sacrificed their lives for freedom. And, I’m always grateful that my father survived WWII as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps, but I know other families weren’t as fortunate.

According to Military.com, 646,596 American service personnel lost their lives in combat, encompassing all wars from the American Revolution to the ongoing War on Terror. The definition of combat is two or more groups directly fighting each other with weapons.

American women were first allowed to serve in the military in 1917 (WWI), but only in non-combat roles. It wasn’t until 2013 that women were allowed to be deployed in combat. Since the attacks of 9/11/2001, 166 female service members have been killed while on active duty. One of these women was Ashley White-Stumpf.

ASHLEY’S STORY

Ashley was born in Ohio in 1987. She graduated from Kent State University in Ohio with a degree in sports medicine. Recruited as one of the first few dozen women soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan, Ashley joined the highly selective Cultural Support Teams, where she worked alongside Army Rangers in a Special Operations task force. Still, however, not considered combat.

Often working in a village on an initiative to facilitate interactions with civilian women and children, Ashley went where men were not allowed. Once, she used her own body to shield several women and children when gunfire suddenly broke out. Then, three months into her tour, Ashley was killed during a night raid by an IED (improvised explosive device).

She was 24 years old.

Ashley was later awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, among other military honors. Today, she is honored alongside a small group of female soldiers at the National Museum of the United States Army in Virginia for their acts of valor.

ASHLEY’S LEGACY

But Ashley’s story doesn’t end here.

Her life, patriotism, and commitment to helping others paved the way for women in America to be permitted, in 2013, to serve in combat roles. Ashley stands as a testament to all of us that freedom is never really free. Across America, families are still grappling with the grief of losing a loved one in combat.

Young women today, standing on the brink of adulthood, are pursuing their own destinies. For those who choose the military, their fellow Americans receive the invaluable gift of freedom.

As I mentioned, my dad returned from World War II, but my military heritage dates back 250 years. My ancestor, Captain Arnold Francis, gave his barn to General George Washington to be converted into a field hospital during the Siege of Valley Forge. Arnold’s wife, Elizabeth, stayed home and managed the farm by herself while he served in the military during the American Revolution.

 So, you see, American women in different ways have always participated in our wars. Today, not just on Memorial Day, let us take a moment to thank those men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom.

Thank you to Alexa Bigwarfe, a veteran, whose blog, Women in Publishing, highlighted the story of Ashley White-Stumpf.

Exciting changes are in the air! My website, www.lindasittig.com, is undergoing a complete redesign and is expected to launch within the next week. Next month’s blog will highlight it along with the exceptionally talented Katie Birks of www.katiebirks.co.uk, who is responsible for the design.

~Linda’s Books:

Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, Opening Closed Doors and soon….. Chasing the Tides

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Aleen Cust: Trailblazing Veterinarian

Posted on May 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

Some children go through a phase of wanting a horse. But for Aleen Cust, caring for horses was her dream. That dream became her lifelong goal when she decided to become a veterinary surgeon.

In the latter half of the 1800s, veterinary surgeons were a profession reserved for men in Britain. Aleen faced discrimination and discredit for decades, but refused to give up. Eventually, the British Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons awarded her a diploma of membership.

Aleen Cust became Britain and Ireland’s first officially recognized veterinary surgeon in 1922. At that time, there were fewer than five female veterinarians in America.

THE EARLY YEARS

Born in 1868, Aleen was one of six siblings who spent her early years in Ireland, where her English Protestant father worked as a land agent. However, the political climate shifted, and the family moved back to England, where they had connections to the Royal Court.

It might have been the bucolic Irish countryside of her childhood and the multitude of animals Aleen encountered that fostered her love of animals. Even at a young age, Aleen set her sights on becoming an animal doctor.

However, this was the Edwardian age in England, and girls from respectable families were encouraged to be presented at Court in hopes of being introduced to society and securing good marital prospects. Aleen wanted nothing of the sort. When she explained to her parents that her dream was to become a veterinary surgeon, they exploded in denial. There was no way a daughter of theirs would disgrace the family by working with animals.

But Aleen persevered.

HER ADULT YEARS

After her father’s death, her mother relented to allow Aleen to attend nursing school. Aleen soaked up all the math and science she could that would be useful knowledge for a veterinary surgeon. Then, at 26, she went to Scotland and enrolled in the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh under the name A.I. Cust. Apparently, the admissions office never considered that the student registering was female.

She studied there for six years, earning the highest scores and top grades, despite being the only female student. However, when it was time for Aleen to sit for her final exams to receive a certificate from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, her application for the exams was denied because the term ‘student’ applied only to males; therefore, she was ineligible to sit for the exam or become certified as a surgeon. On graduation day from Edinburgh, she received her diploma, but had to watch all the male students receive their professional certificates as well. I’m sure she was fuming.

Some people might have quit at this point, but not Aleen. After graduating from Edinburgh, she moved back to rural Ireland and worked for 15 years as a veterinary assistant. In truth, she was equal in skill to her male counterpart, and eventually, the locals accepted her because of her expertise and compassion for all animals.

WORLD WAR I

In 1915, as World War I tore across Europe, Aleen learned that the fledgling British Army Veterinary Corps was stationed in Abbeville, France, near a new YMCA chapter. Aleen left Ireland, registered as a YMCA volunteer, and managed to transfer to the Army Veterinary Corps to help with the thousands of horses injured in the war. Two years later, she was working exclusively with the Queen Mary Army Auxiliary Corps.

But her big break came in 1919 when Parliament passed the Sex Disqualification Act, which prohibited women from being barred from any profession. In 1922, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons allowed her to sit for her exams, which she passed with flying colors, despite the 22-year lapse since her graduation from college.

HER LEGACY

Aleen became a certified veterinarian at age 46, but never married. Instead, she dedicated her life to caring for animals. When she died unexpectedly at 68 while visiting friends in Kingston, Jamaica, she was buried in an unmarked grave in the local churchyard. It was 1937, and 60 certified female veterinarians were practicing in England. I am sure each of them whispered a thank you to Aleen.

If you enjoyed reading about Aleen Cust, then check out the historical fiction novel based on her life: The Invincible Miss Cust by Penny Haw. Available online and in bookstores. It will give you an in-depth understanding of Aleen’s invincible spirit.

More about me:) When I am not reading about Strong Women, I am writing about them.

If you are not yet a follower of this blog, join the other 1,340 followers from 64 different countries and sign up on the right-hand sidebar. Once a month, you’ll be alerted to a new Strong Woman.

You can also find me on my website, www.lindasittig.com, and my books with strong women as protagonists are in bookstores and online.

            Cut From Strong Cloth – 1861 Philadelphia & the Civil War

            Last Curtain Call – 1894 western Maryland & the Coal Wars

            Counting Crows – 1918 NYC & the Spanish Flu

B-52 DOWN – 1964 western Maryland & the Cold War

Opening Closed Doors: The Story of Josie Murray – 1957 & the Civil Rights Movement

And soon….. Chasing The Tides – WWII on the American Homefront

Linda😊

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The Criteria for a Strong Woman

Posted on April 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

April is the yearly anniversary of this blog. So, I am now embarking on year #14!

 When I started the blog, I did so because I had discovered an ancestor, Ellen Canavan Nolan. In 1862, she, along with my great-grandfather, developed a new type of cloth that they sold to the Federal government for use in manufacturing soldiers’ uniforms. No one in our family had ever heard of Ellen. She had been an Irish immigrant with a dream. Not rich, not highly educated, Irish Catholic—numerous strikes against succeeding. But she persevered.

She helped my great-grandfather become quite prosperous, but she died young. And my great-grandfather buried her with only his name for identification in the graveyard: Mrs. James Nolan.

Here was a woman who helped to change how soldiers’ uniforms would be made from then on. Yet, once she died, she disappeared from history.

I began to wonder how many other women had done something extraordinary with their lives, only to pass into oblivion.

To pay tribute to her as a strong woman, I wrote my first historical fiction novel, Cut from Strong Cloth, and then started this blog, Strong Women in History. I had hoped to find enough Strong Women who were relatively unknown by today’s standards to write for at least one year.

Here I am now, 14 years later.

I have profiled women who were medical pioneers in various fields, such as Elizabeth Kenny and her treatment for polio. I wrote about Cicely Saunders, the British woman who founded the hospice movement, and Gladys Aylward, a missionary who helped break the tradition of foot binding in China. I wrote about women who were incredibly talented artists, like Karin Bergöö, but were overshadowed by their famous artist husbands.

The stories of strong women started falling in my lap as blog followers would write and ask, “Hey, have you heard of this woman?”

Only two of the 150+ women I have profiled were famous: Cleopatra and Eleanor
Roosevelt. There were others who might have been known in their native countries but not appreciated in the larger world. I am thinking of Sigríður Tómasdóttir, the young woman who initiated eco-preservation in Iceland, or Anna Coleman Ladd, the woman in France who developed a technique for making facial masks to conceal the deformities of men subjected to mustard gas in WWI.

Twice, I wrote about Strong Women in my own life. One was my third-grade teacher, Marjorie Doremus, a victim of polio who taught from a wheelchair and changed all of our lives when she managed to arrange a class trip to the town library and signed each of us up for our first library card. The other woman, Edythe Fox, was struck down with debilitating multiple sclerosis but became a can-do symbol for our high school when she chaired soliciting gift items to be raffled off for the senior class graduation. Each of us, all 189, received one of those gifts.

What have I learned from all the Strong Women?

Every single one, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or age, pursued a dream. They each were faced with overwhelming obstacles and failures, but they persevered. They persevered to make this world a better place, and as such, they deserve our recognition.

So, on this day in April, I salute all the Strong Women I have written about and look forward to the stories yet to be penned. And most of all, I thank Ellen Canavan Nolan for starting me on this journey.

If you are not yet a follower of this blog, join the other 1,340 followers from 64 different countries and sign up on the righthand sidebar. Once a month, you’ll be alerted to a new Strong Woman.

You can catch me on my website, www.lindasittig.com, or find my five published books in bookstores and online.

            Cut From Strong Cloth

            Last Curtain Call

            Counting Crows

B-52 DOWN

Opening Closed Doors: The Story of Josie Murray

And hopefully soon….. Chasing The Tides.

Linda😊

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Pauline Boty: Popping Art in the ‘60s

Posted on March 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

Mention Pop Art, and many people think of Andy Warhol and perhaps his Campbell Soup painting. Or Roy Lichtenstein and his bold comic book figures. But what about Pauline Boty. Who?

Exactly.

Pauline Boty was one of several extremely talented female pop artists whose works helped to define the Pop Art movement. Although she was later credited with helping start the Pop Art movement in Britain, her name and art remained largely forgotten for almost 30 years after her death.

Pauline’s Early Life

Born in 1938 in a middle-class Surrey family, Boty was the youngest of four siblings, and the only girl. Her stern father ignored her early art endeavors while her mother championed them. Perhaps this was part of the foundation that led Boty to become an early feminist.

Blessed, or cursed, with a beautiful face, she was often called the English Brigette Bardot. The first of the British Pop Artists of the 1960s and, at first, the only female, Pauline delighted in painting women showing off their femininity.

At this point, you may ask what constitutes the Pop Art Movement. Bold colors, repetition, and everyday subjects characterize pop art. It can also incorporate satire.

While Andy Warhol displayed Campbell’s soup, the quintessential American household purchase, Boty painted women in positions of self-assured femininity, freeing them from the everyday household image.

By age 16, Pauline had won a scholarship to the Wimbledon School of Art where she studied lithography, stained glass, and collage. Collage fascinated her the most and became a cornerstone of her Pop Art.

Pauline’s Artistic Career

In 1958 she then went on to study at the Royal College of Art, where four of her pieces were selected for traveling exhibitions. By 1961, she had graduated and held her first showing at a gallery in London. A year later, she was featured in a BBC documentary, Pop Goes the Easel, which launched her into acting.  She could dance, she was beautiful, and her vibrant personality attracted people to her. The acting career paid the bills, but her artwork stayed the focus of her life.

Married at age 26 to British literary agent Clive Goodwin, their flat became a mecca for other young aspiring artists, including musician Bob Dylan.

For the next few years, her art became more political and satirical, focusing on the fact that it was indeed a man’s world.

Pauline then became pregnant (to her husband) in 1965, and during a routine pre-natal exam, cancer was discovered. Refusing an abortion or chemotherapy, she delivered a healthy daughter but died herself five months later at the age of 28.

And then her art, all of it, was stored at her brother’s farm, where it lay in dormancy for 30 years. Thanks to the persistence of art curator David Miller and academic Dr. Sue Tate, Pauline’s art was resurrected and exhibited once again.

Pauline’s Legacy

Since 2023, books have been written on her life, exhibitions of her art have been staged, and documentaries have been aired. One of her latest showings was at the prestigious Tate Gallery in London.

We ask why some artists become revered only after death. I don’t know the answer, but Vincent Van Gogh and Pauline Boty fall into that category.

Rest in peace, Pauline. Your art has been rediscovered and your legacy lives on.

Thank you to blog follower Donna Haarz, who emailed me about Pauline Boty and female Pop Artists. And thank you to Insspirito from Pixabay Images for the pop art woman image. I love finding Strong Women all over the globe. Please sign up on the right-side bar to become a follower!

~ Linda

My novels on Strong Women can be found in bookstores and ordered online:

Cut From Strong Cloth – c. 1865 – Savannah and Philadelphia

Last Curtain Call – c. 1893 – western Maryland coal mines

Counting Crows – c. 1918 – New York City

B-52 DOWN – c. 1964 – western Maryland mountains

Opening Closed Doors – c. 1955 – desegregation in Virginia

Chasing the Tides – c. 1942 and 2022 – women on the home front (Currently in production)

You can learn more about me on my website: www.lindasittig.com

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Hattie Briggs and the Women Who Founded P.E.O.

Posted on February 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

It was January, 1869. The Civil War had just ended four years earlier. While women were still decades away from getting the right to vote, educational opportunities for women were beginning to increase.

January in Iowa was cold. But at Iowa Wesleyan University, two women, Hattie Briggs and Franc Rhoads, were outside on campus, talking. Hattie posed the question of forming a group of like-minded women who believed in the opportunity for education for all women. Franc concurred.

They invited five other women to join them: Mary Allen, Alice Bird, Alice Coffin, Suela Pearson, and Ella Stewart. 

Two days later, the seven women met in Mary Allen’s home, pledging to support each other and focus on educational opportunities for other female students. At this time in American history, only fifty schools of higher learning were available to women.

The seven women of Iowa Wesleyan decided to name their group P.E.O., which stood for Philanthropic Educational Organization. Well aware of how education can benefit a woman, they pledged their actions and energies to help ‘motivate, educate, and celebrate women.’ One of their early endeavors was to consider fundraising that would support other women in pursuing an education.

The seven founders had all been friends on campus and were kindred spirits in their beliefs about the advancements for women. Their society was to be neither political nor religious, and although they started P.E.O. on the Iowa Wesleyan campus, it soon grew to include women not enrolled in that college. By 1885, seventeen additional chapters had been started by women in other locations.

Since its founding, P.E.O. has grown to over 200,000 members in over 5,500 chapters in America and Canada. The sisterhood has awarded over 450 million dollars in scholarships, educational loans, and grants to over 125,000 female recipients.

P.E.O. also owns and supports Cottey College in Nevada, Missouri. Cottey is an independent liberal arts and sciences women’s college that strives to develop leadership qualities with a global perspective.

What happened to the original seven founders? All seven went on to live lives of dedicated service and continued in their commitments to P.E.O.

Mary Allen graduated and married Charles Stafford, a Methodist minister who became the president of Iowa Wesleyan. Mary stayed active in the community and passed at age 79. She is buried in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, the site of Iowa Wesleyan.

Alice Bird graduated as an honor student and married Washington Babb, who later became a lawyer. Alice became a talented writer and died at 70 in Aurora, Illinois.

Hattie Briggs earned a B.S. degree, married Henri Bousquet, and made their home in Pella, Iowa, where she taught music and art. Unfortunately, Hattie died young at 28.

Alice Coffin earned a B.S. degree, then broke off her engagement to Suela Pearson’s brother and remained single for the rest of her life. She devoted her life to teaching children but died at age 40. She is buried in Newton, Iowa.

Franc Rhoads became an early feminist. She married Simon Elliot and became an art teacher. Later, she did graduate work at the University of Chicago.  Franc, an avid reader her entire life, died at age 72 in Chicago, Illinois.

Suela Pearson earned a B.A. degree and was considered the group’s most popular member. She married Frank Penfield, and they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where they were associated with Standard Oil. Suela died after a long illness at 69. She is buried in Cleveland.

Ella Stewart was the only founder not to graduate. Her father died when she was 16, leaving her pregnant mother with five children. Although Mrs. Stewart then opened and ran a successful boardinghouse, Ella was needed at home to help with the other children. Ella eventually became a teacher at the Iowa Industrial School for wayward boys but died young at 46 and is buried in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.

If you think back to 1869, when only 50 colleges were open to women, women now outnumber men in the number of holders of bachelor’s degrees, thanks in part to the support of other women.

P.E.O. continues to encourage women to join their sisterhood. Membership is open to any woman 18 years and older who acknowledges a belief in God. Women are eligible regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or abilities.

If you are interested in this philanthropic organization, their link is: www.peointernational.org.

Thank you to Ella Akin and Sue McCollum, who first alerted me to the story of P.E.O.

Strong Women can be found everywhere.

~ Linda

While winter has been cold here in North Carolina, I am finishing my latest book, Chasing the Tides. It is a WWII story about the women on the American homefront who helped to build the Liberty Ships that transported supplies overseas. Stay tuned for more information on the publication.

And you can always catch me on www.lindasittig.com:)

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Penelope Barker: and the OTHER Tea Party

Posted on January 1, 2025 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

Many of us know about the Boston Tea Party, which took place on December 16, 1773. On that day, Patriots, known as the Sons of Liberty, disguised themselves as Indians and tossed 340 chests of English tea into Boston Harbor, protesting Parliament’s recently imposed tea tax on the colonies.

However, there were other ‘Tea Parties,’ where colonists refused to drink English tea due to taxes being levied on British goods: taxation without representation.

The other tea parties, however, did not have the distinction of the Edenton Tea Party on October 25, 1774. Why? None of the colonists who participated wore disguises, all 51 participants signed a letter attesting to their involvement, and all the protesters were women. The Edenton Tea Party was one of the earliest recorded demonstrations of protest against the British Intolerable Acts by a group of women.

PENELOPE’S STORY

Who then was Penelope Barker, and what role did she play?

Born in June of 1728 in Edenton, North Carolina, Penelope (maiden name Pagett) found herself at age 17, marrying her deceased sister’s husband, John Hodgson. Her main role was to take care of his three children. She quickly became pregnant herself, and when she was 21, her husband died, leaving her a widow with five children to raise alone.

Although she inherited his property, it was held in trust because she was a widow. Within six years, she married again, and this husband, James Craven, bought her property outright for himself and then deeded it back to Penelope free and clear.

John Craven died four years later, leaving Penelope Hodgson Craven a wealthy widow. Two years later, and now widowed twice, Penelope married Thomas Barker, a wealthy lawyer in Edenton.

Within four years of their wedding, Thomas was called to London to represent the American colony of North Carolina in matters of law. He would be in London for the next 17 years.

What did Penelope do as a married woman living alone?

She managed the family’s finances and kept an ear to the ground for what she realized could be an impending rebellion against the British Crown. When the First Continental Congress passed the nonimportation resolutions urging colonists to boycott English goods, Penelope and the women of North Carolina took it seriously.

THE TEA PARTY

On October 25, 1774, Penelope invited 51 of her neighbors and friends to a tea hosted in a nearby house. While the women sipped local herbal tea, Penelope brought forth a resolution that the women of Edenton would publicly support a boycott of British goods, including cloth and tea. Each woman signed the resolution, and then Penelope mailed it to the London Packet and the London Advertiser for all of England to read.

I can only imagine Thomas Barker’s surprise when reading the London morning newspapers!

“As we cannot be indifferent on any occasion that appears nearly to affect the peace and happiness of our country, and as it has been thought necessary, for the public good, to enter into several particular resolves by a meeting of Members deputed from the whole Province, it is a duty which we owe, not only to our near and dear connections who have concurred in them, but to ourselves who are essentially interested in their welfare, to do everything as far as lies in our power to testify our sincere adherence to the same; and we do therefore accordingly  subscribe this paper, as a witness of our fixed intention and solemn determination to do so.”

Britain did not act favorably toward these women from the colonies who signed their names to a paper of protest. The British newspapers labeled them as loose women without morals because what decent woman dared to protest, in writing no less, about her government?

Thomas came home from London, and the American colonies were then the United States of America. Penelope continued her life with Thomas in Edenton for the next eight years. When he passed, she had been widowed three times and remained a widow for the remainder of her life in the house they built together.

TODAY

That house now showcases the Edenton Historical Commission. Upon entering the Penelope Barker Welcome Center, you can see all 51 names of the women of the Edenton Tea Party whose courage classifies them as early political activists.

Massachusetts Patriots may have had the first tea party, but North Carolina had female Patriots who refused to let their voices be silenced.

I hope you enjoyed Penelope Barker’s story. It is a testimonial to the fact that our country was founded by men and women who prized freedom above convenience and truth above compliance.

Wishing you the best in 2025!

~ Linda

Author of Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, and Opening Closed Doors.

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