DorisMarie McCormick, Fay Payne, Diane Peedin, Gene Townley, and Carol Wooten: Strong Women by Fate.

Posted on April 1, 2026 by lhsittig@verizon.net

By Linda Harris Sittig

As this monthly blog enters its 15th year (!) I want to pay tribute to five women who became Strong Women not by choice, but by fate. What bound these five women together was their courage in the face of an appalling shared tragedy, a tragedy that befell their husbands and altered the lives of each family.

DorisMarie hailed from California, Fay from Oklahoma, Diane from North Carolina, Gene from Alabama, and Carol from South Dakota. But in 1964, they all lived on Turner Air Force Base in Albany, Georgia, where their husbands were stationed with the U.S. Air Force.

At age 39, DorisMarie was the tallest wife, standing over 6 feet. She loved to cook Mexican food and hoped to become a graphic artist. But then she met Tom McCormick near the end of WWII and swapped her artistic dreams for the life of a military pilot’s wife.

Fay, at 42, was the oldest of the five wives. She had been enrolled in secretarial school in Tulsa when she met Bob Payne. They soon discovered they had a shared love for dancing, and she won him over with her delicious home-baked cherry pies.

Diane, at 29, was the fashionista of the group. She had been voted Best All-Around Girl in her senior year in a North Carolina high school. She loved clothes and met Mack Peedin while still in high school, then dropped out of college to marry him. Marrying an Air Force co-pilot sounded exciting. She had no idea of the dangers her husband would face.

Gene, age 39, grew up in Alabama, where entertaining guests is considered an art. Gene perfected her reputation by concocting delectable peanut butter milkshakes that both guests and her husband, Robert Townley, loved.

Carol, at age 23, was the youngest of the five and the only wife in the small group not married to an officer. Carol met her future husband, Melvin Wooten, at a roller-skating rink while still in high school. Blonde and petite, Carol’s life quickly centered on marriage and then on children.

DorisMarie was the mother of two boys; Fay was the mother of two boys and a daughter; Diane had one son; Gene had two sons; and Carol had a son and two daughters. All five women had lived on various Air Force bases before they found themselves together in 1963 at Turner Air Force Base in Georgia.

The turning point in their lives started on January 12, 1964.

It was a balmy Sunday in Albany, Georgia. All of their husbands had the day off, and then the phones rang. A B-52 bomber in Westover Air Force Base in Chickopee, Massachusetts, needed to be ferried back to Georgia for repairs. A five-man crew was necessary for the retrieval flight.

One by one, the five husbands, Major Tom McCormick, Captain Mack Peedin, Major Bob Payne, Major Robert Townley, and Tech Sergeant Melvin Wooten, suited up, kissed their wives goodbye, and flew up to Massachusetts.

The return flight was supposed to be routine, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Leaving Massachusetts at 12:30 am, the crew made it as far as Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, when they encountered an unexpected blizzard, later called the blizzard of the century. Their plane collided with 167-mile-an-hour winds, and the rear tail and back wing sheared off. This force threw the aircraft (traveling at 500 mph) into Negative G, and it spiraled, then flipped upside down.

The men had no choice but to eject. At 30,000 feet. Into a howling blizzard. With ground temperatures below zero. And with 3-4 feet of snow already on the ground.

One by one, they ejected, only to find themselves landing and then stranded in the roughest terrain of the area, in the mountains of Garrett County, Western Maryland. It would have been helpful had they landed near each other. But as fate would have it, each man touched down approximately 2 miles away from anyone else. Two miles in deep snow in zero visibility with a blizzard still raging.

By 5:00 a.m., the base commander and chaplain had visited each wife back on base and alerted her of the assumption that the plane had crashed and the five men were listed as missing.

One can only imagine the emotions of each woman as she waited with a desperate hope that her husband might somehow, miraculously, be found alive.

Neighbors came and sat with the wives as they waited for the news. None of the women had family nearby other than their children. While DorisMarie and Gene had older children, Fay, Diane, and Carol had young children.

And the five wives would not know at the time that a combination of 1,000 volunteers – locals of Garrett and Allegany Counties plus military, were trekking the mountains trying to rescue the downed men.

By the end of the five-day search for survivors, some of the five wives became widows, and others would experience their husbands’ shared survivors’ guilt. All five had their lives permanently etched with the tragedy of the crash of the B -52. And, as with all strong women, they eventually picked up the pieces of their lives and continued caring for their families.

I am proud to say that the book I wrote about the B-52 Bomber, the crew and their wives, and the 1000 volunteers who gave up five days of their lives to try and find survivors, has been named a finalist for the 2026 Chanticleer International Book Award. B-52 DOWN: The Night the Bombs Fell From the Sky.

Last month, I was interviewed on late-night radio, 77ABC in New York City, with Dr. Sky about the story of the B-52 known as Buzz One Four. Click the following link, to hear a shortened version of the interview and how I came to write the book.

To read the entire story with all the crash and rescue efforts details, look for B-52 DOWN! Available from your favorite bookstore or can be ordered through Amazon at www.amazon.com/dp/1940553105.

Remember that, amid all the worldwide tragedies, strong women are often on the sidelines, but their stories are every bit as important.

~ linda

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Women’s History Month

Posted on March 1, 2026 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

In celebration of Women’s History Month, a Windows Update released gremlins that have incapacitated my computer. Until it comes back from the shop, I am giving you this inspirational quote from Jane Walker that I keep in my office.

To Future First Women –

Against all odds, women have continued to break ground that shouldn’t have needed breaking, blazed trails that should have been well traveled, and shattered glass ceilings that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.

Fearless women, past and present, brave enough to follow their passions.

Don’t just open the door, rip it off its hinges so it can’t be closed again.

signed Jane Walker.

So, to all the brave girls out there, regardless of age, I salute you!

signed Linda Harris Sittig

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Florence Merriam Bailey: Protect the Birds!

Posted on February 1, 2026 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

I am sitting by the back windows in our home, overlooking a grove of trees and the bird feeders attached to the deck railing. It’s bitterly cold, and the birds have been ravenous. Suddenly, a bluebird alights. His plumage is the most luminous shade of blue, and I find myself transfixed by his colors. This has been one of the perks of moving south to North Carolina, where bluebirds in winter are a daily delight.

However, years ago, especially during the Gilded Age of America (1870-1900), my friend the bluebird and countless other bird species were the victims of unregulated slaughter for their feathers.

Feathers? You may wonder. Yes, it was the beginning of the fashion trend in which women wore hats adorned with bird plumage.

How did this come to be?

THE FEATHER TRADE

In the late 1880s, store-bought women’s fashions first became available to the masses through department stores. No longer having to sew her own dresses, a woman could easily buy them in stores. But with identical outfits now available in various sizes, how would a woman stand out, so to speak, in her fashion choice? The answer: by her hat.

This conundrum helped the millinery business explode, and along the way, bird feathers became the rage. At the time, few people saw the huge injustice done to millions of birds each year and the future extinction of multiple species, all in the name of fashion.

Enter Florence Merriam Bailey, whom everyone called Merriam.

MERRIAM

Merriam was born near Utica, New York, in 1863, and, due to ill health, was educated at home. However, her family’s house was quite near the Adirondack Mountains, and from an early age, Merriam went on long walks with her brother in the nearby woods. Nature fascinated her, and most particularly the birds.

In 1882, Merriam was allowed to enter Smith, a women’s college in Massachusetts. However, she was only allowed to participate as a ‘special student’, meaning she could attend classes, but not receive a degree, since she did not possess a high school diploma. This turned out to be a boon, because as soon as the college offered science courses, Merriam signed up for any that would help her study ornithology.

The more she studied birds, the more diligent she became in their protection. Along with a friend, Fanny Hardie Eckstrom, they organized a club to observe and protect wild birds. Merriam began writing articles on the protection of birds and, at age 26, published her first book, Birds Through an Opera Glass. Today, her book is recognized as the first field guide to bird-watching intended for the general public. For Merriam, it was her first professional attempt to attract the public to watching birds in the wild.

After college, she spent several winters with her parents in New York City. Once more, she became ill, and on the family doctor’s advice, she and her mother journeyed out west for cleaner, fresher air. To her delight, not only did her health improve, but she became a diligent bird-watcher of western birds. And she continued to submit articles on bird protection. Her greatest talent was making the study of birds a pastime accessible to the general public.

MERRIAM’S CRUSADE

In 1899, she married a fellow naturalist, Vernon Bailey. The couple moved to Washington, D.C., and it was there that Merriam became involved in the conservation movement. Not just involved, she became an activist and supported the Lacey Act of 1900, which prohibited the trade of wild animals, including birds that had been killed illegally. She also taught workshops at the National Zoo.

The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905 by two female environmentalists in Massachusetts. Their goal to protect wild birds was a direct result of the widespread slaughter of waterbirds. It took four birds’ dead bodies to produce 1 ounce of plumage for a hat. The Audubon Society was a natural choice for Merriam, and she helped to co-organize several local chapters.

Merriam traveled extensively with her husband whenever his work took him to the American West, and she continued her study of birds of the western states. In 1916, the Biological Survey asked Florence to travel to New Mexico and compile a book on the birds of that state. Her Birds of New Mexico earned her the Brewster Medal from the American Ornithologists’ Union in 1931. She was the first woman to receive this award.

MERRIAM’S LEGACY

Merriam spent the rest of her life studying and writing about birds and their need for protection. She published her last book in 1939 and was the first woman elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union. She died peacefully in Washington, D.C., at the age of 85.

So, the next time you glance up and see a bird perched on a branch, feasting at a feeder, or soaring through the sky, remember Merriam Bailey and her lifelong passion for protecting birds and making birdwatching an enjoyable activity for everyone.

If you enjoyed this month’s highlight of Merriam Bailey and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Once a month, a Strong Women in History story will appear in your email inbox.

~ Linda

For those of you who have asked… my newest book, Chasing the Tides, is now in the hands of 12 publishers (in manuscript form). It is about two strong women, eighty years apart, who are both part of a legacy through a beachside cottage on St. Simons Island, Georgia. Stay tuned:)

In the meantime, you can find my other books in bookstores and online.

Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B52 DOWN, Opening Closed Doors: the Story of Josie Murray.

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Carol Green: and The Women’s Bank

Posted on January 1, 2026 by lhsittig@verizon.net

by Linda Harris Sittig

It may be hard for younger American women to truly appreciate the Herculean task that Carol Green undertook in the mid-1970s.

But I do.

I clearly remember, as a newlywed in 1973, applying for my first credit card. It was from Sears, Roebuck. I filled out the application, mailed it off, and waited for the card. When it came, it was written under the name of Mrs. Sittig, only my married name, my identity with my husband, not my full name. I remember the feeling of disappointment. But I was a newly married woman, and apparently, my husband’s name carried more credence than mine alone. I shrugged off the feeling and used the card.

Then, in 1975, with a B.A. in History and an M.Ed. in Education under my belt, I decided to enter a Ph.D. program at a university in Washington, D.C. I filled out the application and then came to the last page. For a married woman, this university required the husband’s signature as a form of permission.  This time, I wasn’t disappointed; I was furious. I switched my intentions elsewhere.

By the 1980s, when I decided I wanted my own checking account, in addition to our combined account, I should have written a thank-you note to Carol Green. Before her groundbreaking fight, married American women could not open an independent bank account or apply for a bank loan without the co-signature of a male family member. Under the old coverture laws, when a woman married, her property now belonged to her husband. Property, including money.

In the mid-1970s, Carol Green was already the CEO of a highly successful local franchise business. Weight Watchers. You may have heard of it 😊, but she could not get a loan from any bank in Colorado without her husband co-signing, despite the passage of the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act. She did not cave to disappointment; instead, she sought support from other business-minded women she knew in Denver, and together they opened the first women’s bank in Colorado.

In 1976, this group of ten women had put up $1,000 each and applied for permission to open The Women’s Bank. The individuals were: Wendy W. Davis, Loretta Norgren, Leslie Friedman Davis, Betty Sue Freedman, Beverly A. (Martinez) Grall, Barbara Grall, Barbara Welch Sudler, Edna Mosley, Judith Foster, and Carol Green. Each woman was valued for her individual expertise, and together they were a formidable force.

Of course, they ran into challenges; they had traversed a four-year gauntlet of paperwork before securing a national bank charter. And it was a gamble – would the Denver female population support them in their novel endeavor? When the bank opened on the morning of July 14, 1978, the group must have held its breath. But, within the early morning hours, a line of women stretched down the street, waiting for the doors to open. Some women came with a substantial deposit; others came with folded dollar bills taken out of their kitchen coffee cans. But they came, and when the bank closed after that first day, the deposits totaled $1 million. A lot of money in 1978 – the equivalent of $4.97 million today. Not bad.

The impact of The Women’s Bank in Denver was built on earlier attempts in other states to secure a bank where women could participate in their own finances, such as The First Woman’s Bank in Clarksville, Tennessee, which opened to women in 1919. But it was absorbed by a larger bank in 1926. And think of Maggie Lena Walker, the first African American self-made millionaire who started the St. Luke’s Penny Saving Bank in 1903.

The Women’s Bank in Denver, though, was one of the first commercial banks that was successfully owned and run by a group of women. The gift of Carol Green and the other women who tirelessly championed women’s financial opportunities is that they were fighting for women’s financial independence and economic equality. They knew they were attempting to smash a glass ceiling.

While we may be able to secure a loan, open a bank account, and manage our own finances today, American women still earn only 83 cents for every dollar men earn.

I recently found a letter my mother wrote to me shortly after my wedding. In it, she tells me to get my own checking account, separate from my husband, so I can control some of my own money. The date is August 1973. I smile, thinking how much my mother would have loved to have met Carol Green.

If you enjoyed Carol’s story and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right-hand sidebar. The blog will appear in your email inbox once a month. Then, forward the blog to a friend, or better yet, several friends.

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.

linda:)

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

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Odette Sansom & Krystyna Skarbek: Freedom Fighters

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

by Linda Harris Sittig

Germany map (Europe)

While researching my current work-in-progress, a WWII-set novel, I find myself drawn to stories of strong women during that war.

Although Odette Sansom and Krystyna Skarbek may never have met during the war, they were both engaged as spies for the British Special Operations Executive, the SOE.

They came from different nationalities. Odette was French and the mother of three daughters; Krystyna was Polish by birth, married, but had no children. They were also close in age; Krystyna was born in 1908, and Odette in 1912. Both were athletic and attractive brunettes. And each woman would go on in life to have multiple husbands.

Here are their stories.

ODETTE

Odette married Roy Sansom, an Englishman, and by 1942 had applied for SOE training. She was sent into Nazi-occupied France in late 1942 under the code name Lise. There, she collaborated with Peter Churchill of the French Resistance based in Cannes, acting as his courier, carrying messages back and forth.

Captured by the Gestapo in the French Alps in April 1943, she was sent to prison in Paris, where she claimed she and Peter Churchill were married and that he was Winston Churchill’s nephew. In prison, she was tortured and kept on a starvation diet. When she still refused to reveal names, she was sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious concentration camp for women. She remained there for the rest of the war.

When the war ended and Ravensbrück was liberated, Odette was emaciated, weak, and ill. However, she had survived. She testified at the War Crimes Tribunal, returned to her family, and lived until the age of 82. During her lifetime, she received several awards, including both the British George Cross for bravery and the French Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

KRYSTYNA

Krystyna arrived in London with her then husband, Jerzy Gizycki, in 1939. By 1940, she had joined the SOE and was sent to Hungary under the pretense of being a journalist. Her husband, also an intelligence agent, accompanied her.

Working to provide surveillance of all roads, rail, and river traffic in Budapest, Krystyna traveled back and forth between Hungary and Poland. She organized a system of couriers to deliver intelligence reports.

Briefly detained in 1941 by the Hungarian police, Krystyna feigned tuberculosis and fled Hungary with the assistance of a friend who transported her into Yugoslavia. Moving on, she worked in Bulgaria and eventually in Turkey, smuggling microfilms showing the German military buildup along the Soviet border.

From the end of 1941 through 1943, Krystyna was in Egypt, collecting intelligence information and passing it on to various resistance groups. Then, in July 1944, she parachuted into France, where she helped to organize multiple French Resistance groups in Southeast France.

Before the war ended, Krystyna managed to free several resistance fighters from prison, yet she never became captured herself. After the war, she joined the British WAAF as a flight officer and was awarded the George Medal from Britain and the Croix de Geurre from France, among many other distinctions.

Krystyna was most likely one of the most daring spies in the SOE. Tragically, in 1952, she was stabbed to death by a former obsessive lover.

Both these women, Odette Sansom and Krystyna Skarbek risked everything for the sake of achieving freedom.

Thank you to Bucky Schriver and Harley Gamble, two followers of this Strong Women in History blog, for passing me the names of Odette and Krystyna.

If you enjoyed the stories of Odette and Krystyna and are not yet a follower of this blog, please sign up on the right sidebar. Once a month, you will receive the blog via email.

December is traditionally the month when we send holiday cards and messages. My message to all of you is a wish for Peace on Earth.

~ Linda

Author of Cut from Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, and Opening Closed Doors. To be released in 2026 – Chasing the Tides.

WWW.LINDASITTIG.COM

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Annie Moore: First Ellis Island Immigrant

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

By Linda Harris Sittig

I have often said that many of the Strong Women I write about find me. As did Annie Moore.

A few weeks ago, while browsing YouTube for exercise videos, I came across a mention of a group called Celtic Thunder. OK, maybe not random?

Intrigued, I clicked on the video and started listening to a song from one of their concerts,“Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears”. As I listened, I realized it was a song about the first immigrant to step onto Ellis Island’s threshold on January 2, 1892. She was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl from Ireland.

Like many Irish ballads, it plucked my heartstrings and left me wanting to know more.

IRELAND

Human habitation of Ireland dates to 9,000 BC, at the end of the great Ice Age. By 4,000 BC, prehistoric hunter-gatherer groups dominated, and by 600 BC, the people we know as the Celts existed throughout the island.

Ireland was always an island of turmoil, controlled by many powerful individual chieftains and their clans. And while even ancient Rome considered taking over the island, total conquest did not occur until 1601, when the Irish lost to the English at the Battle of Kinsale, and Ireland became the first English territory to be colonized.

Cap that with the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, with William III of England, the victor. This secured all of Ireland for England, and Irish Catholics whose families had owned their land for decades, or even generations, were suddenly forced to become tenants of English landowners.

And then the Famine, known in Ireland as The Great Hunger. Almost all the crops grown in Ireland, grains, corn, wheat, etc., were shipped to England for sale by the English landlords. The only crop the Native Irish were allowed to keep was potatoes.

In 1845–1851, a six-year blight hit potato crops across the island. Since it was the only crop the tenants had for themselves, the famine was a disaster of gigantic proportions. One million Irish died of starvation and disease (while other crops were still sent by the British landlords back to England). Another 2 million Irish fled the island, leading to a massive influx of immigrants to America and other countries.

Even after the Famine, the Irish who had survived were mainly poverty-stricken and still under the thumb of British rule.

ANNIE MOORE AND THE BALLAD

Annie was born in 1874 (or thereabouts) in County Cork. Her parents had emigrated four years earlier, leaving their three children with relatives back in Ireland. Hoping, I assume, to establish themselves before sending for their children.

In 1892, Annie came by ship, holding the hands of her two younger brothers, Anthony and Philip. After being processed at Ellis Island, the three children were reunited with their parents in Manhattan, New York City. And Annie passed into America as a relatively unknown immigrant.

Annie and her family settled on Monroe Street in one of the many tenements on the Lower East Side of New York City. And there they stayed, eking out a hardscrabble immigrant life while counting pennies and stretching food.

Annie married a local, Joseph Schayer, son of German immigrants, and together they had eleven children: only five of whom survived childhood. Then, at age 50, Annie died of heart failure.

ANCESTORS

And that made me think of my Irish ancestors.

My mother’s Irish family landed in Philadelphia in 1851, where signs in shop windows proclaimed: “No Irish Need Apply.” But because they were weavers with a knowledge of textiles, the family quickly found work and settled in Kensington, the Irish section of Philadelphia.

They were part of chain migration, meaning that a cousin or two were already in Philadelphia and could sponsor them for naturalization. In fact, as late as 2004, a Philadelphia joke went, “If you’re looking for ancestors from County Tyrone, just go to St. Michael’s parish in Kensington.

I am not related to Annie Moore, but her immigrant journey has been repeated by almost every immigrant group that leaves behind intolerable conditions and comes to America seeking freedom and sanctuary.

ANNIE’S LEGACY

The song “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” was composed by Irish songwriter Brendan Graham after a visit to Ellis Island in 1995. He was so touched by standing where so many Irish had entered America, and especially about young Annie Moore, that he wrote the song on the airplane while flying home

Some of the details in the song weren’t exactly correct. Annie was 17 when she immigrated, and only 12 million immigrants passed through Ellis Island. But the heart of the song about Annie is really about the heart of immigration.

Today, an estimated 40% of all Americans can trace their ancestry back to Ellis Island, and 98% of us have immigrant backgrounds.

And if you think about it, unless your heritage is Native American, then we are all a product of immigration.

 ALL OF US.

Below is the link to “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears” performed by Celtic Thunder on YouTube. You may have to click the link twice. Once there, go to full screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93-s5xDQ5j4.

I hope you enjoyed Annie’s story. If you are not yet a follower of the Strong Women blog, please sign up on the right-hand side. You will receive the blog once a month in your email.

And I hope you will be inspired.

~ Linda

Author of Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, Counting Crows, B-52 DOWN, and Opening Closed Doors. All available in bookstores or online, and all celebrating Strong Women.

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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

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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

Posted in short biographies, strong women | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments