"It just doesn't do to wear skirts in these." - Amelia in Springfield -

Amelia Earhart brought her controversial self to Springfield, Missouri in June of 1931 ... which begs the question, where was the municipal airport in 1931???

“Not rebuked, Amelia says,” Springfield (Mo.) Press, June 20, 1931, page 1.
A slim sunburned girl Saturday landed her yellow auto-giro at Municipal airport and chatted in a friendly manner with attendants while her plane was being refueled.
The girl was Amelia Earhart Putnam, one of America’s most famous women fliers, who was on her way to St. Louis in a cross-country experimental autogiro flight. Looking even more like her famous colleague, Charles Lindbergh, than her pictures indicate, she spoke of the “wonderful trip” Lindy is planning and said she has no immediate plans for the future except for more experimental autogiros.
“They are interesting machines,” she said, “and we are expecting great things of them. Of course, they are just in an experimental stage. There really is no comparison between giros and planes. These land easily. I dropped down like a bird here this morning without a bit of roll. They won’t go into a dive and they won’t roll in air. [Illegible passage]
The autogiros are in too much of an experimental stage to say much about what they will do, she said. She was flying an autogiro loaned her and said she “must hurry back with it.” Rumors that she had been reprimanded and even grounded by aviation officials because of alleged carelessness in handling her autogiro in Texas were branded as false by the aviatrix. “As soon as I heard the report I wired aviation department officials about it,” she said, “and they hadn’t heard it. Of course they don’t ground you suddenly. They have a hearing and you are allowed to state your side of the case. I don’t know where the report came from -- department officials didn’t give it out.”
This was Mrs. Putnam’s first landing in Springfield, she said, but she has flown over here several times. “I think you can get the character of a city better by flying over it,” she said, “they stand out quite distinctly.” [Illegible passage]
Her windblown hair, tousled in attractive disarray about her freckled, tanned face, she looked more like a laughing youth than the famous woman she is. She was wearing jodhpurs, polished tan boots, a leather jacket, and a shirt open at the throat. Her head was bare until she climbed into the cockpit, when she pulled a helmet over her head.
“It just doesn’t do to wear skirts in these,” she explained as she climbed over the side of the cockpit. Besides flying she likes to go horseback riding and swimming. She is unusually healthy she said, but has no special set of exercises. She never drinks tea or coffee--doesn’t know why--but never has learned to like them. She doesn’t smoke and her “strongest drink” is buttermilk, she said.
She jockeyed her autogiro into position and the crowd, warned that it would be dusty, stood back while the revolving blades of the “windmill” gathered speed. The plane roared down the field a few yards and rose abruptly into air.

Fannie Hurst

Fun fact: one of the 2 highest paid authors (male or female) in 1925 grew up in Missouri: Fannie Hurst. No, not from the publishing family, rather, a child born to Jewish immigrants, who grew up as a sheltered only child and graduated from Washington University in 1909. Fannie had a thirst for social knowledge. She shunned her family's support and took a job at a department store in St. Louis to observe "regular people."

She continued her quest in New York City, originally planning to attend Columbia University, but never finishing. Instead she attended the college of life - supporting herself by being a nursemaid, waitress and working in stores all the while studying people. She even frequented tenement homes to see raw humanity.

Her goal? To write. In her twenties, she became a highly successful author, writing novel after novel - several of which were made into ragingly popular movies (Lummox, The Imitation of Life, Backstreet...). Fannie did have her haters, most of whom criticized her for being trashy and overly sentimental. Trashy her novels may be, but because of the deep characterizations, I can't put them down. Nor can I put down her autobiography, The Anatomy of Me, which is full of her observations from mid-20th century living.

Fannie married Jaques Danielson, a Russian pianist in 1915, and in a highly controversial move kept her maiden name, lived separate from Danielson, and kept their marriage a total secret. They also had an agreement to renew their marriage every 5 years only IF they both agreed to stay married. How he picked up his own socks, and made his own meals is still unknown.

A friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, she tried to foster social knowledge and acceptance.

You can visit Fannie's grave in The New Mt. Sinai Cemetery on Gravois Road in St. Louis. She died of cancer in 1968, was cremated and buried with her parents and grandparents in lot I-161.

America's First Kindergarten

Susan Blow opened the first kindergarten in the United States, in St. Louis. While in Germany with her father, Susan saw first hand how Friedrich Froebel's theories (the founder of kindergarten or “children’s garden”) were being applied to early child education. She saw the importance and need back in America. So in 1873 she founded the first successful public kindergarten at Des Peres School in Carondelet, St. Louis Missouri, and ran it for the next eleven years without any pay. Blow taught children in the morning and teachers in the afternoon.

While most classrooms were plain, Blow’s kindergarten classroom was bright and cheerful. It had low tables and short benches just right for small children. The room contained many plants, books, and toys for children to use during work and play. Students learned about color, shapes, and fractions by using simple objects like balls and blocks. They also learned about keeping themselves clean, eating well, and getting regular exercise.

By 1883 every St. Louis public school had a kindergarten, making the city a model for the nation. Devoting her life to early education, Susan Blow was instrumental in establishing kindergartens throughout America.

She died in 1916 and was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. You can also see a bust of Ms Blow in the Hall of Famous Missourians in the State Capitol in Jefferson City.

Janeaceisms

A Kansas City native, Jane Ace was a popular radio actress from the 1930s-50s. Her given name was Jane Epstein and she married Goodman Ace, a journalist & her former schoolmate.
Jane & Goodman Ace developed and starred in a domestic comedy radio show called Easy Aces. Jane had no formal acting training, and was known for her distinctive nasal voice and her comedic effect of confusing similar sounding words. These phrases were coined Janeaceisms by her husband and included phrases such as: "We're all cremated equal," "Awfully-wedded wife," and "I am a member of the weeper sex ".
Her comedic acting ability contributed greatly to the success of the show, which grew from local Kansas City audiences to nation syndication. Easy Aces was inducted in the Radio Hall of Fame in 1990. Jane Ace died in New York City in 1974 and was buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Raytown, Missouri.

Her husband wrote the following eulogy about his wife after her passing:

"...now alone at a funeral home...the questions...the softly spoken suggestions...repeated, and repeated... because ...because during all the arrangements, through my mind there ran a constant rerun, a line she spoke on radio...on the brotherhood of man ...in her casual, malapropian style ... we are all cremated equal ... they kept urging for an answer...a wooden casket? ... a metal casket? ...it's the name of their game ... a tisket a casket...and then transporting it to Kansas City, Mo. ...the plane ride... smoking or non-smoking section? somebody asked ... the non-thinking section was what I wanted.... ...a soft sprinkle of snow as we huddled around her...the first of the season, they told me ... lasted only through the short service ...snow stopped the instant the last words were spoken. He had the grace to celebrate her arrival with a handful of His confetti ..."

First generation Radio Archives
Museum of Broadcast Communications

An Appropriate Beginning

Women's Rights Activist Susan B. Anthony came to Springfield in April 1875 and gave a lecture on Social Purity in the theater of the Rogers & Baldwin Hardware Co. at 225-227 South Ave. Anthony argued that women were victims of men's intemperance, forced into poverty and prostitution because of their constant dependence on men. The only way to make change was for women to be allowed to vote and hold office, women being the keepers of the moral fiber of the human race.





The building is now on the National Register of Historic Places and the last I saw it, was being operated as an art gallery and furniture store.

Susan B. Anthony House

The Trial of Susan B. Anthony

Missouri History - Not All About Men, no, seriously.

Welcome all,
This blog is dedicated to Women's History in Missouri. I'll be featuring biographies, gravesites, and other info on prominent Missouri women. Yes, believe it or not, women DO figure prominently in Missouri history. Check back for updates very, VERY soon. Thanks!

Greta