Best of: Forgotten Women

foreign [Applause] Josephine Earp Wyatt Earp's common law wife for more than 40 years has a shadowy and largely unknown history and during her life she seemed to want it that way towards the end of her life she worked hard soon to prevent the publication of books that purported to talk about her relationship with Wyatt Earp and especially the era when they were in Tombstone Arizona but through the Shadows some details do emerge she loved Wyatt Earp she loved a life of adventure and a life lived on her own terms Josephine Sarah Marcus ERB deserves to be remembered there are no extant records proving the birth date of Josephine Marcus but the lady herself believed that she was born on June 2nd 1860 in New York City her parents were Henry Marcus and Sophie Lewis Jewish immigrants Henry Marcus was from Prussia specifically the province of Posen he worked as a baker in the new world there were class distinctions in the burgeoning Jewish Community draw between the immigrants from Germany and the immigrants from Prussia the German Jewish population saw itself as more educated than their Prussian counterparts the Jewish population from Prussia was more likely to speak Yiddish and work as Craftsmen they were also excluded from some of the higher circles in Jewish Society later in life Josephine described her father as a German Merchant perhaps in an effort to put herself in the more highly favored Jewish community the Marcus family moved from New York City to San Francisco in the 1860s and appear on the federal census roles in 1870. San Francisco itself was booming from an 1849 Gold Rush and had one of the largest Jewish populations in the world at the time Josephine's father continued to work as a baker and the family moved around several times according to the historical record preserved in San Francisco city directories Josephine and her sister Henrietta attended school which Josephine did not seem to enjoy instead she favored the bright lights of the stage and relished music and singing lessons the HMS pinafore a musical by Gilbert and Sullivan took the World by storm after its debut in 1878. it was unprotected by an international copyright and so popular that theater trips struggled to keep up with demand for the performances the pinafore was performed in multiple languages in the United States appealing to immigrants from around the world Josephine and the daughter of her voice coach ran away from San Francisco to join the theater Troupe of established actress Pauline Markham in order to form the pinafore some historians believe that Josephine may have used the stage name May Bell because there were no Josephine Marcus's listed as traveling with the Markham Troop she would later say there was far too much excitement in the air for one to remain long a child Josephine was with the troop when it arrived in Tombstone in December 1879. she was always described as a beautiful voluptuous woman by those that knew her Josephine had brown eyes and glossy brown hair with a figure that one of her friends had entered the room before her that Masterson one of the most famous lawmen of the American Wild West said of Josephine she was the bell of The Honky Tonks the prettiest name in 300 or so of her kind she was spotted on her first trip to Tombstone by Johnny bien Bean was short with a quick smile and sparkling black eyes Josephine was warned away from him by some of the troop who told her that he was already married but evidentially their flirtation continued because when the theater troop eventually broke up and Josephine returned to her family in San Francisco Bean's letter showed up on her doorstep sometimes later he asked for Josephine to return to Tombstone and marry him Josephine's family allowed her to return to the mining town after living through her runaway period perhaps they were becoming used to her unconventional Life Choices she lived in Tombstone with bien and his son Albert from his first marriage to a woman named Victoria during their divorce proceedings Victoria said I have been driven nearly to distraction by Biance behavior and penchanted for visiting houses so they'll repute she accused him of continual drunkenness abusiveness and threatening to throw her out of the house this was the man Josephine was now living with and contrary to what he may have written to her they did not get married right away at first bien said that he wanted to earn more money before marrying but then as his career progressed and money became less of an issue it became clear to Josephine that he just didn't want to get married at all meanwhile another man who would feature prominently in Josephine's life white herb was living in Tombstone with his common law wife Celia Maddie Blaylock Erp was memorably handsome and laconic the mayor of Tombstone John Klum said Erp was tall erect manly Serene and Anita Tire I still have a clear vision of that dignified figure walking calmly along Allen Street Erp was in town with his brothers Virgil and Morgan running a saloon prospecting and generally trying to make a living for himself Virgil's common law wife Elvira packingham Sullivan herb who everyone called Ali later recalled their years in Tombstone as Hard Scrabble she said that was our life working and sitting home good women didn't go anyplace everything was nice if you had money and we didn't so it wasn't life was even more difficult for Josephine who didn't even have a common law marriage though she called herself Mrs bien and received her mail under that name Josephine knew it wasn't true Josephine in a wide Earth's past crossed when being an Earp ran a fierce campaign against each other in an effort to become the first sheriff of Cochise County in Arizona territory being promised her if he would appoint him as his Deputy if her let him have the post Erp acquiesced but then bien was elected and didn't follow through on his promise there was a permanent Grudge between the two men because of it meanwhile Josephine had left bien after she had discovered in bed with the wife of a friend and he had begun to display symptoms of syphilis it is unclear when Josephine and wider began their love affair but it was most likely sometime in the summer of 1881. occupations were limited for single women at the time so Josephine may have been working as a theater performer or a prostitute or both or perhaps she was simply looking for the protection of another man which was probably easier in the booming town of Tombstone where Frontier men outnumbered the women almost nine to one when the explosive events unfolded at the OK Corral on October of 1881 Josephine would later tell relatives that she saw it and checked to make sure that Wyatt Earp was still alive afterwards but then she would leave tombstone Erp sent Maddie to live with his parents while he went on what was called his Vendetta ride for the murder of his brother Morgan the shootout at the OK Corral and what followed divided public opinion then and in the Years following Clara Brown a tombstone resident who had a column in the San Francisco newspaper wrote opinion is pretty fairly divided as to the justification of the killing you may meet one man who will support the herbs and declare that no other course was possible to save their own lives and the next man is just as likely to assert that there was no occasion whatsoever for bloodshed following the events that catapulted Earp and his companions into Legend he never went to pick Maddie up from his parents because he instead went to San Francisco where Josephine had moved back in with her parents and asked her to share her life with him madly took being abandoned badly she began working as a prostitute again and eventually overdosed from laudnams you become addicted to Josephine perhaps embarrassed by the parts he played in creating Maddie's unhappiness wanted to sweep the entire period of Tombstone from her life some historians have asserted that Josephine Marcus was actually working as a prostitute in Tombstone under the name Sadie Mansfield they take his evidence the fact that Johnny bien's favorite prostitute was a Sadie Mansfield who went by the name 40 Sadie and then connect that to Josephine's only owned admitted connection with Johnny bien Wyatt Earp actually called her Sadie which is a play on her middle name Sarah but other historians disagree taking his evidence that there are people in Tombstone who claim to have known both Sadie Mansfield and Josephine Marcus and said they were two different people but whatever the case it adds to that mystery surrounding Josephine Marcus's time in Tombstone now together Josephine and Irving in a nomadic lifestyle that led them from town to town seeking their fortunes across the West they dwelt for a time in Utah Colorado Texas Idaho and Nevada opening saloons and gambling in 1887 an Earp on more than two blocks of valuable real estate in San Diego it was one of their more successful Ventures during the time together until the real estate boom ended and Erp had to sell the properties Josephine had a particular fondness for betting on horse races that she shared with Erp she said this love of horse flesh coupled with his susceptibility to The Wiles of Lady Luck formed a combination that made it almost inevitable that at some time during his career the horse racing game should claim him Josephine would later claim that she and Erp were married on the yacht of one of her more famous gambling friends Elias J lucky Baldwin but the historical documentation to support this claim has not been found Erp entered the Limelight again when it was accused of fixing a heavyweight championship boxing match between Tom Sharkey and Bob Fitzsimmons in December 1896. first Earth drew the eye of the crowd when he walked into the rain still wearing his gun under his coat and then irk called a controversial foul on the favored winner Fitzsimmons and awarded the fight to Sharkey newspapers had a field day printing stories about the Lawman's so-called corruption and created cartoon showing a gun-wielding Erp ordering boxers about in a ring his Tombstone days were dug up and examined once more Josephine said the old lies came bobbing to the surface of the ocean of printed matter Josephine and Erp partially to escape the hounding press made the decision to go to Nome Alaska for the Gold Rush taking place on the beaches they were delayed in their departure because Earp suffered an accident where he badly bruised his hip and would be unable to walk the demanding Trails of the Alaskan wilderness Josephine for her part had to recovered from a miscarriage she would later say God didn't make me right for having children but it apparently didn't make her bitter as she adored the infants of her friends and extended family and even maintained a special relationship with Johnny B his son from his first marriage Albert for the rest of her life once both were fully recovered they made their way North and spent their first winter at Rampart Alaska Josephine said this is one of the most happy periods of her life she described taking a loaf of fresh bread out of the oven as herb came home one night in a storm he sniffed his eyes lighted with pleasure snug is a bug in a rug he exclaimed on such small hinges does the door to contentment swing they moved on from Rampart to gnome where Erp opened up a saloon he named the Dexter business was booming but Josephine didn't approve of Earth's establishment especially after rooms were built above the main floor for prostitutes to use she tried to get IRP to throw the women out but he refused high stakes poker games took place at the Dexter with as much as five hundred thousand dollars in gold dust being bet on a single hand Josephine said she believed Erp had affairs during their time together in Gnome and some historians claim that Josephine had her own dalliances they eventually moved back to the continental U.S and slowly faded into old age but the former Lawman and his paramour found it difficult to fit into a world where prohibition was taking hold and gambling was outlawed in a number of places Josephine continued her almost compulsive gambling habit and it took a toll on their finances an earth biographer wrote times have changed people think differently but we're established businesses yesterday are considered vices today and have been outlawed Wyatt Earp died January 13 1929. his final words were uttered the night before when he said supposing supposing and he never finished the thought something which Josephine lamented for the rest of her life she had his body cremated and buried in the Marcus plot at the Jewish cemetery eternity Memorial Park in California she spent the remainder of her years fighting with Publishers and writers in an effort to protect Earth's reputation and her own in one letter she wrote during the past few years many wrong impressions of the early days of Tombstone and myself have been created by writers who are not informed correctly and this has caused me concerned which I feel deeply practically penniless Josephine died December 19 1944. on the world stage the Battle of the Bulge was still going on her funeral arrangements were paid for by William S Hart the actor and Sydney Grumman the founder of the world famous grumman's Chinese Theater she was buried at eternity Memorial Park next to Wyatt in the period since her life and death historians have argued over the murky details of the life of Josephine Marcus Erb who she was Where She Went what she did and even what she was like but it is amongst all the drama and the excitement of the world famous gun fight at the OK Corral people seemed to forget that there was one woman who loved both Wyatt Earp and Johnny bien two of the leaders of the two factions in the fight and that makes it more than just a a fight between gunfighters over Revenge it makes it a love story and a love story that deserves to be remembered [Music] there was a spy whom the ax is considered to be one of the most dangerous Allied Spies of the second world war who organized a network of thousands in the French Resistance who managed to escape being hunted by the Gestapo many times who was responsible for acts of sabotage against the axis for jailbreaks for critical intelligence gathering in Wartime France one step ahead of the enemy the Spy managed to escape across the mountains in Winter a feat that would have been difficult for anyone but was particularly remarkable for a woman with a wooden leg the exploits of the daring and audacious spy Virginia Hall were almost lost to history but her story deserves to be remembered Virginia was born to a rich Maryland family in Baltimore in 1906. she was raised and educated in order to marry into the wealthy Social Circle of her peers but Virginia was different she wanted adventure and liked to hunt she called herself capricious and cantankerous her classmates voted the young Virginia the most original in her class they wrote in the yearbook the one thing to expect from dindi their nickname for Virginia is the unexpected she was class president editor-in-chief of the newspaper and captain of the field hockey team in a nod to her future career path Virginia also practiced being someone else and acted in school plays clinging fiercely to her individuality Virginia told her High School graduating class that the one way for women to get ahead is by being educated she followed her own advice by attending Radcliffe and Barnard colleges finishing her studies in Europe where she fell in love with the continent wanting to stay she tried to enter the Foreign Service at a time when only six U.S diplomats were women she was denied entry to the Foreign Service but found work in the same field as a clerk in the Consular Office in Poland in 1931. Regina later worked in many Consular offices throughout Europe she had been an active person as a child and young adult but in 1932 she was climbing over a wire fence while bird hunting and accidentally discharged her shotgun into her left leg her leg had to be amputated below her knee because of gangrene and she used a wooden prosthetic for the rest of her life she nicknamed the prosthetic Cuthbert it weighed seven pounds and was attached by leather Bells wrapped around her waist while she dreamed of a diplomatic career Virginia ran into obstacles as a woman of her time she applied again to the Foreign Service but this time was rejected because of her leg she couldn't Advance any further in the Consular Service as a woman and resigned in 1939 while Europe teetered on the brink of the second World War Virginia happened to be in Paris When The War Began she volunteered to drive an ambulance and was in France when it fell to the Nazis in the summer of 1940 France was split in two with Vichy France as the nominal government of Southern France while Germans occupied northern and western France while escaping back to Great Britain a chance encounter on the train out of France LED Virginia to her life of espionage on the train she met an operative working as a British spy who gave her the contact information of some friends in London later she was at a cocktail party ranting about the dangers of Hitler and Nazis when a woman gave her a business card she said if you're really interested in stopping Hitler come and see me Virginia had met Vera Atkins who was a British spymaster the British government forwarded the Special Operations executive in the summer of 1940. its mission was to conduct Espionage sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe and to Aid local resistance movements prime minister Winston Churchill's command to the soe was to set Europa Blaze Vera Atkins supervised Virginia and the work of 36 other female agents escaping from growing anti-Semitism in Romania Atkins a Jewish women immigrated to Britain in 1937. she joined the soe in 1941 as a secretary and then assistant to French section head Colonel Maurice Buckmaster she recruited and deployed British agents to occupied France and was supposedly the inspiration for Moneypenny in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels Virginia Hall was highly educated she spoke French Italian and German something that was useful to the soe Atkins was also impressed with her intimate knowledge of the French Countryside Atkins took her into the soe where she received training and in 1941 was deployed to France one of the soe's first agents in the region Virginia's primary mission was to provide soe with information on Vichy France including political developments economic conditions and who had the will to resist instead she became Adept at recruiting a spy Network the network codenamed Heckler became a logistical Hub recruiting agents according to their sabotage activities in addition it provided Intelligence on troop movements ammunition and fuel Depots and industrial production she then spent over a year coordinating resistance activities in Vichy France and occupied France in Tulu and Lyon part of Virginia's success could be attributed to the chauvinism of the Nazis early in the war because they did not think that a woman could be an effective spy in Leon Virginia started her networking activities by staying at a Convent she befriended a brothel owner and received information from prostitutes who were friendly with the occupying German troops she set up safe houses for those working in her network and developed a specialty in jailbreaks held by prison guards who accepted bribes Virginia assisted noted soe operative Peter Churchill in several of his missions in occupied France during 1942. he delivered cash ration books and identity documents for forgers in an effort to get resistance members released Churchill later ran a networking can and having narrowly escaped the Gestapo spies and occupy France did not have advanced technology instead they relied on Ingenuity to deliver the information to their handlers for example the BBC inserted coded messages into its nightly broadcast Virginia used the cover identity of a reporter for the New York Post she filed news stories with her editor in New York embedded with coded messages which the editor passed on to London her efforts didn't go unnoticed by the Nazis however and they realized the extent of the damage that could be caused by a female spy she racked up quite the resume agents freed from Nazi prisons acts of sabotage against railroads and factories and causing The Disappearance of Nazi pilots who had parachuted out in short she followed Churchill's command to set Europe Ablaze lichtapo investigated and all the trails led to Lyon they opened a file on Virginia the French called hero the lady who limps but the Nazis sought her as the limping lady in their most wanted list she continually changed her appearance keeping them guessing as to what she looked like and where she might strike next and she was responsible for more jailbreaks acts of sabotage and intelligence regarding troop moments than almost any other spy of the second World War she was pursued by none other than Klaus Barbie The Butcher of Leon he ordered one of posters that had a drawing of her with the words the enemy's most dangerous spy we must find and destroy her the drawing was of a Sharp featured woman with shoulder-length hair and wide set eyes details obtained from French double agents the Nazis incorrectly believed Virginia was Canadian and Barbie once said I'd give anything to lay my hands on that limping Canadian he was convinced that capturing her would further his career in November 1942 Nazi suddenly seized all of France the Vichy regime remained in power but collaborated with the Nazis Virginia knew she needed to get out if she was going to survive she had previously helped Peter Churchill escape to Spain by accompanying him on a train because couples arouse less suspicion for ownerscape she fled from Leon to Perignon then she walked over a 7 500 foot pass in the Pyrenees to Spain Virginia covered 50 miles in two days with a wooden leg sometimes walking through snow she messaged her handlers that she was okay but Cuthbert was giving her trouble not understanding that she was referring to her prosthetic they told her if cupbruck is giving you difficulty have him eliminated writing in 2017 in the studies of intelligence Journal Craig Gallery reported he found the past Virginia used during her during wartime Escape at the time the French called it shamine de la liberte a freedom trail looking France to Spain that many refugees used it is now unmarked and its importance lost to time repeating Virginia's Journey Galley said it would have been difficult Trek for inexperienced hiker and an exceptional feat for Virginia a woman with a prosthetic leg after her death-defying Trek Spanish authorities arrested Virginia for a legal entry and she was in prison for six weeks she was released after a freed inmate smuggled a letter from her to the U.S consulate in Barcelona she did some further work for the soe in Spain returning to London in 1943. the next year she joined the U.S office of strategic Services which was established by the US government in 1942 to collect and analyze information and conduct Special Operations Virginia wanted to return to action in France in 1944 and they were Keen to let her she landed in Brittany in a British torpedo boat and alluded the Gestapo by discussing herself as an old peasant woman Virginia got a makeup artist to teach her how to draw wrinkles on her face and had a dentist grind down her teeth to look more like a poor woman than the rich American she was she also dyed her hair gray she made contact with the French Resistance and mapped Drop Zones found safe houses and helped the jedberg team joined Allied operation to drop agents into occupied Europe to conduct sabotage after the Allied invasion of Normandy she trained resistance forces to do guerrilla warfare and reported her findings until troops took over her network before the norm of the invasion she called in air drops and the resistance Fighters blew up Bridges and sabotage trains in one OSS report Virginia's team was credited with derailing freight trains blowing up Four Bridges killing 150 Nazis capturing 500 more they took back Villages well before the Allied troops arrived deep in France she continued to do spy work until the end of the war with the war's end in 1945 she returned to America Virginia received a distinguished service cost from American General William Joseph Donovan in 1945 for her activities she was the only civilian woman to receive such an honor in the Second World War President Truman wanted the award to be public but Virginia did not want a public ceremony saying she was still operational and most anxious to get busy and so Hall's mother was the only Outsider present at the private ceremony Virginia was made an honoring member of the order of the British Empire and received the croydaguer from France the most decorated female civilian of World War II never shared her contributions with the world she said she kept her silence because many of my friends were killed for talking too much she married a fellow OSS agent in 1950 and in 1951 she joined the Central Intelligence Agency which had been formed from the OSS in 1947. Virginia was an analyst on French paramilitary Affairs and worked side by side with her husband Virginia Hall's story was first related in a 2005 book by Judith Pearson called Wolves at the door the true story of America's greatest female spy Miss Pearson details many of Virginia Hall's greatest exploits more recently there were three books published last year and now there's talk of making a movie there is a display to her in the OSS gallery of the CIA Museum in Langley Virginia Virginia Hall retired in 1966 to a farm in rural Maryland she was a spy's spy and never spoke publicly about her activities even men very close family members who are unaware of Our World War II exploits she passed away in 1982 at the age of 76. it is ironic if good spycraft that she was able to become one of the most dangerous Spies of the second world war because she was a person who looked anything but dangerous but it is more ironic that her extraordinary wartime contributions were almost lost to history because the limping lady never gave up being a spy [Music] George Gordon Byron was one of the most famous poets in history and better known as Lord Byron he was a leader in the Romanticism movement of the late 18th and early 19th century famous for works like Don Juan and the poem She Walks in Beauty but it is perhaps indicative of the romanticist rejection of Western Traditions like rationalism moral absolutes and agreed upon social values that Lord Byron was as well known in his lifetime for his excesses as his poetry things like numerous love affairs with both men and women many of whom were married or running up huge gambling debts or an obsession with drink and drugs but it was this unruly streak that ironically had a surprising impact on the most rational of professions computer programming it all has to do with a remarkable but underappreciated mathematician and involves some of the most famous people of the Victorian era it is history that deserves to be remembered George Gordon Byron was born in 1788. if he was going to grow up to be a psychopath he came upon it honestly his mother Catherine Gordon was given to bouts of melancholy and mood swings and was described as a woman without judgment or self-command his father an abusive profligate drunkard was a British army officer who went by the name Mad Jack and who abandoned his wife and son after spending all her money dying likely of an overdose of opium when Byron was just three years old he inherited his title Baron Byron of Rochdale at the age of 10 upon the death of his great uncle but the estate had little value in 1811 he published the narrative poem child Herald's pilgrimage to why to claim that made him famous overnight it was then trying to escape from growing debts and rumors about his sexual escapades that he married Annabelle Milbank a beautiful remarkably intelligent and religious heiress who apparently married Lord Byron in the hopes that she could set him on a straight moral path in that she failed owing to his infidelity and erratic Behavior they separated just a month after the birth of their daughter Lord Byron's only legitimate child Augusta affectionately called Ada after their separation Byron left England never to return Ada never met her father they had no relationship but he affected her in a unique way afraid that aydah would inherit her father's Insanity lady Byron saw to it that ADA received tutoring in mathematics and music as disciplines to counter dangerous poetic Tendencies including tutoring by the famous mathematician Augustus de Morgan in an era when women were certainly not widely encouraged to participate in intellectual Pursuits she became a mathematician she married a baron in 1835 who was eventually made the Earl of Lovelace making her the Countess of Lovelace they had three children High Society in London in the 19th century was full of people pursuing Science and Mathematics included in her Circle Ada made friends and corresponded with some of the finest scientific minds of the era Michael Faraday Charles wheatstone sir David Brewster as well as author Charles Dickens but the connection that would most impact her future was with mathematician and mechanical engineer Charles Babbage born in 1791 Charles Babbage was a gifted mathematician with a vision for applying mathematical principles to Modern Problems he had his hands in many projects and ideas from insurance Actuarial tables to notably impacting industry through an analysis of division of labor but babbage's most famous contribution came from an interest in improving mathematical tables critical for navigation science and engineering computed by hand the tables were subject to error such math could be more accurately done he argued by a computational machine which he called The Difference Engine in which he later refined in a second model that he called the analytical engine A Difference Engine is an automatic mechanical calculator used to tabulate polynomial functions in short it is a hand cranked mechanical computer having met Babbage through a friend Ava Lovelace became fascinated with his machine her largest contribution came in 1843 Babbage had given a lecture on his analytical engine in Turin Italy an Italian engineer had transcribed the lecture and published it in French realizing the lecture could help to Spur interest in the project babbage's supporter Charles wheatstone commissioned Ava to translate the article into English and to add notes the notes ended up being longer than the paper and offered a clear understanding of the operation and potential of the machine in the notes she included a clear description of how babbage's invention can be used to compute so-called bernelli numbers a sequence of rational numbers which occur frequently in number Theory the implication was enormous her description is considered the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer if Charles Babbage had invented the first mechanical computer Ada Lovelace had written the first computer program perhaps even more importantly she saw something that even Babbage did not she realized that babbage's machine could calculate Beyond numbers and could theoretically solve problems of any complexity for example she theorized if the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of Harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent thus she anticipated the implications of modern Computing 100 years before they were realized there is some controversy about whether she was actually the originator of the first computer program or whether she merely derived the idea from babbage's previous work but for supporters know that Babbage never produced anything as sophisticated or as clean as it is computation of the Bernoulli numbers but the point is largely moot babbage's machine was never completed in his time and her program was never used but those who studied the field of the history of the computer acknowledge that she seems to have been the first to conceive of the use of the computer Beyond numerical calculations truly a Visionary idea that earns her a unique and often forgotten place in history although she wrote her program long before anybody conceived of computer languages when in the 1970s the United States Department of Defense decided to create a computer programming language to supersede the more than 450 computer programming languages that the dod had been using they named it after her called Ada it is an international standard still in use today despite her mother's efforts to protect her from her father's Insanity she emulated him in some important ways for example like her father Lord Byron she was addicted to gambling and even wrote mathematical models that were supposed to help you be successful at gambling they failed like her father she died deeply in debt at the age of 36 ironically the same age at which her father died in November of 1852 of uterine cancer Charles Dickens himself read to her from one of his novels on her deathbed to her mother's consternation she was buried at her request next to her father in the family tomb in Nottinghamshire her prophetic predictions about the potential of personal computers were largely lost until they were found and republished in 1953 and it was there on the verge of the personal Computing Revolution that a voice from the past led us into a bold new future all because her mother did not want her to be a poet like her dad but they both dealt in words that changed the world as a stanza from his poem Don Juan says words are things and a drop of ink dropped like do on a thought produces that which makes thousands perhaps Millions think on October 2nd 1924 Wyoming Governor William Ross died from complications following an appendectomy his wife Nelly of 22 years was understandably distraught her brother George came up from Tennessee for the funeral and said that she couldn't stop talking about old times and when she gets on to the past it is terrible for her and I assure you hard on the listener she was still in the governor's mansion when the chairman of the state democratic party came to ask her a delicate question would she consider running for the governorship in the special election less than a month away Nelly Taylor Ross would shortly become the first woman governor of a U.S state and what followed was even more interesting than that it is history that deserves to be remembered Nelly Taylor Ross was born Nellie Davis Taylor to James Taylor and Elizabeth Greene in Saint Joseph Missouri in 1876. both families have been wealthy plantation owners whose fortunes turned after the Civil War she graduated from high school in Milton Vale Kansas moved with her family to Omaha Nebraska she attended a teaching school there and taught kindergarten for a few years she met William Ross while visiting family in Tennessee and married him in 1902. with William she moved to Cheyenne Wyoming where he sought to establish a law practice and repeatedly ran in Lost elections for political office running is a progressive and a supporter of prohibition he was finally elected governor of Wyoming in 1922. he often consulted with Nelly on political questions and she gave her husband steadfast support even though the meager salary his deaths and her own taste for socializing and that the family struggled financially he died after only a year and a half in office many people including her brother George discouraged her from running women had only had the right to vote for four years an ambition on the part of a woman was viewed rather poorly even so her brother wrote to his wife no one ever wanted the governorship more she may also have had Financial concerns she needed the money to maintain herself and the kids and William left little to her other than a home in Cheyenne the state Republicans nominated Eugene Sullivan who had an unfortunate connection to the recent Teapot Dome scandal Nelly only agreed to run 45 minutes before accepting the nomination her acceptance published around the state said that she would expect and feel in Duty bound to make her own decisions but that she would not have accepted the nomination and not my familiarity with and interest in my husband's work giving me an understanding of the problems of the office Ross refused to campaign she was elected on November 4th 1924 by a margin larger than her husbands of three years earlier she was inaugurated on January 5th 1925. despite her silence during the campaign Ross didn't plan on being a figurehead Ross refused to be silenced when she had won the election because the Wyoming legislature only met once every other year she would only have one chance to push legislation in addition to supporting her husband's Progressive policies including tax cuts and banking reform she presented eight of her own policies including earmarking State funds for school districts and better safety regulations for coal miners the legislature was mostly Republican and supported only five of her 11 proposals after the legislature adjourned Ross found herself nationally famous she accepted an invitation to speak at the Women's National Democratic Club in D.C where she attended the inauguration of President Calvin Coolidge she later wrote that the audience seemed favorably impressed that she had remained feminine despite the office I do not represent the overpowering masculine militant type of politician that violates their sense of what the Lord intended a woman should be if she put it a difficult line she had to walk she spoke at the Women's World Fair in Chicago on the national Governor's conference in Maine she wrote her brother that year that she gained confidence in herself and her ability to do the job that she'd been elected to something entirely new seems to have been given me she said she was renominated to run for governor for the 1926 election but unlike the last time faced significant resistance before our election a newspaper had asked her if she planned to appoint any men to office apparently worried that she would substitute all men for women by 1926 it was clear that she did not intend to replace all men but women were more concerned that she hadn't appointed enough women she maintained throughout the campaign that women should not vote for her solely because of her gender she toured the state and gave speeches that year proving herself a competent order and giving six or seven speeches a day when the weather was good she only appealed to her gender in the last month before the election claiming that she were defeated it would look like the first woman Governor had been a failure I appeal to you not to place me in a false light before the nation she said but she lost her election was remarkably close she lost Bentley two percent of the vote Linda Ross wrote that cultivating a woman's following as she failed to do would have been entirely proper and I believe affected enough to have changed the results of the election she spent the next few years being active in Democratic politics Across the Nation she moved to D.C to direct the women's division of the national Democratic committee directing the campaign for women's votes in the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. when Roosevelt became president in 1933 he appointed Ross as the Director of the Bureau of the mint Ross would later call the appointment a surprise it all sounded so cold dealing with metal she was the first woman to hold a position and one of very few to hold a government office so high at the time one reason for appointment could have been the state of the mint in 1933 the ongoing depression meant the demand for coins was at an all-time low in 1929 277 million pennies have been struck in 1931 just 24 million a decrease of over 90 percent No Quarters were issued at all in 1931 or 1933 and possibly the only reason any were minted in 1932 was to display the new design in honor of the bicentennial of Washington's birth when reporters speculated the job was so minimal at that point that even a woman could do it for a brief time after her appointment Ross clashed with her assistant director Mary Margaret O'Reilly who had served in that post since 1924. mint directors were often political appointees who had no interest or experience with the mint Bradley had for much of the previous 10 years essentially run the mint she was acting director When Ross was appointed though she was known as the sweetheart of the treasury Ross's personal secretary ednas Wilkins described her as ruthless but the two ended up working together closely Ross's son Bradford would say that she recognized people who had great ability she tried to surround herself with people that were capable so she could do a good job O'Reilly was nothing if not deeply intimate with the workings of the mint and up until her retirement in 1938 the two worked together well though the men may have seemed like a trivial job when she was posted it would play an integral part of Roosevelt's policies coin mintage increased 72 percent from 1933 to 1934 despite a staff increase of elite 13 percent Roosevelt signed executive order 6102 in April of 1933 which nationalized the nation's gold Supply we called all Americans deliver all gold bullion certificates or coined with an aggregate value of over a hundred dollars to the Federal Reserve in exchange for 20.67 cents per troy ounce the order was meant to shore up the country's gold supplies while solving the issue of citizens hoarding it in place of American dollars in December of 1933 he also nationalized the nation's silver the mint had to figure out how to store all this incoming metal under Ross the men underwent the largest facility expansion in its history replacing the Old Mint in San Francisco building a new wing of the Denver Mint new vaults in Philadelphia a silver bullion depository at West Point and the gold depository at Fort Knox we're on set a poor working relationship with Roosevelt's treasury secretary Henry morgenthau who went out of his way not to work with her directly didn't invite her to department meetings and mocked her to a staff she received a raise in 1938 only because a Wyoming Senator specifically asked for it as a favor storage was not the only issue for the mint in 1934 it took in over a billion dollars worth of metal more than double what they had the previous year and it needed protection in her frequent touring of mint properties she found the security was woefully poor the guards were often men from the mints who were near retirement age and little or no training and held outdated firearms she oversaw complete overhaul of mint security putting in new timed logs increasing guard coverage and a new security training program she also supervised the creation of the Jefferson nickel the buffalo nickel was disliked in the mint because the dyes were prone to excessive breakage they often struck indistinctly and the dates easily wore away in circulation the mint held an open competition for the new design although they stipulated the adversity of Jefferson and the reverse his Home Monticello director Ross served as one of the judges they chose the design of German board artist Felix Schlage with some adjustments by 1941 she had overseen a 350 increase in Staffing she had modernized the production storage and protection of coins and she was blowing away all mint production records in the 1940-41 fiscal year the mint produced more coins than any other year in mint history then came the war demand for coins grew throughout the war and the men produced billions of coins for Allied countries around the world who lost their men to return their factories to the war effort the men also had to deal with metal shortages I said to cut back on Penny production to preserve their meager stores of copper but by 1942 the shortage was still dire Nelly herself proposed to Congress the idea of pennies made of zinc coated steel while the wartime pennies are today popular Collectibles the public hated them they were easily mistaken for dimes and vending machines caught them with magnets meant to stop steel slugs even FDR sent a complaint about the pennies to secretary morganthau who told Ross we've got to stop making those new pennies I can't take any more complaints about them they soon returned to making copper pennies thanks to the military promising the mint spent copper cartridges that awful War penny almost ruined our reputation Ross later said but nobody disliked it more than we did at the mint her time at the mint proved that she was a competent administrator with an eye for details she instituted a process of filtering air water and even burning worn work clothes to recover metal shavings some things she reported save the mint a hundred thousand dollars annually she instituted a program to solicit ideas from her employees and in 1952 25 Innovations were said to have saved the mint 720 thousand dollars Innovations included the mechanization of the melting and rolling process at the Denver Mint which resulted in a 30 productivity increase and a new water cooled mold in Philadelphia that reduced melting costs by 23 percent Nelly prided herself in frugality returning unspent funds to the treasury including two million dollars in 1948 which Drew praise for members of Congress she was popular among mint employees who said she made them feel that they were part of a family one employee wrote that I really do not know where could be found a more efficient and capable leader and a more respected and loved director than yourself another said that the work accomplished by this office could never been done without your kind of counsel and advice while guiding the men through a historic period of expansion and modernization to remained active in Democratic politics where she could and gave speeches across the country she retired from the mint after four terms in 1953. she traveled broadly around the world afterward and wrote for various magazines her last trip to Wyoming was in May of 1972 when she attended the Centennial Celebration of the creation of Yellowstone National Park today Nelly Taylor Ross is mostly remembered as being the first woman governor in the United States but she was so much more than just a a first her work at the mint was truly transformative she helped to greatly expand operations and modernize the entire Bureau she served as director of The Mint for 20 years in a period That's banned the Great Depression in the second world war and the Korean War and she got very few complaints with the exception of those hated steel pennies but despite her public success she always maintained that the greatest fulfillment for a woman was in motherhood and family in interviews and descriptions they would often take the time to say that she had maintained throughout her womanliness and yet she never could have accomplished all that she did if she didn't believe in herself naturally it may be asked whether I felt Within Myself the ability to fill this position She Wrote I hope it does not suggest egotism when I reply that not for one moment did I doubt it among the new coins that were designed and minted during her tenures one of my very favorites the Benjamin Franklin half dollar Nelly Taylor Ross died after suffering a fall at her home in December 1977. the age of 101 at the time she was the oldest living ex-governor in the nation [Music] we've all heard of Adrenaline Junkies heck you might know some but you are taking it to a whole new level if you become internationally recognized as the fiancee of danger Marie marvint was a French athlete a pioneering Aviator a mountaineer a journalist perhaps the world's first flight nurse and even a soldier and her incredible list of accomplishments across a vast array of disciplines and sports and Fields is a testament to a life that was extraordinarily lived and perhaps most of all in a time of War when most people were seeing the new technology of the airplane as a potential weapon she seems to have been among the few who saw that it could be an incredible tool of mercy and the role that she played in making sure that air ambulance became a reality perhaps saving thousands of lives is reason enough that the extraordinary life of Marie Marvin deserves to be remembered Marvin was born on the 20th of February 1875 in arloch France when she was young moved to maths which was then in Germany her parents lost three sons in infancy before her birth her father Felix Marvin was a postmaster and a local Billiards and swimming champion and because of his only son's fragile Health heartily supported Murray's burgeoning abilities by the age of four she was said to be able to swim four kilometers at a stretch her love of sports was wide-ranging and nearly insatiable she learned Jujitsu water polo boxing fencing tennis lujin golf and more while still a child she spent a lot of time at the railroad station watching steam trains to see what made them go her mother died in 1889 when she was 14. a year later she canoed 400 kilometers from Nancy France to complaints Germany before 1900 she became one of few women to earn her driving license drove a steam locomotive herself when three bicycle races and had spent time working with the Ramsey circus learning tightrope walking trapeze Artistry horse riding and juggling one friend said that she was never able to decide on a single thing and so became a jack of all trades and master of most he in 1903 when she had only just begun her Titanic Sports career a journalist is said to have given her the nickname the fiancee of danger in the first decade of the new century she sought to prove herself as often in as many theaters as possible she became an accomplished mountain climber and become the first woman to ascend many peaks in the Alps she was an avid swimmer and was the first woman to swim the length of the saint through Paris which earned her the nickname the red amphibian for her bright swimsuit she set records in swimming and shooting in 1907 was the first woman to earn the rank of first class shot from the French minister of War winning top prize in the 300 meter rifle Division and earning a perfect score in clay pigeon shooting in 1908 she set her sights on the tour to France she was already an accomplished cyclist once biking all the way from Nancy to Naples some 800 miles just to see a volcano erupt but the tour organizers would not hear of a woman competitor in fact women are still not allowed to compete in the Tour de France it was a grueling race that year some 2 700 miles written in 14 stages each stage ridden on a single day and to prove that a woman could be as successful as a man she chose to do the race on her own riding the stage the day after the men did it was a race not for the faint of heart of 114 male competitors only 36 completed the tour but marvict completed it all on her own already accomplished it was after the turn of the century with the Advent of flight both in Bloons and airplane that she found the greatest focus of her long life she flew in her first balloon in 1901 and said that she knew then that her Greatest Adventure and her biggest achievement would come in a balloon she first flew a balloon as a pilot in July of 1907. October 26 1909 she boarded her balloon called the shooting star which she called the very last word in balloons she was aboard with another balloonist Emile Garnier and Nancy France with the intention of crossing the North Sea from France to England something several people had died attempting at takeoff a rope pulled the balloon to the side dumping some of the precious hydrogen that kept it afloat the Lost hydrogen meant as they traveled North the balloon wouldn't rise above 1200 feet and there was very little the pair could do to actually direct it we were in the clouds much of the time but we thought after we reached the Amsterdam that the most dangerous part of the trip was over she said unfortunately not five minutes off the coast they hit a snowstorm as the temperature dipped below freezing and it grew dark the balloon threatened to fall into the ocean sometimes actually dipping the basket in the water my Overcoat of wool stockings were no help Marvin said I was freezing besides that we couldn't tell which way we were heading but luck was with them after battling the storm for five hours they came through the worst of it came inside of light two miles from the English Coast the balloon Rose as the temperature dead but still nearly hit the cliffs before an updraft carried them up and safely over to England they landed the balloon in a pasture near southwold Marvin said we barely had the energy to climb out of the basket the next day we took a trip to London where we were treated as Heroes between 1908 and 1910 she won over 20 first place ribbons in winter sports like skiing skating losing when the first Leon Usher cop for a women's bobsledding in January of 1910. the year before she had begun learning how to fly planes and took her first solo flight in 1909 in in Antoinette airplane she became the third woman to earn a flying license in France on November 8 1910. later that month she became the first woman to set several flight records as she insisted her flight times to be officially recorded partially to put women in the record books but also because she was competing for the feminine cup the feminine cop was offered by the owner of the women's magazine femina for the women who could fly the longest non-stop flight that year while Maurice set the record in November and then beat it in December another woman pilot beater later that month Marvin tried to set the record again on the 30th of December my mechanical problems prevented her from doing so on March 15 1910 the French Academy of sport awarded her a gold medal in all sports it is the only multi-sport medal ever awarded by the academy said one journalist swimming cycling mountain climbing ballooning flying riding gymnastics Athletics fencing there is not a single sport in which she does not shine where coolness courage and skill are required in the air Dome on the mountains in the sea in the fencing school marvint is always to be seen in the front rank in 1910 chefs began what would become her lifelong mission to establish an air ambulance service she first approached the French military with her idea that year but it wasn't taken seriously like all the challenges she faced she saw it as merely something to overcome to construct it I've started a series of conferences around France piece by piece I will accumulate what seems necessary and I'll realize my greatest desire for France it will be one of the greatest joys of my life she said about the concept she even made a deal with an airplane manufacturer in 1913 to construct a specially designed plane for the task unfortunately World War One put the manufacturer out of business and her plans on hold like any patriotic French person she wanted to serve her country in the war she served as a Red Cross nurse and a surgical assistant and when that wasn't enough decided to get closer to the action she disguised herself as a man with the assistance of a French lieutenant and served in the 42nd Battalion of foot soldiers on the front lines Heroes worked for three weeks when she staffed a lifting post and made contact with the Enemy but when she was discovered she was sent back home allegedly under direct permission from Marshall folk she then traveled to the Italian front in the dolomites there she served largely as a Red Cross nurse rescuing soldiers on skis and using ropes in the difficult train she became possibly the first woman combat pilot when she volunteered to fly and bomb a German base near Matt's toward the end of the war she worked as a war correspondent throughout the Italian front she was awarded the Coit again for her service starting in 1911 she began giving lectures especially in support of air ambulances would eventually give more than 3 000 of them across Europe Africa and the United States in the interwar year she turned her Focus almost completely to starting an air ambulance service her plan was endorsed by influential military leaders like Marshall fosh and she established her Captain echman challenge which awarded the best civil aircraft that could be turned into an air ambulance she co-founded the friends of medical Aviation organization which helped to establish the first International Congress of medical aviation in 1929. she was invited to go to North Africa by French President Alexander milrand the first of three extended African trips giving speeches and funding Adventure she established a civil air rescue service in Morocco and came up with the idea of using metal skis on planes to land in the desert she is awarded the Morocco medal of peace for the effort she developed a series of courses for nurses of the air in 1934 and a year later became the world's first certified flight nurse during this time she also wrote directed and appeared in two documentary films in support of air ambulances nurses graduating from her program began to proliferate and by 1939 had formed a Civil Air Nursing group that had 500 nurses with at least 10 hours of flight time they were training as parachutists to jump when the planes couldn't land to provide medical support during the war Marvins herself established a convalescent home for wounded aviators and served with the Red Cross as well as with the French Resistance for her effort she was heavily awarded especially by France she became the Chevalier of the order of Public Health in 1937 and was promoted to an officer of the order in 1949. she was given the Legion of Honor in 1935 the Deutsche dilemirth prize for her work in aviation medicine in 1955. two International literary prizes in 1948 and 49 a medal of honor from her hometown of Nancy in 1950 and was inaugurated into the women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1987. she hardly slowed down in her old age at age 60 when two men tried to mugger the trained boxer a martial artist knocked over assailants out cold and sent the other running for the Hills under 80th birthday in 1955 she was flown over Nancy in a USAF f-101 Voodoo jet fighter in 1960 she piloted the first print helicopter the so-1221 gin in a 1961 article of Sports Illustrated she Riley noted that when I die the city is going to build a museum to hold my trophies when I was Ill many years ago they decided my time had come and that would be nice to inform me of their plans to build a museum in my honor after I was gone so every few days since then somebody's come to look in and see if Marvin is still around and if they can start work on the museum though she was called the fiancee of danger when asked why she never married she said I don't think any man would put up with me for long I am more interested in mountain climbing than in washing dishes in 1960 at age 86 she traveled during a particularly cold spell in Europe from Nancy to Paris a trip of 175 Miles by bicycle carrying a 30 pound backpack of provisions she died in 1963 at the age of 88 almost destitute she had no close relatives in most of her belongings including pieces of Memoirs her medals and countless photographs have been lost she couldn't afford her burial plot and was very nearly reinterred for a local movement protested while they were quickly adapted for war Marie marvict understood that airplanes could be used for good she said if we have given Wings to the world we have an obligation to ensure that they are the wings of the dove of peace her dedication over the decades to the establishment of an air ambulance service would help to revolutionize the medical field lead to the creation of many air ambulance services from the helicopters moving wounded in Korea to the LifeLight helicopters that carry injured hundreds of miles today when the fiancee of danger was asked later in life why she chose a life of adventure she said nothing I have done has been done solely for the thrill involved or for the publicity I have to give them the same answer that the mountain climber gave when someone asked him why he kept trying to climb Mount Everest because it is there and that's why I became an adventurer if you will because there were things to be conquered things to be done [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 153,985

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: -cytUhWyRxo

Length: 59min 8sec (3548 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2023