04-24/25-1995 - Episodes 266 and 267 - Women of Achievement and Herstory 

(my weekend double-header)

04-24 Anniversaries ...............................................

      B. 04-24-1900, Elizabeth Goudge, playwright and novelist,
author of _Tower in the Mist_ and _Green Dolphin Street_ (1944.) 
Her mother was an invalid with "a wonderful gift of storytelling."

      B. 04-24-1900, Zelda Fitzgerald wrote _Save Me the Waltz_ in
1932 but is best known as the subject of the biography _Zelda_ and
as the wife of  F. Scott Fitzgerald.

      B. 04-24-1902, Helen Tamiris, dancer, choreographer, leader in
the field of modern dance (1930 to 1939).

      B. 04-24-1934, Shirley MacLaine, singer, dancer, actor, author,
activist. Won Academy Award for her work in _Terms of Endearment_
(1983), nominated four other times. Her documentary _The Other Half
of the Sky; A China Memoir_ which she wrote, produced and co-
directed was nominated for an AA award.  A Broadway dancer and
singer, she won Tonys.

      B. 04-24-1942, Barbra Streisand, singer, actress, director,
writer. Three Academy Awards, two for acting, one for best song.
Considered by many to have the greatest voice of the half century.
Streisand became the only director in the history of the Academy
Awards not nominated as best director when her film _Prince of
Tides_ was nominated as best film. (They NEVER forgave her for
_Yentl_.)  Won Academy Award for best actress in _Funny Girl_
(1968), nominated for _The Way We Were_ (1973), won AA for her song
_Evergreen_ (1976). Stage, screen, TV, and concert actor, singer,
composer, poet, director, and political activist.
      Her 1994 concert tour made more money that any other concert
tour in the history of entertainment.  

04-25 Anniversaries ...............................................

      B. 04-25-1912, Iris Faircloth Blitch, elected U.S. Representative
Georgia (1954). Had served in the Georgia state legislature as both a
Representative and as a Senator. 

      B. 04-25-1918, Ella Fitzgerald, jazz and scat singer of fabulous
talent. Revered by several generations of musicians and fans.

      B. 04-25-1923, Melissa Hayden, Canadian-born American
ballerina.

      Event 04-25-1967: Colorado became the first state to liberalize
its abortion law authorizing abortion when pregnancy resulted from
rape or incest, endangered a woman's physical or mental health, or
was likely to result in the birth of a child with severe mental or
physical defects.  It required the abortion be performed in a licensed
hospital and only after a panel of three doctors had unanimously
given approval.  Similar bills liberalizing abortion laws were passed
in North Carolina and California where Governor Ronald Reagan finally
signed it into law though he had originally told Republicans to
oppose it after consulting with Roman Catholic Cardinal James Francis
McIntyre. 

Quotes du jour ...............................................

      "Young boys plan for what they will achieve and attain, young
girls plan for *whom* they will achieve and attain."
            -- Charlette Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) in _Women and
Economics_. 

(C) 1995 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR
71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with
copyright notice for non-profit use. Don't let anyone tell you there
weren't notable and effective women throughout history.  They were
always there, but historians failed to note them in our histories so
that each generation of women has had to reinvent themselves.