Women / hiSTORY / Toledo Informational Packet
Guide to who’s who:
Mildred D. Taylor Raised in Toledo and graduate from UT. She is a Newbury Award winning YA author whose books include "Roll of Thunder, Hear Me Cry", "Song of the Trees" and many more...
Selma Rubin Raised in Toledo, Ohio, she was an environmentalist and environmental activist and was cofounder of Earth Day. She was a member or advisor for more than forty organizations spanning more than 57 years.
Anita Baker An American singer-songwriter. She is regarded as one of the most popular singers of soulful romantic ballads during the height of the quiet storm period of contemporary R&B in the 1980s. She was born on January 26, 1958, in Toledo, Ohio.
Margaret Wynne Lawless Born in Adrian, Michigan in 1847, her family would make Toledo their home and raise 8 kids all while writing poetry for many of the leading publications of the time. She was an active philanthropist, educator and activist helping charter the first women's insurance and benevolent society in the United States.
Dusty Anderson Born in Toledo, Ohio, she began her career as a model and made her film debut in a minor role as one of the cover girls in the 1944 Columbia Pictures production of Cover Girl. During World War II, she was one of a number of actresses who became a pin-up girl, appearing in the October 27, 1944, issue of the United States Military's YANK magazine.
Brenda Morehead An American sprinter. She competed in the women's 100 metres at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Morehead qualified for the 1980 U.S. Olympic team but was unable to compete due to the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott. She did however receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.
Ella P. Stewart One of the first African American female pharmacists in the United States. In 1922, she and her husband decided to move to Toledo, Ohio to open Stewarts' Pharmacy, located at the corner of Indiana and City Park Avenues (566 Indiana Avenue), and operated it until 1945, when they sold the business. Located in Toledo's Pinewood district, where some two thirds of the city's African Americans lived by the end of the 1920s, the pharmacy became a popular neighborhood gathering place. The Stewarts, who owned the building and lived in the spacious eight rooms above the pharmacy, often hosted visitors from out of town, including luminaries such as Marian Anderson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and W. E. B. Du Bois.
Ruby Starr Born Constance Henrietta Mierzwiak in Toledo, Ohio (November 30, 1949 - January 14, 1995), she was a rock singer and recording artist who attained national prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, including for her work with Black Oak Arkansas.Starr began performing at the age of nine, singing country music under the stage name Connie Little. Her early bands included Connie and the Blu-Beats, The Downtowners and the Blue Grange Ramblers.
Teresa Brewer Born Theresa Veronica Breuer, May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of the 1950s, recording nearly 600 songs. Brewer was born in Toledo, Ohio, the eldest of five siblings. Her father was a glass inspector for the Libbey Owens Company (now part of Pilkington Glass), and her mother was a housewife.
Mari Evans Born in Toledo, Ohio, she was an African American poet, writer, and dramatist associated with the Black Arts Movement. Evans received grants and awards including a lifetime achievement award from the Indianapolis Public Library Foundation. She also wrote nonfiction and edited Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation (Doubleday, 1984), an important and timely critical anthology.
Mildred Benson Worked for 58 years as a journalist, writing a weekly column for the Toledo Blade. She continued to work full-time (mostly writing obituaries) until a few months before her death. She will always be remembered as an author of children's books. She wrote some of the earliest Nancy Drew mysteries and created the detective's adventurous personality. Benson wrote under the Stratemeyer Syndicate pen name, Carolyn Keene, from 1929 to 1947 and contributed to 23 of the first 30 Nancy Drew mysteries.
Gloria Steinem Born on March 25, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, she is an American feminist, journalist, and social political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and a spokeswoman for the American feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was a columnist for New York magazine, and a co-founder of Ms. magazine. In 1969, Steinem published an article, "After Black Power, Women's Liberation", which brought her to national fame as a feminist leader. She co-founded the Women's Media Center, an organization that "works to make women visible and powerful in the media".
Shirley Murdock An American R&B singer-songwriter, who is best known for her 1986 R&B hit single "As We Lay" and for her vocals on Zapp and Roger's hit single "Computer Love". Murdock started out singing gospel music in her native Toledo. Her lead vocal special guest appearance with Smooth Jazz artist Ben Tankard, climbed to #1 Gospel and #20 on Billboard Top 200 on WOW Gospel 2006 and is certified Gold. Their collaboration of the Lionel Richie song "Jesus Is Love" is one of the most played songs on Sirius XM Radio gospel channel for eight years since its initial release.
Frances Schroth Born in Toledo, she would represent the USA in the 1920 Summer Olympics to win the gold medal in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.
Rosa L. Segur Born at Hesse, in Germany, the daughter of Edward Klinge and Jeannetta Freilach Klinge. She moved to the United States in 1838 with her parents, and settled in Toledo, Ohio in 1840. Segur was a leader in the Toledo Woman Suffrage Association from its founding in 1869. "The dominant figure in the Toledo Association for nearly two score years was Mrs. Rosa L. Segur," recalled a 1908 article, "a woman who would unflinchingly have faced the cannon's mouth for her cause." She lobbied the state government for changes in laws about widows' and married women's property rights. She also worked for the hiring of police matrons in Ohio cities, and women physicians in state-run institutions. In 1905 she wrote A History of Woman Suffrage in the Maumee Valley, her memoir of activism.
Emily St. John Bouton An American educator, journalist, author and editor. Bouton was educated for a teacher, and took the highest position awarded to any lady as teacher in high school at Toledo, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, but resigned them to engage on journalistic work on the Toledo Blade, which position she held for many years. She also wrote works on health and beauty for women which were published, and one on etiquette, beside pamphlets, all of which won for her an enviable reputation as a writer of books as well as for the newspaper press. She served as editor of the "Household," the "Saturday Salad", and the "Home Talk" columns of the Toledo, Ohio Daily Blade. She was the author of Social Etiquette, Health and Beauty, and other works more or less directly relating to women.
Bonnie Turner Part of an American husband-and-wife team of screenwriters and producers. They are best known for creating the sitcoms 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show. From 1986 until 1992, the team were staff writers for Saturday Night Live. Between 1987 and 1995, they were responsible for authoring or screenwriting six films, including Coneheads, Wayne's World, Wayne's World 2, Tommy Boy, and The Brady Bunch Movie.
Teresa Ganzel An American television, film and voice actress, Ganzel may be best known as a recurring cast member of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the role of the Matinee Lady in the popular "Tea Time Movie" skits. She has often played ditzy, busty, blonde bimbo roles, as in the 1982 film The Toy with Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor, in the Married... with Children episode "A Three Job, No Income Family" (1989), National Lampoon's Movie Madness and as Greedy Gretchen in the Three's Company episode "Lies My Roommate Told Me" (1981).
Afton Williamson An American actress, best known for the lead role of Police Officer Talia Bishop in the ABC series The Rookie and as Assistant District Attorney Alison Medding in the Cinemax original series Banshee.
Amy Braunschweiger Born and raised in Toledo, Ohio, she is an American freelance writer and the author of Taxi Confidential: Life, Death and 3 A.M. Revelations in New York City, published by 671 Press. Her articles have appeared in publications including The New York Times, Tango, The Wall Street Journal, Worth, The Village Voice and The New York Sun, and New York magazine. Her work has also appeared in Germany's Welt am Sonntag and Leipziger Volkszeitung.
Christopher L. Jones The artist involved in presenting “Women / history / Toledo”, he has lived all over the world and USA while designing audio and lighting for the performing arts. Now residing in Toledo, Ohio with his wife, Christopher is a multimedia artist whose works span a variety of themes, but he is most interested in the relationship between humanity, architecture and technology. You can find his work, portfolio and online store at: www.jonesing.com
Artist Statement for “Women / history / Toledo” The purpose of this installation was threefold: 1. To provide a POSITIVE narrative to a community-based art installation. We live in an age of negativity coming at us from every direction. This is an attempt at uplifting the discussions happening around us. 2. To celebrate WOMEN, particularly WOMEN OF COLOR. 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment to the constitution of the United States of America. In the current time of MeToo and Black Lives Matter, it is important for art to give these groups a voice and platform to be a part of the community discussions, especially in the context of how we view and appreciate the value of ART in a society. 3. To incorporate the installation environment as a whole. The vibrant COLORS of the piece are meant to reflect the beauty and art that is found throughout the Trinity Episcopal Church - from its stained-glass windows to the painted panels and stonework found inside. The various colors are meant to represent a rainbow of DIVERSITY and beauty.