June 2, 1890 – Hedda Hopper, actress and columnist, was born as Elda Furry. She began her career as a chorus girl on Broadway where she met and married stage matinee idol, DeWolf Hopper. Hedda Hopper starred in over 120 films, but is best remembered as a gossip columnist in Hollywood.
June 26, 1890 – Jeanne Eagels was born. She became one of the greatest actresses of the early 1900s when she created the character of Sadie Thompson in the long-running Broadway play “Rain.” Unfortunately, Jeanne’s career was cut short when she died of a drug overdose at the age of 39.
June 26, 1892 – Pearl S Buck, writer and humanitarian, was born in Hillsboro, West Virginia. In the early 1920s, Pearl began publishing her stories in magazines. Buck’s first novel titled East Wind West Wind was published in 1930. Over the course of her life, Pearl published over seventy books and stories.
The basic discovery about any people is the discovery of the relationship between its men and its women.
~ Pearl S Buck
June 16, 1902 – Barbara McClintock, scientist, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Barbara began studying genetics in 1921 by enrolling in the only course in genetics offered to undergraduate students at Cornel University. She then registered in a cytology course, which led her into the study of chromosomes. In 1983, Barbara received “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.”
June 2, 1913 – Barbara Pym, author, was born in Oswestry, Shropshire. Her first novel was published in 1950. She published five more books before her next two manuscripts were rejected. Barbara became discouraged and quit writing. In 1977, The Times Literary Supplement listed Barbara Pym as the “most underrated novelist of the century.” As a result, her new novel titled Quartet in Autumn was accepted for publication and Pym gained recognition as a major novelist.
June 16, 1917 – Katharine Meyer Graham, publisher, was born into a privileged family. Katharine took over her husband’s position as President of The Washington Post newspaper after he committed suicide. She held this position for more than two decades.
Once power was considered a masculine attribute. In fact power has no sex.
~ Katharine Graham
June 23, 1940 – Wilma Rudolph, athlete, was born in St. Bethlehem, Tennessee, as one of 19 children. She was the first American female runner to win three gold medals in the Olympic Games. Her success is accentuated, because as a child she not only had double pneumonia and scarlet fever, but she could not walk without braces until the age of 11.
What do you do after you are world famous at nineteen or twenty and you have sat with prime ministers, kings and queens, the Pope? Do you go back home and take a job? What do you do to keep your sanity? You come back to the real world.
~ Wilma Rudolph
