Women's History Archives - Page 2 of 2

Dolly Parton- A Living Legend

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The legendary Dolly Parton turns 77 this weekend. No one deserves a celebration more than this woman. Between her songs, movies, books and philanthropic efforts, there is nothing she hasn’t done. I mean, she even has her own theme park named after her! But are you aware of all Dolly’s accomplishments? Join me in celebrating her this week by learning more about Dolly Parton.

Why is Dolly Parton so Popular?

I became aware of Dolly Parton at a pretty early age. My family took a trip to Dollywood and Gatlinburg back when I was about 8 or 9. As all memories from childhood go, I can’t say I remember the entire trip in detail. But there are flashes of memories that stuck in my brain (or have perhaps been told in stories enough times I feel like I remember).

We went to the then Dixie Stampede and Dollywood. I also remember Dolly’s one-room cabin in Pigeon Forge. It seemed impossible to me for a famous celebrity like Dolly Parton to have come from such humble roots.

My fascination with Dolly Parton continued as I aged. I knew she was responsible for the Bodyguard ballad I Will Always Love You that blasted everywhere in the 90s. But as I grew older, and especially once I moved south to Virginia and got hooked on the country station, I became familiar with more of her “Girl Power” country songs. 9-5, Jolene, Coat of Many Colors. She laid it all on the table. Not only did she give me ALL the feels, there was literally no song of hers I heard that I did not like.

That’s who Dolly is though. Yes, she’s an American singer-songwriter and actress known for her decades long career in country music. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Her bio alone demonstrates that Dolly Parton is no usual performer. She transcends music genres, being inducted into both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Halls of Fame. She’s also managed both a longevity of career spanning over fifty years and fame around the world, selling over 100 million records worldwide.

In addition to all that, Dolly has broken ceilings embodying the strong female spirit she preaches. She’s one of a select few ever in history to have received a nomination for an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. Dolly has also won Lifetime Achievement awards, People’s Choice Awards, and is one of only seven females to win Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year.

Pretty amazing, right? But in addition to being an amazing musician and actress, I think what has made me such a Dolly Parton fan over the years is who she is as a human being. Circling back to that one-room cabin in Pigeon Forge, it hit me that Dolly never forgot those humble beginnings. In fact, she’s done all she could to give others a leg up to get ahead and create their own success. And that is something we should all take away as a lesson. So, how exactly does she do that?

The Dollywood Foundation

Dolly Parton is the fourth of twelve children. As I mentioned above, she grew up “dirt poor” living in a one-room cabin on the Little Pigeon River of East Tennessee. Dolly credits her upbringing for being her inspiration for most her career. She demonstrates this in many of her songs and especially in her charitable work.

The East Tennessee region had always been a depressed region lacking in jobs and support. Dolly opened the Dollywood theme park in 1986 to bring jobs and revenue to the region. Soon after she founded The Dollywood Foundation. She began by offering scholarships to local high school students. It eventually grew to offer additional support to children and families in need in the region.

Today, Dollywood has roughly 4,000 employees on the payroll, making it the largest employer in the area. It hosts nearly 3 million visitors each season and is the 24th most popular theme park in the United States.

The Dolly Parton Imagination Library

As a former English teacher, Dolly’s Imagination Library program was always my favorite of her philanthropies. There is no greater gift that getting a book in a child’s hand!

Dolly Parton created her Imagination Library program in 1995 in honor of her father who never learned to read or write. The program began by providing a free book monthly to enrolled children from birth to the age of five in the East Tennessee region. It grew so popular she decided to expand it to any community that would partner with her and provide local support. It is now available in over 1,800 communities worldwide.

In 2020, Dolly celebrated the delivery of the program’s 150 millionth book. The Library of Congress hosted an event honoring Dolly and the program for their contributions to children’s literacy.

Today the Imagination Library program sends an estimated 2 million books per month. The Imagination Library had at least 1.7 million children in the U.S. enrolled in 2021.

Dolly Parton- The Author

And, as a girl after my own heart, Dolly has made her own personal contributions to literacy as well. She has authored a number of books, including a few for children. See them listed below.

Happy Birthday Dolly Parton! Thank you for your very many contributions to making the world a better place! “If you see someone without a smile today, give ’em yours.” – Dolly Parton

Enjoy Dolly’s most recent book that focuses on her life-long love of fashion and developing her own iconic “Dolly” style.

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Dolly teamed up with famous thriller author, James Patterson, to write about a Nashville singer with a shadowy past. Can she survive long enough to escape her past?

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Dolly pulls from her past in rural East Tennessee to tell this special story for children. She uses the lyrics from her song to tell the story of a child in need of a warm winter coat. When her mother sews the coat from rags, she is made fun of by her classmates. But Parton teaches the important lesson that the coat was stitched with love and that’s way more important.

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In this colorful tale, Dolly teaches children how to identify their emotions by associating them with a color. By finding ways to talk about them they can not only learn how to cope, but also how to empathize with those around them.

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Thanks so much for joining me this week. Did you enjoy this post? Learn about some other amazing women on my blog here!

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Check out the Amaryllis Co. Shop, fully stocked with custom designs perfect for every book loving Amaryllis Girl! From shirts, mugs, wine glasses, and more, I have curated a shop with all of my favorites! SHOP HERE! You can also find my collection of bookish merchandise on Etsy.

Changemaker Spotlight: Meet Nellie Bly, The Best Reporter in America

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Are you familiar with the name Nellie Bly? I’ve mentioned before that Nellie Bly is pretty important to Ruth in her third installment. Today I want to explain why. So, who was this famous woman?

Nellie Bly was born Elizabeth Jane Cochron on May 5th, 1864. Her father was quite wealthy and owned a mill in Pennsylvania. However, when Bly was six, her father died suddenly without a will. Unable to maintain their estate, they left the area and Bly’s mother remarried. She unfortunately divorced in 1878 due to abuse.

By the time Bly was 15, the family’s struggles had increased. Bly had been in and out of schools as the family moved around. They finally settled in Pittsburgh and Bly began to look for work to help support the family. Unfortunately due to her lack of regular education and her gender, work was hard to find.

Around that time, The Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article criticizing women in the workforce. Fed up, Bly penned a letter to the editor in response. She called for more opportunities for women, especially those responsible for the well-being of their families. The editor saw potential in her piece and invited her to work at the Dispatch as a reporter. She used the pen name Nellie Bly which she took from a well-known song at the time.

Bly quickly became a popular columnist, but was limited to only writing pieces that addressed women and soon quit in frustration. Wanting to write about more serious topics, Bly began searching for a newspaper that wouldn’t pigeon-hole her.

“While I live, I hope” – Nellie Bly

She moved to New York City in 1886 and soon famously stormed the office of the New York World demanding to speak to Joseph Pulitzer. She offered him a story about the immigrant experience. Pulitzer declined that story, but challenged her to investigate one of New York’s worst mental asylums, Blackwell’s Island. Bly not only accepted the assignment, she decided to pretend to have a mental illness to get herself admitted and experience firsthand how the patients were treated. With this assignment Bly became one of the most famous reporters in history.

Bly’s Ten Days in the Madhouse shocked the public and led to massive overhauls of the institution. In addition, her hands-on approach to reporting led to a new practice called investigative journalism. She continued to expose problems in New York society like mistreatment of domestic workers, a black market for buying infants, and corruption in state legislature. She captivated the public.

Her career hit a new high in 1889 when she decided to travel the world after reading Jules Verne’s popular novel, Around the World in 80 Days. The New York World published daily updates of her journey and she completed her travels in 72 days, a world record at the time.

Bly continued to publish influential pieces and interviewed some of the top labor rights activists, politicians and writers of her time. She then married at the age of thirty and retired from journalism.

A New Chapter in the Nellie Bly Story

Her husband died in 1903, leaving her in charge of his massive manufacturing companies. She became an inventor, patenting a number of products to enhance worker productivity in the oil industry, many of which are still used today. She also prioritized worker’s welfare, offering benefits and insurance. Unfortunately, Bly was not great with handling the financial side of the businesses and eventually had to declare bankruptcy.

She returned to journalism during WWI, again reporting on a number of impactful issues. Bly’s story ends soon after the war when she died from pneumonia in 1922. She was remembered in tributes by many as the “best reporter in America.”

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Women’s Right Convention & The Women Who Risked it All

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July 19th and 20th of this year mark the 175th Anniversary of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls!

For those not familiar, this historic two day convention was the first event to focus on “the social, civil and religious condition and rights of women.” About three hundred women attended and after two days of discussion, they drafted the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. This document described the ways in which the laws of their time failed women. They failed to protect their rights, their safety and their potential. Their proposed solution was calling for the woman’s right to vote.

This was the official launch to the women’s rights and suffrage movements. Sadly, it took seventy years for women to actually be granted this right and few got to ever celebrate or see the fruit of their labors. But there was at least one woman, Rhoda Palmer, who at 102 cast her first ballot in the 1918 New York State election.

It’s amazing how second nature and even taken for granted voting seems today. I’m guilty myself of not voting in every election. It’s just a small one. There’s no candidate I care for, etc. But, to think of the blood, sweat and tears so many put in to grant us this simple privilege, I know I should do better.

As we head into what appears to be another contentious election season, let us remember these courageous people from our past. And let us most importantly remember, even one vote can make a difference. Let your voice be heard!

Are you currently registered to vote? REGISTER TODAY!

For more information about the Seneca Falls Convention and to really get a clear picture of the attendees and the risks they took to attend the convention that day– take a look at this keynote speech from the 150th anniversary.

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Rosie the Riveter Turns Eighty!

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Rosie the Riveter

On May 29th, 1943, the Saturday Evening Post published a cover image that changed history forever. It was an image by Norman Rockwell, portraying “Rosie” with a flag in the background.

Overnight, this image became iconic. It showed up everywhere– at movie theaters, posters, newspapers, etc. Rosie the Riveter was everywhere– and society would never be the same again.

When we think back on women’s history, WWII and Rosie the Riveter offer a clear dividing line. There were women in the workforce before WWII, but they were definitely in the minority and the idea of a woman working after marriage was unheard of.

But America entered the war and workforce rules changed.

Suddenly, it was patriotic for women to work! American women entered the workforce in droves. Between 1940-1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce rose from 27 to nearly 37%. And by 1945, one out of every four married women worked outside the home.

Then the war ended and America entered its identity crisis. The intent behind the Rosie the Riveter campaign was for it to be a temporary fix, “patriotic” women filling the gaps while the men were away. They were supposed to happily return to their homes when the men returned. However, what was not considered was how societal roles had changed forever.

For starters, how could men ever claim superiority again after witnessing these women’s selfless efforts and demonstrations of their strength and capability? Also after tasting freedom and thriving in their new jobs, many women were rightfully unhappy about returning to their former lives at home.

We all know progress is slow. And major societal change especially takes time. But I do want to examine how far women have come since that famous picture debuted.

This postwar era required an entire reshuffling of identity and viewpoints. For those of you who watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the latest episode hits on this point perfectly.

The father, Abe, goes out to dinner with a group of other men. While there he admits to having an identity crisis and questioning everything he’d thought he’d known for his entire life. The men go around the table trying to pinpoint what Abe is feeling. They offer theories about change and how fast the world has changed in their recent years. How it’s natural to feel overwhelmed etc.

Finally, Abe offers up that it’s about his daughter. He admits that everything he thought he knew about women and his expectations of them is wrong. He’d pinned all his hopes and expectations on his son and later his grandson. He brought the son to Columbia to watch him teach, never even thought to do that for his daughter. Same with his grandson, putting all his efforts in tapping into his early potential. And yet now? His daughter owns the apartment he lives in. Her husband abandoned her and she was the one who fought her way up to thrive. She’s in a difficult profession and yet, she’s mastering it. All of this is without any help from him or her mother. And his granddaughter is the grandchild showing the early signs of genius talent. He realizes he majorly undersold their potential and capabilities. He closes by admitting his daughter is truly remarkable.

“Rosie” is eighty years old this year. Eighty- that’s one lifetime. And in that one lifetime we’ve seen expectations for women go from telling our daughters their only role in life was to cook and keep house to saying they can be whatever they want. If they can dream it and work hard, they can make it happen. We now have a woman Vice President, congresswomen, pilots, astronauts, judges, entrepreneurs, scientists– you name it, they’re doing it!

“Rosie” might have been a campaign born out of necessity, but she changed the rules to the game. For that, I’m forever grateful. Let’s see where another eighty years of remarkable women can take us!