The Women of the Postage Stamps—Part 9

By Jennifer Uhlarik

 

Hello, dear readers! It’s time for your next installment of the Women of the US Stamps. So far, we’ve covered 100 years, plus a few, of women who have been featured on American stamps, and today, we pick up in 1991.

 

Our first honoree is Fanny Brice. Have you heard of her? She was born in 1891 in New York City, one of four children of saloon owner parents. At the age of 17, she dropped out of school to perform in a burlesque revue, and just a couple of years later, went on to the Ziegfeld Follies, where she performed two different times—once in 1910-1911, and again from 1921 into the 1930s. She recorded some of her signature songs for both Victor and Columbia Records, and also had an illustrious career in radio. She was best known for her comedy sketch character, Baby Snooks, whom she played for many different radio variety shows across many years. Her life became the basis for the stage play/movie Funny Girl.

Next is Harriet Quimby, born in Michigan in 1875. After her family moved to California around 1900, Harriet had a short-lived career in theater, but soon decided it wasn’t the right fit for her. Instead, she became a journalist in San Francisco and eventually moved to New York to be a theater critic. During a nine-year period as a journalist, she published over 250 articles. But all that took a back seat when she attended an aviation show in New York and decided to get her pilot’s license. In 1911, she became the first North American woman to ever garner such an honor, and in 1912, she accomplished another first—becoming the first woman to fly across the English Channel. She was known to fly in a purple satin flying suit, which also led to her becoming the face of the Vin Fiz Company’s grape soda ads. She spent the remainder of her brief life flying in competitions and acting as spokesperson for women in aviation. In 1912, during a flight, her 2-seat airplane suddenly and inexplicably pitched forward, throwing her passenger from his seat. Unable to regain control, Quimby was also ejected from the plane, and both she and her passenger fell to their deaths while the plane gently glided to the ground and flipped over in the mud. In 2004, this aviation pioneer was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Our third honoree for today is Dorothy Parker. This literary critic, poet, and fiction author was born in 1893 in New Jersey. Both her mother and step-mother died before she graduated high school, and her father died soon after that point. Parker took a job early on as a piano player for a school of dance and spent her spare time working on poetry. Within a year, she was hired by Vogue as an editorial assistant and moved on to work at Vanity Fair. She was a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, a collection of writers, comedians, novelists, and more, who liked to lunch at the Algonquin Hotel to tell jokes and share stories. It was this that helped launch Parker into the big time, as many of her friends from this association would publish her funny jokes and conversations. Her witticisms became her calling card, though in her own writing, it often got her into trouble, as many of the people she wrote about in her articles felt her jokes were too abrasive. In 1926, she published her first book of verse, Enough Rope, in which is the famous line “Men seldom make passes/At girls who wear glasses.” She also went on to publish a collection of her short stories in 1939, titled Here Lies. She lived to be 73.

 

Our final lady of the postage stamps for today was born Victoria Patterson Hensley, but that’s not the name you would know her by. Do you know who she was? Let’s see if you can guess. She was born in September of 1932, in West Virginia, though the family moved many times in her early years, due to her father’s work as a blacksmith—they went wherever he could find steady work. When this young lady suffered a throat infection and rheumatic fever at the age of thirteen, she credits the illness of launching her into her future career. The throat infection altered her voice, so that after she had recuperated, she had a booming contralto singing voice. Soon after, she began singing with her mother in church and taught herself to play piano. Her official start in music came when, at the age of fourteen, she showed up unannounced to a local radio station and asked to audition to sing live on air. The DJ gave her the desired audition, and he was impressed enough to say that if she was brave enough to sing live over the air, he was brave enough to let her. This talented woman spent five years traveling and singing with various groups and in vocal competitions, waiting for her break. Her first recording contract with 4 Star Records didn’t net the desired results—but she continued to try, eventually landing a recording contract with Decca Records and a place with the Grand Ole Opry. Have you figured out who she is yet? It’s singer Patsy Cline! She spent eight years wowing audiences with songs like “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Sweet Dreams” among many others. Unfortunately, her life was cut short in 1963 when the small plane she was a passenger in went down ninety miles from its Tennessee destination, due to bad weather.

 

It’s Your Turn: Which of these ladies have you heard of before, and which do you find most inspiring? Why?

 

Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.

 

Available Now: Love and Order: A Three-Part Old West Romantic Mystery

 

Wanted: 

Family, Love, and Justice

One Old West Mystery Solved Throughout Three Short Romantic Stories

Separated as children when they were adopted out to different families from an orphan train, the Braddock siblings have each grown up and taken on various jobs within law enforcement and criminal justice.

 

Youngest child, Callie, has pushed past her insecurities to pursue a career as a Pinkerton agent. Middle child, Andi, has spent years studying law under her adoptive father’s tutelage. And the eldest and only son, Rion, is a rough-and-tumble bounty hunter. 

 

When the hunt for a serial killer with a long history of murders reunites the brother and sisters in Cambria Springs, Colorado, they find themselves not only in a fight for justice, but also a fight to keep their newly reunited family intact. How will they navigate these challenges when further complicated by unexpected romances?