20th-century American women

Charlotte_Mailliard_Shultz

Charlotte Mailliard Shultz (née Smith; September 26, 1933 – December 3, 2021) was a socialite, and philanthropist. She was the Chief of Protocol for the state of California, and the Chief of Protocol for the City and County of San Francisco. She was married to former United States Secretary of State George P. Shultz, from 1997 until his death in 2021.
Mailliard Shultz was President of the board of the War Memorial Performing Arts Center and a member of the boards of the San Francisco Symphony, Grace Cathedral, the Commonwealth Club of California, and the San Francisco Ballet. A native Texan, Mailliard Shultz often quipped about San Francisco, "... if I don't pay my dues, they may send me back to Texas!"

Eleanor_Keaton

Eleanor Ruth Keaton (July 29, 1918 – October 19, 1998) was an American dancer and variety show performer. She was an MGM contract dancer in her teens and became the third wife of silent-film comedian Buster Keaton at the age of 21. She is credited with rehabilitating her husband's life and career. The two performed at the Cirque Medrano in Paris and on European tours in the 1950s; she also performed with him on The Buster Keaton Show in the early 1950s. After his death in 1966, she helped ensure Keaton's legacy by giving many interviews to biographers, film historians, and journalists, sharing details from his personal life and career, and also attended film festivals and celebrations honoring Keaton. In her later years, she bred champion St. Bernard dogs, was a gag consultant for Hollywood filmmakers, and was an invited speaker at silent-film screenings.

Kitty_O'Brien_Joyner

Kitty O'Brien Joyner (July 11, 1916 – August 16, 1993) was an American electrical engineer with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), and then with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) upon its replacement of NACA in 1958. She was the first woman to graduate from the University of Virginia's engineering program in 1939, receiving the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award upon graduation. When she was hired by NACA the same year, she became the first woman engineer at the organization, eventually rising to the title of Branch Head and managing several of its wind tunnels. Her work contributed to research on aeronautics, supersonic flight, airfoils, and aircraft design standards.

Jacqueline_White

Jacqueline Jane White (born November 27, 1922) is an American former actress, who had a brief career in Hollywood as a leading lady in motion pictures during the early and post-WW2 years from 1942 until 1952, with starring and playing smaller roles in around 25 feature films.
White, at the age of 17, signed on a film contract at MGM and subsequently with RKO, where she found her greatest success and is perhaps best remembered for her roles in films Crossfire (1947), Banjo (1947) , Mystery in Mexico (1948) and The Narrow Margin (1952). She is one of the last surviving actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Helen_Richey

Helen Richey (November 21, 1909 – January 7, 1947) was a pioneering female aviator and the first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the United States.In 1933, she and her flying partner, Frances Harrell Marsalis, set a women's fueling endurance record of 237 hours and 42 minutes above the city of Miami in their airplane, the "Flying Boudoir."Three years later, Richey set a women's international light plane record of 100 kilometers traveled in 55 minutes. As a co-pilot in the Bendix race that same year with Amelia Earhart, she secured the women's light plane altitude record. During World War II, Richey became the first female pilot from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the war front in Europe.

Charlotte_Serber

Charlotte Serber (née Leof; July 26, 1911 – May 22, 1967) was an American journalist, statistician and librarian. She was the librarian of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II, and the laboratory's only female group leader. After the war she attempted to secure a position as a librarian at the Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, but was rejected for lack of a security clearance; the likely reason was due to her political views. She later became a production assistant for the Broadway Theatre, and an interviewer for Louis Harris.

Susan_Laird

Susanne E. Laird (July 18, 1908 – November 7, 1933), also known by her married name Susan Scavey, was an American competition swimmer who represented the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Laird was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania, and was one of four girls, including Josephine McKim and Lenore Kight, who trained at the Carnegie Library Athletic Club under coach Jack Scarry, her uncle, to represent the United States as members of the Olympic swim team. She began swimming at age 14 on the advice of a physician after developing St. Vitus Dance. The doctor believed swimming as a daily exercise would help to cure her nervous condition.
Laird won her first championship in 1924 at Lake Elizabeth in Pittsburgh, completing the 50-yard freestyle in 32 seconds. She placed second in the 100 meters and third in the 300-yard medley at the 1926 Sesquicentennial in Philadelphia. That year, she went on to win the national 100-yard junior championship. In 1928 she qualified for the American Olympic Team, and traveled aboard the S.S. President Roosevelt to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for the 1928 Summer Olympics. Laird finished fifth in the women's 100-meter freestyle. She also helped the American relay team to qualify for the final of the women's 4×100-meter freestyle relay as they set a new world record in the semifinals. Laird did not receive a gold medal, even though the American team finished first in the event final, because she did not swim in the final.
After graduating from Temple University in 1930, Laird was appointed girls' coach and physical education instructor at Homestead High School, a position she held until her death from a rare blood disorder and subsequent pneumonia at age 25.