Wanda Ramey (February 18, 1924 in Terre Haute, Indiana – August 15, 2009 in Greenbrae, California) was a pioneering American television news reporter. She was married to Richard Queirolo and assumed his name, but continued to use her maiden name in her professional life.
Alaina Capri is an actress who appeared in director Russ Meyer's films Common Law Cabin and Good Morning and... Goodbye!
Janet Gray Hayes (July 12, 1926 – April 21, 2014) was the 60th mayor of San Jose, California, elected to two consecutive, four-year terms from 1975 to 1983. She was both the first woman to be elected mayor San Jose, and the first woman elected mayor of a major U.S. city with a population of more than 500,000 people.Born in Rushville, Indiana, Hayes went to University of Chicago and then received her bachelor's degree from Indiana University. In 1956, Hayes and her husband moved to San Jose, California where her husband practiced medicine.
Hayes was elected to the San Jose City Council in 1971 In 1973, she was voted by the city council to serve as the city's vice mayor, becoming the first woman to hold that position. In 1974, she was elected mayor of the city. She was reelected in 1978. She was a Democrat and campaigned as an environmentalist and wanted to fight Urban sprawl in San Jose.She died of a stroke on April 26, 2014, in Saratoga, California.
Charlotte Zolotow (born Charlotte Gertrude Shapiro; June 26, 1915 – November 19, 2013) was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children. She wrote about 70 picture book texts.The writers she edited include Paul Fleischman, Paul Zindel, Mary Rodgers, Robert Lipsyte, and Francesca Lia Block.
Alice Turner Schafer (June 18, 1915 – September 27, 2009) was an American mathematician. She was one of the founding members of the Association for Women in Mathematics in 1971.
Frances L. Janssen [Big Red, or Little Red] (January 25, 1926 – November 27, 2008) was an American pitcher who played from 1948 through 1952 in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Listed at 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) and weighing over 155 lb, she batted and threw right-handed.
She was a well-traveled pitcher during her five-year career in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She moved constantly from one city to another because the league office shifted players to help teams stay competitive. Janssen was also cut twice from the league, but she kept playing for seven different teams for different periods of time and different stays.
Born in Remington, Indiana, Frances was the daughter of Fred and Anna (née Petersen) Janssen, who emigrated from Germany in the mid-1910s and settled in the farmlands of Indiana. She had a brother, Paul, and four sisters, Betty, Tinie, Wilma, and Anna. Almost six feet tall, Frances played basketball and organized softball while attending Gilboa High School. She later received an associate degree in business from South Bend IUPUI and attended the International Business College of Fort Wayne. She graduated in 1944 and immediately went to work in an office. [3]
By this time, several girls from her local softball team had been scouted and signed by the league. Frances gave it a tryout in 1946, but she did not make the grade. She then insisted again in 1948 and was accepted. After spring training, she was assigned to the South Bend Blue Sox for a couple of days before being sent to the Grand Rapids Chicks. She went 4–4 with a 3.98 earned run average in 11 games and was released after one month of action. I got released because I couldn't throw a curveball, she recalled in an interview. [1] But Janssen did not give up and accepted a demotion to the Chicago Colleens/Springfield Sallies rookie touring teams to work things out. The Colleens and the Sallies had lost their franchises after their poor performances the previous year. Both teams played exhibition games against each other as they traveled primarily through the South and East, traveling through 20 states and playing in 46 cities. We traveled more than 10,000 miles in 1949 from Illinois to Texas, across the Gulf States, and up to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, she later explained in an interview with Jim Sargent for the Society for American Baseball Research. We played in minor league parks in Tulsa and Baltimore, as well as in city parks, and we drew good crowds.
In two of those games, she was asked to switch to the Sallies and serve as playing manager as well as chaperone. She handled both jobs well while also leading her Colleens team in pitching. By the way, she came along fine and hurled two one-hitter shutouts against Springfield at Oklahoma and South Carolina ballparks. She finished the tour with a 16–6 record in 23 pitching appearances. Nevertheless, since the league counted the whole tour as exhibition games, no official statistics were kept.
Janssen was promoted to the Peoria Redwings in 1950 and ended up pitching for the Fort Wayne Daisies in the postseason. She went 3-3 with a 3.87 ERA in 19 games for Peoria and Fort Wayne and pitched 12 innings of shutout ball without a decision in three playoff games, even though the Daisies lost to the Rockford Peaches in the best-of-seven final round.
She opened the 1951 season with Fort Wayne and returned to Peoria early in the year, which made her feel like the end of the world, according to her own words. Then she was sent to the Kalamazoo Lassies during the midseason and finished the year with the Battle Creek Belles. Through her lengthy and arduous journey, Janssen posted a career-best 26 games pitched, only six behind Belles teammate Migdalia Pérez, while also setting career-highs in ERA (2.67), innings pitched (145), and strikeouts (43). She had a very good season overall, although this was not reflected in her 6–10 losing record. [1]
Janssen spent the entire 1952 season with Battle Creek and was used in relief duties, a seldom-used role in the league. She appeared in only five games, going 0-1 with a 5.00 ERA in 18 innings of work. [1]
Following her baseball days, Janssen played center for the South Bend Rockettes women's basketball team and volleyball with the South Bend Turners for more than a decade. She helped the Rockettes win five national championships and won a national champion title with the Turners. She was also an insurance representative for Laven Insurance Company in South Bend for 25 years and retired in 1991. [4]
Nancy DeShone [Rockwell / Dinehart] (March 22, 1932 – October 6, 2007) was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player. Listed at 5' 3", 120 lb., she batted and threw left handed.Born in Elkhart, Indiana, Nancy DeShone attended Theodore Roosevelt High School in Indiana, where she earned a number of ribbons while participating in the school sports for girls.A strong-armed, left-handed pitcher, she hurled for the Miles Laboratories club in a fastpitch softball factory league, leading Miles to a championship title in South Bend, Indiana. While pitching in a championship game, she was approached by an All American League scout and was drafted in 1948.At age 16, DeShone joined the South Bend Blue Sox and was assigned as an outfielder. But she did not see much action, going hitless in two at bats in a game, because she primed as a pitcher. She then was dealt to the Fort Wayne Daisies in 1949, but she decided to return to school and earn her diplom.After graduation, Nancy worked in sales and management and married Rodney Rockwell in 1950. The couple had four daughters: Debbi, Sherry, Jacki and Conni. Her husband died in 1992. She later married James Dinehart and became the stepmother of James' children: Kathleen, Debra, Laura, Martin and Dale.In between, Nancy remained interested in baseball and coached women's softball, Little League Baseball, and tee-ball for children aged 4 to 8 over the years.In 1993, Nancy was the chairperson for the 50th reunion of the AAGPBL Players Association held in South Bend, where she coordinated activities for more of 200 former league's players at the five-day event.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954, but there is a permanent display at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York since 1988 that honors the entire league rather than any individual figure.Nancy DeShone died in 2007 in South Bend, Indiana, at the age of 75.
Kay Chorao, born as Ann McKay Sproat on January 7, 1936, (some sources say 1937) in Elkhart, Indiana, is an American artist, illustrator and writer of children's books.
Patricia Roy (October 3, 1938 – May 23, 2017) was an All-American Girls Professional Baseball League infielder. Listed at 5' 10", 125 lb., she batted and threw right handed.Patricia Roy played a season in the league but her career was cut short after an insurance company refused to cover players under the age of 18.Born in Goshen, Indiana, Patricia was the daughter of Arthur and Margaret Roy. She grew up in Harlan, Indiana, near Fort Wayne, and participated in pick-up games and sandlot ball with the boys before joining an organized Pony League baseball team. But after surpassing her male counterparts, Patricia was told that girls could not play in that league. She then went to the Junior Girls Baseball League located at South Bend, which served as a farm club for the All-American league.In 1954, Roy was noticed and recruited by an AAGPBL scout. She was aged 15 and still in high school, but she convinced her parents she was old enough to play in the league. Patricia was offered a contract and it was co-signed by her mother. By that time, the Fort Wayne Daisies club was short of players and gave the young girl a chance to play. Usually the AAGPBL hired older girls, but made an exception because of the shortage of talent at a difficult time.But Roy did not get much of a chance to play during the only season she was with the pennant-winning Daisies. She was used sparingly as a backup infielder for Betty Foss at first base and Katie Horstman at third, until a 16-year old teammate, Shirley Weierman, broke an ankle while sliding into second base. After Weierman's injury, the insurance company hired by the league decided it not cover any girl under age 18. Roy and Weierman were released immediately.In one season career, Roy hit .079 (3-for-38) with two RBI in 14 games. At the field, she recorded 95 putouts with two assists and turned one double plays, while committing five errors in 179 total chances for a combined .951 fielding average.Following her graduation at Harlan High School in 1956, Roy enrolled at Ball State University and earned a bachelor's and master's degrees in physical education in 1960. She began her career as a physical education teacher at Chesterton High School in 1960, and served as head of the Department of Girls Physical Education at East Gary from 1964 through 1971. In between, she threw fastpitch softball for the Valparaiso Queens team and travelled all over the Midwest.Afterwards, Roy became a pioneer for girls athletics in Indiana when she was hired by the Indiana High School Athletic Association in 1972. Her first role in the IHSAA was as director of the girls' athletics department, a position that did not exist before her arrival. As a result, Roy established the guidelines for the tournament series for all sports for girls in Indiana and guided the IHSAA girls basketball team to its first championship. She lasted 27½ years at the IHSSA, the longest tenure for an executive in the organization's history.In 1988, Roy received further recognition when she became part of Women in Baseball, a permanent display based at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, which was unveiled to honor the entire All-American Girls Professional Baseball League rather than any individual figure.She garnered numerous honors, starting with the Indiana Hall of Fame Pioneer of the Game Award and the St. Vincent Silver Medal Award in 2002 for her significant role in the implementation into the IHSAA program. In addition, she was recognized nationally by the Women's Sports Foundation and the U.S. Olympic Committee, received the first Marian Archer Award and ICGSA Service Award from the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association, commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1993, and was named a Sagamore of the Wabash by the Governor of Indiana Evan Bayh in 1994. She gained inductions in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, the Indiana Softball Hall of Fame, the Indiana Volleyball Hall o Fame, the Lake Station Hall of Fame, and the Indiana Coaches of Sports Association. Besides, the Patricia L Roy Mental Attitude Award is given annually to one senior player in each class of the Indiana State Girls High School Basketball Championship who best exemplifies a positive attitude, scholarship and leadership skills.After retiring, Patricia Roy moved to Ave Maria, Florida, where she died on May 23, 2017, at the age of 78.
Margaret Kampschaefer Butler (March 27, 1924 – March 8, 2013) was a mathematician who participated in creating and updating computer software. During the early 1950s, Butler contributed to the development of early computers. Butler was the first female fellow at the American Nuclear Society and director of the National Energy Software Center at Argonne. Butler held leadership positions within multiple scientific organizations and women's groups. She was the creator and director of the National Energy Software Center. Here, Butler operated an exchange for the editing of computer programs in regards to nuclear power and developed early principles for computer technology.