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by Lois Bolin Saluting the
Old Naples Historian
DEofStPheOTpeISttiMcoat
DURING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
“Y ou’ve come a long way, PHOTOS LEFT & RIGHT: COURTESY NATIONAL WOMEN’S HISTORY PROJECT
baby,” was the Philip
Morris slogan, that August 26, 1920.
reached out during the height of Throughout history, women have always been willing to endure whatever was necessary for
the feminist movement targeting
professional women in 1969, who important causes. Deaconess Harriett Bedell, an Episcopalian missionary, who came to Collier
understood “it was a woman thing” to County in the 1930s, to work with the Seminole and Miccosukee Indian Tribes, is a perfect
“find your voice.” (PM’s subsequent example. She endured mosquitos, the sweltering heat and outdated paradigms to win their trust
marketing slogans.) encouraging them to produce their handiworks of basket weaving and doll making, which she
promoted around the county.
Abigail Adams didn’t need
a slogan in 1776 to remind her While she would tolerate mosquitoes and blistering heat for her cause, the Deaconess
husband, John Adams, to “remember would not accept disrespect of “her” beloved Indians. This passion led her to Washington,
the ladies” in the new code of laws. D.C. to lobby for the protection of their handicrafts from foreign knock-offs. Her visits to
Mr. Adams, knowing full well where the Department of Labor, the American Trade Authority and the Japanese Embassy, where
power resided, lovingly replied that she gave them a piece of her Christian mind about their replicas, ultimately led to the U.S.
the men must fight the “despotism Government to honor her request.
of the petticoat,” knowing full well
that women’s right to vote was only a Weaving the Stories of Women’s Lives is the 2015 theme marking the 35th Anniversary of
matter of time. National Women’s History Month. The following women are examples of stories that are woven
into the fabric of our local history: Tommie Barfield, first public school superintendent; Mamie
That time came in March 1869 Tooke, first woman bank president; Lynn Hixon-Holley, first woman attorney and judge; Mary
when Indiana’s representative Jo Casey Miller, first woman president of NABOR; Alma Cambridge, founder of first nursery for
introduced a Joint Resolution the African American community (Fun Time Early Learning Academy); and Bonnie McKenzie
for the federal women’s suffrage Loveday, Naples first woman elected as mayor.
amendment. After fifty-one years
of continuous campaigning for A new millennium tapestry of Naples history is being woven with the spiritual threads of
the right to vote, which included
480 legislature campaigns; 47 state
constitutions campaigns; 277 state
party conventions; and 19 campaigns
with 19 successive Congresses, the
19th Amendment became law on
40 Life in Naples | March 2015
