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Thursday, February 28, 2002

Test your knowledge of these six famous local women:

1. A Munhall resident, she trained the Metropolitan Opera's first African-American male vocalist. Her legacy includes founding the National Negro Opera Company, which provided first-rate training and performance opportunities to students in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York.

2. All life, but especially the life at the edge of the sea, was a source of wonder to this phenomenal woman. She is one of the first women biologists working for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries. She understood that the use of certain chemicals and pesticides would endanger natural ecosystems and human health.

3. While the children were at school, this phenomenal woman wrote best sellers, 11 of them. As a WWI correspondent, she once covered the front for the Saturday Evening Post wearing a white velvet evening gown and fur coat. Among the first women to disclose publicly her battle with breast cancer, she encouraged others to put aside misplaced modesty and seek life-saving treatment.

4. She published the Saturday Visitor, a leading anti-slavery newspaper with a nationwide circulation of 6,000. An advocate for property rights for married women, she signaled the need for the reforms of 1848.

5. The American pioneer spirit came to life in the short stories, poems and novels of this phenomenal woman. Before winning the Pulitzer Prize, she taught English at Allegheny High School and was a music and drama critic for the Pittsburgh Daily Leader.

6. Her legacy includes establishing convents, schools, hospitals and social welfare agencies as a sister of Mercy. This phenomenal woman is connected to St. Aloysius Convent, originally in Loretto, Our Lady of Mercy and Mercy Hospital.

ANSWERS: 1. Mary Cardwell Dawson; 2. Rachel Carson; 3. Mary Roberts Rinehart; 4. Jane Grey Swisshelm; 5. Willa Cather; 6. Mother Frances Warde.

Source: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh