USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 24
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On October 1, 1933, this highly intelligent and widely experienced woman was appointed to the position of Assistant Director of the Ohio State Em- ployment Service under the administration of George L. White. Her ap- pointment was due in a large measure to the fact that she had participated in the activities of the Ohio Unemployment Insurance Commission as men- tioned previously.
She is an active member of the American Association of Social Workers, the Franklin County League of Women Voters, the Altrusa Club and the Federated Democratic Women of Ohio.
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NELLIE SHERIDAN WILSON
NELLIE SHERIDAN WILSON lives in Somerset, where she has spent the most of her busy life. She is a daughter of John L. Sheridan, younger brother of General Philip Sheridan, and hence a niece of the famous general.
When Nellie Sheridan was eighteen years old, she was appointed post- mistress of Somerset, and had the distinction of being at that time the young- est woman in the United States to hold this position. The appointment was made in 1889, during the administration of Benjamin Harrison.
Miss Sheridan continued as postmistress for slightly more than twenty- five years. The termination of her tenure came about in a remarkable way. Shortly after her 25th year of service, she was married to Charles Thomas Wilson, who died within twenty-four hours after the marriage. Political opponents of Mrs. Wilson insisted that she was, because of her marriage, not the same person who had been appointed to the office as Nellie Sheridan. So much pressure was brought to bear that the widow gave up the office and went into merchandising on the square in Somerset.
She continued in business for seventeen years, and then was again appointed postmistress of the town, maintaining this second appointment for something over five years.
During all the time Mrs. Wilson was active in county and state affairs. For several years she was chair-woman of the Republican State Committee; she was Secretary of Somerset Chamber of Commerce, at one time a lively organization ; she was Secretary of the Philip Sheridan Memorial Commit- tee, which body was headed by Charles Thomas Wilson, and which was successful in getting the state to erect the fine heroic statue of General Sheri- dan on the square of Somerset.
Mrs. Wilson was also for many years president of the Board of County Visitors. She headed the committee which planned for the home-coming of the soldiers of Perry County when they returned from overseas service in the World War. There has, in short, been little of community interest since 1889 in which Nellie Sheridan Wilson has not taken an active part.
She has, of course, always handled her own financial affairs although she is frank to say, not very successfully. She was a member of the board of directors of Somerset's one time flourishing industries; The Somerset Foundry, The Somerset Canning Factory, and The Somerset Brick Plant. But Mrs. Wilson maintains that in one thing, at least, she was foresighted : she was the first woman in the county to hold a life insurance policy.
Mrs. Wilson delights in giving reminiscences of her busy life and of the people of bygone days whom she knew or with whom she has been as- sociated. She lives altogether too quietly now, she insists, in the big old family homestead at the corner of Sheridan Avenue and Columbus Street in Somerset.
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MARIE REMINGTON WING
MARIE REMINGTON WING, of Cleveland, O., attorney for Region No. 5 of the Social Security Board, was born in that city Nov. 8, 1885, the daugh- ter of Francis Joseph and Mary Remington Wing.
Her great-great-great-grandfather on the paternal side was Hezekiah Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. John Wing, an an- cestor six generations removed, came to America from England in 1632 and was one of the "50 associates" who founded Sandwich, Mass. Ananias Wing, a fourth generation ancestor, fought in the Indian Wars, Bani Wing fought in the Revolutionary War, Joseph Wing, grandfather of Marie, fought in the Civil War and later served in the Ohio Legislature and Francis J. Wing, Marie's father, was appointed to the Federal judgeship of the Northern Dis- trict of Ohio in 1901.
Marie Wing attended Miss Mittleberger's School at Cleveland, then Bryn Mawr College and received her degree of Bachelor of Laws from Cleveland Law School in 1926.
Her first position was as office and information secretary of the Cleve- land Y. W. C. A., from 1907 to 1908. She then became successively assistant general secretary, financial secretary and chairman of the industrial committee of the organization. Her ability became known throughout the various branches of the Y. W. C. A., resulting in her appointment as general secretary of the West Side Branch of the New York Association. She returned to Cleveland as Metropolitan General Secretary of the "Y," serving in this ca- pacity until 1922, when she accepted appointment as general secretary of the Consumers League of Ohio.
While attending Cleveland Law School Miss Wing served as member of the Cleveland City Council. In 1926 she began her private law practice, to which she devoted herself for 10 years, until she undertook her present duties and responsibilities with the Social Security Board. All of her previous ex- perience and activities-in social service work, in behalf of social legislation, of the minimum wage law, shorter working hours, unemployment compensa- tion-and as practicing attorney have been of definite value, Miss Wing be- lieves, in her present position. It was in reality because she felt that legal training was almost a necessity for worker in behalf of social legislation that she took up the study of law. Her professional experience has proven of inestimable value to her in filling various offices to which she has been elected by important organizations.
Marie Wing helped to organize the Junior League of Cleveland and served as first secretary-treasurer of that group. She was also a charter member and an organizer of the Cleveland Business and Professional Women's Club. she is an active member of the Woman's City Club, secretary-treasurer of the Ohio Chapter, National Lawyers Guild, has served as chairman of the
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Ohio Labor Standards Committee, as member of the Ohio Committee on Un- employment Insurance and was appointed Impartial Chairman of the Job- Wage Scale for Employing Printers of Cleveland and of the Cleveland Mailers Union in 1933.
Without question, women of Ohio can point with pride to Marie Wing, as a representative of their sex who has done much to promote the industrial, social and economic progress of their state.
Her residence and that of her sister, Virginia Wing, is now at the old family home in Mentor, O., 24 miles from Cleveland.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Women in Aviation, Physical Education, Adventure and Travel
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WOMEN IN AVIATION, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, ADVENTURE AND TRAVEL
THE SQUADRON OF DEATH
By HELEN WATERHOUSE Aviation Editor, Akron Beacon Journal
FRANKIE RENNER, who dared the heights long before strato- sphere flights were heard of, who tinkered on the mechanism of air- plane engines in the days when such occupations were still "unlady- like," sits today in the office of radio station WADC, Akron, O., where she carries on all the secretarial duties connected with a thriving broadcasting plant.
Miss Renner was the organizer and guiding spirit of the "Squad- ron of Death" whose members wear the skull and cross-bones insignia plastered on their backs and whose crow mascot croaked dismally as they took off in the planes of a long ago outmoded design.
Famed for her own attempt to reach heights hitherto untouched by any woman, she became acquainted with Dick Grace, daring movie crash pilot, and liked the name of one of his movie thrillers "Squadron of Death" so well, that she asked permission to adopt it for her own girls flying organization. She made Grace an honorary member of the Akron group.
Miss Renner's early flying career started in 1928 when she be- came secretary of Robbin's Flying Service at Stow Field, Akron, where she had been student for several months. At first, Manager Robbins who now runs a flying service at Cleveland airport, discouraged her attempts to fly, because girl fliers were looked upon askance in those early days. Later he consented to teach her. In a flight from Con- neaut to Stow field, with her teacher, Frankie, who was piloting the plane, was forced down by a rain storm and darkness into a field where the plane nosed over. Both she and Robbins escaped unhurt.
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Miss Renner was next heard of in a big way, two years later, when she flew approximately six miles straight up above Stow airport in an attempt to set a new world's altitude record for women. Shortly before that, R. W. "Shorty" Schroeder, who now is a United Air Lines executive, had soared aloft and frozen his eyeballs in an attempt to break an altitude record. To insure herself against a similar fate, Miss Renner's goggles were heated with a tiny electric wire and she supervised the designing of her own electrically-heated suit, in which pads controlled by a switch could be turned on and off at will.
On this flight, Miss Renner attained an altitude of 24,990 feet according to official National Aeronautic Association records of the flight. But Miss Ruth Nichols at that time still held the women's record with a height of more than 28,000 feet.
The flight was made on "The Squadron of Death's" favorite jinx day-Friday, March the 13th, in a tiny open-cockpit ship. "My goggles frosted over and I couldn't get them cleared. Only with my left eye could I peek through a tiny slit at the navigating instruments. My lip hurt. My feet were numb. My ears cracked. I had no idea where I was. I might have been over Lake Erie. I sure was glad when on the darkened earth below I recognized the town of Ravenna."
Thus Miss Renner describes the sensations of that early attempt which put her in the headlines. Later she was made manager of Stow airport, becoming one of the first and few women airport managers in the country.
She has the record of being one of the four first women aviators in the state licensed to fly, and in 1932 she became the first feminine licensed transport pilot of the Akron district.
A treasured Squadron of Death scrapbook containing records of the early meetings which these girl "thrill-artists" held, is one of Frankie Renner's most treasured possessions.
(The above is used with permission of the Akron Beacon Journal).
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FLORENCE BOSWELL
FLORENCE BOSWELL (Mrs. Louis K. Boswell), was the fourth woman of this country to obtain an instrument and radio beam rating.
The wife of a prominent Cleveland physician and a nurse before her marriage, she received her commercial and transport licenses several years ago and has since taken many cross country trips alone.
Mrs. Boswell has made no less than eight forced landings in her career. She is, to date, the only flier struck by lightning when piloting a ship, who lived to tell the tale.
This experience happened in 1938 near Memphis, Tenn. Florence Bos- well's plane was stalled by the lightning and she was forced to dive and re- cover. Spark plugs on the plane were charred and unusable, and her radio and all but two instruments were wrecked. But she came through.
As regional governor of the Ninety Niners, -- women's national flying society-Mrs. Boswell lectures on aviation throughout the country.
JACQUELINE COCHRAN
JACQUELINE COCHRAN (Mrs. Floyd Odlum), broke all records pre- vious to the end of March 1939, for women's altitude flying by soaring to the dizzy heights of nearly six and one half miles above sea level.
This topped the previous achievement of Ruth Nichols who had reached 28,743 feet. It makes Jacqueline ,while she holds the record, unquestioned "Queen of the Sub-stratosphere."
So, although she is not Ohio born, Akron is proud to claim Jacqueline Cochran as a part time resident. She was formerly the owner of a beauty shop and goes to Akron to demonstrate her products in department stores.
ARLENE DAVIS
ARLENE DAVIS, of Lakewood, Ohio, was the first woman to use a transport plane in private flying, one of the few women in the world to fly any kind of a transport and is also the first woman to fly a tri motored plane, as far as can be ascertained.
She is the 31 year old wife of M. Thomas Davis, Cleveland business man. Arlene Davis won the women's closed course race at Women's Air Races in Dayton several years ago-the race in which Frances Marsalis was killed.
She owns a Beechcraft plane and plans to fly in the next Bendix contest, a really gruelling cross country national air race. Mrs. Davis entered the Miami air races both last year and this (1939). She flew in the Havana cruise and won it, last year, flew it again this year and was the fifth woman in the world to obtain an instrument and radio beam rating.
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The skilled aviatrix is an active member of the Akron Women's Chapter, National Aeronautic Association and attends every meeting, flying down to Akron Airport.
DAISY TALBOTT GREENE
DAISY TALBOTT GREENE (Mrs. George Shaw Greene), the daughter of Katherine Houk Talbott and Harry E. Talbott, is the national president of the Women's Aeronautical Association. Lives at "Redbud," Dayton.
MARY EDITH LACKNER
MARY EDITH LACKNER, first Cincinnati woman to receive a private pilot's or transport pilot's license, met a tragic fate when because of an unexpected mechanical defect, her plane plunged to earth in a cornfield at Williamson, West Virginia, October 29, 1938.
Could she have chosen would she have exchanged her career as flyer for the salvage of a safe old age? Who can say? But those who knew Edith Lackner well, do not think so. They remember how she treasured, in a special drawer in her "aviation room" a bit of fire wall taken from a plane of Amelia Earhart while it was undergoing reconstruction. With this momento of the world famous woman flier who was her personal friend, Edith Lackner paid mute tribute to the qualities that she admired most- skill, endurance and the courage to accept fate, fame or fortune, whatever they may be.
Edith Lackner was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph L. Lackner of 2432 Observatory Road. She attended a number of private schools in the East, notably Miss Merrill's School at Mamaroneck, New York, then returned home to take courses in airplane construction at the automotive high school.
Her early training in aviation was had at Cincinnati under Captain Stanley C. Huffman and Wright Vermilya, well-known in this country in the early days of aviation. That she came to know flying from the ground up was evidenced by her unusual service during the 1937 flood, when she took newspaper reporters on inspection tours of the vast inland sea that was the Ohio River. On one of these tours her plane skidded in landing on a muddy field at Blue Ash, the only spot available. But not for a moment did the girl pilot lose her head. She lifted the ship just enough to clear a fence of brush and wire, then managed a second landing which brought passengers and pilot safely to terra firma.
Not long before her death, Edith, or "Edie" as she was known to her countless friends, was elected national secretary of the "Ninety-Niners," a nationwide organization of women aviators which takes its name from the number of charter members. Amelia Earhart was one of these charter mem-
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bers, as are other famous women fliers, among them, Phoebe Omley, Jacque- line Cochran, Helen Mccluskey, Ruth Nichols, Gladys O'Donnell, Nancy Love, Louise Thaden, Blanche Noves, Laura Ingalls.
For eight years after returning to Cincinnati from her schools in the East, Miss Lackner joined her mother in conducting Saturday morning classes at the Catholic Woman's Club for underprivileged girls. No exception was made of class nor creed and the group that at first numbered only 16 grew to a body of 298. The girls were taught to sew and before returning home were always served their lunch by mother and daughter.
Few knew that the young aviator extended charity in so many ways. She gave part of her monthly allowance to help the under-priviliged pay rents and buy food and clothing and more than one aviator temporarily down on his or her luck received aid at Miss Lackner's hands.
Miss Lackner painted the walls of her "aviation" room at her home herself. On those walls hang maps, aviation insignia and pictures of dif- ferent types of airplanes, including some of her own gleaming black Stinson ship in which she made a short trip, as a rule, three or four times weekly.
Famous flyers gathered in Cincinnati for her funeral services. They dropped flowers on her grave, in beautiful Spring Grove, as a tribute to one of the best friends, as well as one of the pluckiest women, it had been their privilege to know.
BLANCHE WILCOX NOYES
BLANCHE WILCOX NOYES, co-pilot with Louise Thaden when the two women won the famous Bendix Cross Country air race of 1936, was an actress in stock companies in Cleveland in the old days.
She married Dewey Noyes, who flew for Standard Oil Co. in Cleveland and was killed several years ago when he bailed out of his plane.
Blanche Noyes was in the 1929 cross country air derby for women and came in second. She also piloted the Standard Oil plane for several years as an employee of the company. She started flying more than ten years ago, entered many races and women's events and finally, with Louise Thaden, won the Bendix cross country race in 1936, acting as co-pilot, of Louise's ship. Their time was 14 hours 45 minutes across the continent.
After her husband's death, Mrs. Noyes went into air marking for the Bureau of Air Commerce in Washington, with Helen Richey, Helen Mc- Closkey of Pittsburgh and Louise Thaden. She travelled from city to city by plane, urging cities to mark their roofs and did much lecturing on the subject.
Blanche Noyes was one of the first ten women in transport pilots in the country. She is the only pilot who ever took John D. Rockefeller, Sr. aloft. That was in 1930 in Florida. It was the great financier's last as well as his first trip in the air.
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MILDRED NATALIE STINAFF
MILDRED NATALIE STINAFF, who made the loop record for women flyers in 1930, was born September 13th, 1911 at Akron, Ohio, daughter of Charles H. and L. May Stinaff. She graduated from North High School (now Jenning Grade School) in January, 1928. She was a member of the Church of Christ on North Hill since 1920.
She had her first airplane ride from the Stow Flying Field, located on the Stow-Kent Road, about 1927, and decided at once that she would like to choose aviation as a vocation, after graduation from high school.
Before Akron had a city owned airport, Mildred obtained a secretarial position at Fulton Field, with Akron Air Lines, Incorporated, receiving an hour of flying instruction as pay per week. Flying instructions were then rated at thirty dollars an hour. This was 1929, when folks used to drive out to the field to see the air mail come in from Cleveland.
Byron K. Newcomb became instructor at Akron Air Lines, and taught Mildred to loop before she had learned to make landings, using, usually the American Eagle ship.
It was January 30th, 1930, that she made her World Loop Record for women, using a Bird at Issodum Airport on Hudson-Darrowville Road, under supervision of representatives of the National Aeronautical Association of Washington, D. C. Her commercial license was 10,491.
Mildred was employed by the General Tire and Rubber Company for spe- cial flying, until the new administration building was completed at the Akron city airport, when she became the first hostess there in the employ of the city of Akron and Pennsylvania Air Lines.
Mildred's dearest desire was now fulfilled-and presently fate struck. Her death by airplane accident at the airport occurred June 23rd, 1931. She was buried at Kent, Ohio, Standing Rock Cemetery, where four generations of ancestors had also been interred.
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DELPHINE HANNA
first professor of physical education of Oberlin College
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WOMEN IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND SPORTS
HELEN FINNEY COCHRAN
HELEN FINNEY COCHRAN, grand-daughter and namesake of Mrs. Jacob Dolson Cox, wife of the 30th governor of Ohio and grand-daughter also of Mrs. G. N. Allen (Caroline Mary Rudd) was born in Cincinnati, March 13, 1885. Her father, William C. Cochran, son of Mrs. Cox, was a lawyer and her mother, born Rosa D. Allen, was a soprano soloist.
Helen was the third of five children, a nervous child but intelligent, ambitious and determined. She was a leader wherever she went.
She graduated from Woodward High School in 1902 and from Oberlin College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1906. In Oberlin she took the Normal Course in Physical Education. In the year 1906-1907 she taught and studied at Mount Holyoke College. From 1907 to 1909 she had charge of physical education at the Western College for Women at Oxford, Ohio. In the fall of 1909 she returned to Oberlin and was successively Instructor, Associate Professor, and full Professor of Physical Education. After the retirement of Dr. Delphine Hanna, Miss Cochran became also Director of the Women's Gymnasium.
During this period, she took four years for study of medicine, believing that one in charge of such a gymnasium should have complete preparation for the task. She graduated from the College of Medicine of the University of Cincinnati in 1916.
Dr. Cochran's career was cut short by her death, following an operation, in July, 1923.
Helen Cochran was taller than the average woman, slender, with grace and life in every movement. She was an excellent gymnast and dancer. She loved sports, especially tennis and canoeing. She was also an administrator of ability and her advice was often sought. After her death, a letter came from a university in China, thanking her for her assistance in planning a new undertaking there.
Helen Cochran was a devoted daughter and a sympathetic friend, fond of social gatherings. She enjoyed artistic expression, jewelry, embroidery and leather work appealed to her especially and she made her own designs.
Helen loved little children. During the World War, she not only carried a very heavy teaching load, but entered whole-heartedly into community medical work for children.
But, her main work was with the teachers and students in the women's gymnasium. To them she was a wise counselor and at the same time a
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thorough instructor, insisting upon accuracy and thoroughness. So she tried to impress upon her students the importance of developing the fine type of womanhood which was her own ideal and of which she was, unconsciously, an ideal exemplar.
HELEN L. COOPS
HELEN L. COOPS, associate professor of physical and health education, University of Cincinnati, received her B.S. and Ph.D. from Columbia Uni- versity. Her reputation as an authority on physical education is established throughout the country.
Miss Coops is a former president of the Ohio Society of Teachers of Physical Education in Colleges and also of the Ohio Branch, Physical Edu- cation Association. She has had published many articles and monographs.
GRACE B. DAVIESS
GRACE B. DAVIESS, assistant professor of physical health of the Uni- versity of Cincinnati was born at Louisville, Ky .; attended the Shaw High School, East Cleveland and received her A.B. at Western Reserve University and her M.A. at Oberlin College.
She taught at Oberlin 1924-1927-then for a year at Western College and before taking her present position.
Miss Daviess is a member of the national, state and local physical edu- cation organization and heads various important committees. She was chair- man of the section of women's athletics of the American Association for Health, Recreation and Physical Education for two years and for a year chairman for physical education of the Southwestern Ohio Teachers Asso- ciation.
She is the author of "Swimming-its Teaching, Management and Pro- gram Organization" now recognized as outstanding in its field.
HARRIET V. FITCHPATRICK
HARRIET V. FITCHPATRICK, supervisor of physical education for girls in the Cleveland high schools, was born at Nevada, Iowa. She attended public schools there, then entered the Chicago Normal School of Physical Education and later Columbia University, where she received her B.S. and M.A. degrees.
Her teaching began in the Gary, Indiana public schools in 1918. She served on the staff of the Des Moines Playground and Recreation Association for several years and in 1925 was appointed to her present position.
She is a member of the Ohio Health and Physical Education Association ; of the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation;
HELEN FINNEY COCHRAN
former professor of physical education, Oberlin College
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one of the board of trustees of the Cleveland Y. W. C. A .; of the Health Education Committee of the Y. W. C. A .; of the Women's Athletic Committee American Association of University Women, Cleveland District and of the Cleveland Woman's City Club; of Kappa Delta Gamma and Consumers League.
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