Notable Kansas Women

Find selected short biographies of women in Kansas history. You will also find a listing of other women in our state's history.

A New Digital Portal

Anthony, Susan B.

"Any man who voted against 'female suffrage' was a blockhead," Susan B. Anthony declared in 1867. A nationally known supporter of women's rights, Anthony spent time in Kansas campaigning for women to secure the right to vote. She is featured in a short biography.

Baker, Nancy Landon Kassebaum

Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker was the first Kansas woman to serve in the U.S. Senate and the first woman to be elected to a full term in the Senate in her own right. Born in Topeka, she received degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan. She was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1978 where she served until 1997, when she retired from political office.

Beech, Olive Ann

Olive Ann Beech is universally recognized as the "First Lady of Aviation." Introduced to aviation in 1924, she devoted her career to Beech Aircraft, the company she co-founded in Wichita in 1932 with her husband, Walter. She brought the company through fifty years of growth from the Staggerwing Biplane to Skylab, and from ten employees to ten thousand. She is featured with her husband in a short biography and you can see her famous Kansan collector card.

Brooks, Louise

Louise Brooks was a dancer and silent-film actress, appearing in two dozen films in the 1920s and 1930s. Disenchanted with the American film industry, at age 21 she went to Europe where G.W. Pabst directed her in "Pandora's Box" and "Diary of a Lost Girl" in 1929. Both films are now considered classics, and Brooks is a cult figure of early European films.

Diggs, Annie L.

A Populist advocate, Annie Diggs of Lawrence toured the nation with the People's Party in 1892, served on the Populist National Committee, and was president of the Kansas Women's Free Silver League and of the Kansas Equal Suffrage Association. At the turn of the century she was appointed Kansas State Librarian and elected president of Kansas Press Women.

Earhart, Amelia

Pilot Amelia Earhart of Atchison gained national prominence in 1928 for being the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane. Dissatisfied with her role as merely a passenger on that flight she piloted her own plane across the Atlantic in 1932. She advocated the equality of female and male pilots and undertook various flights to prove it. Amelia Earhart is featured in a short biography, A Kansas Portrait, a famous Kansan collector card, and a children's game in Kids.

Finney, Joan

Joan Finney was the first female to serve as Governor of Kansas. Finney was born in Topeka in 1925. She earned a bachelor's degree in from Washburn University, Topeka. She began her long political career as a staff member in the Topeka and Washington, D.C. offices of U.S. Senator Frank Carlson. She served in this position from 1953-1969. Her next position was as commissioner of elections for Shawnee County which she held from 1970-1972, then as administrative assistant to the Topeka mayor, 1973-1974. She was elected to serve as Kansas State Treasurer from 1972-1986. Finney became the first female to hold that position and the longest-serving Kansas state treasurer. Finney served as Governor of Kansas from 1991-1995. She died in 2001.

Gray, Georgia Neese

Georgia Neese Gray of Richland began speaking in support of President Franklin Roosevelt's election in the 1930s and soon became the Democratic national committeewoman from Kansas. When President Harry Truman appointed her treasurer of the United States in 1949, she became the first woman to hold that office. She is featured in a short biography and a famous Kansan collector card.

Grisnik, Marijana

Marijana Grisnik has strong ties to Strawberry Hill, a Croatian American community in Kansas City, Kansas. As a child, Marijana loved to sketch the sights of her neighborhood; as an adult she began painting her memories of growing up on Strawberry Hill. Through her canvases this self-taught artist became the storyteller of this ethnic community.

Jessye, Eva

Eva Jessye, a Coffeyville native, was the first chorale director of stage shows such as Porgy and Bess, and of the first black musical motion picture Hallelujah. As founder of the Eva Jessye Choir, she became the female dean of black music in America. Eva Jessye is featured in a short biography.

Johnson, Osa

Chanute native Osa Johnson and her husband, Martin, embarked on a life of adventure in Africa. From their experiences they wrote books and produced movies that thrilled armchair explorers. After Martin's death in 1937, Osa returned to both the jungle and the lecture circuit until her death in 1953. Osa Johnson is featured in a short biography, A Kansas Portrait, and Cool Things.

Layton, Elizabeth "Grandma"

When Elizabeth "Grandma" Layton, Wellsville, began creating art at the age of sixty-eight, she unwittingly embarked on a steady ascent to national recognition, the culmination of which was a one-woman show at the Smithsonian Institution. Many of her best-known drawings deal with important social issues. View Layton's drawing marking Kansas' 125th anniversary of statehood.

Lease, Mary Elizabeth

Mary Elizabeth Lease settled in Wichita with her husband, Charles, in 1877. Bored with her domestic life, she studied law, was admitted to the Kansas bar in 1885, and became an active and well-known speaker in the Populist political movement. She is featured in a short biography and a famous Kansan bookmark.

McCarter, Margaret Hill

Margaret Hill McCarter became well known during the early twentieth century for her novels set against a background of the Kansas prairies and Kansas history. In addition to writing, McCarter devoted much time to club work and civic organizations, and she became the first woman to address a Republican National Convention. She is featured in a short biography.

McCarthy, Kathryn O'Loughlin

When Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy of Hays entered the Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1932, she had three strikes against her: she was a single woman, a Catholic, and a Democrat in a primarily Republican district. She overcame these obstacles to become the first woman from Kansas to serve in the U.S. Congress. She is featured in a short biography.

Magoffin, Susan Shelby

Susan Shelby Magoffin was just 18 when she traveled to Santa Fe in 1846. She one of the first American women to travel the trail and she also kept one of the most detailed journals of daily experience on the trail. She wrote Oh, this is a life I would not exchange for a good deal? There is such independence, so much free uncontaminated air, which impregnates the mind, the feelings, nay every thought, with purity. I breathe free without that oppression and uneasiness felt in the gossiping groups of a settled home. (From her diary on the Santa Fe Trail, 1846-1847.) Magoffin is mentioned in a history of the Fourth of July.

Monroe, Lilla Day

Lilla Day Monroe was as early activist in Topeka who participated in the struggle for women's rights and suffrage. While part of a network of women working on issues related to wives and mothers, Lilla Day Monroe was one of the leaders in the suffrage movement in the early 1900s. She is featured in a short biography.

Nation, Carry A.

A militant crusader against alcohol, Carry Nation of Medicine Lodge attacked a number of saloons in Kansas throughout 1900 and 1901. Because Kansas had a prohibition amendment making saloons illegal, Mrs. Nation argued that her attacks were not against the law. For more information on her life and times see a short biography, our famous Kansan collector card, and Cool Things, specifically her hammer, her handbag and a lecture poster.

Nichols, Clarina

An educator, newspaper journalist, and supporter of women's rights, Clarina I. H. Nichols was born in 1810 in Vermont. In 1854 she joined the New England Emigrant Aid Society and moved with her family to near Lawrence, Kansas Territory. She became an ardent advocate of human rights, writing and traveling throughout the state making speeches to advance the cause. She died in 1885. Nichols is featured in a short biography and on a famous Kansan bookmark.

Salter, Susanna Madora

Susanna Madora Salter, Argonia, was elected the first woman mayor in the United States. She and her husband lewis Salter lived in the Sumner County community where she cared for their young children and became an officer in the local Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Nominated for mayor as a joke, Salter surprised the group and received two-thirds of the votes. She was elected in April 1887, just weeks after Kansas women had gained the right to vote in city elections. See a short biography and a famous Kansan bookmark.

Woodard, Lynette

Wichita's Lynette Woodard became the first female basketball player of the internationally famed Harlem Globetrotters in 1985. She had set scoring records at the University of Kansas through four All-American seasons from 1978 to 1981 and led the U.S. Olympic team to its first gold medal in women's basketball in 1984. Lynette Woodard is featured in a short biography.

Other women in Kansas history

Alley, Kirstie, 1951, Wichita, television and film actress

Barnes, Debra , 1947, Moran, Miss America 1968

Bickerdyke, Mary "Mother" , 1817 - 1901, Salina and Bunker Hill, Civil War nurse, veteran's supporter

Brooks, Gwendolyn , 1917 - 2000, Topeka, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. See our Gwendolyn Brooks bookmark.

Bryant, Deborah , 1947, Overland Park, Miss America 1966

Burns, Karla , Wichita, Broadway actress

Cline, Nellie, Larned, first woman lawyer to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court

Farnsworth, Martha, Topeka, preserved stories through diaries and photo albums

Gonville, Josette, Julie, Pelagie, and Victoire, Kansas Territory, women of Kaw descent who received special reservations

Greene, Zula Bennington "Peggy" , 1895 - 1988, Topeka, author and columnist

Grinstead, Minnie J. , died 1925, Seward County, one of the state's first female legislators. See our famous Kansan bookmark.

Harlow, Jean, Seneca, film actress, originally named Harlean Carpentier

Kersting, Kathleen, 1908 - 1956, Wichita, opera singer

Lair, Mary Alice, Piqua, first woman to become vice-chairman of the state Republican committee

Longren, Dolly, Topeka and Leonardville, aviator and engineer, photo of Longren shop

Lytle, Lutie, circa 1875 - ?, Topeka, one of the first African American women to be admitted to the practice of law in the United States. See our famous Kansan bookmark.

McCarty, Kelli, 1969, Liberal, Miss U.S.A. 1991

McDaniel, Hattie, 1895 - 1952, Wichita, film actress, Academy Award winner. See our famous Kansan collector card.

McFarland, Kay, 1935, Topeka, first woman in Kansas to serve as a district judge and as state supreme court justice

Miles, Vera, 1929, Wichita, television and Broadway actress

Pitts, ZaSu, 1894 - 1963, Parsons, film and television actress

Schreffler, Marilyn,1945 - 1988, Topeka, voice of Olive Oyl in the Popeye cartoon series

Smith, Marilyn, Topeka, numerous career victories on the LPGA circuit, founder and charter member of the women's golf organization

Stone, Dee Wallace, Kansas City, television and film actress

Stinson, Julia, Tecumseh, Kansas Territory, member of the Shawnee tribe

Stiles, Jackie, Claflin, basketball player

Talley, Marion, Colby, opera singer

Taylor, Lucy Hobbs, 1833 - 1910, Lawrence, the first fully-trained woman dentist in the world

Vance, Vivian, 1912 - 1979, Cherryvale, television actress

Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 1867 - 1957, Independence, writer of children's books who lived in Kansas from 1869 - 1871. See our famous Kansan collector card.