Institution

A driving tour showcasing the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History honorees from the Lynchburg region. 

<div>Mary C. Alexander (March 2, 1893–April 16,1955) was one of the first women to become a commercial pilot. A native of Loudoun County, she resided in Lynchburg from about 1917 to 1935 and in 1924 became president of an automobile dealership. Soon after she divorced in 1929, she took flying lessons in New York and Baltimore and joined the Ninety-Nines, the first national organization of women aviators.</div><div><br></div><div>Because divorce was then rare and could leave a woman at a disadvantage, Alexander allowed people to believe that she was instead a widow. She spoke and wrote enthusiastically about women flying and stated that she saw no conflicts among her roles as mother, business executive, and aviator. She listed herself in the Lynchburg city directory as “aviatrix” a feminine variation on “aviator.” In 1932 the famed pilot Amelia Earhart referred to Alexander as “the flying grandmother.”</div><div><br></div><div>Alexander flew in numerous air shows, but she shunned high-risk barn-storming. About 1932 she acquired an air transport license and for almost two years she and her pilots flew scheduled air service between Washington, D.C., and Norfolk, using a Virginia Air National Guard airfield in Virginia Beach as the southern terminus. She continued to fly until the end of the 1930s when she took a desk job with Pan American Airways. Alexander retired early in the 1950s following her second marriage and lived near Washington, where she died in 1955.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

One of the earliest Virginia women to earn a pilot's license, Mary C. Alexander began taking flying lessons while living on Elmwood Avenue after her 1929 divorce.

Photograph of Mary C. Alexander, courtesy of the Library of Virginia.

Mary C. Alexander

<div>Dubbed the "Grandma Moses of Virginia," Emma Serena Dillard "Queena" Stovall (December 20, 1888–June 27, 1980) painted nostalgic scenes of people and activities in rural Virginia. Her grandmother gave her the nickname "Queena" based on a child's attempt to pronounce Serena. She married Jonathan Breckenridge "Brack" Stovall in 1908; they had five sons and four daughters. The Stovalls lived at various times in Lynchburg and nearby Elon.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1949 Stovall enrolled in an art class at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, where her instructor, the celebrated painter Pierre Daura, encouraged her to drop the class and develop her own unique painting style. In 1956 Stovall mounted a solo exhibition at the Lynchburg Art Center.</div><div><br></div><div>Stovall's approximately fifty paintings document her life on a farm, as well as events that occurred among her neighbors, both Black and white. She combined careful detail with bright colors to produce nostalgic scenes of ordinary life. She occasionally used figures cut out of magazines to solve compositional problems. Largely self-taught, she maintained an informal connection to Daura. Stovall continued to paint until her health began to fail late in the 1960s. She completed her last composition, <i>Comp'ny Comin'</i>, in 1967. The collections of Lynchburg College, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the New York State Historical Association hold examples of her work.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div>

Taking up painting early in her sixties, Queena Stovall created works that recalled her life in rural Virginia and earned her the title the "Grandma Moses of Virginia." She lived with her family on Denver Avenue in Lynchburg prior to her career as an artist. 

Photograph of Queena Stovall, courtesy of the Stovall Family with thanks to the Daura Gallery, Lynchburg College.

Queena Stovall

<p>Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis (December 9, 1851–January 30, 1946) had long been active in cultural and charitable organizations when she founded the Equal Suffrage League of Lynchburg in 1910, one of the earliest local branches of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia. She served as president of the Lynchburg league until 1920 and was a vice president of the state league from 1911 to 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women's right to vote was ratified.</p><p><br /></p><p>Believing that a "woman's qualification for citizenship is as valid as the man's," Lewis argued that women were entitled to equal suffrage. She devoted her energy to the cause during the 1910s, traveling around southern Virginia to make public speeches and organize local leagues in the effort to secure a woman suffrage amendment to the state constitution. She addressed committees of the House of Delegates in 1912 and 1914, when the General Assembly considered, but did not pass, such an amendment. Lewis also participated in public events, including the March 1913 national suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., where she helped carry the Virginia banner. In August 1917 she and her daughter Elizabeth Otey, who was then a member of the National Woman's Party, joined other suffragists in picketing the White House.</p><p><br /></p><p>When the Virginia League of Voters was organized after ratification in 1920, Lewis was elected to the board of directors and in 1926 was elected president. She also served as the first president of the Lynchburg league from 1920 to the mid-1930s. In 1931 Lewis's name was included on the national league's honor roll in recognition of her work.</p><p><br /></p><p>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</p>

Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis, fouder of the Lynchburg Equal Suffrage League and vice president of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, lived at 609 Court Street, which was later demolished.

Photograph of Elizabeth Lewis courtesy of Lynchburg Museum.

Elizabeth Lewis

<div>A native of Altavista, Mary Alice Franklin Hatwood Futrell (born May 24, 1940) graduated from Dunbar High School, in Lynchburg, and in 1962 received a degree in business education from Virginia State College. She taught for two years at Parker-Gray High School, in Alexandria, and was one of the teachers who desegregated the previously all-white faculty of the city’s George Washington High School in 1965. While teaching in Alexandria, she earned a master’s degree in education from George Washington University in 1968.</div><div><br></div><div>Futrell was president of the Virginia Education Association from 1976 to 1978 and secretary-treasurer of the National Education Association in 1983, when she was elected president of the 1.9-million-member association. She served until 1989, the longest tenure of any president to that time. During her presidency she focused on reducing dropout rates, expanding the Head Start program and the use of computers in teaching, and providing child-care programs. The NEA later created an award named for her to honor educators who make exemplary contributions to women’s rights and education.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1992 Futrell joined the faculty of George Washington University. She completed her doctorate and in 1995 became dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development. She has written and spoken widely on issues relating to education. Long recognized as one of the nation's most distinguished educators, she is also a lifelong advocate for women. In 1976 she became president of ERAmerica, a national organization that lobbied unsuccessfully for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1984 Futrell summarized her commitment to education by stating, "History has long demonstrated that education is the foundation, the key to the achievement of equity and excellence in our society."</div><div><br></div><div><i>Futrell was nominated &nbsp;for Virginia Women in History by Tracey Jones Saxon of Jack Jouett Middle School in Charlottesville.<br><br></i><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><i><br></i></div>

Growing up in the vicinity of Clay and Pearl Streets, Mary Alice Futrell learned to overcome the challenges of segregation from her teachers at nearby Dunbar High School who inspired her to pursue a nationally recognized career in education. 

Photograph of Mary Alice Futrell, courtesy of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Mary Alice Franklin Hatwood Futrell

<div>Born in Halifax County, Vivian W. Pinn grew up in Lynchburg, where she attended segregated schools. With the support of her family she dreamed of a career as a physician and received a scholarship to attend Wellesley College. After completing her degree in 1963, she entered the medical school at the University of Virginia. Four years later Pinn graduated as the only woman and the only African American in her class. After completing her residency in pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1970, she joined the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine and was appointed assistant dean for student affairs.</div><div><br></div><div>In 1982 Pinn became chair of the department of pathology at the Howard University College of Medicine, the first African American woman to hold such a position in the United States. In 1991 she became the first full-time director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health, which ensures that women are included in NIH-funded medical studies and seeks to expand women's leadership roles in research and academic institutions. Among her many honors, she was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994 and the following year received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the American Medical Women's Association. The New York Academy of Medicine honored her in 2011 with its Medal for Distinguished Contributions in Health Policy. Since retiring from NIH in 2011, Pinn continues to advocate the expansion of women's health research through interviews and speaking engagements.<br><br><span><small>Reprinted with permission of the Library of Virginia.</small></span><br></div><div><br></div>

Pathologist and women's health advocate Vivian W. Pinn lived on 19th Street while attending nearby Dunbar High School, where her father was also a teacher.

Photograph of Vivian Pinn, courtesy of Vivian Pinn.

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Virginia Women in History - Lynchburg Region

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