Mary Nell Steenburgen: Most Famous Arkansan In World History

Mary Ann Todd Lincoln, wife of the sixteenth President of the United States, was born December 13, 1818, in Lexington, Kentucky to Robert and Eliza Parker Todd. She was raised in a wealthy, yet dysfunctional family. She was well educated as a child, but needed more attention while growing up.Mary had a lot of problems as a Southern woman during the Civil War. Many people disliked her and people often criticized her actions while she was in the White House. Her problems began early in her life. She had five brothers and sisters and was not given all of the attention she needed. This was difficult because she had a short temper and demanded a lot of

There was Mary and one other African American women working in the East Computers. The other lady was Dorothy Vaughan. Mary and Dorothy helped NASA by providing important information that was later used in the early days of the NASA space program.

Mary Pitchford or “America’s sweetheart” was an iconic silent film actress and overall great entertainer in just about all categories film related. Mary was born on April 8, 1892, in Toronto, Canada and after only five years on the planet she would begin performing for an audience. Ten years later she would already find herself performing on Broadway in New York along side some of the most talented actors in the world.

Mary Lou Retton was born on January 24, 1968 in Fairmont, West Virginia. She was the daughter of Lois and Ronnie Retton and the youngest of five children. At the age of four, she began studying dance and acrobatics, then started gymnastics training a year later. After she started developing a great love of gymnastics as a girl, Mary Lou Retton moved to Houston, Texas, to train with the amazing Romanian coach, Bela Karolyi. Mary Lou grew

Sojourner Truth played a vital role in inspiring people to stand up against slavery and injustice. She stood up for herself and every African-American. She had the courage to stand up and leave her slave owner. She stood up for herself and her son in court when he was sold illegally to a slave owner in a different state. She had the moxy to become a public figure and talk about injustice against women and African-American slaves. In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, no one had ever heard of a woman slave taking a stand to control her and her family’s life. Sojourner Truth was before her time.

Most Americans know John Wilkes Booth as the assassin of Abraham Lincoln- shot at a play at Ford’s Theater on April 14th, 1865. However, the names of the conspirators that surrounded Wilkes Booth are relatively unknown, especially that of Mary Surratt. Mary Surratt, a mother and boardinghouse proprietor, was arrested and tried for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln along with her son, John Surratt. Pleas from her family, lawyer, and fellow conspirators did not allow her to escape her fate, and she was hanged for her crimes on July 7th, 1865. Even from the scaffold, Lewis Powell, another conspirator condemned to die, cried, “Mrs. Surratt is innocent. She doesn't deserve to die with the rest of us.” So who was this woman, and most

Dorothy Dandridge may seem to be like a beautiful and strong African American woman on the outside, but on the inside she held in a lot of pain. Dorothy Dandridge is an actress, singer, and entertainer, who no longer walk this green Earth, but when she did, she made history. Dorothy was the first African American actress to achieve a leading-role status. Dorothy also had a deeply troubled life and racism didn’t make her life any easier especially when it came to achieving her dreams, but she got through it and during her time, the early 1930’s through the 1960’s, that was saying something. Racism was a lot worse then what it is now, but it made it harder for African Americans to achieve their goals, especially African American women. Dorothy was very worth looking up to now and when she was alive. Dorothy Dandridge is a contribution to African American history because she was the first African American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for best actress, how she fought all odds against her, mainly racism, and she made it possible to for other African American women to follow in her footsteps and look up to her as a role model.

During the nineteenth century, Women began to have an important role in natural rights and female education. Dorothea Dix and Mary Lyons spent their life fighting to help better society. Dorothea Dix was tireless in exposing mistreatment of those who were diagnosed with mental illness or who were institutionalized in the 19th century. She helped effect change for thousands of people. Mary Lyon was a female educator. She founded Mount Holyoke College, the first women’s college.

Lucille Ball was born on August 6, 1911, in Jamestown, New York, to Henry and Desiree Ball. She also had a younger brother, Fred, who was born four years later in 1915. While Lucille's mother was still pregnant with Fred, her father was struck with typhoid fever and passed away. After her father passed away, her mother eventually remarried to Ed Peterson. Ed, not being a fan of children, decided that he and Desiree would move to Detroit without Lucille’s kids. Fred moved in with Desiree’s parents, and Lucille moved in with Ed’s parents. Lucille recalled her new family being very poor and strict, saying that they didn’t even have enough money for school pencils. Ed’s mother taught her needlework, which is how she ended up loving to crochet for the rest of her life.

At the 1851 Women's Right Convention in Akron, Ohio Sojourner Truth, delivers a wonderful speech about women’s rights. Her speech is arguing the claim made by ministers that states, “: women were weak, men were intellectually superior to women, Jesus was a man, and our first mother sinned.” Sojourner Truth’s speech is to draw attention to the topic of women’s right. Implying that in this world women need to be helped when it comes to them being outside. For her, it is not even like the stereotype in which they have to be helped, because of her skin color. In her speech, Sojourner supports her claim about how women are treated differently except [especially for her because of her skin color] her by saying, Ain't I a woman.” This implies that she should be treated the same if other women are treated some sort. Which also circulates to the other idea in her speech, how women can do the exact same amount as men. If men can walk over mud the woman can do, they do not need help. If white women were helped then she should be helped as well. Connecting to her phrase “Ain't I a woman.” This idea attributes to both sides of her speech, which were equal rights, and how she should be treated the same as another woman. Allowing her voice to seem more intellectual, Sojourner adds all of the attributes of a woman (having kids, her arms). Which adds more support to her claim of why she is not treated the same as white women or even as a human. Who just happens to be women. Sojourner

Lena Horne was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Teddy and Edna Scottron Horne. After her father left her at the age of two in order to pursue his gambling career; her mother leaving soon after that to pursue her acting career; she went to live with her grandparents. Through her grandparents influence she became involved with organizations like the NAACP, at an early age.

Harriet Tubman is such an inspirational and important person to remember in life’s history. She fought against slavery by helping other slaves gain freedom since she returned to the South

Mary-Kate Olsen was born on June 13, 1986, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California. She has a twin sister Ashley Olsen. They both started off their famous acting career at a very young age. They were nine months old when they started their acting debut on the ABC family sitcom, Full house. They shared the role as Michelle Tanner. Child labor was a big deal so them being twins led the sitcom to air longer because the girls could share the amount of hours and work longer. This show went on for eight years and during this time, their career took off. However, during the first two years the show was being aired, it did not even make the top thirty list of most watched television shows. Fortunately, the following year, it made the top fourteen. In the 1991-1992 the season peaked at number seven. At the age of five, a producer, Robert Thorne, realized how little the girls were being paid and asked the parents if he could represent them. The girls were getting paid minimum wage which amounted to be $4,000 per episode. After Robert started to represent them

Mary Anning was born in 1799, and she lived in the holiday resort Lyme Regis in Dorset. The cliffs and foreshore of Lyme Regis was rich in fossils such as belemnites, ammonites, small reptiles and sometimes fish, all in which were deposited in the Jurassic seas 200 million years ago.

As a person who aided in the construction of the social work profession, Mary E. Richmond (1861-1921) is best known for her role in the development of casework practice. Her studies helped build the foundation of direct assessment. In conjunction with her studies, she is also remembered for her remarkable ability to perform research and teach communities about the topics of social work. One of her most notable achievements is her representation of the modern idea of “client in environment”, which she labeled the “social diagnosis”. During her time, Mary was a key player in focusing the transition from charity work to social work (Szymoniak, 2015). Mary founded the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee, the juvenile court, the Housing Association and the Public Charities Association (NASW, 2004). She is also the author of numerous publications that illustrate the importance of social work, and social practice.