This Week in Women’s Business History

January 26 – February 1

Jan. 26, 2013
Geraldine Rhoads dies. Between 1966 and 1982, Rhoads was editor of WOMAN’S DAY magazine.

Jan 27, 1907
Edna Frankfurt Ravkind is born. Working with her sister Elsie, Ravkind founded a small boutique selling maternity fashions of their own design. The business eventually grew into Page Boy Maternity Fashions.

Jan. 28, 1897
Mary Lewis is born. She was an executive at the New York City department store who later opened her own shop.

Jan. 29, 1964
Mary Anderson dies. Between 1920 and 1944, Anderson was director of the Women’s Bureau at the US Dept. of Labor.

Jan. 30, 1853
Beatrice DeMille is born. To support her three children after her husband’s death, she went into business as a play broker. She eventually sold her New-York-based company and joined son Cecil B. in Hollywood.

Jan. 31, 1984
Ada Smith DuConge, “Bricktop”, dies. She made her name as a performer and night club owner in Paris. Bricktop’s was known for the clientele who included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Cole Porter, Ethel Waters, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, and Duke Ellington. She opened her first club just two years after arriving in Paris in 1924. She later operated clubs in Mexico City and Rome.

Feb. 1, 1915
Ferminia Sarras dies. Born in Nicaragua and a mother of three daughters when she came to the US, Sarras was a prospector in Nevada. Her greatest boom years were in the early 1900s when she operated copper mines and sold claims she had staked but never worked. The town of Mina, Nevada, was named for her.

Last week in women’s business history

Jan. 19, 1916
Stinson School of Aviation, run by pilot and flight instructor Marjorie Stinson, her brother Eddie, and their mother Emma (the business manager), moves to Stinson Field, San Antonio, TX.

Jan. 20, 1895
Florestine Perrault Collins is born. She was one of the earliest Black women to become a professional photographer.

Jan. 21, 1959
Elise Depew Strang L’Esperance dies. After earning her MD in 1900, L’Esperance became a pathologist. She developed a model of cancer treatment that stressed early detection and prevention and opened the Kate Depew Strang Clinic (now called the Strang Cancer Prevention Institute) which she directed for over 20 years.

Jan. 22, 1935
Lula (Lulu) Lee Hinkle Cusenbary dies. Cusenbary was the vice president of the Bank of Hydro (OK).

Jan. 23, 1978
M. Therese Bonney dies. An entrepreneur, photographer, author, and curator, Bonney built and operated a news-photo service between the two world wars. During World War II, she photographed non-combatants then organized exhibitions of her pictures, crusading for humanitarian aid, particularly for children.

Jan. 24, 1902
Dena L. Jacobson is born. At age 20, Jacobson graduated from University of Southern California Law School. She and Miriam M. Olden formed the law firm Olden and Jacobson in 1934.

Jan. 25, 1906
Mildred Custin is born. Custin was president of Bonwit Teller stores. Among the designers she introduced during her long career are Calvin Klein, Pauline Trigere, Ralph Lauren, Pierre Cardin.