October 26 – November 1
Oct. 26, 2006
Dorris Halsey dies. A literary agent, Dorris Halsey and her husband, Reece, founded their business, the Reece Halsey Agency, in 1957. They represented Aldus Huxley, Henry Miller, Upton Sinclair, and William Faulkner, among others. Dorris headed the business after her husband’s death in 1980 and stayed active in it until the end of her life.
Oct. 27, 1968
Mary Lura Sherrill dies. Sherrill was a research chemist, professor, and department head at Mount Holyoke College. She earned her PhD in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1923.
Oct. 28, 1991
Sylvia Fine dies. Fine was a composer, writer, producer, manager, collaborator, and the wife of entertainer Danny Kaye. She helped negotiate his first major film contract then continued as his manager. Eventually she created Dena Productions to handle their business dealings, including her independent work as a composer and television producer.
Oct. 29, 1918
Alberta I. Wuerfele is born. She joined the American National Bank & Trust as a bookkeeper and rose to senior vice president and comptroller.
Oct. 30, 1934
Nobia Franklin dies. Franklin was a Black entrepreneur who opened a beauty salon in her home in San Antonio. She developed and sold hair care products and cosmetics formulated for Black women. Franklin moved her business to Fort Worth then Houston before settling in Chicago in 1922. In 1927, with her daughter, she formed the N. A. Franklin Association of Beauty Culture.
Oct. 31, 1954
Gertrude A. Muller dies. In the 1920s she founded a business—Juvenile Woods Products Co., later renamed Toidey Company—to manufacture and market a child’s toilet seat.
Nov. 1, 1989
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander dies. Alexander earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1927 then joined her husband’s law firm. Six years earlier she’d earned a PhD in economics but she was unable to find satisfying work because she was Black. When, in 1959, her husband became a judge, she opened her own law firm.
Last week in women’s business history
Oct. 19, 1936
Velma McPeek is named supervisor of passenger service for Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad.
Oct. 20, 1897
Hallie Crawford Stillwell is born. She was a rancher and freelance writer.
Oct. 21, 1875
Elizabeth Overbeck is born. She was a potter and, with her sisters Margaret, Hannah, and Mary Frances, founded the Overbeck Pottery of Cambridge City, IN.
Oct. 22, 1834
Abigail Scott Duniway is born. An ardent suffragist, Duniway published the human-rights newspaper The New Northwest for sixteen years.
Oct. 23, 1881
Adelina “Nina” Otero-Warren is born. She was superintendent of public schools for Santa Fe County, NM from 1917 to 1929.
Oct. 24, 1896
Marjorie Stewart Joyner is born. Joyner headed the two hundred Mme. C.J. Walker beauty schools.
Oct. 25, 1929
Nathalie Schenck Laimbeer dies. Laimbeer was a banker with the United States Mortgage & Trust Co. and National City Bank and a co-founder and president of the National Association of Bank Women.
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