Women’s History: Dame Olivia de Havilland

Happy 101st Birthday to Dame Olivia de Havilland!

Happy Birthday, Olivia de Havilland!

Last surviving ‘Gone With the Wind’ cast member is turning 101

by Shelley Emling, AARP, June 28, 2017

Archive Photos/Moviepix/Getty Images; Reed Saxon/AP

Olivia de Havilland was also named a Dame Commander in Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honors list earlier this month.

Although Melanie Hamilton Wilkes died at the end of “Gone With the Wind,” the actress who played her — Olivia de Havilland — lives on. The only surviving cast member from that beloved 1939 film — and one of the last remaining icons from Hollywood’s golden age — turns 101 on Saturday, July 1.

Now living in Paris, de Havilland was named a Dame Commander in Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honors list earlier this month, for her services to drama. The two-time Oscar winner is the oldest-ever recipient of the distinction.

“To receive this honor as my 101^st birthday approaches is the most gratifying of birthday presents,”

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Gong With the Wind: Olivia de Havilland, 100, becomes oldest ever Dame

By Tim Lamden For The Daily Mail

Published:  16 June 2017

She’s one of the last surviving legends of Hollywood’s golden age.

Her beauty and enigmatic smile saw Olivia de Havilland play alongside the biggest names of the silver screen – Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.

Off screen she was romanced by the likes of Jimmy Stewart, John Huston and Howard Hughes – and reportedly turned down the advances of John F Kennedy. She won two best actress Oscars in a career spanning six decades and 49 feature films – many of them considered to be classics.

Classic beauty: Olivia de Havilland as Melanie in Gone With The Wind

But it is only now – two weeks before her 101st birthday – that the Gone With The Wind actress has been given a damehood for services to drama. It makes her the oldest woman ever to receive the honour. In a statement, she called it ‘the most gratifying of birthday presents’.

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Happy Women’s History Month and Happy 100th Birthday to Dame Vera Lynn!

This is a must see! Happy Women’s History Month! Happy (belated) birthday wishes to Dame Vera Lynn! Thank you for your service. She’s 100!

She brought the troops through the worst times in a war almost none of us remember except through song, movies, history books. She served. She opted for her grandmother’s Irish name because she thought it sounded better than the Welsh name.

Sir Paul chimes in several times.  I think he remembers her as I do: as an institution and national treasure. I guess we both remember her songs when we were kids. I was only four when my parents had to turn off the radio when “Faraway Places” came on. I cried. I still do, and I may never know why. The war was over years before and I was a little kid.  But I cried.

Her song grabbed my heart. I should explain. My uncle was in the Merchant Marine. He docked in Brooklyn and Bremerhaven and passed through London. He brought back great cheese, toys from the German docks, and music.

 

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Women’s History Month: Frances Perkins

From today’s New York Times.

ON THIS DAY

On March 4, 1933, the start of President Roosevelt’s first administration brought with it the first woman to serve in the cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.

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Women’s History Month: Happy Birthday to the Notorius RBG and #IBelieveAnitaHill

Happy 83rd Birthday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg!

We hope the Notorious RBG is celebrating in style.

03/15/2016

Marina Fang Associate Politics Editor, The Huffington Post

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is turning 83 on March 15. To commemorate the big day, why not revisit some of her best quotes and words of wisdom?

Fans of the Notorious RBG will soon be able to read a wide range of her influential work — last week, Simon & Schuster announced that it is publishing a collection of Ginsburg’s writings and speeches, titled My Own Words.

The book, due for release in January, will cover her entire tenure on the high court, including her fight for gender equality, abortion access and voting rights.

We hope the Notorious RBG is celebrating her birthday in style!

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Happy birthday to Supreme Court Justice, women’s rights advocate, and icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. pic.twitter.com/lrFiVjKXyE

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 15, 2016

History

A brief history of the Annual Anita Hill Wake-Up Call Anniversary Celebration

In 1991, University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill enthralled the nation by testifying against United States Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. In mid-October, millions of Americans were riveted to their TVs late into the night to see Anita Hill and others give live testimony before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee. Women were outraged and men were bemused as a very poised Professor Hill described a pattern of sexual harassment by Thomas, who was at the time, her boss and head of the Office of Civil Rights in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The outrage that women felt started with the experience that Anita Hill described, and continued with the disparaging treatment she received from Senate Judiciary Committee members on live TV, and with the reaction of men, both on the Judiciary Committee and across the nation, to Professor Hill’s testimony. Men tended to disbelieve her story, or alternatively, believe that she had condoned Thomas’ behavior when she neither filed any formal complaint nor quit working for him. Women, on the other hand, got it! Many, if not most women had either experienced sexual harassment first hand, or had known someone who had experienced such treatment. These women understood the dilemma of responding to sexual harassment, taking into consideration the effect on both personal life and career.

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Nancy Pelosi: Celebrating Women’s History Month

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, First Lady Michelle Obama & Retired Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught, U.S. Air Force

Each March, we come together to celebrate Women’s History Month — a time to lift up the legacy of every woman who has stepped forward to expand and defend freedom throughout our history.

In honor of this occasion, it was my privilege this week to be joined by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden to pay tribute to the heroic women who support and defend the American people: America’s women veterans.

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Women’s History Month: Jeannette Rankin – First but not Last!

Thank you, Hillary Clinton, for this tweet!

On this day in 1917, Jeannette Rankin took her seat in Congress, becoming our country’s first woman representative. pic.twitter.com/G3tOXcwGTW

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 4, 2016

Jeannette Pickering Rankin (June 11, 1880 – May 18, 1973) became the first woman to hold a high government office in the United States when, in 1916, she was elected to the United States Congress from the state of Montana. After winning her House seat in 1916, she said, “I may be the first woman member of Congress but I won’t be the last.” She also was elected in 1940.

Rankin’s two terms in Congress coincided with U.S. entry into both World Wars. A lifelong pacifist, she was one of 56 members of Congress (including 50 in the House) who voted against entry into World War I in 1917, and the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

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In February 1911, Rankin became the first woman to speak before the Montana legislature, making her case for women’s suffrage. In November 1914, Montana passed a similar amendment granting women unrestricted voting rights. Rankin later compared her work in the women’s suffrage movement to the pacifist foreign policy that defined her congressional career. She believed, with many suffragists of the period, that the corruption and dysfunction of the United States government was a result of a lack of feminine participation. As she said at a disarmament conference in the interwar period, “The peace problem is a woman’s problem.”

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Women’s History Month Today: First woman to serve in the cabinet, Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.

ON THIS DAY

On March 4, 1933, the start of President Roosevelt’s first administration brought with it the first woman to serve in the cabinet: Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.

Frances Perkins

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4th United States Secretary of Labor

In office
March 4, 1933 – June 30, 1945Franklin Roosevelt
Harry TrumanWilliam DoakSucceeded byLewis SchwellenbachFannie Coralie Perkins
April 10, 1880
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.New York City, New York, U.S.DemocraticMount Holyoke College
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania

Episcopalianism

Frances Perkins Wilson (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880^[1][2] – May 14, 1965) was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, the longest serving in that position, and the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet. As a loyal supporter of her friend, Franklin D. Roosevelt, she helped pull the labor movement into the New Deal coalition. She and Interior Secretary Harold L. Ickes were the only original members of the Roosevelt cabinet to remain in office for his entire presidency.

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Memorials and Monuments

The Frances Perkins Building that is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. was named in her honor in 1980.

The Frances Perkins Center is a nonprofit organization located in Damariscotta, Maine. Its mission is to fulfill the legacy of Frances Perkins through educating visitors on her work and programs, and preserving the Perkins family homestead for future generations. The Center regularly hosts events and exhibitions for the public.

Perkins remains a prominent alumna of Mount Holyoke College, whose Frances Perkins Program allows “women of non-traditional age” (i.e., age 24 or older) to complete a Bachelor of Arts degree. There are approximately 140 Frances Perkins scholars each year.

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