Sarah Losh: Forgotten Heroine

From The Economist:

In The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh, Forgotten Romantic Heroine—Antiquarian, Architect and Visionary, Jenny Uglow has brilliantly researched web of connections—of friends and family, ideas and influences. Losh left little of herself beyond the stone, wood and glass of her astonishing church and a few other local structures—a mausoleum, a cross, the schoolhouse, some cottages. Ms Uglow believes a diary will emerge one day.

From Amazon:

In the village of Wreay, near Carlisle, stands the strangest and most magical church in Victorian England. Jenny Uglow’s The Pinecone tells the story of its builder, Sarah Losh, strong-willed and passionate and unusual in every way. Born into an old Cumbrian family, heiress to an industrial fortune, Losh combined a zest for progress with a love of the past. In the church, her masterpiece, she let her imagination flower—there are carvings of ammonites, scarabs, and poppies; an arrow pierces the wall as if shot from a bow; a tortoise gargoyle launches itself into the air. And everywhere there are pinecones, her signature in stone. The church is a dramatic rendering of the power of myth and the great natural cycles of life, death, and rebirth.

Losh’s story is also that of her radical family—friends of Wordsworth and Coleridge; of the love between sisters, and the life of a village; of the struggle of weavers, the coming of railways, the findings of geology, and the fate of a young northern soldier in the Anglo-Afghan War. Above all, though, it is about the joy of making and the skill of unsung local craftsmen.

Mary Louise Rasmuson

From the New York Times:

Mary Louise Rasmuson, who joined the Women’s Army Corps when it was formed during World War II,  rose to be its director under two presidents and later found a new life as a civic leader and philanthropist in the young state of Alaska, died on Monday at her home in Anchorage. She was 101.

In 1948, the corps was renamed and made a permanent part of the Army. Women were not allowed in combat roles, but their responsibilities gradually increased. They became aircraft mechanics, trained men in sending code, rigged parachutes and worked as cryptologists in the cold war. Mrs. Rasmuson spent four years in Europe as an Army adviser before President Dwight D. Eisenhower named her director of the corps in 1957. President John F. Kennedy reappointed her in 1961.

Shirley Bridge

1922 - 2008
Philanthropist & Womens' Advocate

Shirely passed away late last month - she had been battling cancer for many years - and it was a battle she ultimately lost. Her passing did not go unnoticed - and she will be missed by those whose lives she touched.

From an article by Casey McNerthney:
"When Shirley Bridge was married six decades ago, it was common for women to give up their professions and stay home to support their families. But the former Shirley Selesnick told her fiance she would marry him on the condition that she would continue her career, being one of the state's first female pharmacists. And when the rabbi was rehearsing their wedding ceremony, she had him change the phrase "love, honor and obey" to "love, honor and cherish."

Bridge, a lifelong women's advocate, showed the same passion for philanthropy and Democratic ideals. She helped develop Seattle AIDS housing, brought improvements to Harborview Medical Center and her work benefited the Northwest School for Hearing-Impaired Children, among other organizations.

Bridge was a founding member of the Women's Endowment Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and was past president of the Seattle Women's Commission. After serving as the co-chairwoman of the campaign that established the Bailey-Boushay House, a nationally recognized hospice primarily for AIDS patients, a West Seattle AIDS housing facility was named in her honor. The Women's Endowment Foundation created the Shirley Bridge Power of One Award. And she received numerous other local awards for her volunteer work.

Bridge battled five primary cancers after getting her first diagnosis in 1955."

You can read more about this amazing woman:
Seattle Times
"Mrs. Bridge was a mentor and role model for decades to women in leadership positions in the Seattle area, Lieberman said. She also served on the boards of the Seattle Opportunities Industrial Council, the University of Washington Development Board, Women's Law Center and Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Decades ahead of her time in the push for women's rights, she had opted not to promise to "obey" her husband at their 1948 wedding, but vowed to "love, honor and cherish" him, according to a Jewish Women's Archive article."

Seattle Post
"After serving as the co-chairwoman of the campaign that established the Bailey-Boushay House, a nationally recognized hospice primarily for AIDS patients, a West Seattle AIDS housing facility was named in her honor. The Women's Endowment Foundation created the Shirley Bridge Power of One Award. And she received numerous other local awards for her volunteer work."