Telling HERstory

DOB: 1527 DOD: 13 th February 1608 Known for: Rich gentlewoman from the Tudor era, who fought hard to earn her own money, she married 4 husbands and had her name smeared in Parliament Bess of Hardwick was a noble lady in the Tudor era who went from being a farmer’s daughter to being grandmother to a potential Queen. She married 4 times and built 4 homes, at least two of which still stand and are great examples of architecture from the time. Bess became the second richest and powerful woman of the Elizabethan era, behind only Queen Elizabeth herself. Bess lead a life that would make some envious and others happy it wasn’t theirs. Bess was born Elizabeth Hardwick in roughly 1527, the exact date is not known. She was the one of five children to John Hardwick a moderately prosperous landowner from a low level gentry family from Derbyshire. Sadly John passed away while Bess was still small but as Bess’...

DOB: 6 th August 1911 DOD: 26 th April 1989 Known for: Actress, Comedian, Producer and first female studio executive Lucille Ball has become a bit of a legend in the comedy and television world with shows like  I Love Lucy . She became a household name in the 1950s because for four of the six seasons  I Love Lucy  was the most watched show in the United States. Lucille and her husband started a production company called Desilu Productions, which resulted in Lucille becoming the first female studio head in Hollywood. Lucille was born in New York, and despite being a daddy’s girl, she lost her father to typhoid fever at only 4 years old, her mother was pregnant with their 2 nd child. As a child Lucille was known as a tomboy partly because her father would rough-house with her encouraging her rambunctious behaviour. To help control Lucille energy, her mother DeDe would encourage Lucille to perform in theatre and even made her...

DOB: 26 th August 1918, West Virginia USA DOD: 24th February 2020, Virginia USA Known for: Mathematician who helped NASA get the first men into space Katherine showed brilliance and curiosity with numbers from a young age, attended High school at only 10 years old. She then attended West Virginia State College and graduated at the age of 18, with a degree in Mathematics and French. She would become one of the first three African American to enroll at West Virginia University. This is even more impressive when you consider that a lot of African-American schools didn’t go past 8 th grade (year 9) especially in Katherine’s home town White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. West Virginia is considered a southern state in America and at that time coloured people experienced a lot of racism; from not being able to attend the same places as white people to not being able to share the same toilet or even coffee pot, this w...