Telling HERstory

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...