10 Barrier-Breaking Women with Ties to Colorado Springs
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The GazetteMarch 30, 2018 | updated 8 years ago
Fannie Mae Duncan (1918 - 2005)The first African-American woman to succeed as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community activist in Colorado Springs. She founded the Cotton Club, a jazz mecca where she booked luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Mahalia Jackson, and Etta James, which attracted a racially diverse following. Read more here. (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)
Including a pilot, an activist, a writer, the city’s first female mayor, and the city’s first black entrepreneur, these 10 women with Colorado Springs ties have been inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame for their work. The Women’s Hall of Fame inducts up to 10 exceptional women every two years, based on nominations from the public.
Fannie Mae Duncan (1918 – 2005)The first African-American woman to succeed as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community activist in Colorado Springs. She founded the Cotton Club, a jazz mecca where she booked luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Mahalia Jackson, and Etta James, which attracted a racially diverse following. Read more here. (Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum)Elizabeth Wright Ingram (1922 – 2013) A visionary modern architect who pioneered in a field dominated by men—most notably her famous grandfather and father—she was also a community and environmental activist-educator who promoted responsible design. Ingram was an architect for about 150 buildings in Colorado Springs, including the Vista Grande Community Church, a home called “Solaz” on Crystal Park Road in Manitou Springs, a home for Bob and Mildred Beadles in the Old North End neighborhood and a major expansion of the Fountain branch of the Pikes Peak Library District.Mary Lou Makepeace (1940- ) Makepeace was elected Colorado Springs’ first female mayor in 1997 and served two full terms. She served in the city council for 12 years. She came to Colorado in the early 1970s as a caseworker working on child abuse cases and an administrator for the El Paso County Department of Social Services. (CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE)LAURA GILPIN (1891 – 1979) The internationally renown landscape photographer, especially known for her photographs of southwest native cultures, was born in Austin Bluffs, Colorado ( modern day Colorado Springs) and discovered her calling as a young girl when town founder William Jackson Palmer introduced her to hunting wildlife photographically. (Pikes Peak Library District)Alice Bemis Taylor The first lead female founder and benefactor of cultural and social institutions in early Colorado Springs. She endowed and directed the construction of the Colorado Springs Day Nursery (still operating today as Child Nursery Centers) and Fine Arts Center (FAC). As the first woman trustee of prestigious Colorado College Read more here. (Pikes Peak Library District)Christine Arguello The first Hispanic United States District Court Judge for the District of Colorado and the first Latina from Colorado to be admitted to Harvard University School of Law. She was just 32 when she became the first Latina elected to the Board of Education for Colorado Springs School District 11. (Courtesy photo)Helen Ring Robinson (1860 – 1923) The first woman elected to the Colorado State Senate in 1912, and also the second woman elected to any state senate in the nation, Helen Ring Robinson was a sought after speaker who briefly taught English at Colorado College. (Library of Congress)Dr. Caroline E. Spencer (1861 – 1928). The licensed physician was a leader in the early twentieth century women’s rights movement. She organized and managed the radical wing of the women’s suffrage movement in Colorado and was a founding member of the Women’s Club of Colorado Springs in 1902. Read more here. (Library of Congress)Helen Jackson (1830 – 1885) One of Colorado Springs’ most prominent historical figures, the poet and novelist became an activist on behalf of the plight of Native Americans and their treatment by the federal government. Two of her best known books include “Ramona and “The Indian’s Plight,” She was was married to William S. Jackson, one of the founding fathers of Colorado Springs. Read more here. (Pioneer’s Museum)Rhea Hurrle Allison Woltman (1927- ) A commercial pilot who was also a member of the Mercury 13—a group of women who passed all of the astronaut training, including rigorous medical and physical tests, given at the Lovelace Clinic in 1961. The group was also known as First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATS). The program was shut down before the women could fly any space missions. Woltman moved to Colorado Springs in the early 1970s, where she did glider training and towing for Air Force Academy cadets at the Black Forest Glider Port. She has also served as the first parliamentarian for the U.S. Olympic Committee. Read more here (International Women’s Air and Space Museum)
