Authors series showcases women in Skirting Traditions

The Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott showcases the individual women featured in Skirting Traditions: Arizona Women Writers and Journalists 1912-2012 throughout the 2013 calendar year.  Contributors to the anthology present about the women they wrote about for the book, followed by Q&A.

Copies of Skirting Traditions will be available for purchase and signing. For more information, email  sheilaroe@msn.com. Contact the Sharlot Hall Museum, (928)445-3122 or http://www.sharlot.org. Thanks to APW member Elizabeth Bruening-Lewis for coordinating this informative series with the museum.

The programs scheduled through August are as follows:

January 20 – Mary Kidder Rak

Sheila Roe presents about Arizona writer and cattlewoman Mary Kidder Rak. Rak, who was born in 1879 and had a degree in history from Stanford, moved with her husband, Charlie, to a remote cattle ranch in the far southeastern part of Arizona in 1918.  She wrote classic stories about her life on an Arizona ranch, including A Cowman’s Wife: An Autobiography (1934) and Mountain Cattle (1936).

March 10 –  Louise DeWald

Pam Knight Stevenson shares her experiences with Louise DeWald. Dewald was the Arizona Republic food editor for the Sunday magazine section Arizona Days and Ways and a cookbook author. Stevenson’s research includes an oral history interview shortly before she died and interviews with her family. DeWald’s cookbooks include Arizona Highways Heritage Cookbook and Outdoor Cooking: From Backyard to Backpack.

March 24 –  Olgivanna Lloyd Wright

Brenda Kimsey Warneka presents about Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. Wright was the third wife of Frank Lloyd Wright from 1928 until his death in 1959. Warneka’s research included interviews at Taliesin West with people who knew Wright. In addition to the role she played in her husband’s success, Wright wrote a newspaper column about life at Taliesin and authored several books, including The Struggle Within, Roots of Life, and Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life, His Work, His Words.

April 7 – Mary Jane Phillippi Shoun

Pam Knight Stevenson presents on Mary Jane Phillippi Shoun. Shoun, a pioneer radio broadcaster in Flagstaff. She was a multi-talented journalist who excelled in diverse media careers throughout her life. After moving to the Phoenix area, she worked as a radio broadcaster, public relations expert, and as a newspaper reporter and editor at various publications, including the Glendale Star, Peoria Times, and Maryvale Star.

April 21 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.- Anna Moore Shaw

Barbara Lacy presents on Anna Moore Shaw. Shaw, a Pima Indian, was born at a time when her family lived much as had earlier generations, but was quickly adopting a modern Anglo lifestyle. Shaw’s concern for preserving the oral Pima stories from her youth was the impetus for her to go to college after her children were grown so that she could preserve the stories.  She wrote Pima Indian Legends and her autobiography, A Pima Past.

May 5 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Patricia Myers

Carol Osman Brown presents on Patricia Myers. Myers was a reporter, columnist and editor for major newspapers and magazines in the greater Phoenix area before branching out to national and international publications, and then becoming a public relations consultant and internationally known jazz critic. 

May 19 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m.- Pauline Bates Brown

Brenda Kimsey Warneka will make a presentation about Pauline Bates Brown. Brown was the first woman Sunday editor at the Arizona Republic and the only woman in the country in 1942 to hold the job of state director for the Office of War Information. She was the press officer for the Japanese-American internment camp at Poston, Ariz., and later worked for the Indian Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior in Phoenix. 

June 16 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Eleanor (“Ellie”) Mattausch

Gail Bornfield shares about Ellie Mattausch, broadcaster on radio and TV news shows in the Phoenix area, and later news editor of the San Pedro Valley News in rural southeastern Arizona. She was the first woman editor of the Fort Huachuca Scout, where she filed and won the first equal pay case in Arizona. She eventually helped start and manage the Oracle monthly newspaper in Pinal County.

June 30 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Yndia Smalley Moore

Elizabeth Breuning-Lewis presents on Yndia Smalley Moore, a relative of her husband. Moore was the daughter of well-known Arizonan newspaper legend George Smalley and granddaughter of a Minnesota newspaper publisher. She created the publication that became the Journal of Arizona History and edited her father’s reminiscences in My Adventures in Arizona: Leaves from a Reporter’s Notebook.

July 28 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Betty Kruse Accomazzo

Sheila Roe shares on Betty Kruse Accomazzo. Accomazzo, a member of the Arizona Cowbelles, preserved Arizona ranch family histories as the compiler and editor of seven volumes of Arizona National Ranch Histories of Living Pioneer Stockman.

August 11 – Sunday, 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. – Phyllis G. Leonard

Carol Osman Brown talks on Phyllis G. Leonard. Leonard, a self-taught writer with a business background who was the author of seven internationally published novels, including Prey of the Eagle and Mariposa, plus numerous magazine and newspaper articles. Leonard was an important Arizona author who helped readers learn about the frontier West from women’s points of view and brought history to life in an educational and entertaining manner.