Famous Women from Illinois

In My Humble Opinion
1

A friend is teaching schoolchildren about famous women from Illinois. We’re using a loose definition of “from Illinois;” we’re trying to stick with women who were born here, but women who lived here for a period of time count as well.

Here’s what we’ve got:

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State (born in Chicago)
Michelle Obama, First Lady (born in Chicago)
Jane Addams, peace activist (lived in Chicago)
Gretchen Wilson, country music star (grew up in Pocahontas)
Alison Krauss, country music star (born in Decatur)

Who else?

2

Joan Cusack grew up in Illinois. Lynne Thigpen, now deceased, was born in Joliet.

Well, there’s Oprah – she was born in Mississippi and raised in Wisconsin, though.

Mother Cabrini (Frances Xavier Cabrini) did a lot of her work in Chicago, though she was a naturalized US citizen and not born there.

3

Oprah Winfrey! :smiley:

Carol Mosely-Braun was, I believe, our nation’s only African-American female senator.

(I know Oprah wasn’t born here but she’s pretty well established as a Chicago figure)

4

Cindy Crawford grew up in DeKalb – she was valedictorian of her high school class, and had a chemical engineering scholarship at Northwestern.

5

Gwendolyn Brooks?
Bonnie Blair?
Raquel Welch?
Danica Patrick?

6

Me! Not famous yet, but you can go ahead and put my name down.

Also, Gillian Anderson.

7

Sarah E. Goode was (probably) the first African-American woman to get a patent (for a kind of hide-a-bed).

Janet Rosenberg Jagan, PM and then president of Guyana.

Ruth Crowley aka the original Ann Landers

Lisa Madigan, current (and the first female) attorney general of Illinois.

Dorothy Hamill, figure skater and hairstyle icon

Da Brat, Chaka Khan, Liz Phair, Daryl Hannah (is my age showing?), Jennifer Hudson, Frances McDormand,

If she can stretch it to women who moved to Chicago and made their name there, you’ll find tons more interesting academics – and Tina Fey and Amy Sedaris! Maybe she can highlight all the women who flocked to Second City for comedy training.

8

Margaret Andersonwasn’t born here but she started “The Little Review” here which introduced the world to the writings TS Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, William Butler Yeats, and Ezra Pound. She lived in Chicago for most of her life.

9

Frances Willard, suffragist and co-creator of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, lived in Evanston for a number of years from the time she was 18. She was a president of the Evanston College for Ladies, which merged with Northwestern University, in addition to being a leading suffragist and tee-totaller.

Actually, this list might be helpful.

10

Figure skater Janet Lynn.

11

That’s who I stopped in to mention. I was lucky enough to attend a reading of hers at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale just a very short while before she died.

12

Jenny McCarthy, Playmate of the Year and now anti-immunization activist, was born and raised in Chicago.

13

The Everleigh Sisters, although polite Southern ladies by birth rather than native Illinoisennes, left an enduring legacy in Chicago for one of the classiest brothels in history.

14

Susan B Anthony Slept Here and (because you didn’t ask for it, I am providing absolutely free!) Female Ingenuity: How Woman Inventors Changed America.

Highly recommend both.