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Topics Related to Women in History
On May 30, 1971, Gertrude Weil died at the age of 91.A humanitarian, social reformer and philanthropist, Weil was born in 1879 in Goldsboro to department store owners Henry and Mina Weil. The Weils were a wealthy Jewish family who settled in North Carolina around the end of the Civil War.
On May 25, 1673, Ann Durant became the first woman to act in the capacity of an attorney in North Carolina. Durant represented Andrew Ball in his successful effort to recover wages due him for work aboard a ship at a proceeding held at the home of council member Francis Godfrey. On at least 20 other occasions she appeared before colonial courts on behalf of herself, her husband or others. She frequently appeared to collect debts owed to her store.
On May 10, 1876, Julia Adeline Royster was born in Raleigh.After studying art and photography, she changed her name to the more artistic Juliana and, in 1910, married artist Jacques Busbee, also of Raleigh. Her dedication to art led her to become Art Department Chair of the Raleigh Women’s Club in 1911 and chair of the state federation of women’s clubs in 1915. In both roles and in her other philanthropic work, she devoted her efforts toward promoting North Carolina’s handicraft traditions and advocating social good.
On February 8, 1944, Westray Battle Boyce was promoted to lieutenant colonel and received the Legion of Merit. Few North Carolina men, and no Tar Heel women, had a more distinguished service record in World War II than Colonel Westray Battle Boyce. In August 1942 she entered training for the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, which became a part of the Army in September 1943 when the name was changed to the Women’s Army Corps (WACs).
Sloop and her husband operate under an Avery County apple tree.Image from the State Archives.
Charlotte Hawkins Brown on her wedding day in 1911.
On January 5, 1921, Lillian Exum Clement took her seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives, becoming the first woman in the South to hold legislative office.Clement was born in Black Mountain in 1886, and she worked in the Buncombe County sheriff’s office while studying law at night. In 1916, she passed the bar exam and the next year opened her own practice.