Category: Birth Locations

1005) Megan Leavey

Courtesy of Foundation for Women Warriors

1005: Megan Leavey

Former United States Marine Corporal in a K-9 Unit

Born: 28 October 1983, Valley Cottage, New York, United States of America

Megan is famous for her fight to adopt her K-9 unit partner Rex after he was retired from the military.

Megan joined the US Marine Corps after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Like so many other young Americans, Megan was inspired to join the armed forces after the horrible day that took so many innocent lives.

Megan’s parents were less than pleased when they first learned of her plans to join the Marines. She was their only child, and they were understandably worried. However, Megan’s parents soon flipped their tune and became very proud of her.

Megan officially enlisted in 2003. In 2004, at Camp Pendleton in California, Megan first met Rex (or more accurately, Sergeant Rex). Megan had been assigned to a K-9 unit and Rex became her partner. They landed in Iraq for their first enlistment in 2005. They returned for a second deployment in 2006.

K-9 Units, like the one Megan and Rex were a part of, are vitally important to the lives of soldiers in places like Iraq. Rex was specially trained to be able to sniff out IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), which are often used by insurgent groups. Rex and Megan would travel ahead of the other soldiers, and whenever Rex sniffed out a bomb, Megan would call it in. They would mark the site with a military grade glow stick to warn others while waiting for the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) Team to arrive.

In September of 2006, Megan and Rex were out on a patrol when things went wrong. Megan and Rex were approaching an intersection in an unfamiliar area when an explosion went off without any notice. Enemy insurgents had been watching from a nearby rooftop and detonated the device once Megan and Rex were within range. Enemy insurgents often target K-9 teams because of how successfully they are at spotting IEDs.

Megan and Rex both survived the explosion but were knocked unconscious. Megan received a severe concussion, was bleeding from her ears, and couldn’t see when she first came to. Luckily, she felt for Rex and found that he was still alive and mostly unharmed.

Enemy insurgents began firing on Megan, Rex, and the other Army soldiers she was serving with that day. The US Army soldiers began firing back, and they urged Megan to return to safety. Megan refused, knowing the mission was far from over and that Rex’s ability to sniff out bombs was still badly needed that day.

In all, Megan and Rex served side by side for approximately three years in total and completed around 100 missions together during two tours. Rex had previously served with another Marine, named Corporal Mike Dowling. Corporal Dowling wrote a book about his time working with Rex and was vocal in his support for Megan’s efforts to adopt Rex.

Megan was eventually medevac’d to a hospital in Baghdad, while Rex was looked after by a military veterinarian, much to his dismay. Rex had an injured shoulder and had to undergo physical therapy for a year.

Megan stayed in the hospital for a week, and then went back to where she had been serving at the time of the explosion. Soon after, Megan returned to California. She had a year left in her enlistment contract and spent much of it in physical therapy and training new K-9 Marine recruits.

Megan was honorably discharged from the US Marine Corps in December of 2007. As a civilian, Megan began working for a security firm. She worked with another trained bomb sniffing dog, named Patriot, and patrolled places like Madison Square Garden and Times Square.

Megan first tried to adopt Rex when she was honorably discharged, but the Marine Corps refused the request. She was awarded the Purple Heart for her actions, but her original medal was stolen while she was still recovering at Camp Pendleton. Megan was eventually given a replacement in 2012. She was given other awards and accommodations as well.

The fight to adopt Rex became a national story after Megan learned Rex’s health had begun to fail. After developing a palsy in his face, Rex could no longer perform his military duties. When Megan learned this, she started to fight for him all over again. Megan started a petition and eventually got around 20,000 signatures supporting her efforts to adopt Rex. Adopting a military dog is an extremely long and arduous process, and some military dogs are deemed unsuitable for adoption. Luckily this wasn’t the case with Rex and Megan was finally able to take him home six years after they almost died on that road in Iraq. If Rex had been deemed unsuitable for adoption, then he most likely would have been put to sleep by the military.

Sadly, Rex died only eight months after Megan brought him home. He was twelve years old. Megan also adopted her other bomb sniffing dog, Patriot, after he retired.

Megan and Rex’s story was made into a movie in 2017. Megan is portrayed by actress Kate Mara, but Megan herself also makes an appearance in the film as a drill instructor who gets in Kate’s face.

Megan now works as a veterinary technician.

Sources:

https://www.purpleheartmission.org/stories-of-valor/megan-leavey-corporal-united-states-marine-corps

https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/megan-leavey/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/nation-now/2017/06/07/megan-leavey-sgt-rex/377334001/

1004) Frances Griffiths

Courtesy of Wikipedia

1004: Frances Griffiths

Subject of Some of the Famous Cottingley Fairies Photographs

Born: 4 September 1907, Bradford, England, United Kingdom

Died: 11 July 1986, Belfast, Ireland, United Kingdom

It is hard to believe it now with the advent of photoshop technology, but the Cottingly Photographs were so convincing for their time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle willingly published multiple articles and books in defense of fairies actually existing.

Frances spent several years of her youth living in France while her father served during World War I. As a teenager, Frances and her mother returned to England. It was while living outside Bradford that Frances and her cousin Elsie had their moment of genius strike.

In the first picture, Frances appeared with the fairies, but in the second the girls switched so that Elsie was shown with the magical creatures. In the pictures, Frances and Elsie posed with cutouts of fairies (the fifth shows just the paper fairies with neither girl in it). After the first two were published, someone saw the images and ended up giving the girls a better camera to take more pictures.

Sure enough, three more images were soon taken. All five of the pictures were published and drew wide acclaim and attention. As previously mentioned, Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated, and eventually three separate books were published about the existence of fairies and used the images as proof. Elsie and Frances remained famous throughout the rest of their lives because of the fairy pictures.

Frances eventually married a soldier and had two children.

In 1983, Elsie and Frances finally admitted the truth; the photos were fake and the fairies in them were cut out pieces of paper held up by hat pins. Apparently though, the girls did continue to claim they had seen actual fairies, only the creatures either could not or would not be photographed.

Frances died three years later. Though the photos are easily seen as fakes today, you still have to give credit where its due. When Elsie and Frances took the five images in the early 1920’s, photography was still a lengthy and cumbersome process. They didn’t snap a photo on their cell phone and add in a fairy sticker to the image. Instead, they had to use glass plate and dark room technology, and were still able to fool grown adults for sixty years.

In 2018, four of the original colorized prints sold at auction for over $31,000.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Located In My Personal Library:

Bad Days in History by Michael Farquhar

Sources:

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/people/ap28805/griffiths-frances

https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Frances+Griffiths

https://www.diyphotography.net/these-photos-were-taken-by-two-little-girls-in-1917-and-they-are-gorgeous/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/20195129/frances-griffiths

1003) Turhan Hatice Sultan

Courtesy of Pinterest

1003: Turhan Hatice Sultan

From Victim to One of the Most Powerful Women in the Islamic World

Born: c.1627, Present-day Ukraine or Possibly Russia

Died: 4 August 1683, Present-day Edirne, Turkey

Turhan was kidnapped at the age of twelve, and taken from her homeland to Constantinople, where she was given to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire’s household.

Turhan quickly rose to become a favorite concubine of the Sultan Ibrahim I, bearing him a son named Mehmed. When Ibrahim was removed from power (he was mentally unstable and was taken off the throne and then killed), Mehmed rose to become Sultan under the title Mehmed IV. The boy was only seven years old at the time, and therefore needed someone to act as his regent, or co-ruler until he came of age and was able to rule in his own right. Kösem Sultan served as Mehmed’s regent, and was Turhan’s mother-in-law and the new sultan’s grandmother.

Turhan was passed up for the regency because she had no political background or backing within the court. This, and other strains between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, quickly dissolved into a violent upheaval between the warring parties that would last for three years.

Turhan had Kösem killed*, strangled to death more accurately; ending the family’s civil war once and for all. Turhan finished this brutal crackdown off by executing Kösem’s other loyal supporters. Turhan had to relieve her own grand vizier of power in order to appease those angered by her actions, but otherwise she escaped the carnage unscathed.

Turhan then moved into the position of Regent, attending meetings of state side by side with her son. Though she had attained the position she had been vying for, she didn’t use it to further her own political aspirations. After finding a suitable replacement as grand vizier, Turhan let go of most of her political power and might within the court.

Instead of running affairs of state, Turhan spent more time in various philanthropic and ceremonial roles. She also built mosques and repaired fortresses throughout the empire, alongside gathering vast libraries. She was buried in one of the Mosques she helped to build and was immortalized in a poem by Abdi Pasa.

*Most sources agree that Kösem was killed on Turhan's orders, but a few have casted doubt on the accusation. Either way, Kösem was conveniently out of Turhan's way, giving Turhan a clear path to the throne.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.historyofroyalwomen.com/turhan-hatice-sultan/turhan-hatice-sultan-made-lands-people-faith-safe/

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG242361

http://www.thathistorynerd.com/search/label/turhan%20hatice%20sultan

https://khaleaallen.wordpress.com/about-2/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194308257/turhan-hatice-sultan

1002) Camille Claudel

Courtesy of Wikipedia

"I am reproached (what a terrible crime!) to have lived alone, spending my life with cats, to have felt persecuted! It is based on accusations that I have been imprisoned for five years and a half like a criminal, deprived of freedom, deprived of food, fire and the most basic essentials."

(Letter Camille wrote to her former doctor a few years after being imprisoned).

1002: Camille Claudel

Sculptress and Graphic Artist Who Died in Relative Obscurity

Born: 8 December 1864, Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, France

Died: 19 October 1943, Montfavet, Avignon, France

Camille’s family supported her love for the arts, and she attended school at the Académie Colarossi. The school was one of the few in Paris that would admit female students, and even more controversially, also allowed female students to study the nude human figure in order to better learn anatomy for sculpture. Eventually, Camille rented an apartment with other sculptresses and began to work under the sculptor Alfred Boucher. When Alfred moved to Italy, he set the girls up under his friend and fellow sculptor, Auguste Rodin.

Camille had a relationship (and affair) with her mentor, the famed sculptor Auguste Rodin, for ten years (1882-1892). At the time they began working together, Auguste was forty-three and Camille was eighteen or nineteen. Camille and Auguste’s relationship was far from perfect, and it seems Auguste was much more in love with Camille than she was with him (even though he continued to see another woman throughout the early years of their relationship). After deciding she needed a break from him for a while, Camille returned to France and managed to get Auguste to sign a contract in which he stated he would be completely faithful to her and take her on as his one and only pupil. He kept neither of these promises.

Camille sculpted the hands and feet for some of Auguste’s works (alongside other influences as well). At the same time, she worked on her own commissions and helped other artists as well. Camille and Auguste’s works are so similar at times that it is hard to differentiate who created what. In 1886, one of Camille’s sculptures won a Salon prize.

By the early 1890’s, Auguste began to see the cracks in Camille that would not fully come out for another decade. Camille was enraged that Auguste had begun to see another woman while still with her, and evidently Auguste was scared off enough he began avoiding Camille whenever possible. Soon after, Camille cut off their personal relationship entirely and ended the projects they had worked on together. From there on out, Camille would work on her own. Sadly, this meant the scale and scope of her works suffered as she lost the financial backing and assistance she had from being associated with Auguste’s studio, but Camille was so angry with him she didn’t care. Camille was so upset with her former lover that she began to refer to him as “The Ferret” in her letters.

Despite losing out on her main financial backing, Camille’s work actually flourished during this period. She was inspired by Art Nouveau and Japanese prints, and her sculptures from this time are considered her most unique and influential of her entire career. Despite receiving financial backing from another organization beginning in 1897, Camille’s finances were still in a frightful state. By 1904, Auguste paid her rent and was searching for commissions for her.

In 1905, Camille started to show signs of mental instability. As previously mentioned, the cracks in Camille’s personality had already begun to show, and were described by the Museum of Rodin thusly: “From the outset, those close to Camille, including her brother the poet and writer Paul Claudel, witnessed her fiery temperament, her tendency to dominate, her caustic wit and, later, the terrifying violence of her strange, eccentric and provocative character, as well as her legendary, savage gift for mockery.”

That same year, 1905, Camille would hold her last public display of her sculptures. Being hit with periods of sharp rage, Camille would destroy her own works on several occasions. Camille also lost her financial backing that year after getting into an argument with her backer. She spent the next eight years holed up in her studio, speaking to visitors through cracks in the door and installing traps to stop anyone from getting in to see her. Camille was now close to fifty, had never married or had children, and was slowly being consumed by her own mental distress.

In 1912, Camille was hit with another attack, and destroyed most of the work she still had in her studio. Then her father, her last true supporter in her family, died. Camille was not immediately made aware of his passing. In 1913, she was sent to an insane asylum on her remaining family’s urging, where she spent the last thirty years of her life. She never sculpted again.

Auguste refused to forget her however and continued to send her money for the rest of his own life. He was one of many who believed Camille did not belong in an asylum, but according to others, her family simply wanted her kept out of the way and out of their hair.

Today, the largest collection of Camille’s works are housed in the Museum of Rodin, a museum that houses the collection of Auguste’s works he donated to the French government on his death. Camille's brother Paul donated some of his sister's works to the museum in 1952.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/resources/educational-files/rodin-and-camille-claudel

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/exhibition/camille-claudel

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/claudel-camille/life-and-legacy/

https://nmwa.org/art/artists/camille-claudel/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Camille-Claudel

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30117893/camille-claudel

1001) Darlene Cates

Courtesy of USA Today

1001: Darlene Cates

Actress Unafraid to Talk About Her Weight Loss Journey

Born: 13 December 1947, Borger, Texas, United States of America

Died: 26 March 2017, Forney, Texas, United States of America

Original Name: Rita Darlene Guthrie

Darlene is most remembered for portraying Bonnie Grape (better known as Mama) in the timeless film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?

Darlene did have other acting roles but was hired to portray Bonnie because, at the time of casting, she weighed around 550 pounds. Darlene had struggled with overeating and weight gain since she was twelve years old. Her parents’ divorce had a profound affect on Darlene, and overeating was her preferred form of coping.

In 1992, Darlene first rose to fame after appearing on an episode of Sally Jessy Raphael’s show (the episode was titled Too Heavy to Leave Their House). On the show, Darlene revealed that a pelvic infection had kept her bedridden for two years, during which time she had gained one hundred and fifty pounds.

In 2012, Darlene revealed she had lost around 240 pounds, bringing her weight down to 331 pounds. Earlier in life, Darlene had had weight loss surgery and had lost around 100 pounds, but she eventually gained all of the weight back.

She was married and had three children and four grandchildren at the time of her death. When the news broke that Darlene had passed away, her former movie son Leonardo DiCaprio remembered her as the best movie mother he ever had.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0146055/bio

https://globalnews.ca/news/3339970/darlene-cates-mom-from-whats-eating-gilbert-grape-dies-at-69/

http://www.legacy.com/ns/darlene-cates-obituary/184734468

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/177845483/darlene-cates

1000) Claressa Shields

Courtesy of WEYI

1000: Claressa Shields

Middleweight Boxer, MMA Fighter, and Olympian

Born: 17 March 1995, Flint, Michigan, United States of America

Claressa has competed in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Games. In 2020, she announced she was also going to begin fighting in MMA Matches. As of December 2020, she is undefeated in pro-boxing matches and has only lost one round in her entire career.

Claressa is the first American woman to earn gold in boxing and first American (male or female) to win gold in back to back Olympic Games.

Her stage name is T-Rex, but she has also been dubbed the “Floyd Mayweather of Women’s Boxing.”

Claressa’s dad told her she was too pretty for pro sports despite inspiring her to start boxing in the first place after telling her about Laila Ali. Claressa was also the first member of her family to graduate from high school.

Sources:

https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/777865

https://www.ibtimes.com/claressa-shields-talks-mma-scenes-reception-being-floyd-mayweather-womens-boxing-3108051

https://www.teamusa.org/usa-boxing/athletes/claressa-shields

https://www.espn.com/mma/story/_/id/30425148/olympic-gold-medalist-boxer-claressa-shields-signs-multi-year-deal-fight-mma

999) Alexandra Scott

Courtesy of My Hero

999: Alexandra Scott

Founder of Alex’s Lemonade Stand

Born: 18 January 1996, Manchester, Connecticut, United States of America

Died: 1 August 2004, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, United States of America

The goal of Alex’s Lemonade Stand is to raise money for children’s cancer research and treatment. Alex opened her first stand in her front yard when she was four years old; and she managed to raise $2,000 for her efforts.

Alex set out on this ambitious undertaking after being diagnosed with cancer herself when she was just days away from her first birthday. She eventually succumbed to a Neuroblastoma when she was still only eight years old.

Alex received her first stem cell treatment when she was four. Despite the fact that the doctors told her parents if she survived the cancer, she would be severely handicapped, Alex continued to defy the odds throughout her short but remarkable life.

Alex’s story earned national news attention thanks to help from Oprah, The Today Show, and other networks broadcasting her and her message.

Alex hoped to raise a million dollars by the time she died. Not only did Alex’s family surpass that goal with the help of others across the world, but they continue Alex’s work to this day. By December of 2006, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation had raised over $5 Million. By 2010, the Foundation was able to award $5 Million in grants to various institutions across the United States. By June of 2014, ALSF had raised over $80 Million and helped fund a new treatment for children born with a gene that often results in the development of cancer to much success.

I first learned of Alex’s story when inspecting the packaging on Country Time powdered lemonade that I always buy at the grocery store. On the back of the package is a depiction of a picket stand, and the message that Country Time has partnered with Alex’s Lemonade Stand to continue the fight to raise money for childhood cancer treatment. Since 2013, Country Time has partnered with ALSF to raise over $1,000,000 and has created an initiative called “Legal-Ade” to help kid’s who come into permit issues or other legal problems that rise up from their own lemonade stands.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.alexslemonade.org/about/meet-alex

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/inquirer/obituary.aspx?n=alexandra-flynn-scott&pid=2480037

https://myhero.com/scott_ThomasEdisonMS_ul

https://www.alexslemonade.org/companies-curing-childhood-cancer/partners/country-time#:~:text=Country%20Time%2C%20a%20longstanding%20partner,and%20is%20a%20presenting%20sponsor.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9259400/alexandra-flynn-scott

998) Florence Owens Thompson

Courtesy of All That's Interesting

This photo is not considered the iconic "Migrant Mother" photo, but was one of the six taken by a Federally paid photographer that day in 1936

“We just existed...We survived, let’s put it that way.”

998: Florence Owens Thompson

Subject of the Famous ‘Migrant Mother’ Photographs of the Great Depression Era

Born: 1 September 1903, Tahlequah, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, United States of America (Present-day Tahlequah, Oklahoma, United States of America)

Died: 16 September 1983, Scotts Valley, California, United States of America

Florence was the daughter of Cherokee Native Americans and was born in the former Indian Territory a few years before Oklahoma became a state.

Florence had ten children total, but only seven at the time when the now-famous photographs were taken (the images are so iconic in fact, that when Googling "Great Depression" at the time of writing this article, Florence's image is the first that comes up on Google Images). Florence's first six children were from her husband who died of Tuberculosis during the depression, and her last four were born out of wedlock. Those last four children were from boyfriends she had during the Depression years.

Florence and her boyfriend worked whatever agriculture jobs they could find in California and Arizona. Florence claimed she was able to pick between 450 and 500 pounds of cotton a day and earned fifty cents for every hundred pounds picked. While the pictures are known today as a representation of the Dust Bowl and the hardships it created on farmers in the Midwest, its important to note that the subject of the photos was not actually effected by the Dust Bowl. By the time the pictures were taken in 1936, Florence and her family had been living in California for around ten years.

Despite promising not to distribute the pictures, the photographer immediately registered and sent photos to newspapers across the country. “Migrant Mother” first appeared in a San Francisco newspaper in March of 1936, and today is recognized as one of the most iconic photographs in American history. Despite this, Florence never received a penny from the pictures. Days after the photo spread across the country, the US government announced it was sending 20,000 pounds of foodstuffs to the migrant workers camp where the photos had been taken. Unfortunately, Florence and her family had already moved on by that time.

When asked about the pictures in 1960, the photographer provided the following information about the subject of the photo:

“[The Photographer] didn’t ask the woman’s name, or find out her history. She claimed the woman told her she was 32, that she and her children were living on frozen vegetables and birds the children had killed, and that she had just sold the tires from her car to buy food,” (Courtesy of the History article linked below).

Florence hid her identity as the Migrant Mother until 1978. That year, Florence wrote a letter to the local newspaper claiming she was the woman in the photo, and that she wanted her story to be heard for the first time. Florence and her children went on to claim they felt exploited by the pictures and resentful of the photographer’s characterization, or lack thereof, of their family.

The day the pictures were taken, Florence’s two oldest sons were in town repairing their car. One son, Troy, would publicly deny the photographer’s claim that the family had sold the car’s tires for money to buy food. The family didn't have much, but they were together, and that was enough.

After World War II, Florence settled in Modesto and married a hospital administrator. Five years after publicly claiming she was the subject of the Migrant Mother photos; Florence was living alone in a trailer and suffering from numerous health issues. Her children asked for help from the public, and thousands of letters poured in offering support. Their was also, reportedly, between $15,000 and $35,000 in donations as well (sources differ on the exact amount).

When Florence died, she was honored and remembered across the country and the world. Even the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, said, “Mrs. Thompson's passing represents the loss of an American who symbolizes strength and determination in the midst of the Great Depression.” Her epitaph on her headstone reads, “Migrant Mother—A Legend of the Strength of American Motherhood.”

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/migrant-mother-new-deal-great-depression

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2014/4/14/migrant-mother-dorothea-lange/

https://medium.com/history-of-yesterday/the-migrant-mother-narrative-is-a-lie-67c02ea59621

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21325119/florence-leona-thompson

997) Roopkuvarba Kanwar

Courtesy of YouTube

997: Roopkuvarba Kanwar

The Last Woman Known to Have Committed Sati in India

Born: c.1969, Rajasthan, India

Died: 4 September 1987, Deorala, India

Also Known As: Roop Kuvarba or more-simply Roop

Sati is a Hindu ritual in which a widow is meant to lay on her husband’s funeral pyre and be burned to death. I should note that technically speaking, Sati is supposed to be a voluntary act, but historians and researchers have noted that over the years in many of the individual cases, the widow did not choose to die but instead was forced into the position; either by physical force or through the immense cultural pressure to do so.

Roop was well educated, and her family owned a small business in one of India’s cities. She was reportedly intelligent, kind, but also deeply religious. Roop’s husband had been planning on attending medical school when he died suddenly, reportedly from gastroenteritis.

At the time of her death, Roopkuvarba was eighteen and her husband twenty-four. The couple had only been married eight months and had no children. Another source goes on to state that, throughout those eight months, Roop and her husband had only been together twenty days. Even still, Roopkuvarba climbed onto her husband’s funeral pyre and burned to death in an act of sati (the fire was lit by her fifteen-year-old brother according to one source). Some eyewitnesses claim Roop voluntarily climbed onto the pyre and was smiling as she burned, while others state she was buried under a heavy wall of firewood and screamed for help as she burned. A third source goes further to say she tried to escape three times, and all three times Roop was pushed back into the flames. None of the stories can be verified today, but as a Westerner looking at her story from my own upbringing, I say all three are horrifying to believe.

According to Roop’s Encyclopedia.com article (linked below), “She had no life to look forward to.… The society treats a widow as a 'kulachani' (an evil omen).… She has to remain barefoot, sleep on the floor and not venture out of the house. She is slandered if seen talking to any male. It was better that she died, than lead such a life," said a teacher in Deorala to a reporter for the Times of India at Kanwar's chunari ceremony. "We are not like Western women who dance when their husbands die. Our lives are over when we are widowed," was the sentiment expressed by a group of women to Shiraz Sidhva of the Sunday Observer at the same ceremony.”

Thirteen days later, one source reports 250,000 appeared at the site of Roop’s death to worship her as a goddess. By committing sati, Roop had transitioned from the life of a living woman to something more in tune with a goddess or holy woman.

Sati has been illegal in India since 1829. In 1958, the Indian court system went on to state that anyone caught participating in a sati session would be charged with abetting suicide. And this is exactly what happened with Roop’s family.

While Roopkuvarba’s family and in-laws (thirty-two in all) were all found to not have been guilty of any crimes in the years after her death, a different trial was set to wrap up in India thirty-two years later. In 2019, a sati glorification trial in relation to Roop’s death was supposed to finally be settled, with forty-five individuals named in the initial suit dating from 1988. Of those forty-five, twenty-five were acquitted in 2004, five have been noted as “absconded”, six have since died, and the final nine are still being charged with glorifying the act of sati. If the final nine are found guilty, they could be sentenced to between one and seven years in prison and a fine between five thousand and thirty thousand rupees. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate the final verdict in the trial, and so it may very well be that with the Covid Pandemic hitting the world in 2020, the trial was delayed once again.

Today, many outside of her hometown believe Roopkuvarba did not choose to go to her death, but instead was far more likely to have been forced onto the pyre by her in-laws. Roopkuvarba’s husband’s family continue to claim to this day that Roopkuvarba volunteered, as do most of the villagers where she died.

Today, the place where Roop went to her death has become a shrine to Hindi people across the region. Many travel to the spot to pray to Roopkuvarba, who is now seen as a sort-of religious martyr. Many believe if they pray on the site their wishes will be fulfilled, and some travel hundreds of miles to make their wishes and prayers known.

After Roop’s death, India passed the 1987 Sati Prevention Act, which was supposed to ban the vile practice from ever taking place in India again by furthering the legislation already in place to prevent sati. This new act allowed the Indian courts to punish anyone attempting to commit sati with one to five years in prison. If you were found guilty of abetting sati directly (forcing the girl onto the flames for instance) or indirectly (by glorifying her death afterward) the criminal could be given the death penalty. Unfortunately, it all came too late to save Roop.

According to a Times of India article, the people of Roop’s village espouse today that she went to her death of her own volition. According to that same article, Roopkuvarba was the fourth known case of Sati in the small village, and she was the last.

As far as anyone knows, Roopkuvarba’s act was the last known instance of sati in India. And while the practice is illegal in the country, it is entirely probably women are still being forced onto the flames in rural areas. We just have to hope and pray that though the possibility is there, sati has been smothered, for lack of a better term, in the country once and for all.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/in-sati-village-roop-kanwar-still-burns-bright/articleshow/70984735.cms

https://www.hindustantimes.com/jaipur/32-years-on-rajasthan-s-roop-kanwar-case-drags-on-in-court/story-WWijRe51LAufn8gS9nCeFO.html

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kanwar-roop-c-1969-1987

https://feminisminindia.com/2020/08/07/roop-kanwar-last-known-case-sati-india-relevance-today/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/194330711/roopkuvarba-kanwar