Birth Locations – Page 58 – The Exasperated Historian

702) Joanne Winter

702: Joanne Winter

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Player

Born: 24 November 1924, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America

Died: 22 September 1996, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States of America

Also Known As: Jo or Joanie

Jo played from 1943 to 1950 for the Racine Belles. She ranks third of seven players who had more than 100 wins in the history of the AAGPBL.

After leaving the league, Jo played golf and tennis in Arizona. She won the Arizona State Women’s Golf Championship four times and joined the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1962, the first Arizona Lady to do so. Her professional golf career ended three years later after a back injury from a car accident.

Jo taught golf for thirty years at both Arizona State University and Scottsdale Community College. In 1971, she helped created the Arizona Silver Belle Championship; a golf tournament for young girls in high school and college.

Jo won the Ellen Griffin Rolex Award in 1995 which is awarded to golf teachers who have the same passion and love for the game as Ellen Griffin did. Jo worked as a consultant on the film A League of Their Own. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005. Jo is also an inductee of the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame.

The AAGPBL has been immortalized in the aforementioned film A League of Their Own. For those who haven’t seen the film, the AAGPBL was an all girls’ baseball league originally organized to replace men’s baseball during World War II. Because the majority of the male players had been drafted, baseball teams across the country couldn't play, and it was feared the baseball fields themselves would shutter and close. Philip K Wrigley, of Wrigley's Chewing Gum fame, formed a committee to find a solution to the problem. The AAGPBL was formed as a result.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/joanne-winter-jo/8

http://www.azsilverbelle.com/silver-belle-past-and-present.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208365549/joanne-winter

701) Janet Wojcicki

701: Janet Wojcicki

Anthropologist and Epidemiologist

Born: 8 January 1970, California, United States of America

Janet’s sisters are the CEOs of YouTube (Susan) and 23andMe (Anne).

Janet’s main study is obesity and how it develops in large populations. She has also studied the link between nutritional factors and HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa and the link between obesity and telomere length in Latino infants and toddlers.

Janet holds a PhD and is linked to University of California San Francisco.

Sources:

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/janet.wojcicki

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janet-wojcicki-88596013/

https://www.cies.org/grantee/janet-wojcicki

700) Peggy Whitson

700: Peggy Whitson

Oldest Female Astronaut in Space to Date

Born: 9 February 1960, Mount Ayr, Iowa, United States of America

Peggy went up for the final time at the age of fifty-six.

She is also a biochemistry researcher.

Peggy also holds the United States record for longest cumulative time in space (665 days).

She retired in 2018 from NASA after starting with the company in 1986. Peggy was NASA’s first Space Station Science Officer and was the First Female Commander of the International Space Station.

She also holds the record for most spacewalks by a woman (ten in total), and she was the first female chief of the astronaut corps (also becoming the first non-military person to hold that role).

Peggy has a PhD in biochemistry.

Badges Earned:

Located In My Personal Library:

The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush

Who Knew? Women in History by Sarah Herman

Sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/peggy-a-whitson/biography

https://www.space.com/38691-peggy-whitson-astronaut-biography.html

https://time.com/collection/most-influential-people-2018/5217644/peggy-whitson/

699) Dorothy Ferguson Key

699: Dorothy Ferguson Key

All American Girls Professional Baseball League Player

Born: 17 February 1923, Virden, Manitoba, Canada

Died: 8 May 2003, Rockford, Illinois, United States of America

Also Known As: Dottie

Dottie played for the Rockford Peaches and the Peoria Redwings from 1945 to 1954 until the AAGPBL disbanded.

She was also a speed skater alongside her husband. Dottie would have played in the Olympics, but World War II got in the way of that.

When Dottie got married, she told her husband she would only marry him if she would be allowed to keep playing. He readily agreed.

Dottie has been honored with a place in the National Women’s Baseball Hall of Fame, Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and the Manitoba Softball Hall of Fame.

The AAGPBL has been immortalized in the film A League of Their Own. For those who haven’t seen the film, the AAGPBL was an all girls’ baseball league originally organized to replace men’s baseball during World War II. Because the majority of the male players had been drafted, baseball teams across the country couldn't play, and it was feared the baseball fields themselves would shutter and close. Philip K Wrigley, of Wrigley's Chewing Gum fame, formed a committee to find a solution to the problem. The AAGPBL was formed as a result.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/dorothy-ferguson-key-dottie/101

https://myhero.com/D_f_key_chinook_CA_2012

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7433922/dottie-ferguson-key

698) Faye Dancer

“I’ll probably be remembered as a crowd favorite, a little crazy. I always had fun.”

698: Faye Dancer

All American Girls Professional Baseball League Player

Born: 24 April 1925, Santa Monica, California, United States of America

Died: 22 May 2002, Los Angeles, California, United States of America

Faye’s nickname was All the Way Faye because of her spontaneous cartwheels on the field and her rambunctious attitude. She was the inspiration for Madonna’s character in A League of Their Own, and indeed Faye herself was remembered for being a prankster and for leaving her chaperones in worried fits as she went out drinking without their knowledge.

Faye was the first player in the AAGPBL to hit two home runs in a single game. She played for three different teams from 1946 to 1950, although she took the 1949 season off, most likely from injuries sustained during the previous season.

Faye worked as an electronics technician after leaving the league due to a ruptured disk. She never married, and one friend claimed this was because the love of her life was killed in World War II. Faye also became a board member of the AAGPBL’s player association and was a consultant for the film. Faye passed away from complications relating to breast cancer.

The AAGPBL has been immortalized in the aforementioned film A League of Their Own. For those who haven’t seen the film, the AAGPBL was an all girls’ baseball league originally organized to replace men’s baseball during World War II. Because the majority of the male players had been drafted, baseball teams across the country couldn't play, and it was feared the baseball fields themselves would shutter and close. Philip K Wrigley, of Wrigley's Chewing Gum fame, formed a committee to find a solution to the problem. The AAGPBL was formed as a result.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/0087f2d7

https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/faye-dancer-tiger/234

https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/sports/faye-dancer-free-spirited-baseball-star-dies-at-77.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6467023/faye-dancer

697) Claire Schillace Donahoe

697: Claire Schillace Donahoe

All American Girls Professional Baseball League Player

Born: 29 March 1921, Melrose Park, Illinois, United States of America

Died: 17 January 1999, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America

Also Known As: Clara

Claire played for the Racine Belles from 1943 to 1946. She was twenty-one years old when she began to play in the league. Claire was one of the first four players signed to the AAGPBL where she earned $75 a week.

Claire went on to earn a master’s degree in Physical Education while still working in the league.

After Claire married in 1946, she had to leave the league because her husband was assigned to work as a principal at an army school in Germany. The following year, Claire began teaching at the school as a PE teacher. Claire and her husband would move to several different countries, teaching while he was in the service, before they finally settled in Washington state. Claire continued to teach once back in the states. They had four children together.

Claire was a consultant for the film A League of Their Own, which chronicles the league with fictionalized players. She was able to make a minor cameo appearance in the film. Claire has stated that the semi-ridiculous film sequence of the girls attending charm school was not a Hollywood fiction. All the female players had to attend an etiquette school that taught them how to apply makeup and other feminine pursuits before they could play in any AAGPBL games.

In 1990, Claire was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The AAGPBL has been immortalized in the aforementioned film A League of Their Own. For those who haven’t seen the film, the AAGPBL was an all girls’ baseball league originally organized to replace men’s baseball during World War II. Because the majority of the male players had been drafted, baseball teams across the country couldn't play, and it was feared the baseball fields themselves would shutter and close. Philip K Wrigley, of Wrigley's Chewing Gum fame, formed a committee to find a solution to the problem. The AAGPBL was formed as a result.

Badges Earned:

Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/claire-schillace-donahoe-clara/364

https://www.aagpbl.org/articles/show/30

https://frankfurthigh.com/history/subpages/Clara_Donahoe.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/145625803/claire-joan-donahoe

696) Toni Palermo

696: Toni Palermo

All American Girls Professional Baseball League Player

Born: 1934, Forest Park, Illinois, United States of America

Also Known As: Peanuts

Toni played for the Chicago Colleens and the Springfield Sallies during the 1949 and 1950 seasons. She started playing softball when she was eleven years old and was fourteen when she began touring with the AAGPBL.

After baseball she became a nun, earned several bachelors, masters, and a doctoral degree, and was teaching in the Physical Education Department at the university where she earned some of her degrees. She had previously taught theology at the elementary and high school levels. Toni is also a psychotherapist and electrologist.

In 1982 she was also inducted into the National Women’s Baseball Hall of Fame.

The AAGPBL has been immortalized in the film A League of Their Own. For those who haven’t seen the film, the AAGPBL was an all girls’ baseball league originally organized to replace men’s baseball during World War II. Because the majority of the male players had been drafted, baseball teams across the country couldn't play, and it was feared the baseball fields themselves would shutter and close. Philip K Wrigley, of Wrigley's Chewing Gum fame, formed a committee to find a solution to the problem. The AAGPBL was formed as a result.

Sources:

https://www.aagpbl.org/profiles/toni-palermo/189

https://catholicherald.org/news/local/sister-doctor-baseball-star/

https://journaltimes.com/news/local/a-game-of-their-own-residents-celebrate-the-th-anniversary/article_4d0efe90-95ff-5080-accf-238dea278a6b.html

695) Gretchen Carlson

695: Gretchen Carlson

Journalist and Miss America 1989

Born: 21 June 1966, Anoka, Minnesota, United States of America

Gretchen was one of the first major names to come forward in the #MeToo movement when she made a complaint against the chairman of Fox News in 2016. Gretchen’s report would later partially inspire the film Bombshell, the trailer for which I have linked in this article.

Gretchen co-hosted Fox and Friends for seven years. She also made a thirty-part series on Domestic Violence that aired in the early 2000’s. Before starting at Fox, Gretchen had worked in various cities on their news stations and even had a spot at CBS.

Gretchen is a violin prodigy who studied at Oxford and Stanford. She was the first former Miss America winner to serve as Chair of the Miss America Organization.

Gretchen is a national Trustee of the March of Dimes. She is married with two children and has worked as an author of books and for various publishers.

Gretchen eventually settled with Fox News for $20 Million, however, the settlement also came with a Nondisclosure Agreement. In December of 2019, she wrote a piece for the New York Times, hoping for an end to the NDA and so she could get “My voice back.” The NDA prevented her from taking any part in the film Bombshell.

Sources:

https://www.gretchencarlson.com/about

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/12/opinion/gretchen-carlson-bombshell-movie.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1977944/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

694) Paris Jackson

694: Paris Jackson

Actress, Musician, and Model

Born: 3 April 1998, Beverly Hills, California, United States of America

Paris is most known for being the daughter of Michael Jackson.

She has over fifty tattoos, with at least nine of them being devoted to her father. In interviews, Paris’s older brother Prince Michael has stated Paris is very similar to their dad. Paris was only eleven years old when he died. She met her mother, Debbie, when she was thirteen.

Paris has never wavered in her belief that Michael is her biological father, despite many people—random people on the internet mind you—insisting that he couldn’t be. She also identifies as African American, since that’s what her father raised her as and to be. Paris and her brother Prince are also both adamant that their father is innocent of the molestation charges leveled against him.

Paris has even stated she believes her father was murdered.

Paris has been very open with her struggles with depression and drug addiction. Her first public suicide attempt came when she was only fifteen, but Paris said in an interview three years later that she had tried multiple times before that. Since 2015, she has stated her mental health is in a much better place.

Paris now works as a model and actress in both film and television. In 2020, she released her first studio album as well as the music video for her first single "Let Down" (linked in this article).

Sources:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paris-jackson-life-after-neverland-128510/

https://www.biography.com/personality/paris-michael-katherine-jackson

693) Clara Petacci

693: Clara Petacci

Mussolini’s Mistress

Born: 28 February 1912, Rome, Italy

Died: 28 April 1945, Giulino de Mezzegra, Azzano, Italy

Also Known As: Claretta Petacci

Clara is most known for what happened to her after her death. After she and Benito Mussolini, the Italian dictator, were murdered, their bodies were strung up in a public place for the Italian people to spit on and disrespect as they saw fit.

According to reports, Clara was not supposed to be killed, but she died because she tried to protect Benito. She held onto him and begged the Communist partisans not to kill Benito. But her cries were in vain; they were both shot. At the time, Benito was sixty-one and Clara was thirty-three.

After Hitler heard of how Clara, Benito, and other fascist leaders had been killed and their bodies put on public display, he vowed not to let that happen to himself. Only five days later, Hitler would kill his wife, Eva Braun, and then himself, before their bodies were burned in a shallow grave.

Clara was born into an upper-class Roman family and studied music as a child. Her father was a physician to Pope Pius XI, and her sister was an actress. Clara was enraptured with Benito and had idolized him as she grew up.

When Clara and Benito began their relationship, Clara was married to a man in the air force, but they separated soon after. Benito was also married and did not obtain a divorce from his wife. Clara was therefore his mistress, and their relationship would never “go public”, though it wasn’t a secret either. Her family was given a nice villa to move into, getting away from their normal middle-class home, all thanks to Clara's status with Benito.

After the Allied invasion of Italy, Clara was arrested, but released a few weeks later. After she got out, Clara and her family traveled to be close to Benito. When the situation worsened, Clara’s family escaped to Spain, but Clara would not leave Benito. They had hoped to escape to Switzerland, or possibly Austria with other German soldiers. However, Clara and Benito were captured by Italian partisan soldiers and executed.

After Clara's body was recovered, her family had her buried in the family plot.

Badges Earned:
Find a Grave Marked

Sources:

https://www.history.com/news/mussolinis-final-hours-70-years-ago

https://ww2gravestone.com/the-death-of-mussolini-and-his-mistress-clara-petacci/

https://ww2gravestone.com/people/petacci-claretta-clara/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10865210/claretta-petacci