We said goodbye to so many fascinating women in the past year.
Here are 24 incredible women who you may not have heard about when they died, but whose
memories will live on in our hearts.
Caroly Wilcox joined Jim Henson’s Muppet Workshop in 1969.
For the next 43 years, she was one of Sesame Street and The Muppet Show’s leading puppet
makers.
She built frogs, pigs, and Fraggles, and she designed a little red monster who would eventually
become known…
as Elmo.
Caroly Wilcox died January 9, 2021, at the age of 85.
Dianne Durham was the first African American gymnast ever to win the U.S. national championship,
in 1983, when she was 15 years old.
Though injuries and politics kept her from the Olympics, she went on to open her own
gym, where she coached and inspired young gymnasts for decades.
Dianne Durham died February 4, 2021, after a brief illness at the age of 52.
Rhea Hurrle Woltman was a young airplane pilot when she was recruited in 1959 for a program
to test women as potential astronauts.
She passed with flying colors.
But it would be another 19 years before NASA allowed any women to become astronauts.
Instead, Rhea Woltman taught cadets at the Air Force Academy, and kept flying into her
80s.
She died February 15, 2021, of natural causes at the age of 92.
Carla Wallenda was just a toddler when she started learning to walk the highwire in her
family’s daredevil circus act, the Flying Wallendas.
She performed incredible, death-defying aerial acts until she retired at the age of 81.
Carla Wallenda died March 6, 2021 of natural causes at the age of 85.
Martha Lou Gadsden was the chef who founded and ran Charleston, South Carolina’s famous
soul food restaurant, Martha Lou’s Kitchen.
For 37 years, her beef stew with oxtails, chitterlings, fried chicken, and okra soup
defined Lowcountry cooking for visitors from all across America.
Martha Lou Gadsden died April 1, 2021 at the age of 91.
Dianna Ortiz was a young Catholic nun doing missionary work when she was kidnapped and
tortured during Guatemala’s civil war.
After she escaped, she worked to uncover the United States’s involvement, and she founded
a group to help other victims of torture.
Dianna Ortiz died February 19, 2021 of cancer at the age of 62.
Ruthie Tompson was still a teenager in the 1930s when she went to work as an artist for
her childhood neighbor, Walt Disney.
For the next 40 years, she helped animate Disney’s classic films including “Snow
White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Pinocchio,” and “Fantasia.”
Ruthie Tompson died October 10, 2021, at the age of 111.
Chris-Tia Donaldson wrote the book “Thank God I’m Natural” as a resource for Black
women on how to care for their hair naturally, without chemical relaxers.
She went on to launch first her own beauty line, “Thank God It’s Natural,” and
then, a breast cancer charity, the TGIN Foundation.
Chris-Tia Donaldson died November 13, 2021, at the age of 42.
Tempest Storm was one of the most successful burlesque stars of all time, headlining shows
on the Las Vegas Strip for decades; she danced from her 20s into her 80s.
She approached striptease as a sophisticated art; she dated Elvis Presley; and at the height
of her popularity in the 1950s, she reportedly had her breasts insured for a million dollars.
Tempest Storm died April 21, 2021, at the age of 93.
Marcella LeBeau was a United States Army nurse who was honored for her service treating soldiers
on the battlefield during World War II.
Back at home, she became an elder of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council, and dedicated
the rest of her life to fighting for the rights of Native American people.
Marcella LeBeau died November 21, 2021, at the age of 102.
Lin Emery was a sculptor who created large works of art that move, using wind, water
and magnets to set them in motion.
Originally inspired by watching a spoon balancing on a pile of dirty dishes, she took the idea
to a massive scale as she welded together huge and delicately balanced metal structures.
Lin Emery died March 11, 2021, at the age of 94.
Jessica Morris was the founder of Our Brain Bank, a nonprofit group that helps people
suffering from brain cancer.
She was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2016.
The odds of living more than 18 months were very low, but she fought on for the next five
years to make her charity a reality.
Jessica Morris died June 8, 2021, at the age of 57.
Bernice Falk Haydu signed up to serve her country during World War II as one of the
WASPs, the very first women to fly planes for the U.S. military.
Over her lifetime, she successfully fought to have WASPs officially recognized as military
veterans, and in 2009, she was one of the women who accepted a Congressional Gold Medal
on the WASPs’ behalf.
Bernice Falk Haydu died January 30, 2021 at the age of 100.
Joye Hummel was the first woman to write for Wonder Woman comics, writing anonymously in
the 1940s, a time when few women wrote for comic books.
She moved on to a career as a stockbroker, and her work was all but forgotten until she
was featured in the 2014 book, “The Secret History of Wonder Woman.”
Joye Hummel died April 5, 2021, at the age of 97.
Joanne Shenandoah was a Native American singer and songwriter who won a Grammy Award for
her music, which blended traditional tunes with New Age and folk.
A beloved musical matriarch, she performed at the White House, Carnegie Hall, and St.
Peter’s Basilica.
Joanne Shenandoah died November 22, 2021, at the age of 64.
Barbara-Rose Collins was the first Black woman from Michigan elected to the U.S. Congress,
serving in the House of Representatives in the 1990s.
She introduced the first bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.
Though that bill didn’t pass, Juneteenth finally became an official holiday just months
before her death.
Barbara-Rose Collins died November 4, 2021, at the age of 82.
Anna Halprin was a choreographer known for her experimental approach to dance, including
a nude production that shocked audiences in the 1960s.
She later became a pioneer of using dance as a healing tool, drawing from her own experience
with cancer.
Anna Halprin died May 24, 2021, at the age of 100.
Carolyn Shoemaker was an amateur astronomer who, without any scientific training, set
a record for the most comets anyone had ever discovered.
She famously spotted Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 before it collided with Jupiter, providing
important information for scientists studying the solar system.
Carolyn Shoemaker died August 13, 2021, at the age of 92.
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard was a Native American activist who donated her family’s land to
establish the first camp for Americans protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.
She opposed the pipeline because it ran past her son’s grave and other land sacred to
the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
LaDonna Brave Bull Allard died April 10, 2021, at the age of 64.
Eunice Sato was the mayor of Long Beach, California in the early 1908s, becoming the first Asian-American
woman to lead a major U.S. city.
She revitalized the city’s downtown, and she tirelessly helped her constituents with
their concerns.
Eunice Sato died February 12, 2021, at the age of 99.
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison was one of the first music journalists to write serious criticism
about rock and roll, as well as one of the first women covering rock.
She was in a relationship with rock star Jim Morrison of the Doors, and she wrote about
their time together in her memoir, “Strange Days.”
Patricia Kennealy-Morrison died July 23, 2021, at the age of 75.
Penny Harrington became the first woman to lead a major U.S. police department when she
was appointed police chief in Portland, Oregon in 1985.
She started a successful neighborhood policing program, and she went on to become an expert
on women in law enforcement.
Penny Harrington died September 15, 2021, at the age of 79.
Lucille Times was a civil rights activist who started a one-woman bus boycott in Montgomery,
Alabama, shortly before the famous boycott launched by Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King.
She got into a fistfight with the very same bus driver who insisted Parks should give
up her seat, and she mounted a campaign to offer rides to Black people so they could
avoid taking the bus.
Lucille Times died August 16, 2021, at the age of 100.
Betty White was simply a national treasure, the beloved star of sitcoms from “The Mary
Tyler Moore Show” to “The Golden Girls” to “Hot in Cleveland.”
She proudly demonstrated her tender heart as she worked for decades toward animal welfare,
supporting worthy organizations including the Morris Animal Foundation and the Los Angeles
Zoo.
Betty White died December 31, 2021, at the age of 99.
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