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The
following information is reprinted with the permission of The Kansas
City Athenaeum and the General Federation of Women's Clubs and the
Missouri Federation of Women's Clubs.
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In May 1894 the
Kansas City Athenaeum was born. It was the dream
of Mrs. Laura Everingham Scammon to bring women together to study such
subjects as art, music, literature, science, and economics on a
university level.
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There
weren´t any men associated with Gift Shop Necessities Company, a
successful business which was started by women, employed women, and sold
its products to women. It began in 1921 when Florence M. Fenner and Ada
M. Kassimer with only $68 between them opened a business. What they
manufactured were called beautilites, a work Kassimer coined to describe
utilitarian products that were also items of beauty for the home.
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She was known as the high priestess, the reigning queen
of Kansas City jazz. Bettye Wilson Miller´s music could be
thunderous or lyrical, complex or simple; contrasts were ever-present in
the style of this jazz pianist and contralto.
Bettye Wilson was
born into a musical family in Clinton, Missouri, in 1928. She attended
Lincoln University in Jefferson City and received a bachelor´s and
master´s degree in vocal music. After two years of elementary
school teaching in West Plains, Missouri, she went to Philadelphia in
1946 for further study to develop her contralto voice.
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In 1908 a very determined woman bought two
wooden tubs with a portion of the sum total of her capital, $8, and
launched Kansas City´s first French laundry. Needing to earn a
living following her husband´s death, Kate Hinkle turned to what
she knew best: the care of fine laces, priceless linens, and exquisite
embroideries. When she had worked as a children´s nurse, she
deplored the many pieces that were discarded because of poor laundering.
She knew she could do better.
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Mindlin´s was a
women´s specialty shop. Rose Shklar Mindlin Jacobson began making
and selling hats in a small shop at 1012 East 12th Street in 1904.
Businessmen scoffed at the residential location, predicting a quick
failure since it was so far from the downtown retail area, but it proved
to be a wise choice. It was in the middle of the carriage trade, and
women in the area could afford to pay $150 for just the right hat.
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The Sisters of Notre
Dame de Sion arrived in Kansas City in 1912 to open a French Montessori
kindergarten at Linwood and Benton. Outgrowing those facilities in 1915,
they moved to Hyde Park with the purchase of the Charles Morse home at
36th and Warwick Boulevard. In 1920, the Sisters purchased the
incomparable Kirkland Armour mansion on the northwest corner of Armour
and Warwick, presently the site of the Longan Middle School. |
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In 1947 the
Rehabilitation Institute was formed after the Kansas City Council of
Social Agencies reported that 350 disabled persons in the area who could
not qualify for assistance from any agency but who could become
self–supporting to varying degrees with the right help. The
evaluation was suggested by Vivian Davis Shepherd. The Rehabilitation
Institute was formed with the purpose of providing physical therapy,
prevocational training, and placement for the severely disabled in the
region. |
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