Committee Honoring Women 18 To Be Inducted Into Women’s Hall Of Fame

The first woman to pilot an American spacecraft has landed in the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Eileen Collins, who piloted the space shuttle Discovery on an eight-day mission in February, was honored along with Ann Bancroft, who in 1986 became the first woman to trek to the North Pole.

A national committee selected 18 honorees from the arts, medicine, industry, government, law and social reform.

They include singer Ella Fitzgerald; Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and anti-lynching crusader Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin.

Others are Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross; educator Nannerl Keohane; and Rep. Patricia Schroeder.

The induction ceremony will be held Oct. 14. The other inductees, honored posthumously, are:

Virginia Apgar (1909-1974), physician who invented a life-saving health assessment test for newborns called the Apgar Scale.

Amelia Bloomer (1818-1894), founded and edited “The Lily,” the first newspaper devoted to reform and equality for women.

Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965), nurse-midwife and founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, created to provide health care in rural areas.

Anne Dallas Dudley (1876-1955), key leader in passage of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote; Tennessee suffrage and political leader.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), first American woman to found a worldwide religion, the Church of Christ, Scientist.

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), author, feminist, Transcendentalist leader and teacher.

Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826-1898), suffrage leader and author.

Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), industrial engineer and motion study expert whose ideas improved industry and the home.

Maggie Kuhn (1905-1995), founder of the Gray Panthers.

Hannah Greenebaum Solomon (1858-1942), founder of the National Council of Jewish Women.