GRTC Celebrates Women’s History Month: Local History Makers Honored

In celebration of Women’s History Month, GRTC is honoring local Women’s History-Makers each week during March. The following names will be displayed periodically on bus destination header signs, as well as highlighted on GRTC’s website, mobile app and social media:

First Week:                  “GRTC Honors Ethel Bailey Furman”
Second Week:            “GRTC Honors Stoner Winslett”
Third Week:                “GRTC Honors Naomi Silverman Cohn”
Fourth Week: “GRTC Honors Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy”

Ethel Bailey Furman (1893 - 1976) was one of the earliest African American women to work as an architect in Virginia. The daughter of a Richmond building contractor, Ethel Madison Bailey Carter Furman (July 6, 1893–February 24, 1976) studied architecture privately in New York City. Returning to Richmond with her family in 1921, she began designing houses for local residents. She worked in partnership with her father, while also raising three children and holding a variety of other jobs to supplement her family's income.

Furman surmounted the discrimination she faced as a black woman, often by submitting her building plans to local administrators through the male contractors with whom she worked. Late in the 1920s she was the only woman who attended the Hampton Institute's annual Builders' Conference. She continued her training in the 1940s with coursework in architectural drafting at the Chicago Technical College. Throughout her long career, Furman designed an estimated two hundred residences and churches in central Virginia as well as two churches built in Liberia. Her 1962 design for the educational wing of Richmond's Fourth Baptist Church was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Church Hill North Historic District extension in 2000. 

A leader in her community, Furman was recognized for her extensive civic work by the Richmond Afro-American in 1958. A Church Hill park was named in her honor in 1985.

Stoner Winslett (b. 1958 - ) is an artistic director and choreographer in Richmond. In 1980, when she was just twenty-one years old, Stoner Winslett became artistic director of the Richmond Ballet after injuries ended her own dance career. More than thirty years later, she remains one of only a few women to serve as artistic director of an American ballet company. Under Winslett’s guidance, the Richmond Ballet in 1984 became Virginia's first professional ballet company, and in 1990 was designated the State Ballet. The company has presented programs in New York and London, and the dance critic for the New York Times recently lauded Winslett's choreography of The Nutcracker while describing her as "one of the pioneering women of American regional ballet."

Thanks to Winslett’s vision, the Richmond Ballet also trains artists and educates the community in order to preserve the art form's heritage and explore new directions for ballet. Minds in Motion, a Richmond Ballet educational initiative, introduces fourth graders in more than twenty schools to the joy and discipline of dance.

An advocate for the importance of dance, Winslett has served as a vice chair for the national service organization Dance/USA. She was recognized locally by the Richmond YWCA in 1988 as Woman of the Year and by Style Weekly in 2000 as one of the 100 most influential Richmonders of the twentieth century. In 2008 Winslett and the Richmond Ballet received the Governor's Award for the Arts for their contributions to the cultural life of Virginia.

Naomi Silverman Cohn (1888 – 1982) was a Richmond civic activist. The daughter of Polish immigrants, Naomi Silverman Cohn (April 15, 1888–October 20, 1982), settled in Richmond with her husband in 1909. She plunged into community work, assisting new immigrants through her involvement with the local chapter of the National Council of Jewish Women. She was a charter member of the Richmond League of Women Voters in 1920 and later held office in the state league. She consistently urged women to exercise their right to vote. The mother of three children, Cohn believed strongly that women, especially mothers, should participate in political activity to improve life for all Virginians.

In 1923 Cohn cofounded the Virginia Women's Council of Legislative Chairmen of State Organizations (later the Virginia Council on State Organizations) to monitor bills in the General Assembly that were of special interest to women. Named executive secretary of the Virginia Consumers' League in 1936, she worked for legislation to improve labor conditions for workers in the state. Her lobbying led to the passage of a state law in 1938 limiting women's paid work in many occupations to forty-eight hours a week rather than the previously allowed seventy hours. The next year she became director of the Division of Women and Children for the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry.

For her advocacy, the Richmond Times-Dispatch named Cohn to its "Virginia Honor Roll of 1938," and the Virginia Business and Professional Women Foundation named her among its first honorees on the Women of Virginia Historic Trail in 1993.

Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy (b. 1945 - ) is the first woman to serve on the State Corporation Commission and on the Supreme Court of Virginia, opening doors for Virginia women in the legal profession.

A pioneer in the legal profession in Virginia, Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy (born January 12, 1945) holds the distinction of being the first female deputy attorney general in the state, the first female judge on the State Corporation Commission, and the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Born in South Carolina, Lacy grew up in Wisconsin and earned a law degree at the University of Texas. In 1982 she began work in the Virginia attorney general's office, where she supervised all civil litigation. She received a Master of Laws degree from the University of Virginia in 1992.

Lacy served on the Virginia State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities and other public service businesses, for almost four years (April 1985-December 1988). Governor Gerald L. Baliles appointed her to the Supreme Court of Virginia in December 1988. Lacy was elected by the General Assembly to twelve-year terms on the court in 1989 and again in 2001. As a justice, Lacy earned a reputation for her no-nonsense approach. She advised lawyers to submit their briefs in English, not legalese, and wrote hundreds of opinions on a variety of subjects.

Lacy's skill and determination have undoubtedly opened doors for women in what has historically been a male-dominated profession. At the time of her retirement from the court in mid-August 2007 to take senior status, three of Virginia's seven Supreme Court justices were women, as was the immediate past-president of the Virginia State Bar. "Seeing a woman as a judge gives any young woman the almost subconscious belief or idea that she can do it," Lacy has said. "To the extent that my role has contributed to that, that's a really good thing."

GRTC thanks The Library of Virginia for their “Virginia Women in History” online resource dedicated to recognizing and celebrating past and present Virginia Women for their accomplishments. Biographies above came directly from this excellent resource.

GRTC is accepting local nominations for next year’s Women’s History Month honorees. Please email your submission and a biography detailing the individual’s achievements to [email protected]