Since Mobile's founding - and continuing today - women have been important in powerful, yet often overlooked, ways. Here's a salute to some of the city's foremost females. Until recently, custom and tradition constrained Mobile Bay's women. The roles women today play would have scandalized most people a hundred years ago - and sometimes even more recently. With the possible exception of the Cassette Girls, everyone on this list achieved more than expected. In doing so, they broke down barriers, most of which are now the stuff of memories. (For the record, I think the Cassette Girls changed a lot of things in Colonial Mobile!) Women have triumphed over so many obstacles that young people may not realize how far we have come even since World War II. What a waste it was, and would have continued to be, not to use women's talents to benefit all aspects of life in the Bay area. The Cassette Girls (c. 1685) Named for the style of luggage they carried, the Cassette Girls were 28 marriageable young women who arrived from France in October 1704. King Louis XIV paid for their passage and dowries. When they arrived, they began the long process of changing this wilderness outpost into a settled town. More women arrived in 1728. Madame Octavia LeVert (1811 - 1877) The premier leader of polite society in Antebellum Mobile, LeVert was a well-educated author, linguist, traveler and socialite. She reopened her salon after the Civil War and made the controversial decision to admit Union officers. The society she once led subsequently shunned her. After this social setback, she moved to Savannah, Ga., where she promoted education for women in the state. She also played an important role in preserving George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. Juliet Opie Hopkins (1818 - 1890) Hopkins accompanied her wealthy husband to Richmond, Va., when the Civil War broke out, and she began organizing medical care for the Confederacy in 1861. Eventually she coordinated three hospitals, where the care was superior to most such facilities. After the war she left Alabama. She eventually died in poverty in Washington, D.C. Kate Cumming (1828 - 1909) A native of Scotland and daughter of a wealthy merchant, Cumming organized and directed a group of Mobile women who cared for men wounded in the Battle of Shiloh and subsequent Civil War conflicts. A passionate supporter of the Confederacy during and after the war, she is best described as Mobile's Florence Nightingale. She wrote "Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee From the Battle of Shiloh to the End of the War" after the war and "Gleanings from the Southland" in 1895. Augusta Evans Wilson (1835 - 1909) Wilson was one of Mobile's most famous authors, writing "Inez, A Tale of the Alamo," "Beulah" and the majority of her most popular novel, "St. Elmo," before the Civil War. After the war, she finished "St. Elmo" and completed five more novels. An ardent supporter of the Confederacy, she opened a hospital on the grounds of her home, Georgia Cottage. She remained a pillar of Mobile society and a diligent writer until her death. Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (1853 - 1933) Raised in a mansion on Government Street, Alva moved to France after the Civil War, married a Vanderbilt and later wed a Belmont. Her daughter, Consuelo, married the Duke of Marlborough in 1885. In the early 1900s, she used much of her great wealth to advance the cause of women's suffrage in the United States. She died in Paris after a long and colorful life. "Floating Island" Mary Eoline Eilands (1854 - 1937) A common sight on Mobile's streets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Eilands a shy and mentally challenged woman, walked to the waterfront every day to search for a long lost lover, whose ship she had promised to meet years earlier. He never returned, but Mobilians accepted her quiet eccentricity and distinctive floating gait for decades. Her story is an example of how tolerant Mobile could be. Marietta Johnson (1864 - 1938) She founded the Marietta Johnson Organic School in Fairhope in 1907 and ran it until her death 31 years later. John Dewey, noted progressive educator, visited and praised her school, which was a model of progressive education. Today, we would say Johnson's approach was holistic. The school continues to teach students along the lines she pioneered. Mary McNeil Fenollosa (1865 - 1954) A well-educated author who published her first novel, "Truth Dexter," under the pen name Sidney McCall, Mary married Ernest Fenollosa in 1895 and, two years later, accompanied him to Asia, where he worked on a study of Chinese and Japanese art. After his unexpected death, she continued his work, producing "Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art." It was extremely well received, and is still consulted by scholars. Later she returned to Boston to live with her daughter. Eventually she moved back to Mobile, where she died. Lillian Thomas (c. 1875 - 1930) Thomas was an African-American missionary at the Luebo Mission Station in the Congo Free State from 1894 to 1906. The Government Street Presbyterian Church sponsored her, and a collection of the African artifacts she sent back to the church is on display at the Museum of Mobile on Royal Street. She served in the Congo during a particularly brutal chapter of its history. She eventually returned to America, married and lived the remainder of her life in Selma. Bessie Morse Bellingrath (1878 - 1943) A native Mobilian, Bellingrath was the guiding spirit behind Bellingrath Gardens, a fish camp that was transformed into one of the nation's finest gardens. She toured Europe in 1927, acquiring furnishings and art for a garden estate, which was designed by George B. Rogers. The gardens opened to the public during the depths of the Great Depression. She made a habit for many years of anonymously giving money to people who needed it and flowers to patients at Providence Hospital. She died unexpectedly in 1943, but her vision for Bellingrath Gardens and memories of her quiet generosity live on. Velma Croom (1911 - 2001) A founder of the city’s historic districts program, Croom helped establish the Oakleigh Garden District Society in 1959. She later created the city’s first historic district, named after the 1835 Oakleigh mansion. She remained active in historic preservation in Mobile for the rest of her life, while simultaneously operating the Velma Croom Tour Service. A stalwart friend of Mobile's history and of historic preservation, Croom was an active and charming advocate for historic Mobile. Mary Francis Plummer (1913 - 1988) Arriving in Mobile before World War II, she married Cameron McRae Plummer in 1944 and joined him in the Haunted Book Shop, established in 1940. By the mid-1950s, her husband's health was in decline and she took the responsibility of running the store. Not only was the Haunted Book Shop a wonderful bookstore and home to many literary people, it also published several important books on Mobile history. Plummer kept the business going, in good times and bad, until 1988, when she finally sold it. She died later that year and is fondly remembered for her contributions to Mobile's literary life. Lois Jean Fitzsimmons Delaney (1921 - 2001) Miss Fitz, as she was known to generations of theater and English students at Murphy High School, married Caldwell Delaney in 1960. In recognition of her long and outstanding service, the school's auditorium was remodeled and renamed for her in 2001, the year of her death. Her work gave strong support to Mobile's long theater tradition. Lil Greenwood (b.1923) A native of Prichard, Greenwood made a name for herself as a singer of jazz, blues, gospel and a mixture of all three. In the late 1950s she was the lead singer with Duke Ellington's band, and she worked with him until his death in 1974. After a career of recording with other groups, television appearances and live concerts, she returned to Mobile. Now well into her 80s, she's still going strong with a sweet, rich voice that seems to get better with age. Myrt Jones (b.1929) Jones became interested in the drilling plans oil companies were developing for Mobile Bay in the early 1970s. She joined Save Our Bay, then The Mobile Bay Audubon Society in 1976. A tireless crusader, Jones fought Mobil Oil and other large companies, managing to move oil and gas exploration out of the Bay and regulate activities in the Gulf much more forcefully than anyone imagined Alabama would do. She was controversial, but effective, and she demonstrated just how much one person could do to protect marine ecosystems. Yolande Betbeze (b.1929) Miss America 1951, Betbeze refused to wear a Catalina swimsuit to promote the pageant, arguing that it was inappropriate for a scholarship competition. Her stand initiated significant changes in the competition in following years. After her term as Miss America, she devoted herself to a variety of causes. She engaged in the Civil Rights Movement as an active member of NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She also joined the Committee for a SANE Nuclear Policy. She sang in the Mobile Opera and helped found an off-Broadway theater in New York. She lives in Washington, D.C., where she is a respected member of the city’s political elite. Ann Bedsole (b.1930) Bedsole was the first Republican to serve in the Alabama House in modern times, from 1979 to 1983, and then the state Senate, from 1984 to 1994. She took charge of Mobile's tricentennial celebration in 2002. Under her leadership, the Tricentennial Commission produced a wide variety of activities, including the tall ships' arrival for the Fourth of July. Bedsole ran for mayor of Mobile without success in 2005. Throughout the years, she has worked with a variety of charities, especially the Sybil H. Smith Charitable Trust, which aims to support worthwhile projects throughout Southwest Alabama. Mary Zoghby (b.1938) Zoghby served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1978 to 1994. While serving in the House, she offered the bill that changed Mobile's government from a three-person commission to a mayor-council form with African-Americans elected from three of the seven districts. This was only one of a series of progressive pieces of legislation she sponsored. Since leaving the legislature, she has been active in securing funding to support the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Mobile, among many other activities. Merceria Ludgood (b.1953) Ludgood was raised in Crichton, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from The University of Alabama, and earned a law degree from Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. She became active in Democratic Party politics and in programs to provide legal representation to people too poor to hire a lawyer. She received a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship and spent time in West Africa, but she returned to the United States and became politically active in Mobile. She was first elected to the Mobile County Commission in 2007. After legal wrangling between the commission and Gov. Bob Riley, she was reelected, defeating Juan Chastang by a margin of 4:1. Dr. Regina Benjamin (b.1956) Benjamin was raised in Daphne, and educated at Xavier University in New Orleans and The University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1990, she opened a clinic in Bayou La Batre. Destroyed twice by hurricanes and once by fire, the clinic has risen again and again from the ashes. Committed to providing medical care in a poor community, Benjamin poured any money she had into the clinic, including the $500,000 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award she received in 2008. President Barack Obama nominated this award-winning physician to be Surgeon General of the United States in summer 2009. Later that year, the Senate unanimously confirmed her appointment. Image information: Main: Marietta Johnson (1864 - 1938); Marietta Johnson Museum Left: Bessie Morse Bellingrath (1878 - 1943); Erik Overbey Collection, USA Archives Center: Myrt Jones (b.1929); USA Archives Right: Yolande Betbeze (b.1929); Museum of Mobile Collection, USA Archives