Posts by Robin Fisher

Alice Lord arrived in Seattle in 1892, quickly taking a “pink collar” job, working 12-hour days for a weekly wage of between $5 and $6. In 1900, Alice became an instrumental figure in founding the Waitresses’ Union, Local 240, one of the few women’s unions with a national charter in the American Federation of Labor.…

Dorothy Hollingsworth played a critical role in Seattle’s education system.  She was born in South Carolina in 1920, and moved to Seattle in 1946. Hollingworth worked in Seattle’s Central District as a social worker in the 1950s and 1960s. Dorothy became the first director of Seattle’s Public Schools’ Head Start program in 1965 and served…

Bonnie Jeanne Dunbar was born the small eastern Washington city of in Sunnyside, but decided that the stars were the limit. Dunbar became a NASA astronaut in 1981. She spent 50 days in space. She flew on five space flights—on three of which she served as mission specialist and as Payload Commander on the other…

Ann Reinking, born in Bellevue in 1949, performed with the English Royal Ballet at the age of twelve. Moving to New York at 17, she worked extensively as an actress, dancer, and choreographer. Ann starred on Broadway for most of her career including Chicago, Sweet Charity, All that Jazz, and Annie. In 1994, Reinking founded…

All of us are born with a gift, sometimes life challenges make sharing those gifts difficult. Octavia E. Butler began writing at the age of 10, a shy, awkward, slightly dyslexic, African-American diving into the world of science fiction. Octavia’s style of writing focused on marginalized characters and communities often exposing the underside of humanity…