Worthington Descendants – Vol 1, No 4, Page 3 Fall 1983 – “Amazing” Grace Hopper

Bette’s Column: “A Living Lady Worthington Decendants Subscriber”[i]

Capt. Grace Hopper, is the Navy’s oldest active officer. She is 76 and says she is something of a character, and has spent years getting to be one. She was on “60 minutes” and said, “Why would I want to be an admiral?” I’d have to be dignified and that wouldn’t be any fun. She now has a public relations assignment from her superiors in Washington. She is a wonderful image figure for our young people, speaks of the potential of young people, the joys of learning, the need for risk-taking.  Capt. Hopper says she’s already received the highest award I could ever want. That has been the privilege and responsibility of serving very proudly in the United States Navy. She taught at Vassar for 12 years, and was an assistant professor of math at Barnard College when she left in December, 1943, to enlist in the Naval Reserves as a WAVE. We are mighty proud to have you with us Capt. Hopper.

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[i] A photo of “Capt. Grace Hopper, the Navy’s oldest active officer” was included

The Cheyney House

The Cheyney House:

Great Grandparents Home

The current owners were most welcoming to open their home for 4 strangers who pulled into their driveway, last Friday afternoon.

Here is what I was looking for:

It was here ...

Who knows what it looked like in 1916, but I can’t imagine that it was too different.

I now have a copy of a letter that two of the daughters, who lived in this house at some point in their lives, took the baby from here to Brewster, NY when the baby was 5 weeks old.

Thank you, Nancy and Rob

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 16 – Favorite Female Ancestor – Prompts for Women’s History Month

This is part of  a series of daily blogging prompts entitled Fearless Females created by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog in honor of Women’s History Month .

* March 15 — Write a six-word memoir tribute to one of your female ancestors.

March 16 — If you could have lunch with any female family member (living or dead) or any famous female who would it be and why?

Where would you go?

What would you eat?

Guess you can guess, if you have been following this series of messages, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.

Where to go, would be where ever she wanted to go. Somewhere in the Washington, DC area.

Who would be able to eat? Would be listening to her stories and from what I can tell, she has many.

Two specific topics:

Her stories about our ancestry. Although she is a descendant of Capt. John Worthington’s oldest son, and I from the youngest son, we do share common stories, I am sure.

The second would be her reaction of the changing of Technology over time. Her experience of computers are twice as long as mine, although I have been involved since the 1960′s. But would enjoy her computer stories.

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 14 – Favorite Female Ancestor – Prompts for Women’s History Month

This is part of  a series of daily blogging prompts entitled Fearless Females created by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog in honor of Women’s History Month .

I’ll pass on this prompt:
* March 13 — Moment of Strength: share a story where a female ancestor showed courage or strength in a difficult situation.

March 14 — Newsmakers?

Did you have a female ancestor who made the news?

Why?

Was she famous or notorious?

Did she appear in the social column?

Well, Rear Admiral  Grace Hopper tops this list. There are many newspaper articles found online. Most of them deal with her military experience in the U.S. Navy. Several articles talk about her retirement. Or, more accurately Retirements.

There is one article with President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office.

Earlier articles about “Amazing” Grace spoke of her experiences with the computer, from the beginning of computers. As I mentioned earlier, she found the first Computer Bug. Wonder what she would think of the technology that we have available in 2010, only 20 years after her death.

But, I guess if you can explain and show a nano-second to a bunch of engineers, she would probably say “told you so”. After all, its easier to say “I’m sorry, then to get permission”. (one of her quotes)

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 13 – Favorite Female Ancestor – Prompts for Women’s History Month

This is part of  a series of daily blogging prompts entitled Fearless Females created by Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog in honor of Women’s History Month .

Catching up a bit:

* March 11 — Did you have any female ancestors who died young or from tragic or unexpected circumstances? Describe and how did this affect the family?

I am not aware of nor can I document such an event. If the question were a little different, I would have a story.

The “other” story would be how my Grandmother’s father was killed. The short of it, was that her father was killed by a run-away horse and buggy. That is a well documented event. The good news, is that her education was taken care of by the “driver” of the run-away horse and buggy. The interesting piece of the story is that he was learning to ride a bicycle.

But that’s another story.

March 12 — Working girl:

Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home?

What did she do?

Describe her occupation.

Actually, my mother worked outside of the home. She started at a bank teller in Pennsylvania. Don’t know a lot about that bank and her story at that bank. But, when our family moved to New Jersey in 1957, she again started to work on a bank again. Later, she helped start a small branch on a heavily traveled road. The bank was in a “house” trailer. I remember going to that bank from time to time while growing up.

She did retire from that bank, but that bank had grown up and, after a number of changes in ownership, the bank is still in existence today.

As mentioned in an earlier Blog entry, she was a leader in her local church and was treasurer and assistant treasurer.

The good news, is that she has a granddaughter who is following in her footsteps. It was talent that bypassed me.