Sallie Chisum Robert “First Lady of Artesia”

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Sallie Chisum Robert, who came to be known as the “First Lady of Artesia,” was 19 when she arrived from Texas at her Uncle John Chisum’s Jinglebob Land and Livestock Company ranch south of Roswell. Her ranching skills rivaled those of the cowboys she joined driving...

Susan “Susie” Parks

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

During the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), the United States, particularly citizens in the southwestern states, kept a close watch on events across the border. In 1912, the army established a military post near the small village of Columbus, New Mexico, to protect...

María de la Luz Beaubien Maxwell

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

María de la Luz Beaubien was born in 1829 in Taos when New Mexico was part of Mexico, only a few years after Mexico had gained independence from Spain. By the time she married, her father owned a half interest in one of the largest Mexican land grants ever. By the...

Katherine Stinson Otero, the “Flying Schoolgirl”

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Katherine Stinson Otero was the fourth American woman to earn a pilot’s license and the first female skywriter. She overcame pioneering aviator Max Lillie’s reluctance to teach her to fly, and became the “Flying Schoolgirl,” nicknamed for her youthful looks, small...

Soledad Chávez de Chacón

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In 1922, two years after women gained the right to vote, Soledad Chávez de Chacón was elected Secretary of State, the first Hispanic woman to hold statewide office in New Mexico and the country. She descended from a family of territorial governors and office holders,...

Dorothy McKibbin, “Gatekeeper of Los Alamos”

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Dorothy McKibbin was the first person to greet newly arriving scientists, workers, and their families on their way to “The Hill,” the top-secret headquarters for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. Hired by Robert Oppenheimer as a secretary in 1943, her office at 109...

Women of Shakespeare (Emma Marble Muir, Rita Wells Hill, Janaloo Hill Hough)

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In southwestern New Mexico, two miles south of Lordsburg, a small vestige of a town called Shakespeare survives as one of the state’s well-known ghost towns. Were it not for three women, the town would have faded into oblivion both physically and in memory. Emma...

Emiteria “Matie” Martinez Robinson Viles

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Around Las Vegas, New Mexico, Matie Viles is a well-known name because of the Viles Foundation, the scholarship fund she started in 1959 to help high school graduates pursue higher education. Widowed in 1950, she and her husband had owned and operated the Mountain...

Juliana Gutiérrez y Chavez Hubbell

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

Juliana Gutiérrez y Chavez Hubbell was a member of two prominent early Spanish families in New Mexico and a descendant of Josefa Baca, a woman who was the original owner of the land comprising present-day Pajarito. In 1849, at the age of 16, she wed trader and army...

Florinda Naranjo Ortiz

by MyProject ByFranziska | Feb 11, 2023

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, traveling circus acts and vaudeville-style road shows called revistas brought fun and entertainment to families throughout New Mexico, especially rural areas. Many were owned and operated by families with roots in...