Readers Nominate Their Overlooked Grandmothers for a Times Obit

Little do Dr. Anita V. Figueredo's grandchildren know, nor would Dr. F. know herself, but she was my earliest mentor and role model of what a woman could become. My mother was her friend in La Jolla. We moved away from La Jolla when I was 18 months old. Every subsequent year Dr. Figueredo and my mother exchanged Christmas cards. My mother would take me by the hand, beginning at age 3, and show me Dr. Figueredo's card, which was always a photo of their family. "This is Dr. Anita Figueredo," she would say. "She is a doctor, and her husband is a doctor, and she has 9 children." The implication from my mother was clear. This woman...was a doctor... AND a mother. I was impressionable. I experienced clearly at 3 years old, and more and more clearly each year following, the "picture" that my mother was intent on my seeing. It was 1953 when I was first shown a Christmas card from Dr. Figueredo. I grew up and became a PhD Clinical Psychologist at a time when women were still being asked in admissions' interviews how to justify taking a man's spot in training (--the reasoning being that the women would eventually end up 'simply' being mothers and thus 'wasting' their training). I became a mother AND a psychoanalyst. To me the admissions' queries had been odd. Why? Because I had seen Dr. Anita Figueredo's photograph at age 3; I knew how women were important and could be many things. Thank you Dr. Anita Figueredo. You shaped me.

A fantastic collection - thank you! Their tenacity in all its diversity is inspirational. In addition to a tribute, their lives offer recognition of what has changed and what has not, with recognition of both important. Please consider making this a weekly feature. It provides an excellent opportunity for dialogue in schools, the home and among friends and colleaguesbabout successes and challenges of women in our society of the past, the present and future,

My grandmothers were wonderful women. But so were my grandfathers, who were also more accomplished, thanks to their support.

Thank you for this wonderful article. I didn't get to know my grandmothers. My dad's mother buried two husbands and a toddler and worked in a factory serving snacks to workers when they had a break....and raised my father to be a fine man, a pillar of his community, and a great husband and parent. She died when I was an infant. My mom's mother raised six children beginning in the time of WWI and through the Great Depression and WWII. She passed before I was born, but, like my Dad's mom, made lemonade from life's lemons and her legacy lived on through six bright people, the last of whom survives--my mom. These ladies' stories don't need to be in the Times--maybe not even in the STL Post-Dispatch because, to paraphrase a Bryan White song, they were common little miracles...but I'm thankful for the lives such as these that brought the human race through some dark times with a smile and a kiss.

Mary Stanley Low's grandchild, in her otherwise lovely recollection, mistakenly identifies the Plantagenets as a French dynasty. They --including such notables as Richard the Lion-Hearted --reigned in Britain, though descended from the French Angevin aristocracy in the eleventh century or so.

Wonderful series, wonderful stories, wonderful women. I'm so grateful that I had loving grandmothers who were with me into my adulthood. Thanks to all for sharing memories.

I am really excited by these inspiring stories. My own grandmother was a botanist even though she received little formal education. She was born in 1907 during Colonial rule in Nigeria and died in 2012. She loved mushrooms and herbs and wild berries - every specie and kind. She was never afraid to experiment, even when this meant risking her life. She would go to the forest and pick them and cook on separate utensils away from the regular ones the family used. She was not sure if they were edible or harmful, so she didn't want anyone else to taste them. People called her crazy. But she called it fun, told everyone she was on a mission to discover all the useful, edible and medicinal plants in the forest. No one believed her. But during the Nigerian Biafran war, when they had to live two years in the Bush, hiding from Nigerian soldiers, this knowledge and interest in wild plants became instrumental to the survival of the entire family. My father said, she'd harvest wild berries and shrubs and mushrooms and bring to their underground hideout. She would prepare these foods and eat alone and, days later after finding them nontoxic, would prepare them for the whole family. Although on one occasion, a strange mushroom which gave out blood-red liquid after being cooked, purged her until she was nearly gone. But the effect was countered and calmed by another herb. After the war, she lived well and healthy into her post centenary years.

Thank you NYT for publishing such beautiful stories. I hope this is the first of a LONG series.....

Completely agree with those who say they’d like to see more of these!! This is one of the best things I’ve read in weeks and it made me think of my own grandmothers, one who was a pacifist and fled from nazi germany on a boat to paraguay during wartime to begin a new life in a forest without houses, stores, electricity, etc...and the other who overcame poverty to become a much loved English teacher for generations of high school students. May we all remember the stories of these brave and loving women and share them with our sons and daughters. May they inspire us to stay strong and kind in these times also.

I’m another one who was in tears (in a good way) reading these tributes.

Moved to tears as I read these loving and deserving tributes to women who swam upstream their entire lives. Shared with my 18 year old daughter who never knew her Irish grandmother but knows her story. And that is what is important - telling the stories of these groundbreaking women.

More, more, more, please!

Amazing women, all. They deserve this recognition and more. Thanks to their delightful and appreciative grandchildren for highlighting the accomplishments of their grandmothers.

Please let me add my voice to those calling for more of these stories. I would be a faithful reader of a regular feature telling about the lives of women who "persisted" in their time. I especially think about how they didn't have the benefit of a wife in the background, cooking and cleaning and raising their families. When you factor that in, and the skepticism of the world around them, their accomplishments are heroic. Girls need role models as much as boys do, maybe more to counteract continuing deterrents.

I am thoroughly enjoying these inspiring stories told with love and pride by the daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters of these remarkable women. The bond between my Mother, who is 93 and her grandchildren, ( three boys and one girl) is of a strength and devotion that speaks volumes. Gender is not a factor in love and respect.

Wonderful, fascinating project. I love the many reverberations (too many to mention) between the lives these women led and the current struggles we face.

Thank you SO MUCH for publishing these. I want to read all 30 !! So stunningly moving

What loving tributes. Glad the stories got out to a larger audience.

I sincerely hope that the NYT will correct the error of its ways and in future publish women's obituaries in equal amount to men's. We'll see.

More grandmothers - please!! These are so great. more more more

Thank you. Greatly enjoyed reading stories of these wonderful pioneering and inspirational women.

Years ago, when the Times Magazine had a Lives column at the back, the submissions guidelines included this admonition, "No grandmother stories." That spoke to the deep bond between grandmothers and grandchildren. No surprise that so many people want their grandmothers remembered. My blog, If It Weren't For Grandmothers, We Might Still Be Apes, speaks to this.

What remarkable, accomplished people these women were. Unstymied by discouragement, committed to their principles, and most of all self-determined. Heroes!

Well done. I missed this request; I would have shared my grandmother’s (maternal) story. Having friends who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, she was among founding members of the ILGWU. She championed the union for the rest of her life, including taking me as young girl to march in the May Day union parade. She was also a single mother of 4 after my grandfather died in the 1918 flu epidemic. She was a strong, independent woman who spoke up against injustice long before we burned our bras. No surprise she was a big influence on me and I still cherish my time with her.

This is an absolutely fabulous column. MORE! MORE! There must be thousands of unsung grandmothers. It's time more of their stories were "sung."

I was in tears by the end. These women are so inspiring! Thank you so much to the families for sharing their stories, and to the Times, for recognizing them.

Thank you for these. This project of yours has been very moving to me, and its wonderful that all these grandchildren can have such women to look up to.

What a pleasure to read something pleasant first thing in the morning. Thank you for this respite from the news that assaults thinking people from all sides.

Grandmothers.....wonderful article and such compelling women. From surgeons,artists to eighth grade education only. My grandmother Genevieve Gilligan Waldron was eighth grade graduate and continued learning and teaching all her life She raised 9 accomplished children. And had 38 grandchildren who she loved and influenced. She shared amazing stories of her life from working at a neighborhood store to traveling to the Vatican where her youngest son was ordained a catholic priest. She baked award worthy pies and entertained many, she had a grape festival in her back yard with grapes from her vines. She ate tomatoes out of the garden and made us laugh often. I like to say she loved me the longest as I am her oldest grandchild......my grandmother, Genevieve Gilligan Waldron Susan Goldner

I absolutely love this new obituaries of overlooked people. Please continue in this vein. So much to be learned!

As the father of a 14 year old girl, this series is powerful. These women are finally being recognized for the role models they are. Keep this up. Their stories will impact women more than you know.

This is a wonderful series! Timely and valuable. The obits of these extraordinary women have reminded me to celebrate, as well, ordinary" mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers who also lived lives of quiet (or not so quiet!) valour and sacrifice.

At last. My favorite is the young grandson's recognition of his grandmother.

Which of these stories is the most inspirational? I'm not able to choose. They are all humbling. Please continue with this series.

Very enjoyable read.