Western New York Women's Hall of Fame

1997

1997 Inductees

Lucille Ball
1911-1989

Her name was Lucy and everyone loved her. An outstanding actress, comedian and businesswoman, Lucille Ball, with her husband, Desi Arnaz, created “I Love Lucy” in 1951.  It became a television classic that ran live for seven years and in reruns forever after. Lucy and Ricky Ricardo became our favorite zany neighbors and 44 million of us tuned in when their son was born. A native of Celeron, Lucy made her stage debut in the 1930s, in Jamestown’s Little Theater, now named for her, and she maintained ties to Western New York throughout her life.

Florence E. Baugh

Florence E. Baugh has been described as classy and tough minded, attributes which carried her unscathed through Buffalo’s school integration wars.  A member and president of the Board of Education in the era of court mandates and magnate building, her ability to turn challenges into opportunities helped make this city a model for the country.  The director of Erie County’s Community Action Organization’s Neighborhood Services is guided by the Biblical advice, “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”

Ellen Grant Bishop, Ph.D.

Wearing many hats -social worker, academician, and administrator -Ellen Grant Bishop has extended a helping hand to children in need and women in crises.  Her creative energy has made her a major player in building and sustaining this community.  As a vice president of Buffalo General Hospital, a member of several boards and as commissioner of Erie County’s Department of Mental Health, Ms. Grant Bishop cleared a path for women of all colors who yearn to build a better world.

Mary Johnson Lord
1812-1885

Mary Johnson Lord loved children and animals and spent much of her life helping the poor. She founded an orphan asylum in 1876, and started the Ladies Humane Society, known today as the Erie County SPCA.  Renowned for her wit and unconventional behavior, Miss Johnson, on the night of her elopement with John Lord, left her family a note saying “The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away!”  This wife of a Presbyterian minister rode city streets in a pony cart searching for animals in distress and she grazed Shetland ponies on her lawn for the riding pleasure of neighborhood children.

Olga Karman Mendel, Ph.D.

Dr. Olga Karman Mendell, a Cuban immigrant, invented herself at age 20. She finished college in Connecticut: summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and a Woodrow Wilson fellowship.  Then alone, broke, a refugee from a bad marriage with a child to support, she went to Harvard and got a doctorate in Spanish. A professor at D’Youville College, her impressive academic credentials define only part of the persona she designed. Poet, writer, lecturer, community activist, she has a string of awards in her resume.  By action and by example, she enriches the area’s Hispanic community.

Muriel A. Howard, Ph.D.

Dr. Muriel A. Howard had a presence in this community long before she became the first woman president of Buffalo State College.  Students and faculty at Buffalo’s other SUNY campuses know her well, as do members of countless community organizations who have experienced the generosity with which she dispenses her time, energy and talent.  As a professional woman and scholar, Dr. Howard sets a lofty standard for the many young women who surely will try to emulate her.

Deborah A. Naybor

Deborah A. Naybor turned $1,000 and a used pickup truck into a million-dollar land surveying business.  En route, she became the most prominent role model and mentor to women in the Western New York area.  She helps teachers train pupils in the business applications of math and science and she is a mentor for women trying to move from welfare to jobs.  She guided women building their first Habitat for Humanity house in Buffalo.  A strong belief that one person can make a difference guides her advocacy for economic equity, the rights of small businesses and women’s access to capital.

Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton
1880-1938

She was Cornelia Bentley Sage when Albright Art Gallery made her the first woman to direct an art museum in the U.S.  It was in 1910, and for the next fourteen years she would acquire an international reputation for her dazzling exhibitions and brilliant acquisitions.  Demonstrating an air for the dramatic, she brought Pavlova to dance at an opening in 1914 and engaged Sarah Bernhardt to speak at another in 1916.  The French gave her their Cross of the Legion of Honor, and in 1924 the Louvre recommended her for her new job at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor.

The Honorable Mary Lou Rath

Businesswoman and elected official, Mary Lou Rath has left her footprints all over the landscape.  Her distinguished career began in the private sector where she was an emissary for local business.  She broadened her constituency in 1978, when voters sent her to the Erie County Legislature and again when she moved up to the New York State Senate in 1993.  There, she was the first woman to represent Western New York. Senator Rath brought to her adventures, including those as wife, mother and grandmother, a philosophy of individual and community responsibility acquired from her mother.

Anna Reinstein, M.D.
1891-1948

A political exile who once joined in an assassination plot, Dr. Anna Reinstein brought her socialist ideals to these shores from Eastern Europe where repressive conditions bred radicalism.  A native of Poland, who grew up in the Ukraine, Dr. Reinstein released her humanitarian energy and gusto for social reform in Buffalo’s ethnic and working class communities.  As Western New York’s first woman obstetrician/gynecologist, she tended those who could least afford care with the compassion and skills that prompted the American Medical Society to name her one of three leading women physicians in the country.

Mary B. Talbert
1866-1923

Mary B. Talbert was a radical and one of Buffalo’s most prominent citizens.  An Ohio native, Mary Burnett had her degree from Oberlin College and teaching experience when she moved to Buffalo in 1891 as the wife of wealthy businessman William H. Talbert.  The first Black woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University at Buffalo, she helped form the Niagara Movement, a forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which was organized in her Michigan Avenue home in 1905.  The group demanded an end to segregation and a beginning of equal opportunity for Black citizens.  The University at Buffalo named a building for her.

Margaret L. Wendt

1856-1972

Margaret L. Wendt is more public in death than in life.  A private person, she shared her family’s wealth with those less fortunate in quiet, unobtrusive ways, content in the conviction that her philanthropy would make an impact on the social and cultural life of Buffalo.  The foundation she started in 1956 perpetuates her lifetime of charitable giving and has made her name synonymous with much that is good and promising in the community.