It was an ordinary day. This is the second part of my story telling of the women who have all contributed to the storied history of the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.....
Ruby Payne Cook - Ruby Payne Cook was the first executive director of the Crispus Attucks Community Center, where she directed the recreational activities of thousands of Lancaster children from 1930 to her retirement in 1959. Over those decades, Cook got to know thousands of children - and in some cases, their eventual children. "They'll run into the thousands. I know that when I left I was working with the grandchildren of the teenagers who were at the center when I first came there," Cook once said, according to newspaper archives. Cook is considered as a pioneer in social service work in the Lancaster area. She was often quoted, according to her obituary, as saying she could never estimate the dollar value of service contributed by all segments of the community. She died in 1969 at age 74.
Hazel Jackson - In 1961, Hazel Jackson became the first Black woman to teach in the School District of Lancaster. But, that accomplishment didn't come easily. Jackson - who had taught four years in segregated pubic schools in North Carolina before moving to Lancaster - spent years trying to find a teaching job after moving north. Jackson's granddaughter, Amber Holland, said in 2021 that her grandmother's applications for teaching jobs were rejected when school officials realized she was a Black woman. "She opened the doorway and the pathway for so many educators of color to come behind her," Holland said of her grandmother, who died in 2014. In 1970, Jackson became the first Black professor at Milersville University, where she taught English and African American studies until she retired in 1994. And in 2021, the School District of Lancaster named what was formerly known as Southeast Middle School (and before that, Edward Hand Middle School) as the Hazel I. Jackson Middle School.
Rita Smith-Wade-El - Rita Smith-Wade-el was an influential Millersville University professor of psychology and African-American Studies. Smith-Wade-El developed a minor in Africa American Studies at the school, and directed the program. She also held a plethora of other roles in the community, from the Lancaster branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to Compeer Lancaster, to Silvery Moon Chapter No. 56 of the Order of the Eastern Star, to Living the Dream day of volunteering, to her beloved congregation at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Smith-Wade-El died in 2018 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer. She remained on the Millersville faculty until her death; she taught courses and advised students until just a few months before she died. In 2021, the School District of Lancaster honored the late educator's legacy by renaming the former Buchanan Elementary School to the Smith-Wade-El Elementary School.
Florence Starr Taylor - Florence Starr Taylor, a Lancaster native, was an artist known for her portraits of Lancaster residents and of local Lancaster scenes. The subject is fitting, given her background as a journalist. She was the first female artist and reporter for the Intelligence Journal, and also the first staff artist for PBS-TV. Prior to her professional career, she studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts. Taylor also often donated her time to charity. In 2003, her life was the subject of a documentary that aired on WITF, "Whatever She Saw," created by another influential female Lancaster talent - filmmaker Mary Haversack. Taylor died in 1991.
The women listed were some of the most outstanding and historical women of Lancaster's past history. Many more have followed in their footsteps over time and will be featured in stories in the near future. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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