Nothing but nothing is new under the sun (see Ecclesiastes 1:9, ESV).
What I’m sharing here is a resource. Even so, it is no replacement for the infallible wisdom of the Bible (aka The Living Word). If you’re not familiar with that nickname, it’s because the Truth (capital “T”) of the scriptures is applicable and relevant throughout all time. Including the one you’re breathing in.
These women I’ve cited are only women. While some have statues, be careful not to place them on a pedestal. And, I should mention: any lady named is not necessarily a role model for the topic. Lessons can be gleaned from poor or positive conduct.
Finally, this index is subject to ongoing updates. The more I learn, the more I have to include.
Addiction
Betty Ford
Ford, B. (2003). Healing and Hope: Six Women from the Betty Ford Center Share Their Powerful Journeys of Addiction and Recovery. Putnam.
McCubbin, Lisa, and Susan Ford. Betty Ford: First Lady, Womens Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. New York, NY: Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Anxiety
Lillian “Lilly” Moller Gilbreth
While Dad lived, Mother was afraid of fast driving, of airplanes, of walking alone at night. When there was lightning, she went in a dark closet and held her ears. When things went wrong at dinner, she sometimes burst into tears and had to leave the table. She made public speeches, but she dreaded them.
Now, suddenly, she wasn’t afraid anymore, because there was nothing to be afraid of. Now nothing could upset her, because the thing that mattered most had been upset.
Gilbreth, F. B., & Carey, E. G. (2005). In Cheaper by the dozen (p. 267). story, HarperCollins Publishers.
Gilbreth, L. M. (1998). As I Remember: An Autobiography. Engineering & Management Press.
Cancer
Joy Davidman
Betty Ford – Unexpectedly became a first lady on August 9, 1974. Unexpectedly underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer on September 28, 1974.
McCubbin, Lisa, and Susan Ford. Betty Ford: First Lady, Womens Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. New York, NY: Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Chronic Pain
Betty Ford
McCubbin, Lisa, and Susan Ford. Betty Ford: First Lady, Womens Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. New York, NY: Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney Hershey
Cold Feet
Mabel Hubbard Bell
Waite, Helen Elmira. Chapter 10—Tempestuous Summer. Make A Joyful Sound: The Romance of Mabel Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell. Macrae Smith Company, 1961.
Queen Victoria – It’s well-documented that Queen Victoria had the hots for her fiancé. But historians often conveniently forget the fever. In the weeks awaiting Prince Albert’s return for their wedding, a fever persisted—so much so Queen V received a measles diagnosis. What cured her?
The better question is “Who?” Once upon a certain prince’s arrival, her symptoms dissipated. Funny how that works.
Baird, J. (2016, October 18). Queen Victoria’s Wedding Night: ‘I Never, Never Spent Such An Evening’. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/queen-victorias-wedding-night-i-never-never-spent-such-an-evening-20161006-grvzou.html.
Deaf
Mabel Hubbard Bell
Waite, Helen Elmira. Make A Joyful Sound: The Romance of Mabel Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell. Macrae Smith Company, 1961.
Debt
Clementine Churchill
Lough, D. (2015). No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money. Picador.
Purnell, S. (2015). Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Penguin Group USA.
Divorce
Joy Davidman
Betty Ford
McCubbin, Lisa, and Susan Ford. Betty Ford: First Lady, Womens Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. New York, NY: Gallery Books, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Rachel Jackson
Consuelo Vanderbilt
Balsan, C. V. (1980). The Glitter and the Gold. George Mann.
Faith
Joy Davidman
Elisabeth Elliot
Ruth Bell Graham
Catherine Marshall (LeSourd)
Family
Lillian “Lilly” Moller Gilbreth
Gilbreth, L. M. (1998). As I Remember: An Autobiography. Engineering & Management Press.
Gilbreth, F. B., & Carey, E. G. (2019). Cheaper by the Dozen. Harper Perennial/ Modern Classics.
Gilbreth, F. B., & Carey, E. G. (2003). Belles on Their Toes. Perennial.
Ghosted
Clara Pierce Wolcott Driscoll Booth – Where’s Waldo? Clara was engaged to Edwin Waldo when he ghosted (circa. 1896-1897). Cleveland Institute of Art’s article of Clara’s life dishes that “Edwin mysteriously disappeared on a trip to meet her family in Ohio, only to resurface five years later, without any explanation to or communication with Clara. The episode remains inexplicable today.” (Cough cough Coward.)
All this drama happened after her first husband left her a widow three years into marriage.
It took time for her heart to recover. When it did though— I can’t type this without smiling. She married the ultimate boy next door. Edward A. Booth was a fellow boarder at Miss Owen’s boarding house with heartbreak of his own. More than a decade passed as dear friends under the same roof before an engagement took place. And she was married to Booth, her best friend, for 35 years.
Bassett, M. (2012, January 1). Breaking Tiffany’s Glass Ceiling: Clara Wolcott Driscoll (1861-1944). Retrieved September 29, 2021, from https://www.cia.edu/news/stories/breaking-tiffanys-glass-ceiling-clara-wolcott-driscoll-1861-1944.
Katharina von Bora
DeRusha, M. (2018). Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk. Baker Books.
Hosting
Katharina von Bora
DeRusha, M. (2018). Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk. Baker Books.
House Fire
Mabel Hubbard Bell
Husband Suffered Depression
Clementine Churchill
Purnell, S. (2015). Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Penguin Group USA.
Joy Davidman
Infertility
Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney Hershey
Lost a Child
Emma Wedgewood Darwin
Lillian “Lilly” Moller Gilbreth
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Love Letters
Abigail & John Adams
Adams, J., Hogan, M. A., & Taylor, C. J. (2010). My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Belknap.
Clementine & Winston Churchill
Churchill, W. S., Churchill, C., & Soames, M. (1998). Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill. Doubleday.
Purnell, S. (2015). Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Penguin Group USA.
Love of Your Life Married Someone Else Even Though He Named His Boat After You
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt
Mother-in-law Drama
Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)
Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney Hershey – Tour the Hershey’s mansion, High Point, and you’ll be struck by the brilliant stained glass mosaics. Arched windows draw in natural light and overlook the vibrant landscape designed by the confectioner‘s wife, Kitty.
Color was her joy. . . but also her greatest defense.
According to the Hershey Community Archives, Fanny Hershey thought her daughter-in-law “irrepressibly vain.” After only three months of the women living under one roof, Milton moved his mother to a new residence in Lancaster. Years later the couple designed a home for Fanny in Hershey, PA. Distinguished by it’s green roof, the interior featured crystal doorknobs, stained and leaded glass, and a green-tiled bathroom one must see to believe.
Does it surprise you that Fanny refused to live there? She reportedly found it too opulent.
Empress Sisi
Purity
Elisabeth Elliot
Elliot, E. (2002). Passion and Purity: Learning to Bring Your Life Under Christ’s Control. Fleming H. Revell.
Sexuality and Singles – Part 1. THE DOBSON LIBRARY. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.dobsonlibrary.com/resource/article/8ae0a76a-4eed-4d3b-929e-210641763471.
Sexuality and Singles – Part 2. THE DOBSON LIBRARY. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2021, from https://www.dobsonlibrary.com/resource/article/d2f04c81-edbb-4b9d-9de4-77fe165591e1.
Shame
Rachel Jackson
Sexual Restoration
Euphemia “Effie” Gray – A critic in both the art gallery and bedroom, John Ruskin (29) refused his new wife on their wedding night (April 10, 1848). He claimed concern for her health. Because at the age of 20, Euphemia “Effie” Gray was of no constitution to bear a child. Especially, with their upcoming travels.
Abstaining was best.
Throughout the course of the next six years, Ruskin excused himself from consummating their marriage. “[He] alleged various reasons,” Effie penned in a letter to her father. “Hatred of children, religious motives, a desire to preserve my beauty, and finally this last year he told me his true reason (and this to me is as villainous as all the rest)…”
Effie’s natural state repulsed him.
Upon discovering his sentiments, she sought an annulment. For, after all, she was still a virgin. The proceedings brought much humiliation to herself. Doctors had to perform physical examinations to confirm her virginity.
Despite Ruskin counter-filing on grounds of Effie’s “mental imbalances,” an annulment was granted. She was free. Better yet, she was free to marry a man who cherished her.
That man was painter John Everett Millais. They wed and delighted in a happy consummated marriage. Millais, often depicting her as a representative of beauty and motherhood. Effie, bearing him eight children with the span of fourteen years.
Shipwrecked & Marooned in Basically Pirate Town
Mabel Hubbard Bell
Waite, Helen Elmira. Chapter 18—Transplanted Bit of Scotland. Make A Joyful Sound: The Romance of Mabel Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell. Macrae Smith Company, 1961.
Stepmother
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt
Submission
Queen Victoria
Unequally Yoked
Emma Wedgewood Darwin
Widowed
Mabel Hubbard Bell
Clementine Churchill
Purnell, S. (2015). Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill. Penguin Group USA.
Lillian “Lilly” Moller Gilbreth
Gilbreth, L. M. (1998). As I Remember: An Autobiography. Engineering & Management Press.
Catherine Marshall (LeSourd)
Marshall, C. (2002). See You in the Morning. In A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall (Anniversary Edition, pp. 256–273). essay, Chosen Books.
Queen Victoria
Becoming 