Skirting Traditions

Women who skirt traditions, whether on the frontier of a young state or in a male-dominated profession, have relied on resilience, creativity, and grit to survive...and to flourish. These short biographies of twenty-eight female writers and journalists from Arizona span the one hundred years since Arizona became the forty-eighth state in the Union. They capture the emotions, the monumental and often overlooked events, and the pioneering spirit of women whose lives are now part of Arizona history.

The remarkable women profiled in this anthology made the trek to Arizona from the big cities of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.; from the green hills of Wisconsin, and from backwater towns in Oklahoma and Pennsylvania; by covered wagon, automobile, and, later, airplane. They came with their parents or their husbands, or as single women, with and without children. They came seeking health in the sun-blessed dryness of the desert, a job, a better lifestyle.

What these women had in common was their love of writing and journalism, and their ability to use the written word to earn a living, to argue a cause, and to promote the virtues, beauty, history, and people of the Southwest.

The narratives in Skirting Traditions move forward from the beginning of statehood to the modern day, describing daring feats, patriotic actions, and amazing accomplishments. They are women you won't soon forget.

Written by award winning members of Arizona Press Women: Gail Bornfield, Vera Marie Badertscher, Carol Osman Brown, Jan Cleere, Jane Eppinga, Marion E. Gold, Carol (Cain) Hughes, Carol Jean La Valley, Barbara Bayless Lacy, Elizabeth Bruening-Lewis, Lois McFarland, Patricia Myers, June P. Payne, Marion Peddle, Sheila Roe, Pam Knight Stevenson, Arlene Uslander, and Brenda Kimsey Warneka.